Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (often shortened to Never Mind the Bollocks) is the only studio album by the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols. It was released on 28 October 1977 through Virgin Records. As a result of the Sex Pistols' volatile internal relationships, the band's lineup saw changes during the recording of the album. Original bass guitarist Glen Matlock left the band early in the recording process. While he is credited as a co-writer on all but two of the tracks, Matlock played bass and sang backing vocals on only one track, "Anarchy in the U.K."

Recording sessions continued with a new bass player, Sid Vicious, who is credited on two of the songs written by the band after he joined. While Vicious's bass playing appeared on two tracks, his lack of skill on the instrument meant that many of the tracks were recorded with guitarist Steve Jones playing bass instead. Drummer Paul Cook, Jones and singer Johnny Rotten appear on every track. The various recording sessions were led alternately by Chris Thomas or Bill Price, and sometimes both together, but as the songs on the final albums often combined mixes from different sessions, and as it is unclear who of them was present in the recording booth each time, each song is jointly credited to both producers.

By the time of its release, the Sex Pistols were already controversial, having spoken profanity on live TV, been fired from two record labels, and been banned from playing live in some parts of Britain. The album title added to that controversy, with some people finding the word "bollocks" offensive. Many record stores refused to carry it and some record charts refused to list its title, showing just a blank space instead. Due in part to its notoriety, and in spite of many sales bans at major retailers, the album debuted at number one on the UK Album Charts. It achieved advance orders of 125,000 copies after a week of its release and went gold only a few weeks later, on 17 November. It remained a best-seller for nearly a year, spending 48 weeks in the top 75. The album has also been certified platinum by the RIAA. It has seen several reissues, the latest in 2017.

The album has influenced many bands and musicians, and the industry in general. In particular, the album's raw energy, and Johnny Rotten's sneering delivery and "half-singing", are often considered game-changing. It is frequently listed as the most influential punk album, and one of the greatest and most important albums of all time. In 1987, Rolling Stone magazine named the album the second best of the previous 20 years, behind only the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The same magazine ranked it 73rd on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2020. In 2006, it was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest albums ever.

Production

Writing

John Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook wrote the album's 12 tracks between August 1975 and June 1976, with Glen Matlock acting as a co-writer on most of the tracks, written before his departure in February 1977, and Sid Vicious co-writing the two written after his entry into the group.

The first track written by the group was 'Pretty Vacant,' and by their 6 November 1975 concert at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design they had written 'Seventeen', which closed their set. The next day the group performed at The Holborn Central School of Art and debuted 'Pretty Vacant' and 'Submission'. On the 21st, they debuted the song 'New York'. By February 1976, the group had gained traction and debuted the song 'Problems' for their second encore on 14 February. Their setlists at this time were becoming more filled with their material and less reliant on covers, as their earlier shows had been. By 3 April, they were playing 'No Feelings' in concert, and on 20 July, debuted 'Anarchy In the U.K', which was seemingly influenced by Vivienne Westwood and Jamie Reid, the latter of whom had begun creating publicity material for the group that spring. By 14 August the group were performing 'Liar' live.

Recording

On 8 October 1976, EMI signed the group into a two-year contract. For EMI, they recorded 'Anarchy In the U.K' and began sessions for the newly written 'God Save The Queen' that month. On 26 November 1976, the group's first single was released to great commercial success. But due to the nature of the material and the band's image, they caused heavy controversy, and were dropped from the label on 6 January 1977.

In February 1977, founding member and original bassist Glen Matlock quit, reportedly over the lyrics to God Save The Queen. Matlock had co-written a majority of the album's tracks and was replaced by Sid Vicious.

Close to completing a deal with A&M Records, in March 1977 the Sex Pistols entered Wessex Sound Studios to record with producer Chris Thomas and engineer Bill Price. New bassist Sid Vicious played on the tracks "Bodies" and "God Save the Queen", but his performing skills were not considered fit to record the full album, so the band asked manager Malcolm McLaren to convince previous bassist Glen Matlock to perform the instrument for the sessions. Matlock agreed on the condition that he was paid beforehand. When payment was not received, he declined to attend. As a result, Thomas asked guitarist Steve Jones to play bass so work could begin on the basic tracks. Jones' playing was so satisfactory that Thomas had him play the bass tracks for all the remaining songs recorded during the sessions.

Four tracks—writer Clinton Heylin suspected they were "God Save the Queen" (Thomas stated he and Price "gave up" trying to use Vicious' bass track), "Pretty Vacant", "E.M.I." and possibly "Did You No Wrong"—were recorded during the two days at Wessex, with "God Save the Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" receiving vocal tracking from Johnny Rotten and final mixing during the period. As a result of these sessions, Thomas and Price began work in earnest on what would become the Sex Pistols' full-length album. Four days after recording was completed, the Sex Pistols signed with A&M, yet on 16 March the label terminated the contract, and several thousand pressed copies of the forthcoming "God Save the Queen" single were destroyed.

