This is without doubt one of the best things I've ever listened to when it comes to the sex pistols - no bullshit production and they probably didn't even know they were being recorded. Sober and clean they sounded amazing at this point. Massive thank you for being there and making the effort to record it and share it for others.
As a die hard Sex Pistols fan, this made my day. Proof that these guys acted unprofessional, but took music seriously. Sounded great, especially the more pissed Johnny Rotten became, cos his vocals sound better the angrier he gets. Superb.
Steve Jones best ever. He said he couldn't play that well. He's just being modest. He was incredibly good. The tones the riffs the licks all performed impeccably
its a good job there was one real musician in the band otherwise, theyd have really been up shit creek. Looking back though, they were a necessary step in the furtherance of popular recorded music.. John Lydon nowadays has my great respect too, for being one of the very few people who at the time, when in amongst the BBC, dared to 'out' what Jimmy Saville was really up to.
the bollocks record...was raw, primal and mostly live, this tape is the same band but totally w/out a net live. not too much different...these yng geezers had something me thinks.
@@jamesian-allen8725 bollocks still sounds fantastic, but has "wall of guitar" tracking to beef it up. This cassette sounds pretty amazing considering the time and technology....
lee shafer Bad Brains recorded their best shit on an 8 track or maybe a 4. Still stands as one of the best hardcore/punk albums today. But yeah. The Sex Pistols were no Bad Brains.
the first question any guitarist (like Brian May) asks Steve Jones is "How did you get that guitar sound on Bollocks? (Les Paul Custom through a dimed Twin Reverb with a pair of Gauss speakers in the Twin. Jones is a fantastic player.
He was shit. Ditching Glen was the beginning of the end, although I couldn't see them doing more than one album together even if Glen stayed. But to hear his melodic bass tones over Bollocks would have been awesome. Thank God for Spunk
Sid may have not been the best technical bass player, but I love his raw backing vocal. That photo of him coming off the bus with what looks like a stand-in for a Beastie Boys video is priceless.
workin' w/the Ramones, close to 20 yrs, i find, these "sound checks" better than the finish'd product! and, you get the feeling that they're playin just for you! thanks 4 popp'n this up, i lovitt!
thanks again for posting this in its entirety Jim...it's a real treat for us longtime fans and always great when a rare treasure like this surfaces.so thanks for having the foresight to tape this..and keeping the tape all these years (and not taping over it,with some bullshit like Bob Segar or tom petty or some other crap) and for posting it without editing anything..gives a real "fly on the wall" feel to it...you get double thumbs up in my igloo for this 'un...all hail Jim draper!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it! Hope to finish a doc on KSAN (who broadcast the '78 Winterland show) for release next year. Will post trailer on my site when ready.
Jim- Did you know this tape is playing too fast? Like a whole step (2 keys) too fast? It sounds good like this, but it's a distortion of what the real performance sounded like. Any way to slow it back to concert pitch? Thanks!
The difference between this and a regular bootleg is there's no audience so the sound quality is remarkable. Thanks for uploading! The photos are great. Also puts to bed the idea that they were shite musicians just winging it
This sound check is really tight. Also very similar to the recordings. Yet the concerts are lose and wild. Just shows that behind closed doors they were pretty accomplished.
Jonesy was crisp and delivered these notes with perfection. Band should have kept Matlock, he had the greatest musicality of the bunch, they'd have lasted longer.
Well, for starters genius, the phrase is " With all DUE respect " not DO respect " Glen Matlock was the guy that wrote the Riffs, the Hooks, most of the songs. PRETTY VACANT came to Glen when he was coming home on a train and Glen has made the very honest admission that he got the idea from SOS by ABBA. DICK, I can tell you that Matlock was booted out of THE SEX PISTOLS because he liked PAUL McCARTNEY. DICK, THE SEX PISTOLS music is brilliant, great, fantastic because of Glen Matlock, not Sid Vicious. Matlock is a very smart guy, so is John Lydon. Sid looked and played the role of an archetypal PUNK. Sid had the sneer and the attitude that Malcolm loved. Malcolm was the mastermind and puppeteer of the band. I think everyone except Sid ( and Dick Dickerson ) knew it was all a scam and a ROCK n ROLL SWINDLE.
Haha I knew before listening that John would be telling sound to turn Steve down. That was great, sound was amazing considering how it was recorded. Thanks for posting.
wow, never thought I would ever hear this. I recorded this on a cassette back in 78 from KSAN, except my copy doesnt have the first 6 min or so, and doesnt have No Feelings at the end. I always wondered if anyone had this besides me. Thank you
By this time, the Pistols were actually pretty good, tight and coherent. What I love the most is they were so fuckin unique. I have listened their music now for 38 years and I never get tired of it. No feelings is my huge fave. And Belsen.
If only they’d replaced Glen Matlock with an equally good bass player things could of been different....McClaren was a genius manager in one respect but a total dick in other ways.
This is amazing. Thanks so much! What I'm most surprised about is actually hearing Sid's bass, and he's playing pretty much the right notes! The band sounds particularly vicious here (yeah, I know, no pun intended). That guitar tone, that voice ... just amazing. Steve really shines here as well.
Nothing funny about that he was just saying to turn down Sid from the monitors of his vocals because he was louder than Johnny and second vocals are always lower.
+onlyjoetee Steve was a born guitarist. Those licks on the intro of this tape are really good. He could clearly hear stuff and pick it up as he went along.
Buying God Save The Queen on 7" in 1977 was lifechanging for me. Finding something new and unheard this many years after the fact is fucking stunning. Thanks for posting this. It's amazing to hear. Hearing how much Lydon cares and how he's trying to make it the best-sounding thing he can is pretty great. Showing the professionalism behind his "I don't care about anything" act. Wonderful! I used to record people secretly at WHFS when they stopped by. I have a lot of DAT tapes of bands playing unheard stuff that I've also never bootlegged! Nice job, man!
