Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? The Sex Pistols were the original boy band, fashionable and infamous icons of the simmering punk rock movement across the pond. (The Ramones seem less fussy). They were some of the first protegees of Malcom McLaren, and were eager pawns in his bid for music industry domination (McLaren was also quite the agitator in the fashion industry, and alongside Trevor Horn broke the NYC hip hop sound to a national audience with his album Duck Rock and the later-interpolated-by-Eminem single "Buffalo Gals"). Oh, geez, we’ve went 3 whole sentences here without mentioning the frontman of the group Mr. Lydon. Critical of UK royalty, the upper class, and society at large, he’s ran his mouth an awful lot over the years, but his teenaged sneer remains most memorable (OK, we have a soft spot for vintage PiL and his appearance on Judge Judy). Nevermind The Bollocks... is the debut and sole proper LP from Mr. Lydon & co., one of the most sonically and aesthetically influential records to have ever been released. It was stark at the time - There was no sweet photo of the lads in the group on the package, just a wee bit of profanity and eye-bleeding neon. The record and attendant advertisements were the subject of an obscenity case, with McLaren repurposing headlines into his own advertisements underlined with the message “THE ALBUM WILL LAST. THE SLEEVE MAY NOT” (Well, he's right, with the LP being a petroleum product, and the sleeve being made of cardboard and all).

• black vinyl pressing
  
• includes printed inner sleeve
• music label: Warner Bros. 2020

reviewed by BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE 03/2020