Holidays in the Sun

:"The "Holidays in the Sun" punk festivals are now known as "Wasted Festivals".Infobox Single
Name = Holidays in the Sun


Artist = Sex Pistols
from Album = Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Released = October 14, 1977: Worldwide
October 22 2007 (30th anniversary re-issue)
Format = Vinyl single: Worldwide
Recorded = London, England
Genre = Punk rock
Length = 3:20
Label = Virgin Records
Writer = Sex Pistols
Producer = Chris Thomas
Bill Price
[ Certification = ]
Chart position =

• #8 (United Kingdom)

Last single = "Pretty Vacant"
(1977)
This single = "Holidays in the Sun"
(1977)
Next single = "No One Is Innocent"
(1978)

"Holidays in the Sun" was the fourth single by the British punk rock band Sex Pistols. It was released on October 14, 1977, and proved to be the last single from the group as a whole for 30 years (Steve Jones and Paul Cook would record one more single, "No One Is Innocent" with Ronnie Biggs as the band imploded, and Vicious would record solo covers of "My Way" and "Somethin' Else" under the Pistols name. The Pistols would not record another single until 2007, when the original lineup recorded covers of "Anarchy in the UK" and "Pretty Vacant" for two video games).

The song was inspired by a trip to the Channel Island of Jersey, "We tried our Holiday In The Sun in the isle of Jersey and that didn't work. They threw us out", followed by a couple of weeks spent in Berlin. Although they described the city as "raining and depressing", they were relieved to get away from London. Says John Lydon, "Being in London at the time made us feel like we were trapped in a prison camp environment. There was hatred and constant threat of violence. The best thing we could do was to go set up in a prison camp somewhere else. Berlin and its decadence was a good idea. The song came about from that. I loved Berlin. I loved the wall and the insanity of the place. The communists looked in on the circus atmosphere of West Berlin, which never went to sleep, and that would be their impression of the West."

"Holidays In the Sun" was later featured as the opening track on the group's debut album, "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". The single's B-side was "Satellite", a song about the band's early performances in "satellite towns". The Sex Pistols had enjoyed playing away from the capital, because they were the only occasions on which they could play away from their manager, Malcolm McLaren, and his group of associates.

The song's main hook, a simple descending figure, bears a resemblance to the bassline of The Jam's "In the City", which was released a few months previously in April 1977. The two groups did play at least one show together (at Queensway Hall in Dunstable on October 21 1976), at which point The Jam had already been in the studio to record demos of "In the City". Bruce Foxton, bass player for The Jam and later the Stiff Little Fingers alleged in a 1994 book that the riff had indeed been stolen from this song.Foxton, Bruce, "'The Jam': Our Story", Sanctuary Publishing Ltd, 1994. ISBN 1-89814-110-X] By one account, Sid Vicious and Foxton got in a fight over this, with Foxton the clear victor.

Cover versions

Green Day did a cover of this song when touring their album "Nimrod"

Skid Row covered this song on the "Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell" album.

In 2007, American "rockgrass" band Hayseed Dixie released a bluegrass-styled cover of this song on their album "Weapons Of Grass Destruction". The video for their version has John Wheeler (aka Barley Scotch) constantly changing outfits.

This song is on the soundtracks to the video games Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

Promotional posters

Two promotional posters were issued to promote the single, the most common of the pair was simply an oversized reproduction of the single's front cover.The second version featured a monochrome image of a beach scene. This version of the poster was heavily reproduced for commercial sale during the mid 1980s.

References