7 The Sex Pistols 7

time their album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex

Pistols reached number one in early November, Rotten,

Vicious, Jones, and Cook had recorded together for the

last time.

A short, disastrous U.S. tour precipitated the group’s

split in January 1978 following their biggest show to date, in

San Francisco. Attempting to keep the Sex Pistols going

with the film project that became The Great Rock ’n’ Roll

Swindle (1980), McLaren issued records with an increasingly

uncontrollable Vicious as the vocalist. A cover version of

Eddie Cochran’s “C’mon Everybody” became the group’s

best-selling single following Vicious’s fatal heroin overdose

in New York City in February 1979 while out on bail (charged

with the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen). That

same month McLaren was sued by Rotten, and the Sex

Pistols disappeared into receivership, only to be revived

some years after the 1986 court case that restored control

of their affairs to the group. A reunion tour in 1996 finally

allowed the original quartet to play their hit songs in front

of supportive audiences. This anticlimactic postscript,

however, did not lessen the impact of their first four singles

and debut album, which shook the foundations of rock

music and sent tremors through British society. In 2006

the Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall

of Fame.

Prince

(b. June 7, 1958, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.)

P

rince (born Prince Rogers Nelson) is a singer, guitar-

ist, songwriter, producer, dancer, and performer on

keyboards, drums, and bass who was among the most

talented American musicians of his generation. A consid-

erable number of his recordings feature him in all the

performing roles.