What are you talking about? If this proves Sid could play then you must think every middle schooler garage band can "play" too. Sid is awful here. He drops out, he's out of time, out of tune, he has no technique or sense of rthym. Really, if you honestly think his playing is anything but awful here you're just silly. If you heard his "playing" and didn't know it was Sid Vicious you'd think it was garbage. Playing A Ramones riff doesn't mean you can play. Being able to play a whole song, in time, in tune, without stopping, and with feeling, means you could play. And did couldn't. His playing reminds me of when a non playing friend of mine will come over, pick up,one of my guitars and plonk around on it. They might scratch out the riff to Smoke On the Water or maybe a basic riff to a Ramones tune but they couldn't play the actual song. That's the level Sid is "playing" at here.
Band soundcheck fine, drums were mic'd up proper, and the guitar tone was very good, along with the vocals and background vocals. Bass was on it as well. This is the best I heard these guys sound, compared to the other live videos circulating around during this time period. RIP, Sid.
The first bootleg LP I ever bought was the Chelsea Bath release of the Winterland show, which sounded like it was recorded through a wet sock in a supply closet in a building across the street. What an improvement to hear this sonically superior soundcheck recording that could have been made yesterday.
I love how johnny claims that there was NO sound cheek before the winterland gig.. just another one of his selective memory.. great piece of history.. nice sound cheek
This is indeed a rare treasure so thanks a million to the uploader for sharing this, it would have made an amazing bonus to the NMTB box set, especially if it had been shot on 8mm, but for a cassette tape from the late 70's this sounds pretty fucking good. When they released the studio demo of Belsen on TH-cam, after decades of thinking such recording doesn't exist, it was mind-blowing to hear. I still prefer the live versions as I think the echo in Johnny's vocals pretty much ruins it, but I guess he never liked the song in the first place and asked for the echo effect as a protest. Anyway this soundcheck tape is awesome stuff! I just found this yesterday, can't believe it's been here for over five years and I've missed it. Sid sounds much better here than during the actual gig, I think he got a fix between this and the show. Also, here he's not bouncing up and down constantly so he doesn't miss as many notes :D But Sid made the gigs LOOK interesting, and his background vocals are hilarious. I just can't listen to / or watch the Filthy Lucre or newer gigs, I can't stand Lydon's PIL voice in Pistols songs, and Matlock is a better bassist but he has zero stage charisma and he's just not very interesting overall. So every time something new from 1977-1978 gets released, it's very exciting for me. Imagine what an eargasm it would be if they played "Sod in Heaven" in its entirety on this soundcheck! Or at least a short clip of it, but I doubt we'll ever get to hear that.
yeah this soundcheck sounds better mix wise than the actual set later on that night. wonder what happened? like the roadies kept handing them guitars that were out of tune . some of the stuff sounds sharp other takes sound flat but bigger sounding than when they actually went on
@4th_Lensman_of_the_apocalypse yes I was watching a live DVD of the Pistols in Japan from the 1996 tour and I was thinking the same about his PIL voice , even when he moves and dances it's very PIL like , which is annoying.
Im gonna assume Sig probably shot up just before the show. Cause he levels out for a moment midway through the show smack wise to play 1 or 2 songs moderately (at best). The rest you barely hear
People are complaining about Johnny asking for sid to be turned down and they're thinking its sids bass that's being asked to be turned down but it's not, johnnys asking for sids background vocals to be turned because they're coming up louder than his own in the stage monitors.
Their voices sounded well together during the chorus, Lydon doesn’t like to share the limelight.... This soundcheck and most of the US tour shows Sid could play. Not well, but he could play.
Thank you for sharing this !!! I'm a huge fan of the Sex Pistols i have to admit the soundcheck is better than the gig. And yes Sid could play not bad at all.
You think Sid's playing here is good? He was playing in the sense his bass was actually turned on and he's trying to stay with the rest of them but his playing here is horrible. If you just heard his bass isolated here and you didn't know who it was there is no way you would say he could play. He's out of tune, out of time, he drops out at certain points. It must have drove poor Paul nuts trying to keep in time with Sid.
Not in the way that he was a great bass player but if you listen to this soundcheck and the gig at Winterland, he did good sometimes. Not enough for sure. The gigs in Sweden was not bad at all with Sid's bass. He was not a junkie yet.
@@haupper 'Belsen Was a Gas' -- ugh. That piece of shit still makes it hard to be a Pistols fan sometimes. One of two serious lyrical embarassments in an otherwise steller oeuvre.
@@contentstarved991 Just some stupid shit Sid wrote, trying to be shocking. It opens with this couplet: "Belsen was a gas I heard the other day/In the open graves where the Jews all lay." It gets worse from there.
Jim thanks so much for posting this! Very cool. I am old enough to remember KSAN and fortunate enough to have seen many fantastic gigs at Winterland. I feel incredibly fortunate for having had the privilege of spending the halcyon days of my wanton youth in "the city" during the 70's and the 80's . The "Fab Mab" Rock On Broadway, Winterland and all the other great venues now gone but not forgotten. Cheers!
Awesome upload, thanks for sharing. A genuine piece of nostalgia and history here.....lydon always said they werent allowed to do a soundcheck for this gig! I still feel for steve and paul, they knew it was over when glen went and sid came in. Sid got way too much credit than he deserved, yet remains one of the most iconic figures in rock n roll.....he IS the image of the pistols. The "one album band" just adds to the myth, maybe it was for the best.....limited back catalogue, and virtually every song is a "greatest hit". Still Legends.
