The Sex Pistols

With their confrontational attitude, anarchic lyrics and no-nonsense punk sound, tabloid sensations Sex Pistols managed to change the face of rock music with just one studio album to their name. The group came together at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die clothes shop on King's Road, London in 1975 when one of its employees, bassist Glen Matlock, teamed up with two of its regulars, guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook. The band's line-up was completed when manager McLaren invited John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, to join as lead vocalist on the basis of his image alone. An on-stage altercation at their first ever gig and a foul-mouthed appearance on a regional teatime show which ended host Bill Grundy's career saw Sex Pistols quickly develop a reputation for causing chaos, and despite the Top 40 success of debut single, "Anarchy in the UK," the constant media scrutiny prompted EMI to release the band from their two-year contract. The drama continued in early 1977 when Matlock left, reportedly over his volatile relationship with Lydon, to be replaced by Sid Vicious, a self-described 'ultimate Sex Pistols fan,' who famously couldn't play a note. The band then signed a deal with A&M Records in front of Buckingham Palace which proved to be short-lived when they trashed the label's offices and threatened the life of its director's friend. But they bounced back in typically bolshy style when they inked a deal with Virgin Records to release one of the most controversial singles of all time. Timed to coincide with the Queen's Silver Jubilee, anti-monarchist anthem "God Save the Queen" was banned by both the BBC and every independent radio station, and was rumored to have lost out on the UK number one spot thanks to a chart-rigging tactic carried out to avoid embarrassment for the Royal Family. The quartet finally got round to releasing a studio album at the end of the year with Never Mind the Bollocks... Here's the Sex Pistols, which reached the top spot in the UK and also spawned two further singles in "Pretty Vacant" and "Holidays in the Sun." However, following a disastrous US tour which Lydon cut short live on stage in San Francisco, the group split up in January 1978. Ironically, the band scored their biggest hit with a cover of "My Way," performed by Vicious, shortly after, while several further singles and the soundtrack to Julien Temple's mockumentary "The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle" (1980), essentially a collection of outtakes which omitted Lydon entirely, also extended their shelf life. The death of Vicious from a heroin overdose in 1979, not to mention numerous court cases against manager McLaren throughout the next decade, concluded Sex Pistols' story in tragic and increasingly bitter fashion. But to the surprise of everyone, all four original members reformed in 1996 for a tour dubbed "Filthy Lucre," and then again for a number of shows and festivals across 2007/08.