Sex Pistols

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  • Year:
    2006
  • Inducted by:
    Jann S. Wenner
  • Category:
    Performers

Introduction

Dangerous. Anarchistic. Virulent. Crude. You could take the Sex Pistols as they were or get out.

The Sex Pistols triggered the punk-rock movement by running a scorched earth campaign, calling out everyone from the music industry to the queen.

Hall of Fame Essay

2006

Vivien Goldman

Odd what comes hurtling down the hallways of memory when I think of the Sex Pistols being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I recall sitting on the balcony of my flat in Westboume Park, London, in the summer of 1975 with a fellow rock scribe named Pete Erskine, a pretty young man with floppy blond hair, and the way the sunlight dappled the garden as he laconically drawled, “Hey, this guy Malcolm McLaren’s asked me to join a new band. They’re called the Sex Pistols.”

Pete was very funny, and I remember how he paused before delivering the group’s name — the punch line — and how he scrutinized my face for the expected look of surprise at the outrageous name, swiftly followed by laughter, both of which I delivered on cue.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program Cover 2006
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We’re not your monkeys, and so what?
Sex Pistols

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Gallery

Photography: Bob Gruen