The Pistols invade Japan: 60 minutes of chaos, safety pins optional.
Here’s the Sex Pistols – the original Sex Pistols, with Glen Matlock on bass – in an intense, non-stop onslaught of pure punk rock in a 1996 reunion tour, shot at the fabled Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. John Lydon returns as Johnny Rotten, with two-tone hair, red shorts, and no letup from the famous raw, shouted vocals with which he helped invent UK punk in the 1970’s. Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook blast out the music in the Pistols’ trademark fast, tight, loud style, reviving a host of Sex Pistols favourites. While the great punk-rock moment that the Sex Pistols created and owned in the mid-1970’s was brief and fleeting, this concert shows that punk rock – and the band that made it famous – will never die. A searing evening of wild music.
Acting
Lydon's theatrical sneer never left.
Production
Budokan's sacred hall desecrated beautifully.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Budokan was historically reserved for respectable artists like The Beatles; the Pistols' 1996 show completed a 20-year circle of cultural infiltration.
Lydon's two-tone hair was a deliberate visual callback to his 1977 look, consciously selling nostalgia even while sneering at it.
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