Yeah Sid didn't contribute anything. Just absolute nonsense.....It's kind of funny cause the Clash did the same thing with Paul Simonon. They hired him cause he looked cool. He couldn't play either but he got better as time went on. Also Pete Best was hired cause they thought he looked cool. I guess it's an English thing. But Albums You've got "Flogging a Dead Horse" and "Rock & Roll Swindle"
The Sex Pistols are so great,even now 2022 sound awesome and modern,it s difficult to believe the way they play so well at a very young age(around 15 when started the band).Steve Jones is the best guitar player ,Cook, Matlock and Lydon all are really a tight line up,Sid was sometimes acceptable playing some notes.longhorn ballroom in the U S tour was a great performance.The Sex Pistols changed the world!!!
Jones was 23 in '78 so I dought if they started the Pistols as such aged 15 as early as 1970.Still great though.Its punk all right ,but with more rock and ( very important) roll than most
This sounds amazing, pieces of documentation like this gain their value as time goes on, I love how this is some kind of truly unbiased documentation, just the tape capturing the whole ecosistem as it unfolds, thanks for sharing!!!
And Steve Jones was playing blues guitar at the beginning of the sound check. Very unusual for a punk rocker. He could've collaborated with legendary blues artists such as B.B King.
Great report, very interesanting, the BEST sound i never listened of pistols. Congratlations. I was ten years old then and in knowed It with eleven. They changed my life
Brilliant,first time i.ve ever heard this. Sid could play. Just really good hearing Sid away from all the bullshit. Rotten saying turn Sid down,classic. Even though the pistols eventually became a circus there can never be a more fearsome sight than Rotten Jones Vicious and Cook in front of you. Cheers Jim
Thanks for posting this. A fantastic rock'n'roll moment frozen in amber. What always comes across in every recording is just how amazing Jones was. Magnificent.
No sh*t... It's a long standing joke. That's what Jones is like. Anyway as I said before, believe what you want to believe. You'll notice most of the comments on this post are about the underestimation of Jones' talent.
I don't know why you guys keep acting like this proves he could play, he's out of time and tune constantly and he drops out here and there. He could play in the sense that he knew the songs enough to kind of strum along with them but his playing here wouldn't be good enough for most open mic night bands.
@quiflington Mike Brown is a faux fan. Doesn't understand punk rock, or what made the Sex Pistols great. He's not qualified to make the statements he makes. I hope this kind of "fan" goes away soon.
This is fantastic, thank you so much for posting. While the current state of the world is dragging me down, I look at this and I'm reinvigorated. Makes me wanna get my git and amp and take it to the hall and blast shit out of it. Steve's playing is just great, love the ferocious power of pretty vacant.
Sid, just before the last tune, starts playing “I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement” from the first Ramones album, and Steve and Paul jump right in. Johnny promptly threatens to leave…
- Hey Jim!! And you are just posted this as it is?!? Gave it to everybody... You are incredibly cool, a great human being, no hunger for the money, not taking any advantage of this. Others wouldn't do that, only for fortunes! Rock history for free. Hat off! 👍😎
Thanks Jim - this is the cleanest I've heard Sid's bass lines ever and I was floored - he could actually play! He knew his bass lines very well and the Ramones lick he played sounded very cool, especially when Steve jumped in and (if only for brief seconds) locked in brilliantly. The story has always been that Sid was a talentless junkie. This proved he had the ability to play, never heard on audio until now.
Are you serious? He knew the songs I'm sure but his playing is horrible. He drops in and out, he's completely out of tune. I'm sure given enough time Sid could have learned and became competent on bass but all this tape "proves" is he was kind of strumming in time and he sort of knew the basic chords. You could to any middle school and find 10 better bassists than Sid is here.
Sid WAS actually a decent bass player. This tape proves it beyond a doubt. Too bad he's too drugged up on most existing recordings. That's wher the myth started with him being the world's worst bass player. He wasn't.
Funny how you completely disregard the links I've provided to other live shows where he plays decent and still jabber about this particular recording. You certainly love arguments even though you're resorting to personal attacks ad hominem, don't you? My band actually has a record deal, do you??
I've heard just about everything the Pistols ever did dude. Sid sucked. Sorry. As for your band having a record deal, give me a break. What does you (And that's assuming it's true) having a record have to do with anything? Justin Bieber and Millions Vanilli had record deals too. What does that have to do with Sids playing? Nothing....just like you claiming to have a record deal has nothing to do with him. Sid couldn't even get through a whole song dude. He was so bad they didn't even use him during recording lol. How bad of a bassist do you have to be to not even be allowed to record with your own band?
All bands that take it serious do soundchecks. Amplified music is only a construct of the amplification. Have you ever heard what an electric guitar sounds like without an amplifier? We made the amps, in Ealing.
Jim, thank you for this, this is amazing, great photos/experiences, excellent to hear them practise Belsen and what was more amazing was Steve playing "Blues/guitar" - thanks again!
It's so silly when people say Vicious couldn't play ~ he clearly had the right minimalist style for the band and didn't have to play like jaco pistorius.
Jaco Pastorious influenced bass players. Sid Vicious/Sex Pistols had a global impact on popular music and culture that is still profoundly relevant today.
You obviously know some of the best music is happenstance or a split. Second. Idea. ......from ......space and time contiums. Obviously they discovered their own unridden one !!?!!spark zof much geniousosities!!!!!?!???
Great stuff. At 6:25 you can hear John say he wants to get the leather jacket that tour manager Noel Monk had promised him for doing a KSAN radio interview. Also love Paul calling John a c-word at 11:26
Questo video, anzi, documento, dovrebbe essere riprodotto in un museo del rock'n'roll. This document should be played in a rock'n'roll museum. Thank you for sharing...
