Sex Pistols tear through classics with Frank Carter on secret 100 Club return
They performed as Spots (Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly) as they had done during the late 1970s to book shows when they were being shut down.
The Sex Pistols returned to the 100 Club on Friday more than 50 years after making their debut at the London venue, ripping through classics such as Pretty Vacant, Holidays In The Sun and God Save The Queen.
As the band took to the stage, the crammed venue was just as hot and smelly as it would have been decades ago, with sweat dripping off the walls and ceiling.
The band ran on stage like soldiers, patted on the back by stars and disciples of the Pistols, who were in attendance, such as Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie, Oasis’s Noel Gallagher and former The Jam frontman Paul Weller.
Former Gallows and Rattlesnakes lead singer Frank Carter followed them, standing in for Johnny Rotten, real name John Lydon, as he has done since guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock reunited in 2024 for a series of shows at Bush Hall.
Opener Holidays In The Sun sent plastic cups flying as hands reached up at their heroes, and as they finished New York, Carter asked the crowd: “How many of you lot were here the first time?”
After a roar from the crowd, he shouted: “It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be here with these legends tonight.”
Before joking: “Right, who wants to call it there?”
Jones then hammered out the opening riff of Pretty Vacant, sending the crowd into yet another frenzy, before Bodies received the biggest reaction of the night from the crowd, who yelled out its “I’m not an animal” chorus.
Matlock and Jones met at a microphone to sing it together, while Carter clambered around the top of the 100 Club.
God Save The Queen, which prompted major controversy on its release during Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, catapulted the older audience members back to their youth as they pogoed like they were 21 again.
Carter then introduced “Mr Steve f****** Jones” before they then hammered into their malicious cover of The Monkees’ 1967 track (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone, a track which regularly featured in the band’s early sets, along with The Stooges’ 1969 proto punk classic No Fun, which was also played.
Submission showcased Jones’s throbbing guitar sound, and it felt like the venue was shaking, with fans chanting “Jonesy, Jonesy” as it concluded.
As they finished their main set, Carter told the crowd: “Five f****** decades later and they’re back.”
Before teasing: “Five decades, and that’s all you’ve got?”
The Pistols finished with a salvo of EMI and Anarchy In The UK, with the latter seeing the audience cram to the front.
As it looked as if a stage invasion was about to happen, Carter leapt from the stage and then realised: “Oh f***, I forgot you’re all f****** 60.”
The Pistols played under the name Spots, which stands for Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly, which the band first used in the late 1970s to book shows when the group’s gigs were being shut down by police, after reports of violence.
The band are synonymous with the Oxford Street venue, after making their debut at the 100 Club in 1976, a room which saw them play a four-week residency that began in May that year.
It is also the venue where late bass player Sid Vicious is said to have attacked NME journalist Nick Kent with a bicycle chain, and where Vicious was arrested for throwing a glass that shattered and left a girl blind in one eye.
Missing of course was Lydon, who fought a high-profile court battle against the rest of the band in a bid to stop their songs being used in a Disney+ series of their story, called Pistol.
Carter sang his way to paraphrase Vicious, but at times imitated the frontman’s sarcastic wail and stage moves, which went down well with the assembled crowd.
The group will reunite again on Monday to perform at the much larger Royal Albert Hall in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.
