NEW YORK (AP) — It wasn’t the night punk broke, but it was close. Nearly 50 years ago, the Sex Pistols — then made up of vocalist Johnny Rotten, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock — performed at the 100 Club Punk Special in London, a 140-capacity club, alongside Subway Sect, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Clash.
The event marked a shift for the subcultural movement; the bands here would soon bring their underground culture to reach mainstream heights.
Now, the 2025 iteration of the Pistols — Jones, Cook and Matlock joined by frontman Frank Carter (of Gallows, Pure Love and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes) — sit in the same venue to discuss their forthcoming North American tour. “This is where it all kicked off, really, all the punk,” says Cook.
This fall, the legendary punk band will embark on their first tour of North America since 2003, when they were joined by John Lydon (formerly Rotten.) The 2025 run with Carter begins Sept. 16 at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas — the site of a particularly hostile show for the band when it first toured the U.S. in 1978.
Jones recalls having “pigs’ hooves and bottles and what not slung at us by cowboys.”
It is one of a few dates featured in three “Live in the U.S.A.” albums, documenting the band’s ’78 run: Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco. The latter will release April 25 and captures the show where the band originally called it quits.
The 2025 tour is currently scheduled to conclude Oct. 16 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. The band will hit Washington; Philadelphia; Brooklyn, New York; Montreal; Toronto; Cleveland; Detroit; Minneapolis; Denver; Seattle and San Francisco. Additional tour dates will be announced later.