This is without doubt one of the best things I've ever listened to when it comes to the sex pistols - no bullshit production and they probably didn't even know they were being recorded. Sober and clean they sounded amazing at this point. Massive thank you for being there and making the effort to record it and share it for others.
They most definitely weren`t "sober and clean",but yeah,they still sounded fantastic.
As a die hard Sex Pistols fan, this made my day. Proof that these guys acted unprofessional, but took music seriously. Sounded great, especially the more pissed Johnny Rotten became, cos his vocals sound better the angrier he gets. Superb.
Listen on headphones the quality is AMAZING
If you are a Pistols fan, This is CLASSIC 💯🔥
"'aaaallo, 'aaaallo, aaaallo!"
...'how low' --- almost sounds like that Nirvana song forming!
Jonesy is SUCH a great player. This is an amazing tape. Thanks for sharing something so special.
he did well copying Thunders. The success and invention of punk was Lydon single handed.
@@pennyhemens478 Nonsense
@@pennyhemens478 To the layman who doesn’t understand music, only the vocals are intelligible.
"Sid is still too loud, He's throwing me off" Love it. What a great song lyric.
Contrary to what many people say, Sid knew how to play his bass, the problem was to play totally drunk. Sid is note 5 on the sound pass.
Johnny's referring specifically to Sid's voice on the monitors while doing backing vocals, not his bass playing!
Johnny was pissed off that Sid hadn't taken the soundtrack that seriously. Sorry for my english✌
I'm surprised they had his amp turned on at all
@@danielaschwarz1971 is that Sid...looks a bit too healthy
Steve Jones best ever. He said he couldn't play that well. He's just being modest. He was incredibly good. The tones the riffs the licks all performed impeccably
Yeah, Mister Johnny Thunders was a good teacher...
What did he do that was so incredible? What did he do that couldn't be duplicated?
@@nathandodge665 What did he do? He did it first.
I agree. Although I think the Sex Pistols sucked, Jones was and still is a monster on guitar. When he plays, I sit up and take notice.
its a good job there was one real musician in the band otherwise, theyd have really been up shit creek. Looking back though, they were a necessary step in the furtherance of popular recorded music.. John Lydon nowadays has my great respect too, for being one of the very few people who at the time, when in amongst the BBC, dared to 'out' what Jimmy Saville was really up to.
One of the most unique uploads on TH-cam.
A Holy Grail of sorts..
Something is either unique or it's not. There aren't degrees of uniqueness
MegaHaymaster, and you, my friend are a special kind of special.
True
What a fantastic piece of history. Respect due for sharing.
Hello Swift;-))) Yes totally,and I love to see and listen to this now.A great & fantastic memory too!
Le temps passe et passe et passe... Déjà 9 ans que tu as écrit ce message... Et on se disait 9 ans après leur existence que ça faisait déjà loin ...
This cassette recording sounds almost as clear as their studio recordings.
Thanks for sharing.
that's no compliment
the bollocks record...was raw, primal and mostly live, this tape is the same band but totally w/out a net live. not too much different...these yng geezers had something me thinks.
@@jamesian-allen8725 bollocks still sounds fantastic, but has "wall of guitar" tracking to beef it up. This cassette sounds pretty amazing considering the time and technology....
lee shafer Bad Brains recorded their best shit on an 8 track or maybe a 4. Still stands as one of the best hardcore/punk albums today. But yeah. The Sex Pistols were no Bad Brains.
the first question any guitarist (like Brian May) asks Steve Jones is "How did you get that guitar sound on Bollocks? (Les Paul Custom through a dimed Twin Reverb with a pair of Gauss speakers in the Twin. Jones is a fantastic player.
I'm 60 and I'm still a pistols fan, brilliant song writing and the music to match....sid was iconic!
Sid knew how to play. The band sounded AMAZING vocals are great and guitar and drums sounding killer .
i prefer Glen though
I must have been listening to someone else play bass then because that was pretty bad.
@@WearySisyphusThat's like saying you prefer fish to chips
He was shit. Ditching Glen was the beginning of the end, although I couldn't see them doing more than one album together even if Glen stayed. But to hear his melodic bass tones over Bollocks would have been awesome. Thank God for Spunk
@@piglos Glen is on Anarchy and Pretty Vacant on Bollocks.
This is a critical piece of history, and it may be the first time I've really heard Sid's bass.
I wish we could see him too,...Mister Charisma Sid
@@mjh5437 I love his primitive backing vocal.
He was shite as a bass player, looked the part but no talent. This gig is rock history in action though. Sid was used and abused by Malcolm Mclaren
@@TobcioccLeytonok, but I always thought that he was worse than this. Sounds better than I thought he would sound
@@TobcioccLeytonNancy didn’t help much either
Sid may have not been the best technical bass player, but I love his raw backing vocal. That photo of him coming off the bus with what looks like a stand-in for a Beastie Boys video is priceless.
He wasn't even the best bass player in the band 😂😂
This was better sound recording than the concert
This is a piece of history. This is so exciting for all the punk fans. Man. Thank you.
workin' w/the Ramones, close to 20 yrs, i find, these "sound checks" better than the finish'd product! and, you get the feeling that they're playin just for you! thanks 4 popp'n this up, i lovitt!
Must of been interesting working with the ramones I've been a big fan since 84 seen them live many times 😊
thanks again for posting this in its entirety Jim...it's a real treat for us longtime fans and always great when a rare treasure like this surfaces.so thanks for having the foresight to tape this..and keeping the tape all these years (and not taping over it,with some bullshit like Bob Segar or tom petty or some other crap) and for posting it without editing anything..gives a real "fly on the wall" feel to it...you get double thumbs up in my igloo for this 'un...all hail Jim draper!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it! Hope to finish a doc on KSAN (who broadcast the '78 Winterland show) for release next year. Will post trailer on my site when ready.
