Back in ’77 the Pistols were trending

Perhaps the biggest disappointment about Sex Pistols 1977: The Bollocks Diaries is that it’ll go unread by the audience who could use it most. The fan already knows the story. The punk rock dad lived it (and more recently bought the designer t-shit). But it’s the millennials and generation Y who should read this time capsule from 1977.

Why you ask uninitiated hipster?

Well in 1977, long before the first tweet, the Sex Pistols were trending. Hard. The band captured the attention of London’s youth, the media and the Queen. The Bollocks Diaries is a blue print on how to break the Internet.

Cover to cover you’ll find flyers, gig posters, early album art and notes from recording sessions. The book chronicles the birth of a new genre of style and music. And there’s Malcom Mclaren’s telegram to NME announcing Glen Matlock’s dismissal: Went on too much about Paul McCartney stop. Admit it you smiled. There’s also loads of hindsight from the band who, let’s face it, couldn’t have possibly comprehended what was happening to them at the time.

The Sex Pistols were a fabricated art project created to piss off the establishment. Which isn’t as romantic as Mick and Keith meeting on a train, but the lightning in a bottle that was pressed to vinyl continues to impress.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, another album celebrating a commemorative anniversary this year, is an impressive body of work. But while the 1967 four track wonder, pushed the Beatles’ contemporaries to expand their horizons, I’m not sure what it did for the kid in the garage trying to master an F bar chord.

Inspiring a generation to pick up guitars is punk and the Pistols’ greatest legacy. Never mind the politics, the beautiful mess that was punk re-democratized rock and roll for everyone.

Few albums distil the best of punk like Never Mind The Bollocks. The album is greater than the sum of its parts, but it’s still pretty fascinating to disect the conditions which made it.

If none of the above is enough to sell you. Think about how much it’ll piss off Punk Rock purists.

See a lame preview from the Sex Pistols camp here.