Sex Pistols is a box set anthology of the career of the punk band The Sex Pistols with singer Johnny Rotten. It was released on 3 June 2002. The set comprises three themed CDs and an 80-page booklet.[2]
The first disc features Never Mind the Bollocks, the band's only studio album, in its entirety, as well as four B-sides and the band's first demo session.
The second disc has demos and studio outtakes, from July 1976 to January 1977 and from the Never Mind the Bollocks sessions. This, together with the first disc, includes most of the material recorded by the band while Johnny Rotten was the singer.
The third disc, composed of previously unreleased live tracks, is almost completely taken from a 31 August 1976 gig at Islington Screen on the Green Cinema. Live bonus tracks include songs never recorded in the studio, "Understanding", "Flowers of Romance" and the live performance of "Belsen Was a Gas".
Completeness
The box set includes almost the entire known recorded output of the band while Johnny Rotten was in the band.
A few demos are not included, but they can be found on the bootleg album Spunk and the 1996 extended release of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols which comes with Spunk/This Is Crap. The missing "Submission (Version 2)" is included on the widespread bootleg "Party Till You Puke" and on disc 2 of the 1992 "Pretty Vacant" double maxi CD. A few additional demos were released on the Alternative Takes 7” single box set in 2014.
This box set, the 2006 15-song-remaster of "Spunk", disc 2 of the "Pretty Vacant" 1992 CD single, and the Alternative Takes 7” single box set, comprises the entire studio output of the Rotten-era band.
To note is that the "Pretty Vacant" version from July 1976, included on the box set as the first track on disc 2 is in fact the same recording as on the "Spunk" album, only with a slightly different mix and added studio chatter from the intro of the January 1977 session.
The full list of all missing tracks from the Johnny Rotten era not included on the box set is:
"Pretty Vacant", "Lazy Sod", "Satellite", and "Anarchy in the UK" from the first Dave Goodman sessions at Denmark Studio and Riverside Studio in 1976
"Problems", "Pretty Vacant", "Liar", and "EMI" from the third Dave Goodman sessions at Gooseberry Studios and Eden Studios, January in 1977
"Body" (Bodies) demo and "Submission" demo #2 from Bill Price's album sessions at Wessex Studios in June 1977
"Belsen Was a Gas" demos #1 and #2, recorded by John Tiberi at Denmark Street Rehearsal Room in London, September 20, 1977
None of the post-Johnny Rotten material is included on the box, most of which can be found on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle soundtrack. It might be worth noting Sid Vicious, while commonly referred to as the bass player for the Sex Pistols, only plays on one track out of sixty-four on this box set.