Yes, this is priceless. Thanks for not bootlegging it and selling it to me as a teen in the 80's for 30 bucks.
Jim- Did you know this tape is playing too fast? Like a whole step (2 keys) too fast? It sounds good like this, but it's a distortion of what the real performance sounded like. Any way to slow it back to concert pitch? Thanks!
LOL The tape isn't too fast, do you even hear what Rotten is complaining about? They are full of amphetamines AND it's uptuned. SMFH
uh, yeah- a, "treat", understating it!!! ✔️
The difference between this and a regular bootleg is there's no audience so the sound quality is remarkable. Thanks for uploading! The photos are great.
Also puts to bed the idea that they were shite musicians just winging it
What a recording! 42-43 years ago I would have killed for it…❤
This is an Amazing piece of Pistols History! Finally, A great version of Belsen! I never heard this before. Thanks for posting this.
This sound check is really tight. Also very similar to the recordings. Yet the concerts are lose and wild. Just shows that behind closed doors they were pretty accomplished.
Absolutely Sir Bob!!
Always good and wasted by the time it's time to go on lol
Jonesy was crisp and delivered these notes with perfection. Band should have kept Matlock, he had the greatest musicality of the bunch, they'd have lasted longer.
With all do respect I don't agree. They were getting no where with Glen... When they got Sid they exploded and besides that Glen wanted out anyway...
@ddjdd wfgggb would you say that to his face? Come on the truth now . He would punch your lights out brave guy.
Well, for starters genius, the phrase is " With all DUE respect " not DO respect "
Glen Matlock was the guy that wrote the Riffs, the Hooks, most of the songs.
PRETTY VACANT came to Glen when he was coming home on a train and Glen has made the very honest admission that he got the idea from SOS by ABBA.
DICK, I can tell you that Matlock was booted out of THE SEX PISTOLS because he liked PAUL McCARTNEY.
DICK, THE SEX PISTOLS music is brilliant, great, fantastic because of Glen Matlock, not Sid Vicious.
Matlock is a very smart guy, so is John Lydon.
Sid looked and played the role of an archetypal PUNK.
Sid had the sneer and the attitude that Malcolm loved.
Malcolm was the mastermind and puppeteer of the band.
I think everyone except Sid ( and Dick Dickerson ) knew it was all a scam and a ROCK n ROLL SWINDLE.
@@alanstrom2221 you're absolutely right!
@ddjdd wfgggb another keyboard warrior coward idiot now you know you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag 🤣😂
wow cleanest take of sids bassplaying ever!
+Randy Young and he actually tunes to Steve...history has been rewritten
+Randy Young soundquality is amazing too..this could be the rarest pistols shit yet
Turn Sid down, he's putting me off!!
And I sat that woth love as a bass player. 😉
He was the weak link to put it overly kindly
Excellent sound quality and 3 world class talents....and Sid
Now I know where he got the 'Hello, hello, hello' opening to the 'Public Image' single he would record later that year.
Uhm.. How would you check the microphone on a soundcheck yourself??
he just saying dude... btw the standard way is 'testing, testing one two' because of the explosive T sounds.
@@Stigmatix666 you don't, you send a band mate out in to different areas of the venue, who said that, thread is too long to check lol.
It used to be 1 2 1 2 for about half an hour before the band got on stage.
This is incredible to listen to. What an amazing piece of Rock N Roll history. Thank you so much Jim. Sid playing along nicely too.
Just few words.......
Thank you for sharing this unique and fantastic document
17:31 Sid plays "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" great!
Brilliant! That would have been a great cover for them
"We're so pretty, oh so pretty...turn Sid down!" LOL
"He's putting me off" lol
@@supermiembro HAHAH, funny stuff
Johnny's referring specifically to Sid's voice on the monitors being too loud, not his bass playing!
He couldn’t play period. They were done when Matlock left. Steve Jones agrees
well.. if you insist on not having a monitor... you get what you're given
This proves once again the Pistols weren’t as bad live as everyone said at the time. I was 17 yo and it influenced my further life.
What are you now?
A Neuro Surgeon?
@@greatestytcommentator Yeah maybe he can help you
Haha I knew before listening that John would be telling sound to turn Steve down. That was great, sound was amazing considering how it was recorded. Thanks for posting.
wow, never thought I would ever hear this. I recorded this on a cassette back in 78 from KSAN, except my copy doesnt have the first 6 min or so, and doesnt have No Feelings at the end. I always wondered if anyone had this besides me. Thank you
PS now I see that this has been pressed onto vinyl is being sold on ebay from various sellers
By this time, the Pistols were actually pretty good, tight and coherent. What I love the most is they were so fuckin unique. I have listened their music now for 38 years and I never get tired of it. No feelings is my huge fave. And Belsen.
'Turn Sid down!' Priceless.
Priceless comment. Ever been on stage with horrible sound in the monitors?
'Turn Sid down, it's putting me off'.
Indeed
Fuck the junkie. What a massive screw up bringing that POS in.
If only they’d replaced Glen Matlock with an equally good bass player things could of been different....McClaren was a genius manager in one respect but a total dick in other ways.
I was 12 & loved this music then im 53 now & still love it 👍
This is amazing. Thanks so much! What I'm most surprised about is actually hearing Sid's bass, and he's playing pretty much the right notes! The band sounds particularly vicious here (yeah, I know, no pun intended). That guitar tone, that voice ... just amazing. Steve really shines here as well.
Sid was a very good bass player. ❤️🎼🎵🎶
Than you're deaf. Sid's bass is so out of tune, I'm rolling 😆😆.