Despite being dropped by A&M, McLaren instructed the Sex Pistols to continue work on the album. While McLaren pondered whether or not to sign the offer presented by Virgin Records, he signed a French deal for the group with Barclay Records in early May 1977. At the same time, the group resumed work with Thomas and Price. Thomas temporarily departed the session partway through (a timeframe Heylin places as sometime in late April and early May), leaving Price to produce what Thomas estimated as five songs. Heylin narrowed down the potential Bollocks tracks Price may have produced to "Liar", "New York", "No Feelings", "Problems", "Seventeen" and "Submission", in addition to the non-album track "Satellite".

Meanwhile, the Sex Pistols had been rejected by labels including CBS, Decca, Pye and Polydor, leaving only Virgin's offer. McLaren still hoped to sign with a major label, and posited issuing a one-off single with Virgin to increase the band's appeal to the larger record companies. Virgin owner Richard Branson refused, so on 18 May the Sex Pistols finally signed with Virgin. Two weeks later, the label rush-released "God Save the Queen" as a single. During promotion of the single, Rotten stated that work on the album was ongoing, and, obscuring Jones's assumption of bass duties, insisted that the bass performances on the in-progress album were split between Matlock "on the Chris Thomas tracks" and Vicious.

The band returned to the studio with Thomas and Price on 18 June to record "Holidays in the Sun", the first song they had written without Matlock. That night after visiting a nearby pub, Rotten, Thomas and Price were attacked by a group of men, and the incident made newspaper headlines the following Tuesday. That month an eleven-track preview of the album began circulating, first reviewed in the fanzine 48 Thrills. At this point, Rotten maintained that the forthcoming album would include no cover songs, and none of the Sex Pistols' previously released singles bar "Anarchy in the U.K.", which was out of print. With "Pretty Vacants release as a single, it was due to be replaced on the track list. The Sex Pistols returned to Wessex once more that August to record a new song, "Bodies", that had Vicious on bass. "Bodies" contained a second bass track played by Steve Jones, with the final version of the song "leaving Sid's down low".

The time spent in the studio recording the album was, for Steve Jones, the "best part of being in the Pistols". Jones spent many hours doing guitar overdubs with producer Chris Thomas and—repudiating punk's occasional embrace of musical sloppiness—has stated that both he and drummer Paul Cook "weren't just having a laugh" and were "really dedicated in the studio".

During this time period, bassist Sid Vicious stumbled into the same recording room as rock band Queen. Vicious aimed an insult at lead singer Freddie Mercury, saying "Have you brought ballet to the masses, yet?" Mercury got up and responded, "Aren't you Simon Ferocious or something? What're you gonna do about it?", took him by the collar and threw him out of the room. Later, Queen's producer Roy Thomas Baker, had a word with the Pistols' engineer over an interruption by Johnny Rotten, saying, "One of the band members just crawled on all fours across our studio up to the side of the piano, said, 'Hello Freddie,' and left on all fours. Could you make sure he doesn't do it again?" Chris Seale, the shop's manager, "it would appear, willingly set himself up as a target, possibly at Branson's behest", according to Heylin, who noted that he had been visited by the police on four occasions and resumed displaying copies of the record in the store windows after they had left on each occasion. After Seale's arrest, Branson announced that he would cover the manager's legal costs and hired Queen's Counsel John Mortimer as defence. Meanwhile, advertisements for Never Mind the Bollocks appearing in music papers attempted to politicise the issue, showing newspaper headlines about Sex Pistols controversies that were underlined with the message "THE ALBUM WILL LAST. THE SLEEVE MAY NOT."

The obscenity case was heard at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 24 November. Mortimer presented the case as a matter of police discrimination. During his cross-examination of the arresting officer, he asked why the newspapers The Guardian and Evening Standard (which had referred to the album's name) had not been charged under the same act. When the overseeing magistrate inquired about his line of questioning, Mortimer stated that a double standard was apparently at play, and that "bollocks" was only considered obscene when it appeared on the cover of a Sex Pistols album. The prosecutor conducted his cross-examination "as if the album itself, and not its lurid visage, was on trial for indecency", according to Heylin. Mortimer produced an expert witness, Professor James Kinsley, Head of the School of English at the University of Nottingham, who argued that the word "bollocks" was not obscene, and was actually a legitimate Old English term formerly used to refer to a priest, and which, in the context of the title, meant "nonsense". Lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, who appeared with Mortimer, recalled the professor saying that early English translations of the Bible used "bollocks" to refer to testicles, this being replaced by the word "stones" in the King James Version of the Bible, at which point Rotten handed Robertson a note saying, "Don't worry. If we lose the case, we'll retitle the album Never Mind the Stones, Here's the Sex Pistols". The chairman of the hearing concluded:

<blockquote>Much as my colleagues and I wholeheartedly deplore the vulgar exploitation of the worst instincts of human nature for the purchases of commercial profits by both you and your company, we must reluctantly find you not guilty of each of the four charges.</blockquote>

Legacy

In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau reviewed Never Mind the Bollocks: