Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks & Spunk/This Is Crap" 1976-1977(rec) 1996(reissue)*****

I recently presented my vinyl copy of "Never Mind The Bollocks", along with an entertaining (I hope) account of the Nottingham Bollocks Trial. I need to present the CD version separately, though, as this '96 reissue features a whole disc of bonus tracks. First and foremost, here you get almost all of Spunk, one of the most famous rock bootlegs as well as the Pistols' de facto debut. This album, you see, hit the stores shortly before "Never Mind...". While Virgin had invested good money in what was considered to be the world's most toxic rock band and even more to advertise their upcoming debut as the most revolutionary rock album yet, here slipped out this little bootleg of the whole album in demo form, ruining the great unveiling of punk's Rosetta Stone by giving a preview of the goods inside. It most certainly had Richard Branson running around in panic trying to suppress it. The band's manager Malcolm McLaren was suspected to be behind the leak, a logical conclusion seeing as he's always been a prankster, and greedy enough to swindle Branson trying to make some money on the side after securing a fat check for the rights to the band's debut. Reportedly he's said he considers these demos to be superior to the finished album. While that's a bit of an exaggeration, there's no denying the virility of these recordings. They may lack the power and punch of "Never Mind...", but they gain in spontaneity and are closer to the band's actual live sound. On the official record, producer Chris Thomas (who had previously worked on such landmarks like The Beatles' White Album and Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon) overdubbed layers of guitar to give it volume and sped the songs up a bit, giving them more of a hard rock punch. The Spunk versions on the other hand, which were recorded by the band's live sound engineer Dave Goodman, sound closer to garage rock with traces of The Stooges and New York Dolls. The slower tempo sometimes works out, especially in the definitive version of "Submission" with its psychedelic guitar effects and almost Morrison-esque(?) vocal delivery. The vocals here generally display a slightly less aggressive, more sarcastic, tone. "Nookie (Anarchy In the U.K.)" is an inferior take, but usually the songs are well-played and clearly recorded. One may even argue that these demos feature the band's best playing, thanks to the presence of original bassist Glen Matlock. Bass parts on "Never Mind..." were played (semi-competently) by guitarist Steve Jones because Sid Vicious was a pretty incompetent bassist, taken in for what he added to the band visually and for being Rotten's mate. The original Spunk recordings are augmented with 3 demos recorded with Chris Spedding in May '76. "Problems" sounds pretty good at this early stage and even has some nice solos. "No Feelings" sports a rough vocal, but nimble bass lines by Matlock and some surprisingly cool rockabilly guitar. Either Spedding was jamming with the band on this or Jones outdid himself trying to impress him as a fellow guitarist. 4 more bonus tracks are alternate takes from the "Never Mind..." sessions, produced by Chris Thomas. These are not radically different from the ones that finally made it to the record. A bit more hard rock than the "Spunk" versions, with a relatively clear sound but still rough around the edges compared to the finished product. Listened back to back, both the demo and LP versions have their strong points. Getting them both in one package makes sense, if you can find this specific version of the album. If not, Spunk (also available as No Future U.K?) is by far the best-sounding of the countless Sex Pistols bootlegs and would make a worthy addition to any punk record collection.

****/***** for the original "NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS" tracks

BONUS DISC: 
***** for Seventeen (D.G. demo), Satellite (D.G. demo), Submission (D.G. demo) , No Future (God Save the Queen)(D.G. demo), Pretty Vacant(D.G. demo), Problems (C.S. demo), No Feelings (C.S. demo)

**** for Just Me (I Wanna Be Me)(D.G. demo), Liar(D.G. demo), Who Was It (EMI)(D.G. demo), New York (Looking For A Kiss)(D.G. demo), Problems(D.G. demo), Submission (C.T. alt. take), No Feelings (C.T. alt. take), EMI (C.T. alt. take), Anarchy in the UK" (Denmark St. demo)

*** for Feelings(D.G. demo), Nookie (Anarchy In the U.K.)(D.G. demo), Lots of Fun (Pretty Vacant)(C.S. demo), Satellite (C.T. alt. take), Seventeen (C.T. alt. take)