Beautiful and sad at same time. This is a real treasure ! Thank you for posting!
Wow, amazing stuff...thank you! Love the story at the beginning and photos. Wow. I really appreciate you sharing this!
You're welcome!
This is fantastic,I work at an arena,and love to listen to soundchecks. This is what they are like,much appreciated.
10:07 LOL!!! 'Turn Sid down"
Nothing funny about that he was just saying to turn down Sid from the monitors of his vocals because he was louder than Johnny and second vocals are always lower.
What a gem. This is what happens when you choose image over quality. Regardless, no other band made such an impact with one record. Legends.
@Sid Sixx That was a soundtrack.
Thanks, Jim. This is superb. Hugely enjoyable and a piece of rock 'n' roll history. You were lucky to be there!
i love Steve's guitar sound,him and Mick Ronson had great sound..
+onlyjoetee Steve was a born guitarist. Those licks on the intro of this tape are really good. He could clearly hear stuff and pick it up as he went along.
+Alanko Donnet He sucks on guitar ROYALLY
toob maniac no he doesn’t you fucking muppet.
He was a big fan of Mick
@@armil5569 indeed, infact wasn't Bowie one of the acts he robbed lol.
Thanks for this, Jim, amazing piece of music history from one of the greatest bands ever!
Buying God Save The Queen on 7" in 1977 was lifechanging for me. Finding something new and unheard this many years after the fact is fucking stunning. Thanks for posting this. It's amazing to hear. Hearing how much Lydon cares and how he's trying to make it the best-sounding thing he can is pretty great. Showing the professionalism behind his "I don't care about anything" act. Wonderful!
I used to record people secretly at WHFS when they stopped by. I have a lot of DAT tapes of bands playing unheard stuff that I've also never bootlegged! Nice job, man!
What are you talking about? If this proves Sid could play then you must think every middle schooler garage band can "play" too. Sid is awful here. He drops out, he's out of time, out of tune, he has no technique or sense of rthym. Really, if you honestly think his playing is anything but awful here you're just silly. If you heard his "playing" and didn't know it was Sid Vicious you'd think it was garbage. Playing A Ramones riff doesn't mean you can play. Being able to play a whole song, in time, in tune, without stopping, and with feeling, means you could play. And did couldn't. His playing reminds me of when a non playing friend of mine will come over, pick up,one of my guitars and plonk around on it. They might scratch out the riff to Smoke On the Water or maybe a basic riff to a Ramones tune but they couldn't play the actual song. That's the level Sid is "playing" at here.
Band soundcheck fine, drums were mic'd up proper, and the guitar tone was very good, along with the vocals and background vocals. Bass was on it as well. This is the best I heard these guys sound, compared to the other live videos circulating around during this time period. RIP, Sid.
Sid was the greatest rock star of all time....all pretense/no pretense/whatever....
@@johnhechtlinger9465😂
The first bootleg LP I ever bought was the Chelsea Bath release of the Winterland show, which sounded like it was recorded through a wet sock in a supply closet in a building across the street. What an improvement to hear this sonically superior soundcheck recording that could have been made yesterday.
I love how johnny claims that there was NO sound cheek before the winterland gig.. just another one of his selective memory.. great piece of history.. nice sound cheek
John’s straining at the top of his range on “No Feeling” gives us the beginnings of his PIL approach.
This is indeed a rare treasure so thanks a million to the uploader for sharing this, it would have made an amazing bonus to the NMTB box set, especially if it had been shot on 8mm, but for a cassette tape from the late 70's this sounds pretty fucking good. When they released the studio demo of Belsen on TH-cam, after decades of thinking such recording doesn't exist, it was mind-blowing to hear. I still prefer the live versions as I think the echo in Johnny's vocals pretty much ruins it, but I guess he never liked the song in the first place and asked for the echo effect as a protest. Anyway this soundcheck tape is awesome stuff! I just found this yesterday, can't believe it's been here for over five years and I've missed it. Sid sounds much better here than during the actual gig, I think he got a fix between this and the show. Also, here he's not bouncing up and down constantly so he doesn't miss as many notes :D But Sid made the gigs LOOK interesting, and his background vocals are hilarious. I just can't listen to / or watch the Filthy Lucre or newer gigs, I can't stand Lydon's PIL voice in Pistols songs, and Matlock is a better bassist but he has zero stage charisma and he's just not very interesting overall. So every time something new from 1977-1978 gets released, it's very exciting for me. Imagine what an eargasm it would be if they played "Sod in Heaven" in its entirety on this soundcheck! Or at least a short clip of it, but I doubt we'll ever get to hear that.
yeah this soundcheck sounds better mix wise than the actual set later on that night. wonder what happened? like the roadies kept handing them guitars that were out of tune . some of the stuff sounds sharp other takes sound flat but bigger sounding than when they actually went on
@S.H.I.T. Southern Hauntings Investigation Team Haha, glad we agree!
@4th_Lensman_of_the_apocalypse yes I was watching a live DVD of the Pistols in Japan from the 1996 tour and I was thinking the same about his PIL voice , even when he moves and dances it's very PIL like , which is annoying.
Im gonna assume Sig probably shot up just before the show. Cause he levels out for a moment midway through the show smack wise to play 1 or 2 songs moderately (at best). The rest you barely hear
People are complaining about Johnny asking for sid to be turned down and they're thinking its sids bass that's being asked to be turned down but it's not, johnnys asking for sids background vocals to be turned because they're coming up louder than his own in the stage monitors.
Don’t try explaining stage sound to the masses LOL
You are correct. Sid was increasingly trying to butt in vocally over John toward the end.
Correct!
Yup listen closely after that johnny says his vocals clearly.. never mentions bass.
