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Sex Pistols Classic Holidays In The Sun Gets A Video – 35 Years On

• 19th Sep 2012

35 years on from its original release the Sex Pistols classic ‘Holidays in the Sun’ has finally received a promo video. The video – newly edited by longtime Sex Pistols collaborator Julien Temple – has been compiled from previously unreleased footage especially for use on the limited edition super deluxe box set ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’ to be released September 24th through Universal Music UK.

The song, first released as a single in October 1977, was inspired by the Pistols March 1977 trip to Berlin; where the band had decamped for a few days to help escape media glare after their infamous sacking from A&M Records (after just 7 days).

The Pistols visit to the city – and particularly the Berlin Wall which looked onto the still communist East Berlin – provided John ‘Rotten’ Lydon with his inspiration for the lyrics:

“Berlin was a very different town then. It was like that scene in Apocalypse Now when they go up the river and they see the flares and the party going on, all the soldiers on acid… That’s what Berlin was like, with a chaotic war-zone wrapped around it. The Communists were looking in on this adventure playground. Quite mental.”

Prior to their Berlin trip the Pistols had tried a break to Jersey which resulted in them being given 24 hours to leave the island by local Police. The band then flew into Berlin where footage included in Julien Temple’s new edit was filmed by the band’s tour manager and soundman John “Boogie” Tiberi.

Unlike the Pistols other single’s from ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’ (‘Anarchy in the UK’, ‘God Save The Queen’ and ‘Pretty Vacant’) no promo video for ‘Holidays in the Sun’ was ever filmed. Although one was planned featuring a recreation of TV holiday adverts of the time. 35 years later video director Julien Temple has been reunited with the Sex Pistols for the first time since 2007 to work on a brand new video edit of ‘Holidays in the Sun’.

Acclaimed for his music video production and documentaries including directing ‘The Great Rock and Roll Swindle’ (1980), The Filth and The Fury (2000) and ‘There’ll Always Be An England’ (2007), Julien Temple has reignited previously unreleased footage of the Pistols playing live in Cornwall September 1977 that never previously had sound, cutting it with John Tiberi’s shots of the band in Berlin back in March 1977.

“The live performance was shot using one camera and shows the extraordinary captivating quality of the band at the time.” recalls Temple. “There was shock in the room, it was hypnotising, contagious, and unfolded right in front of you. It was filmed in Penzance in September 1977, the Pistols arrived unannounced and the audience couldn’t believe what they were getting”.

Limited edition super deluxe box set ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’ to be released September 24th through Universal Music UK.