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A catastrophic SF show killed the Sex Pistols. 48 years later, they're back. · Best of: Features

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  A catastrophic SF show killed the Sex Pistols. Forty eight years later
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  they're back. This article is being read by an
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  automated voice generated by Everlett. On january fourteenth, nineteen seventy eight,
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  the Sex Pistols took the stage for a concert at the city's
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  Winterland Ballroom. Exhausted from a chaotic American tour, strung out on hard
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  drugs and buried in infighting, it was clear the trailblazing punk band's
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  days were numbered. Bassist Sid Vicious, notorious for his violence on and
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  off stage, and for his habit of wearing swastika T shirts, was
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  in the depths of heroine addiction. He could barely stand upright, let
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  alone play his instrument. Singer John Lyden, then known as Johnny Rotten,
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  had been feuding with his bandmates for months and was clearly past
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  the point of reconciliation. Guitarist Steve Jones just wanted out. As they
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  played, an increasingly angry San Francisco crowd pelted the band with cups,
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  ice, shoes, and even a belt. Ever get the feeling you've been
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  cheated, a disgusted Leiden said to the Winterland crowd as he left
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  the stage. Those would be the last words he'd speak on stage
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  as the band's frontman. That night the Sex Pistols as the world
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  knew them, died in San Francisco. But on Wednesday in San Francisco's
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  Warfield Theatre they were resurrected. An obvious danger all along. Despite,
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  or because of their chaotic nature, the Sex Pistols defined punk rock
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  for decades to follow. Born out of an economically depressed era in
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  England, the Pistols rebelled against anything deemed respectable by British society, be
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  it the monarchy, organized religion, the Beatles, or, famously, Pink Floyd. Wearing
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  leather jackets, ripped jeans, and facial expressions only achievable through heavy drug
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  use, and a desire for class warfare, the sex pistols connected to
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  a generation disillusioned with The
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  peace and love ethos of the nineteen sixties. In a testament to
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  the band's simultaneous popularity and divisiveness, God Save the Queen, which features
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  lyrics calling the royal family a fascist regime, hit number two on
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  the British singles chart despite being banned by the BBC. The land
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  they represented so well was that of young, uneducated, loosely unstable adolescents,
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  or immediate post adolescence. An obvious danger all along was that they
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  world buckle under the pressures and temptations of success, and true enough,
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  mister Vicious buckled, wrote the New York Times John Rockwell, as the
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  band descended into chaos. Collapsing spectacularly, some would argue, was all part
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  of the
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  band punk aesthetic. It may be that the pistol's only alternative to
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  the future the rock and roll world had imagined for the a
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  future devoid of imagination, a future made up of the rock and
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  roll rewords and penalties they had set out to deny, was to
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  quit the scene that or a plane crash, wrote Rolling Stone's Grail
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  Marcus. Leiden quit the and following the Winterland fiasco while Vicious continued
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  his downward spiral. Less than a year after the San Francisco show,
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  Vicious was arrested in connection with the murder of his girlfriend Nancy
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  Spungin. He died of a drug overdose awaiting trial, on heroin rumored
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  to have been purchased by his mother. Even the venue barely survived
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  the catastrophic show. Winterland Ballroom shuttered less than a year after the
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  Pistols concert and was eventually demolished and cleared for condos. As for
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  the band, with just one album to their name, Punk Masterpiece Nevermind
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  the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, the group became the defining cautionary
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  tale of the dangers of rock and roll excess. Resurrected and returned,
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  Yeah, it was pretty grim, to be honest with you, said a
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  typically understated Steve Jones when asked about Winterland in an interview with
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  S F Gate earlier this week. I'd had enough of it. It
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  didn't feel like it had a future, pardon the punk added Jones,
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  alluding to a line from God Save the Queen. Jones agreed to
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  the interview because, against all odds, the Sex Pistols are alive and
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  returned to San Francisco on Wednesday. Vicious is long dead, and Leiden's
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  burned too many bridges to return. Among other things, Leiden called the
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  New Look Pistols a clown circus and a karaoke presentation, but Jones
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  and fellow founding members Glenn Matlock and Paul Cook have joined with
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  Frank Carter, ex frontman of the mid two thousands punk group Gallows,
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  for a reunion tour that stopped at the Warfield on Wednesday. This
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  iteration of the sex pistols is far gentler and more inclusive than
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  the original. For example, it's hard to imagine Rotten advocating for a
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  women only mosh pit like Carter did at the war field. The
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  band's fans have been tamed with age as well. Wednesday's crowd featured
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  grey haired headbanging and plenty of denim jackets, but no brawls or
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  fist fights. It's always a mishmash, parents with their kids, younger people
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  that are hip to the pistols. It's a good crowd. They love
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  it. We love it. We put a smile on people's faces and
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  everyone has a good time, said Jones. And don't let it be
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  said that Sex Pistols fans have lost their ability to party. One
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  Warfield bartender said he sold just one NC beer the entire night.