Their voices sounded well together during the chorus, Lydon doesn’t like to share the limelight.... This soundcheck and most of the US tour shows Sid could play. Not well, but he could play.
Thanks for sharing this, Cook and Jones are awesome.
Incredible find after all these years. Thank you for unearthing this piece of history, and sharing it with all of us!!!
Crystal clear! great thanks for sharing! Sid tuning his own bass, i'm impressed! i'm only at Belsen so far! love it! 'Boogie! turn me up a bit more'
Thank you for sharing this !!! I'm a huge fan of the Sex Pistols i have to admit the soundcheck is better than the gig. And yes Sid could play not bad at all.
+Niko38260 Nonsense. Sid couldn't play to save his life.
You think Sid's playing here is good? He was playing in the sense his bass was actually turned on and he's trying to stay with the rest of them but his playing here is horrible. If you just heard his bass isolated here and you didn't know who it was there is no way you would say he could play. He's out of tune, out of time, he drops out at certain points. It must have drove poor Paul nuts trying to keep in time with Sid.
Not in the way that he was a great bass player but if you listen to this soundcheck and the gig at Winterland, he did good sometimes. Not enough for sure. The gigs in Sweden was not bad at all with Sid's bass. He was not a junkie yet.
Am I alone in finding this more interesting and rockin' than the actual show?
Steve said it was about the worst show they ever played. Great version of Belsen though.
@@haupper 'Belsen Was a Gas' -- ugh. That piece of shit still makes it hard to be a Pistols fan sometimes. One of two serious lyrical embarassments in an otherwise steller oeuvre.
@@haupper one of thee influential bands of the 20th century,on the strength of one album,,,,but what an album 😉
@@ericblowtorch what is the song about? I don’t even know.
@@contentstarved991 Just some stupid shit Sid wrote, trying to be shocking. It opens with this couplet: "Belsen was a gas I heard the other day/In the open graves where the Jews all lay." It gets worse from there.
This a true gem for any Pistol's fan. Nicely done sir. May thanks.
What a gem upload. The decay in that room is beautiful.
Jim thanks so much for posting this! Very cool. I am old enough to remember KSAN and fortunate enough to have seen many fantastic gigs at Winterland. I feel incredibly fortunate for having had the privilege of spending the halcyon days of my wanton youth in "the city" during the 70's and the 80's . The "Fab Mab" Rock On Broadway, Winterland and all the other great venues now gone but not forgotten. Cheers!
Awesome upload, thanks for sharing. A genuine piece of nostalgia and history here.....lydon always said they werent allowed to do a soundcheck for this gig! I still feel for steve and paul, they knew it was over when glen went and sid came in. Sid got way too much credit than he deserved, yet remains one of the most iconic figures in rock n roll.....he IS the image of the pistols. The "one album band" just adds to the myth, maybe it was for the best.....limited back catalogue, and virtually every song is a "greatest hit". Still Legends.
+Simon Carr Cheers ! Well said !
Yeah Sid didn't contribute anything. Just absolute nonsense.....It's kind of funny cause the Clash did the same thing with Paul Simonon. They hired him cause he looked cool. He couldn't play either but he got better as time went on. Also Pete Best was hired cause they thought he looked cool. I guess it's an English thing. But Albums You've got "Flogging a Dead Horse" and "Rock & Roll Swindle"
And there you have it. More proof that Rotten is an unreliable narrator at best.
funny when you think John was whinging about not having any soundcheck at the winterland gig …thanks for putting this up - interesting stuff! :-)
jaytv777 xx
The Sex Pistols are so great,even now 2022 sound awesome and modern,it s difficult to believe the way they play so well at a very young age(around 15 when started the band).Steve Jones is the best guitar player ,Cook, Matlock and Lydon all are really a tight line up,Sid was sometimes acceptable playing some notes.longhorn ballroom in the U S tour was a great performance.The Sex Pistols changed the world!!!
Jones was 23 in '78 so I dought if they started the Pistols as such aged 15 as early as 1970.Still great though.Its punk all right ,but with more rock and ( very important) roll than most
@@randybackgammon890 yes you re rigth.jones started playin at 15 if i remember correctly
This sounds amazing, pieces of documentation like this gain their value as time goes on, I love how this is some kind of truly unbiased documentation, just the tape capturing the whole ecosistem as it unfolds, thanks for sharing!!!
5:50. Sid can tune?!? Wow. Most impressed.
Yes... and so constantly
And Steve Jones was playing blues guitar at the beginning of the sound check. Very unusual for a punk rocker. He could've collaborated with legendary blues artists such as B.B King.
@@TCDL11 It is extremely common to find blues licks in punk songs of this era.
Great report, very interesanting, the BEST sound i never listened of pistols. Congratlations. I was ten years old then and in knowed It with eleven. They changed my life
Brilliant,first time i.ve ever heard this. Sid could play. Just really good hearing Sid away from all the bullshit. Rotten saying turn Sid down,classic. Even though the pistols eventually became a circus there can never be a more fearsome sight than Rotten Jones Vicious and Cook in front of you. Cheers Jim
Could he fuck play!
WTF? this is amazing! Can't believe I just heard this...THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Thanks for posting this. A fantastic rock'n'roll moment frozen in amber. What always comes across in every recording is just how amazing Jones was. Magnificent.
It was Chris Spedding on Guitar
Come on fella... That view was played out years ago. Anyway to each his own.
@@iandavidson4852 He still says it
No sh*t... It's a long standing joke. That's what Jones is like. Anyway as I said before, believe what you want to believe. You'll notice most of the comments on this post are about the underestimation of Jones' talent.
I don’t think we know how lucky we are. That this guy got this recording personally. I mean he was there in the flesh Amazing
Sid could play, he was evolving but hampered by the smack.
