The ‘Anarchy in the UK Tour’ should have just been a collection of twenty gigs like any other, spanning venues across the UK…

It was December 1976, and a coach drove off down a London street like any other. On board were the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Heartbreakers, while The Damned, who were also on the bill, followed behind.

However, two days earlier on the Today Show, tour, the Sex Pistols’ had lit a fire in the popular consciousness. What should have been an inconsequential three-minute interview descended into farce when the show’s host goaded Sex Pistols’ guitarist Steve Jones into saying ‘something outrageous’. Local councils began to ban the tour and agreed “Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death”.

Author Mick O Shea dissects the whirlwind that followed these punk-rock heavyweights and the sheer force of their rebellion against popular culture. He has interviewed band members, managers, roadies and audiences to tell the true story of how anarchy once gripped the nation.