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  What punk rock is all about. We're playing better than ever. Frank
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  has a lot more energy. I love John, but I don't think
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  he could keep up right now, said Jones, not afraid to needle
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  his former lead singer. On stage, Carter lacks the unrivalled rage that
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  made Rotten a singular front man, but Carter compensates with charisma and
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  a relentless motor. After a somewhat tepid first two songs, the concert
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  kicked into a higher gear when Carter Crowd surfed mid performance during
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  New York. He followed the stunt with a personal tribute to the
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  Warfield. When I was fifteen I was on holiday, and I drove
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  past the Warfield Theatre, and no doubt was playing, so this means
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  the effing world to me, said Carter. An iconic room band.
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  An iconic stage full of iconic effing rockers, he added, gesturing to
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  his elder bandmates. Carter also appears to have enlightened the band, hardly
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  known for its ideal treatment of women and minorities, that openness and
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  inclusivity are not antithetical to hard rock. Make loads of effing room
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  more room than they effing need, said Carter, while orchestrating they women
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  only Mosh Pit. Because that is what punk rock is all about.
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  It's about making space for the underdogs, the downtrodden, the effing outcasts,
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  and that's all of us in this room. It's a new flavor
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  for the famously anti establishment and Frank is great, and there's no
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  history where there's a deep resentments between John and us, Jones said.
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  We're just having a good time, which sounds weird. We’re not the
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  Rolling Stones, having someone wipe your ass every ten minutes, While the
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  band’s is no longer openly hostile toward its fans, they aren't above
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  some light trolling. On Wednesday, the made the crowd sit through not
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  one but two renditions of My Way by Frank Sinatra, a subtle
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  nod to Sid Vicious, who covered the song himself, before closing out
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  the show with their biggest hit, Anarchy in the UK. Just because
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  the pistols have aged and become more inclusive doesn’t mean they've lost
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  their bite, nor the working class resentments that powered them to stardom
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  in the first place. We're not doing it, on a super big
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  shot level. We're not the Rolling Stones, having someone wipe your ass
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  every ten minutes, said Jones, showing a flash of the band's antagonistic
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  roots. Carter also went out of his way to thank all the
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  working people, from the bar staff to the stage hands, who made
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  the show possible. He even got in a dig at the United
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  States health care system. I know you don't have universal health care,
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  so a mosh pit is a bit of a risk, joked Carter.
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  As for the band's dark connection to the city of San Francisco,
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  at least Jones doesn't seem to be holding on to it. You
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  know what's funny, I wouldn't have even put Tu and Tu together
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  if you hadn't mentioned it, said Jones, when asked, about playing a
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  show less than two miles from where the Winterland Ballroom once stood.
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  And if you can believe it, Jones says he isn't holding on
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  to a grudge against Leiden either. I've got no ill feelings for
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  John, Jones said. What we did was magic, and that will always
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  be the case. We just drifted apart.