(antiMusic) With all of the other big name reunions going on, The Sex Pistols activities have gone pretty much under the radar. The big news is that their reunion last year was captured for a new DVD which will hit stores next month as the band hits the road for a world tour that now includes a stop in Russia. Here is the 411 from John Lydon's site: The Sex Pistols will release a full-length DVD from last years triumphant Brixton Academy shows. 'There'll Always Be an England' was filmed by director Julien Temple and will also include an additional 80 minute interview feature where the band members visit parts of London. John travels on an open top bus. The DVD is set for a June 30th 2008 release via FremantleMedia Enterprises.
The news about the tour: 30 years ago Russia was the enemy of the British establishment. So were the Sex Pistols. Now, in 2008 the Pistols travel to Russia for the very first time. The June shows in St Petersburg and Moscow promise to be THE event of the 'Combine Harvester Tour'. Mr Rotten can't wait to get to the Russian Front and he knows the Russian people are equally as excited about finally getting to see the Sex Pistols!
Back in 1988 PiL played behind the Iron Curtain in the "Soviet Socialist Republic of Estonia", headlining the Tallinn Summer Rock Festival playing to over 120,000 people. Sex Pistols and PiL records were officially blacklisted by Soviet authorities, however, people still travelled hundreds of miles to see the band; fittingly PiL included a version of 'Holidays in the Sun' in their set. The concert and the people made such an impact on John that at the time he was quoted as calling it PiL's "Major achievement so far
". In a twist of fate the Pistols play the now independent Estonia virtually 20 years to the day PiL first played there.
Before that, they travel into the heart of Russia. It says so much about how things have changed that the Russian people have invited a band that represents free speech and anti-censorship to play in the former motherland of Communism. In the UK the Pistols were once described as a "bigger threat" than Russian Communism, while Soviet authorities later labeled them fascist! They're both wrong, but it proves the Pistols were doing something right
more
