Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter announce Australian tour for April 2025

The Sex Pistols are one of the most iconic bands in punk music. With their unique musical style, aesthetic concepts, and rebellious attitude, they led the trend during the rise of punk music in the mid-to-late 1970s. This April, they will return to the Australian stage to once again showcase their punk charisma.

The band will perform under the name "Sex Pistols, featuring Frank Carter," announcing five shows across Australia, marking their first Australian tour in nearly 30 years. During these shows, the band will perform their classic 1977 album "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" in its entirety.

Audiences in most capital cities will have the opportunity to see this slightly adjusted band lineup, who reunited last August for a series of charity concerts at the Bush Hall in the UK. These performances were widely acclaimed, and the band subsequently embarked on a short tour in the UK. Now, they have set their sights on Australia.

The lineup for this tour includes almost all of the original members, which is rare for veteran punk bands. Fans will see drummer Paul Cook, guitarist Steve Jones, and bassist Glen Matlock performing passionately on stage. The only new face is lead vocalist Frank Carter, a highly respected singer-songwriter with a twenty-year career, who was formerly the lead singer of the hardcore band Gallows and has released five albums with his band Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes. Carter himself is also a loyal fan of the Sex Pistols, and he has reportedly performed exceptionally well with the band.

In a review of the UK shows, The Guardian noted that Carter chose to interpret the songs in his own way, rather than imitating former lead singer Johnny Rotten's style. "The energetic and muscular Carter, a punk veteran himself, threw himself into the songs and the crowd, displaying a passionate gaze rather than Johnny Rotten's sneering smirk. He roared 'God Save the Queen' like a lucky contest winner, unable to believe his luck: 'I'm fucking loving this!'"

The band's original lead singer, Johnny Rotten, is still alive, but he will not be participating in the Australian tour in April. Rotten (real name John Lydon) has long been unpopular within the Sex Pistols due to his polarizing political and social views. Glen Matlock stated in an interview with The Metal Voice last year: "I think he just says those things to get in the papers. I don't want to stand next to someone wearing a MAGA hat, it doesn't look good. I always felt there was something I didn't trust about the guy, and it took me a long time to realize what it was."

Recent lawsuits against his former bandmates have also gone against Lydon. The former lead singer attempted to prevent the Sex Pistols' music from being used in Danny Boyle's 2022 miniseries about the band, "Pistol." Lydon lost the lawsuit, and as part of the judgment, Judge Sir Anthony Mann recorded the singer's complex relationship with the band. "Mr. Lydon has not shied away from describing the difficult relationships he had with the other members... and this persisted even during their reunion tours in the 1990s and 2000s. It continues to this day," he said.

Rotten last performed with the band at the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain in 2008, which was also the Sex Pistols' last performance before their UK shows last August, and the last time Steve Jones spoke to his old bandmate. "I haven't spoken to him in years," he said on the Rockonteurs podcast last year. "2008 was the last time I spoke to him, we did 30 shows in Europe." Carter is happy to fill his shoes, saying in a statement: "When the Sex Pistols call, you have to answer."

You can see the Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter in the following shows in Australia this April. Tickets go on sale January 23rd. The dates include: April 5th (Saturday) Melbourne Festival Hall, April 6th (Sunday) Adelaide Hindley Street Music Hall, April 8th (Tuesday) Sydney Hordern Pavilion, April 9th (Wednesday) Brisbane Fortitude Music Hall, and April 11th (Friday) Fremantle Prison.