I don't know why you guys keep acting like this proves he could play, he's out of time and tune constantly and he drops out here and there. He could play in the sense that he knew the songs enough to kind of strum along with them but his playing here wouldn't be good enough for most open mic night bands.
@quiflington Mike Brown is a faux fan. Doesn't understand punk rock, or what made the Sex Pistols great. He's not qualified to make the statements he makes. I hope this kind of "fan" goes away soon.
I had the jumbo poster of pictures taken from this concert. It was awesome. I think I still have it.
the best is Steve jamming in the beginning
Yeah ridiculously interesting jamming...damn Jonesy always surprising us.
Great guitarist
This is fantastic, thank you so much for posting. While the current state of the world is dragging me down, I look at this and I'm reinvigorated. Makes me wanna get my git and amp and take it to the hall and blast shit out of it. Steve's playing is just great, love the ferocious power of pretty vacant.
How come the soundcheck was better than the actual show? It sounds almost on par with some of their '76 gigs. This upload is gold.
Because it was early in the day? 🥴
No audience?
Sid, just before the last tune, starts playing “I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement” from the first Ramones album, and Steve and Paul jump right in. Johnny promptly threatens to leave…
Nice sound from a cassette recorder. Drums are on point.🎧🎵
I love sound checks, they have an improv-like magic about them
"HELLLLLOOOOOO!!!" We're hearing the origins of PiL... You're a great man Jim!
- Hey Jim!! And you are just posted this as it is?!? Gave it to everybody... You are incredibly cool, a great human being, no hunger for the money, not taking any advantage of this. Others wouldn't do that, only for fortunes!
Rock history for free. Hat off! 👍😎
Thank you so much for this, Jim! It's amazing to hear and I'm so glad you saved the pics and tape!
Awesome Recording & it's took me until 2019 to hear this-great love it.
AE1 was my first camera. Loved it. Great shots, man. Thank you.
this insane, the unwitting tuning up 1 whole step puts it over the top
Wot
Thanks Jim - this is the cleanest I've heard Sid's bass lines ever and I was floored - he could actually play! He knew his bass lines very well and the Ramones lick he played sounded very cool, especially when Steve jumped in and (if only for brief seconds) locked in brilliantly. The story has always been that Sid was a talentless junkie. This proved he had the ability to play, never heard on audio until now.
Are you serious? He knew the songs I'm sure but his playing is horrible. He drops in and out, he's completely out of tune. I'm sure given enough time Sid could have learned and became competent on bass but all this tape "proves" is he was kind of strumming in time and he sort of knew the basic chords. You could to any middle school and find 10 better bassists than Sid is here.
Sid WAS actually a decent bass player. This tape proves it beyond a doubt. Too bad he's too drugged up on most existing recordings. That's wher the myth started with him being the world's worst bass player. He wasn't.
How does this tape prove anything? You keep claiming to be a musician....if you think Sid's "playing" here is good I'd hate to hear your band.
Funny how you completely disregard the links I've provided to other live shows where he plays decent and still jabber about this particular recording. You certainly love arguments even though you're resorting to personal attacks ad hominem, don't you?
My band actually has a record deal, do you??
I've heard just about everything the Pistols ever did dude. Sid sucked. Sorry. As for your band having a record deal, give me a break. What does you (And that's assuming it's true) having a record have to do with anything? Justin Bieber and Millions Vanilli had record deals too. What does that have to do with Sids playing? Nothing....just like you claiming to have a record deal has nothing to do with him. Sid couldn't even get through a whole song dude. He was so bad they didn't even use him during recording lol. How bad of a bassist do you have to be to not even be allowed to record with your own band?
Love this since you first posted it Jim. It's a dream for Pistols fans.
Kiitos! Kaunista!
The Pistols did sound checks???lol
That's not very punk!
LOL
Lol
All bands that take it serious do soundchecks. Amplified music is only a construct of the amplification. Have you ever heard what an electric guitar sounds like without an amplifier? We made the amps, in Ealing.
They were quite a tight band, I saw them in Manchester 1976 expecting chaos, not at all. They played
' Substitute ' and ' Stepping Stone '
Jim, thank you for this, this is amazing, great photos/experiences, excellent to hear them practise Belsen and what was more amazing was Steve playing "Blues/guitar" - thanks again!
Such an amazing band!
It's so silly when people say Vicious couldn't play ~ he clearly had the right minimalist style for the band and didn't have to play like jaco pistorius.
Jaco Pastorious influenced bass players. Sid Vicious/Sex Pistols had a global impact on popular music and culture that is still profoundly relevant today.
No, he couldn't play. Glenn is real bass player, the more modern Pistols gigs are way better, having a dope sick beginner drags everything down.
Sid couldn't play at all & couldn't even bluff his way through a whole song.
Honoure the Fire you’re either lying or fucking deaf
You obviously know some of the best music is happenstance or a split. Second. Idea. ......from ......space and time contiums. Obviously they discovered their own unridden one !!?!!spark zof much geniousosities!!!!!?!???
Unbelievable. Thnk you for posting. Best find for 35 years.
Way to go Jim...
Thanks..
What an upload.
Pistols fan since 77
UK..
Great stuff. At 6:25 you can hear John say he wants to get the leather jacket that tour manager Noel Monk had promised him for doing a KSAN radio interview. Also love Paul calling John a c-word at 11:26
Questo video, anzi, documento, dovrebbe essere riprodotto in un museo del rock'n'roll. This document should be played in a rock'n'roll museum. Thank you for sharing...
thank you for this!! made my day!! i love sound checks when you can hear the process of getting ready and punkstars being themselves!
This is cool and this version of Pretty Vacant is unbelievable! Thaks for posting.
Unbelievable stuff. Brilliant.
Incredible.