Sex Pistols "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" 1977*****

I set out about 5 years ago to re-listen my record collection and note which songs I like the most on each record. It evolved into this blog: writing a short review for each album, after researching the circumstances of their creation in order to present them better. The initial "random selection" approach is mostly replaced by a combination of whim and of presenting either my latest acquisition or the one I feel like writing about the most. Until now I've covered less than 10% of the distance, mostly staying clear of the more iconic albums, because... 
...is there really anything left to say about "Never Mind The Bollocks?" I've heard it countless times, almost know it by heart. I'm sure many of you do, too: the thuggish hard rock banging by Steve Jones and Paul Cook, the melodic song backbone by original bassist/co-songwriter Glen Matlock, the self-destructive attitude and musical ineptitude of his replacement and punk's poster boy Sid Vicious. Above all, the rage and venomous eloquence of their singer/leader Johnny Rotten. His nihilistic, spot-on, disparagement of British society was in its way every bit as political and more astute than that of politically-minded punks like The Clash. I can't imagine that anyone remotely interested in rock music isn't familiar with these songs or the story behind the making of this album: the masterminding of the band by McLaren at the back of his fetish S&M boutique, the infamous TV appearance on the Bill Grundy show and their subsequent sacking by horrified EMI, the Thames cruise promoting "God Save The Queen" during the celebration for the Queen's Silver Jubilee... So I decided to focus on a lesser known page of the record's story, about which I read recently in MOJO: The Bollocks Trial. In its own right, the album cover is a design milestone, just as the music inside is a musical milestone: No group pictures, no dreamy psychedelic landscapes, just in-your-face aggressive fluo yellow and pink and the famous, much imitated, "ransom note" font. And, of course, the rude title "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". Many record stores refused to sell it, while record charts refused to print its title, showing just a blank space instead. The Virgin Records store in Nottingham dared to put it on window display, at which point a police woman entered the shop, confiscated the records and arrested the manager for violating the 1899 Indecent Advertising Act. Thus began the Great Nottingham Bollocks Trial.

A pretty uneven fight, featuring on the one side the mummified fossils of the British legal establishment, and on the other side the impishly smart band manager Malcolm McLaren and young business genius Richard Branson, Virgin Record's boss. They could have hired a suitably bright young gun for their lawyer, but instead they chose celebrated barrister and novelist John Mortimer. Which led to the surrealistic effect of a bunch of esteemed older men dressed in judicial robes and ceremonial wigs seriously dissecting the word "bollocks" to decide whether it was indecent or not. The truth was that while the less educated regularly used it as a swear words, few knew its meaning exactly. Mortimer started with a diatribe on the Medieval origins of the word and called forth his witness Professor Kingsley, head of English Studies at the local University. The acclaimed scholar testified that the term "bollocks" had been used from the year 1,000 on to describe a small ball (or things of a similar shape), and that it appeared in written form on the first ever English-language Bible in 1382, in that case to describe animal testicles. From the 16th century on, it became a word associated with the English clergy: Commoners who found their speeches to be incoherent would interrupt them with the cry "bollocks", and at some point the word "bollocks" even became interchangeable with "priest". Later it was widely used in colloquial speech as a vulgar synonym for "nonsense" or "rubbish" even though it wasn't featured in "proper" English language lexicons. Defense advocate and future Sir John (he was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth) Mortimer then close with these words: "What sort of country are we living in if a politician comes to Nottingham and speaks here to a group of people in the city centre and during his speech a heckler replies 'bollocks'. Are we to expect this person to be incarcerated, or do we live in a country where we are proud of our Anglo-Saxon language? Do we wish our language to be virile and strong or watered down and weak?" Appealing as he did to the judges' national pride he had turned the trial on its head: it was no longer about a bunch of obnoxious punks spouting obscenities, but about the virility and expressiveness of the glorious English language. Who would dare condemn them for using an ancient word that even appeared in Medieval Bibles? So of course they ruled in favor of Virgin Records. Johnny Rotten, present in the trial dressed in a suit and safari hat, made the following statement outside the court "Great! Bollocks is legal. Bollocks! Bollocks! Bollocks!"

***** for Holidays in the Sun, No Feelings, Liar, God Save the Queen, Problems, Anarchy in the U.K., Submission, Pretty Vacant, New York

**** for Bodies, Seventeen, E.M.I.

P.S. I recently discovered that my vinyl copy of this album had fallen victim to the great vinyl purge. I could have sworn I still had it, but no... so I went out and bought this reissue on bright yellow vinyl, with a nice inlay with photos. It's not the only album I buy for the 3rd time, while there are even some I've bought in 4 different editions. Rejoice, music industry! All is not lost, there are still suckers out there to be parted from their money!