Fuelled by circle pits and crowd-surfing, Sex Pistols with Frank Carter played an explosive set at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall for Teenage Cancer Trust last night (Monday March 24). Check out photos, footage and the setlist below.
The Pistols reunited last year with Carter, of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Gallows, replacing John Lydon as frontman.
After playing an intimate and sweaty warm-up show at London’s iconic 100 Club on Friday – nearly 50 years since the band’s legendary residency and this time attended by the likes of Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller – the reformed punk legends took to the stage at Royal Albert Hall for what Carter described as “an amazing cause with amazing people.”
Following well-received and high-octane support sets from The Molotovs and Kid Kapichi, the band kicked off with ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ opener ‘Holidays In The Sun’ to prove why they remain what Carter hailed as “the greatest punk band of all time”.
“We’ve got a fantastic mix of old punks and new punks here,” said Carter about the crowd, “and a fantastic opportunity to have a gigantic circle pit at Royal Albert Hall.”
He continued: “Open the dance floor up. You don’t see that at the ballet. I want to see the biggest circle pit.”
With Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Glen Matlock in fine fettle and resplendent in all black, the suited and booted Carter spent almost as much time crowd-surfing or lost in the crowd, Carter instigated chaos and dedicated his efforts to pure entertainment and amplifying the energy of the songs rather than delivering a Lydon impersonation.
Highlights included Carter’s “favourite fucking song” ‘Bodies’, as well as a feral outing of ‘Liar’, the anthemic ‘God Save The Queen’ nearly blowing the roof off this somewhat ironic venue, a sleazy delivery of Iggy And The Stooges’ ‘Classic’ No Fun’ and the crowd hollering back a snarky ‘E.M.I.’.
Turning to the guitarist, Carter commented: “When I asked Jonesy how he felt about playing Royal Albert Hall, he said ‘It would be nice go there’ – this is the first time he’s been!”
After roars from the audience, Jones noted how it was “nice to see a couple young faces down front”.
Returning for an encore of the Sid Vicious version of Claude François’ ‘My Way’ before the blistering closer of, ‘Anarchy in the UK’ Carter called for the lights to be dimmed and for all present to get their phones out and turn their torches on. “Imagine this is a Coldplay gig but much better,” ended Carter. “This one is for these three men who changed my fucking life.”
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’
‘No Fun’ (The Stooges cover)
‘Satellite’
‘No Feelings’
‘Problems’
‘E.M.I.
Encore:
‘My Way’ (Claude François cover)
‘Anarchy in the UK’
This year’s run of Teenage Cancer Trust shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall continues with performances from The Who, James Arthur, The Corrs and many more. It was also recently announced that next year’s TCT gig series will be curated by The Cure’s Robert Smith.
Sex Pistols with Frank Carter will soon 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, Matlock and 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’ 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!”
Speaking to NME back in the summer ahead of the reunion shows, Carter said that although he sees himself as merely “a custodian of punk rock” in the band, he didn’t want to detract attention away from the original members of the iconic band.
“I promise you one thing, there will be nothing left of me after [performing],” he said. “I’m going to leave every single ounce of me on that stage because that’s what the record deserves. I’m nervous because they’re big, big shoes to fill, but I’m just going to do my best and try and make them all proud.”
