When a mysterious show was announced last week for London’s 100 Club by a band called The SPOTS – true fans knew what was happening.
And 300 of them packed into a Friday night – 21st March 2025 – in Oxford Street to witness Frank Carter and Paul Cook, Glen Matlock and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols play the incredible album “Never Mind The Bollocks” in full.
Super-fans at the show included Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, Bobby Gillespie, Damon Hill and Gary Kemp, come to pay homage to some of the most influential music in history.
The SPOTS was a name used by the original Sex Pistols, it stands for ‘Sex Pistols Secretly On Tour’. They used it to book gigs in 1977 under intense media scrutiny, when it was likely that ‘Sex Pistols’ gigs would have been shut down by police.
Now armed with incendiary frontman Frank Carter, they rocked the venue that hosted some of the band’s most famous gigs as they led the punk revolution.
“How many of you were here the first time around?”, Frank asked before acknowledging his bandmates. “Put your hands together for the greatest punk band of all time.”
These shows start past 100mph and only speed up. “Holidays In The Sun'” and “Seventeen” kicked things off and soon Mr Carter was crowd surfing and crowd walking, still somehow belting out lyrics as he roamed the room.
They threw in the Pistols’ cover of the Monkees'”‘(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”, before drummer Paul Cook declared, “it’s getting hot out there, we’ll slow it down” for “Submission”.
The crowd, a mix of young and old fans, quickly descended into a sweaty mess, lapping up the hits and embracing frontman Frank Carter as one of their own.
The accelerator was pressed again for “No Feelings” and The Stooges’ “No Fun”, “Problems” and “EMI”.
“From the bottom of my heart,” said Frank in conclusion, “Thank you very much for coming out – it’s a dream come true.”
“Anarchy In The UK” was a fitting coda, band and crowd in harmony on an anthem for the ages.
The 100 Club itself played a central role in punk’s history, including in September 1976 a two-day punk special, at which the Sex Pistols played on the first day with a bill including The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Subway Sect.
Frank Carter and Paul Cook, Glen Matlock and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols will play their first official 2025 gig at the Royal Albert Hall – and there can be no more appropriate venue for these songs.
The week of Teenage Cancer Trust shows will kick off on Monday 24th March with Frank Carter and Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock who will tear through their seminal album “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” with punk classics from “Pretty Vacant” to “God Save The Queen”.
The other headliners are The Who (March 27th and 30th); The Corrs (March 28th); James Arthur (March 26th); Micky Flanagan hosts a night of comedy (March 25th); and Erased Tapes presents a special bill topped by Penguin Cafe (March 29th).
Tickets on sale now via: www.teenagecancertrust.org/gigs
Read our review and see the photos from the Frank Carter & The Sex Pistols show in Birmingham in September 2024, here:
