Sex Pistols returned to the 100 Club last night (Friday March 21), almost 50 years after their legendary 1976 residency at the venue, for an incendiary secret warm-up show for Monday’s Teenage Cancer Trust show at the Royal Albert Hall. Check out photos, footage and the setlist below.
The punk icons reformed last year with Carter, of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Gallows, replacing John Lydon as frontman. They played three small gigs at Bush Hall in the capital before embarking on an autumn UK tour and announcing a headline show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.
Last week, they ‘secretly’ teased a gig at the iconic 100 Club as a warm-up for the RAH show as “a mystery group who will be known as The SPOTS”. This was a name adopted by the original Sex Pistols – an acronym for “Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly”. They used the pseudonym to book shows in 1977, when it was likely that police would have shut down Sex Pistols gigs as the band faced intense media scrutiny.
With tickets sold out swiftly via ballot, the night came for the gig. A crowd including Noel Gallagher, Primal Scream‘s Bobby Gillespie, Paul Weller, Spandau Ballet‘s Gary Kemp, and former NME scribe Nick Kent – infamous for being bike-chained by Sid Vicious at one of the Pistols’ 100 Club shows – watched the band and their new frontman Frank Carter rip through all of the band’s 1977 album ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’ plus several b-sides, rarities and covers in a 75-minute set which a rabid Carter described as “a dream come true”.
Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller watch Sex Pistols' historic return at the 100 Club on Friday pic.twitter.com/xkMh20iEB1
— Oasis Planet (@OasisPlanet_) March 22, 2025
The band, who have been fronted by Carter since June 2024 following a legal dispute with former singer John Lydon, hit the stage with sludgy but fired-up takes on ‘Holidays In The Sun’, ‘Seventeen’ and ‘New York’, going all-out to revive the energy and attitude of their previous shows in this 350-capacity Oxford Street basement.
“How many of you lot were here the first time round?” Carter asked the crowd before a still visceral ‘Pretty Vacant’, declaring it “a pleasure and a privilege to share the stage with these legends tonight.”
During ‘Bodies’ he stood on the monitors giving fans a fittingly Lydon-esque stare and went walking across the heads of the moshpit, which guitarist Steve Jones called “a brilliant move”.
‘Silly Thing’, from 1979’s ‘The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle’ album, provided a glimmer of more sophisticated songwriting, but it was the three-chord barrages of ‘Never Mind…’ which invigorated the crowd, even as Carter played up the unpredictable tension of this historic return.
“I can’t tell whether it’s excitement or panic,” he said to a wide-eyed front row as the band – also including original drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock – put their foot down on roadster rocker ‘Liar’, “little bit of both?” ‘God Save The Queen’ was received like a rallying cry for a new punk riot and the band’s cover of Paul Revere And The Raiders’ ‘I’m Not Your Stepping Stone’ came smothered in vintage Pistols grime.
Envisioning “a mosh pit in the Royal Albert Hall”, Carter introduced ‘Submission’ as “a ballad”, Jones taking a seat on the drum riser for the duration of its soiled blues. Chants of “Jonesy! Jonesy!” roused him to his feet for ‘Satellite’, however, and by a particularly intense and ferocious ‘No Feelings’ Carter was carried across the mosh-pit standing on his head, as if walking on the ceiling above the crowd.
A wickedly sleazy cover of The Stooges’ ‘No Fun’ became an extended blues workout as Carter introduced the band – Matlock as “the most dapper man onstage”, Cook as “the sweetest man onstage” and Jones as “the myth, the legend” – but the pace revived for ‘Problems’ and a storming ‘E.M.I.’.
“What a dream – five fucking decades later and they’re back,” Carter said, entreating the 100 Club to “put your hands together for the greatest punk band of all time” ahead of a breakneck final ‘Anarchy In The U.K.’.
Sex Pistols. 100 Club. pic.twitter.com/sew5EUtEf4
— Gary Kemp (@garyjkemp) March 21, 2025
Sex Pistols with Frank Carter’s setlist was:
‘Holidays In The Sun’
‘Seventeen’
‘New York’
‘Pretty Vacant’
‘Bodies’
‘Silly Thing’
‘Liar’
‘God Save The Queen’
‘I’m Not Your Stepping Stone’
‘Submission’
‘Satellite’
‘No Feelings’
‘No Fun’
‘Problems’
‘E.M.I.’
Encore:
‘Anarchy In The U.K.’
Following their Albert Hall show on Monday March 24, the band tour New Zealand and Australia before returning to the UK to play at Download Festival and Glasgow Summer Sessions at Bellahouston Park in June. Visit here for tickets and more information.
In other news, Pistols guitarist Steve Jones has said it “wasn’t even worth asking” John Lydon to participate in the band’s reunion shows.
Elsewhere in the interview, Jones was asked whether he would ever get back in touch with Lydon. He replied: “Who knows? You never know…”
The PiL singer also shared his thoughts on Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook, and their decision to hit the road with Carter acting as frontman.
“It’s almost malicious in its intent,” he told NME. And it’s karaoke – that’s all it will ever be. Bloody hell, The Three Stooges in that band have had how many years to write some new songs? That’s what I’d like to hear.”
As for Sex Pistols’ forthcoming date at the Royal Albert Hall, Jones told NME in January: “It’s a good cause. Selfishly, I wanna do it because I’ve never even been to the Royal Albert Hall. Not even to see any other bands, which is bizarre. So I’m excited about that.”
When asked if he thought the comeback with Carter would have gone down as well as it did, he responded: “None of us knew. Frank was the first singer we [tried], because me, Cookie and Glen wanted to play. It just worked straight away. He’s a lot younger than us. He’s 40, so he has all that energy and us old farts can just jam at the back! It was so much fun and people loved it, and I loved looking at people loving it.
“I was ready to throw it in, touring and all that. I couldn’t care less. But with Frank, it just made it easy. We all get along. There’s no aggro. It’s just fun!”