One album. One band. One year that changed everything. The Sex Pistols only ever made one studio album, and the story of how ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ got made is as anarchic, accidental, and confrontational as the record itself. Here are five facts that go deeper than the mythology.
Sid Vicious Barely Played on the Album He’s Associated With
Sid Vicious is the face most people picture when they think of the Sex Pistols. He played bass on exactly two tracks, “Bodies” and “God Save the Queen,” and his playing on those was considered so inadequate that guitarist Steve Jones overdubbed the bass on most of what Vicious had recorded. Jones ended up playing bass on nearly every track on the album. When the band asked original bassist Glen Matlock to return for the sessions, he agreed on the condition of being paid first. Payment never came, so he never showed. Jones stepped in and, according to producer Chris Thomas, his playing was so satisfactory that he simply kept going.
“Pretty Vacant” Was Inspired by an ABBA Song
The main riff of one of punk’s defining anthems came from an unexpected source. According to Glen Matlock, who wrote the song, it was directly inspired by hearing “SOS” by ABBA. Matlock has also said the lyrics drew from Richard Hell’s “Blank Generation,” though he admitted he’d somewhat misunderstood what Hell’s song was actually about. The result was a track NME named their Single of the Year in 1977, built on a riff borrowed from Sweden’s most polished pop act.
Sid Vicious Walked Into a Queen Recording Session and Got Thrown Out by Freddie Mercury
During the sessions at Wessex Sound Studios, Vicious stumbled into a room where Queen were recording. He aimed an insult at Freddie Mercury, asking whether he’d “brought ballet to the masses yet.” Mercury stood up, responded “Aren’t you Simon Ferocious or something? What’re you gonna do about it?”, took Vicious by the collar and threw him out of the room. Queen’s producer Roy Thomas Baker later had a separate word with the Pistols’ engineer about Johnny Rotten crawling on all fours across their studio to the side of the piano, saying hello to Mercury, then crawling back out.
A University Professor Saved the Album From Being Banned by Arguing That “Bollocks” Was an Old Word for a Priest
When a Virgin Records shop manager in Nottingham was arrested for displaying the album cover, Virgin owner Richard Branson hired Queen’s Counsel John Mortimer as defence. Mortimer brought in Professor James Kinsley, Head of the School of English at the University of Nottingham, who argued in court that “bollocks” was a legitimate Old English term historically used to refer to a priest, and that in the album’s title it simply meant “nonsense.” The magistrates found the defendant not guilty while making clear they deplored “the vulgar exploitation of the worst instincts of human nature.” Johnny Rotten passed a note to lawyer Geoffrey Robertson during proceedings reading: “Don’t worry. If we lose the case, we’ll retitle the album Never Mind the Stones, Here’s the Sex Pistols.”
Nirvana’s Album Title Was Directly Inspired by the Sex Pistols Record
Kurt Cobain listed ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ among his top 50 favourite albums, and Nirvana’s second album ‘Nevermind’ took its title as a direct nod to the Sex Pistols record. This reportedly angered John Lydon at the time. Rolling Stone journalist Charles M. Young said in 2002: “Never Mind the Bollocks changed everything. There had never been anything like it before and really there’s never been anything quite like it since. The closest was probably Nirvana, a band very heavily influenced by the Sex Pistols.” Noel Gallagher went further, saying of the album: “I made 10 albums and in my mind they don’t match up to that, and I’m an arrogant bastard. I’d give them all up to have written that, I truly would.”