{"id":427301,"date":"2026-09-05T17:06:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427301\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:06:24","slug":"steve-jones-finally-brings-the-sex-pistols-to-austin-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427301\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Jones Finally Brings the Sex Pistols to Austin \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Sex Pistols tore through the American South in January 1978, the closest they got to Austin was San Antonio\u2019s Randy\u2019s Rodeo. On that infamous night, Sid Vicious took a beer can to his skull and swung his bass at the crowd in return, nearly hitting beloved Chronicle music journalist Margaret Moser<\/a> in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly every future Austin punk was in that room in San Antonio that night, a few months after Never Mind the Bollocks, Here\u2019s the Sex Pistols set the template for angry three-chord street-rock. Bands formed in cars driving back. Two weeks later, Raul\u2019s hosted its first punk show. (Revisit our Austin Punk Chronicles installment about the epochal show here<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t perform in Austin, but the band did spend the day before that show cooling their heels here, unimpressed. Guitarist Steve Jones \u2013 a self-taught wall of noise who made a Les Paul sound more like a hydrogen bomb \u2013 told Chronicle predecessor the Austin Sun, \u201cI\u2019ve been to six bars, and this town sucks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

48 years on, the Sex Pistols finally play Austin itself. September 12, Emo\u2019s<\/a> \u2013 the first time England\u2019s most definitive punk band actually sets foot on an Austin stage.<\/p>\n

They arrive with a lineup nobody saw coming and, by Jones\u2019 account, having more fun than they ever have. Jones, original pre-Sid bassist Glen Matlock, and drummer Paul Cook are now fronted by Frank Carter, late of Gallows and Rattlesnakes, standing in for John \u201cJohnny Rotten\u201d Lydon, who wants no part of this. The whole thing got its trial by fire with three shows at London\u2019s Bush Hall two years ago. A benefit for a venue struggling to survive, the gigs became a proving ground for whether this version of the band could actually work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minute we got onstage, it was like going back in time,\u201d says Jones. \u201cThe crowd went absolutely nuts \u2026 We knew straight away it was happening.\u201d Carter, he adds, \u201cwasn\u2019t up there longer than a minute before he\u2019d already dived into the audience. Good for him, because I ain\u2019t diving in nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Glen Matlock, Frank Carter, and Steve Jones Credit: @luiscarbxnell and @rocklandartfest<\/p>\n

What\u2019s striking watching the footage available since isn\u2019t just that the songs hold up without Lydon. It\u2019s that Jones, Cook, and Matlock look like they\u2019re actually enjoying themselves, maybe for the first time. Jones agrees, comparing the vibe to one of his own favorite bands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like going to see the Faces \u2013 good-time Charlies,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re having a blast, and people seem to love it, so I love it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crucially, Carter isn\u2019t trying to be Johnny Rotten. \u201cIt would\u2019ve been ridiculous if he\u2019d tried to imitate John,\u201d Jones says. \u201cHe\u2019s honoring the songs from Never Mind the Bollocks. I think he sees that as his role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether a new Sex Pistols album happens is a separate question, one Jones has already answered: \u201cWhen\u2019s the last Rolling Stones album you heard that you actually liked?\u201d he asks. Point taken. For now, it\u2019s the songbook, played loud and for real, 48 years and one very overdue Austin date later.<\/p>\n

Sex Pistols play Emo\u2019s<\/a> on Saturday, September 12.<\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Sex Pistols tore through the American South in January 1978, the closest they got to Austin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1551,75454,26695],"class_list":["post-427301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-feature","tag-sex-pistols","tag-steve-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}