Licorice Pizza: Welcome to the Rodeo

8/27/2006

Welcome to the Rodeo

Day Eight: Tuesday, Jan. 10, 1977 - Dallas

9 pm
“Behind the car park of the Longhorn Ballroom is an area called Boot Hill. According to the signs around it, many prominent Texans are buried there.

The car park is a madhouse. It’s freezing outside and snow is starting to fall, but a naked woman poses atop a Corvette for television cameras. As the promoter’s son walks into the club, a live television audience captures a Sex Pistols’ fan spitting on him
The legal capacity of the Longhorn Ballroom is 2,000. Tonight, just over 1,700 people have bought tickets. It breaks down to 300 punks and 1,400-plus cowboys.
‘No one really knows what to expect,’ says police director E. Winslow Chapman. ‘We have been advised that they have been known to perform simulated sex acts on stage. This will not be tolerated. It’s purely precautionary. We don’t want any trouble and we don’t want to cause the Sex Pistols any trouble. If someone wants to pay their money to be spat or vomited upon, that’s their business.’

11 pm
The Sex Pistols are tiring of Americans, hating each other, hating their manager, hating their predicament. ...Tonight, at the Longhorn Ballroom, they’re doing what they’ve learned to do: they’re working out their anger and frustration through the music, like rock-and-roll bands are supposed to.

‘Look at that,’ Rotten says to Vicious, gesturing to the crowd, transferring all his anger to them. ‘A living circus.’

Sid walks to the center microphone. ‘Dance you fuckers, you faggot cowboys.’

Out of habit, the band returns for an encore. ‘You must be fuckin’ mad to want more of us,’ Rotten suggests, and then calls for a pummeling version of Iggy and the Stooges’ self-explanatory protopunk anthem ‘No Fun.’ ...After the song collapses, Rotten and Vicious pick up what items of value have been thrown on stage, and the Sex Pistols head back to a dressing room to decompress.

‘This is great,’ Rotten deadpans. ‘I make more money picking up money than I do from performing.’”

...from “12 Days on the Road - The Sex Pistols’ USA Tour” by Noel E. Monk and Jimmy Guterman