A petition has been launched to erect a plaque in honour of the Sex Pistols final UK gig. The gig took place at the Ivanhoe nightclub in Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1977 by which time they were banned from playing most of the UK. It was organised as a benefit for the families of the striking firemen who had been in dispute for weeks and were struggling to feed their families.
Unusually for a punk gig at the time, it was open to people of all ages and was filmed by director Julian Temple. In 2013, footage from it was featured in the documentary “Nevermind the Baubles: Christmas with the Sex Pistols.”
The petition has been launched by fan Ian Lockwood who has addressed it to the Kirklees Council asking that a blue plaque to commemorate the event be erected on what is left of the former club which was originally part of Huddersfield’s ornate Grand Picture Theatre and was later incorporated into a supermarket. The petition can be singed here.
The Sex Pistols were the biggest band of the original punk movement who formed in 1975. They were responsible for pioneering the genre and have influenced many different kinds of bands who have formed over the past forty years. Although they were only initially together for two and a half years and only produced one actual album, 1977’s “Nevermind the Bollocks: Here’s the Sex Pistols!” they are regarded as one of most influential popular music artists of all time.
The original line-up comprised of vocalist Johnny Rotten (real name John Lydon), guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock who was replaced by Sid Vicious in 1977. Under the management of Malcolm McLaren, they caused much controversy which made national headlines in several tabloids. This resulted in them being banned from playing around most of Britain and when they did their concerts where often known to end in chaos. Particular incidents included an interview on daytime Tv show “The Bill Grundy Show” where they used several words of profanity and the release of their single “God Save The Queen” which openly attacked the British Monarchy and happened to coincide with the Queens Silver Jubilee.
Rotten announced that he was leaving the band in 1978 after a disastrous tour of the United States and the original broke up shortly after. However the other three members recorded a series of songs using the Sex Pistols name for the soundtrack of McLaren’s film about the band titled “The Great Rock n Roll Swindle”. In 1979 Vicious died from a heroin overdose after being accused of murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. They reunited in 1996 with Matlock for the Filthy Lucre tour and have staged several other reunion shows since. They were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 but did not attend the ceremony due to negative opinions held by the band about the museum.
