The Sham Pistols were a group that never really existed. After the break up of The Sex Pistols, guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook were looking to form a new band. Various names were mentioned as new bandmates including Bob Geldof, but it was vocalist Jimmy Pursey and bass player Dave Treganna from fellow punk band Sham 69 who were recruited.

At what was intended to be Sham's final concert at the Glasgow Apollo Theatre on June 29 1979 Jones and Cook had joined Sham onstage for the encore of "Pretty Vacant", "White Riot", "If the Kids are United" and "What Have We Got"? This was to be the start of the new band. Time was spent in the studio where two songs were recorded - "Some Play Dirty" and "Natural Born Killer" (which was later reworked as The Professionals' "Kick Down the Doors"). However problems around deciding the name of the new group (Pursey favoured using 'The Sex Pistols'), and arguments within the band meant that it was not to be. On 19 August Jones and Cook walked out of a recording session with Jones saying "It's worse than working with Rotten". The studio recordings have never seen the light of day, but the encore at the Glasgow Apollo was released on Sham's Last Stand and Sham 69 Live in Glasgow 1979. The latter miscredits the Sham song "George Davis is Innocent (also known as "The Cockney Kids are Innocent" and "Everybody's Innocent") as the Sex Pistols' "No One is Innocent".

After the dissolution of the band, Cook and Jones went on to form The Professionals, and Pursey moved on to solo projects, later reforming Sham 69.

Discography

• Sham's Last Stand 1993 Dojo DOJOCD95 & Snapper SMMCD 540
• Sham 69 Live in Glasgow 1979 2001 Sanctuary Records CMRCD351

External links

• http://www.sex-pistols.net/main.html
• http://www.cookandjones.co.uk/News_latest.htm
• http://www.thesexpistols.co.uk/noddyneeds_sex_pistols_pages.htm

References

• John Savage England's Dreaming (Faber & Faber, 2002)
• Tony Scrivener: Agents Of Anarchy (Kingsfleet Publications, 1992)
• Melody Maker 7 July 1979