Seven ages of rock - a history of rock music over the past 50 years

The end of The Sex Pistols

14 January 1978

The Sex Pistols toured the American Deep South in January 1978, ending up at San Francisco's Winterland on the 14 January. The tour had been plagued by problems, among them the deterioration of Rotten's relationship with the rest of the band and particularly with manager Malcolm McLaren. Sid Vicious's escalating heroin habit and increasingly violent onstage behaviour was also a cause for concern, and controversy tailed the band throughout their trip. The Winterland gig was to be The Sex Pistols last (Rotten would effectively leave the band the next day), and signalled in some ways the beginning of the end for the punk scene as a whole. As Viv Albertine of the Slits observed; "They had to implode. It had to happen. You couldn't contain them. It had to break".