Sex Pistols to warm up in U.S. for British tour

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Reunited punk rock icons the Sex Pistols will warm up for their English tour with a private club show in Los Angeles on Oct. 25, a gig that will mark their first public performance in four years.

The quartet will play the Roxy Theatre, a Sunset Strip venue with room for about 500 people. After that, they begin a four-night stand at London's Brixton Academy, beginning Nov. 8, followed by a show in Manchester.

The reunion of singer John Lydon, guitarist Steve Jones, bass player Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook is being billed as a 30th anniversary celebration of their groundbreaking 1977 album, "Never Mind the Bollocks -- Here's the Sex Pistols."

The Sex Pistols were one of the best-known English rock bands to emerge from the short-lived punk revolution in the mid-1970s. Four bored kids with limited musical ability, they swore on live television, got beaten up and perfectly captured the economic malaise sweeping Britain.

"Never Mind the Bollocks," powered by such caustic singles as "Anarchy In The UK" and "God Save The Queen," topped the U.K. charts in October 1977.

But the band broke up the following January during a disastrous American tour. Punk rock figurehead Sid Vicious, who had replaced Matlock, died of a drug overdose in 1979.

The original foursome reunited in 1996 for a world tour. They also toured North America in 2003.

The Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, but refused to show up, sending a rude, handwritten note instead.