Have a Rotten New Year!

The Sex Pistols Live in Atlanta, 1978

I had been on staff at Newsday for a year when the Sex Pistols announced their doomed first and last U.S. tour. It was supposed to kick-off in Pittsburgh, in late Dec. 1977, if I recall, but was postponed due to visa delays. The shebang started in Atlanta Jan. 5, 1978, in Atlanta, and ended, along with the demise of the band, just nine days later with a mess onstage January 14 at Winterland in San Francisco.

In avoiding New York and Los Angeles, where punk was already accepted, manager Malcolm McLaren decided on an in-yer-face "southern strategy," routing the Pistols through cities in which they might face maximum prejudice: Memphis, San Antonio, Dallas, Baton Rouge, La., the venerable Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, and concluding in what should have been welcome turf in San Francisco. By then Sid Vicious' heroin use and the emotional exhaustion of travel undercut the performance.

I did have the opportunity to exchange a few words with Mr. Vicious, in the glass atrium elevator of the Peachtr…