This book provides an amazing history of the punk era and it's connections to non punk bands. Plenty of photos! It's a fun book to read straight through or pickup and put down

Wish this had been advertised through here as one of those coffee table books that's mostly pictures. Wasn't super into it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The book examines the quick rise and fall of the band. The book really centers on the music and the lasting impact. There are lots of stories and the author makes use of other books and interviews previously published. The book includes lots and lots of wonderful photographs.
The book was well written and easy to read. Any music fan will enjoy it.

A great book about a mythical and seminal band. There's plenty of info and photos that tells the story of a band that is very important for rock fan and mythical for anyone who ever listened to punk.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Love them or hate them, the Sex Pistols had to happen, and happen they did at precisely the right time in Britain. Shaking polite society to its core, they burned brightly then self-destructed just as spectacularly.
Dave Simpson’s book, produced to tie-in with a new TV mini-series dramatising the band, is an informative and all-encompassing history of the Pistols, evoking the hardships of the bandmembers’ upbringing in post-war Britain, through to the chaos of punk and the hangover of the aftermath.
The book is sumptuously produced and a joy to read and hold, and is recommended for punk fans and those with an interest in the social history of the late ‘70s.

A quick look on Amazon suggests that as subject matter for a book, the Sex Pistols are already well served to the point of saturation. There are the autobiographies from band members (only Paul Cook has yet to cash in), the sound engineer’s story (Dave Goodman), the inside (?) scoop (Fred and Judy Vermorel), the bands legacy in it’s wider social context (Jon Savage), books devoted to single gigs, the 90 days at EMI, the US tour and so on. There’s even a colouring book and the TV series of “Lonely Boy”. But with the sort of hyperbole that Malcom McLaren would surely have approved of, we are told “this book is the definitive history of the Sex Pistols”.

Written by Dave Simpson (Guardian music critic, author of “The Fallen” and consequently according to Mark E Smith “a fucking twat”) while it might be covering familiar territory, Simpson makes the most of being so late to the party, comparing and contrasting the different accounts already on the record. There’s a somewhat inauspicious start, with the Grundy interview laid out (once again) verbatim, but thereafter a fairly pacey narrative benefits from the various perspectives and disagreements. Simpson does a pretty convincing job of explaining how a band that made just one album, fired it’s main songwriter before they they got that album out and barely toured managed to be such musical catalysts.

The book’s real standout quality however are the 150+ photos. The large format layout features some glorious snaps – colour shots from a Pistols gig in Dunstable in 1976 with Jones playing a Flying V, a 12 year old Jones playing with a toy rocket in Hamleys, a nonplussed Buzzcocks posed awkwardly outside Woolworths with two grannies who look like they could give them all a good pasting without putting their handbags down.

The downside is that the book leans a bit too heavily on Helen Wellington-Lloyd’s original “blackmail” typography and Jamie Reid’s album design – there are places where it seems more filler than art, and photo driven format means that bands and people who are otherwise tangential to the story (Blondie, Van der Graff Generator) are given more real estate than their part in the story would seem to warrant. But in the grand scheme of things these are relatively minor issues, and even if story doesn’t offer too much to the hardcore fans, this pictures themselves almost justify the purchase.

The Sex Pistols were a phenomenon that popped up about the same time as disco began in the mid to late 1970s. There truly couldn’t be two more opposite styles. For angry young people upset about inflation and no jobs, punk was the perfect way to release their frustration that society sucked. The band members were just as frustrated. Unfortunately, making money meant money for drugs, lots and lots of drugs, and an equal number of bad, or at least not good, decisions. Fifty years later, inflation is returning so it’s the perfect time to revisit punk with the Sex Pistols: I Wanna Be Me.

This book is a companion piece to Danny Boyle's gritty Pistol, a six-episode limited series (currently on Hulu but originally airing on FX). The book goes into more detail than the movie. However, if you can I would recommend seeing the show first. You really have to see the Sex Pistols to understand their self-destructive energy. Sex Pistols: I Wanna Be Me also has over 150 photographs that show the boys at their most great and their most dodgy moments. 5 stars and a favorite for music, not just punk, fans!

Thanks to Palazzo Editions and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

This is a fascinating book and will appeal to anyone interested in music history, punk rock, the Sex Pistols themselves or just the 70s culture.
Filled with great photos, quotes, anecdotes and interesting trivia it is a pure feast of indulgence about a band quite unlike anything before or since. Pivotal to the growth and development of punk rock, they were controversial at best and down right offensive to those only interested in the middle of the road mainstream music scene.
I thought this was a great book, a real reminder of my early teens, when punk was coming to an end, but some of us liked, not only the music but also the freedom of expression it gave in terms of hair, makeup and clothes.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

I am grateful to NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

“I Wanna Be Me” is a new book of some 200 pages documenting the rise and fall of the Sex Pistols. It is due to be published to coincide with the TV series, Pistol, created by Danny Boyle. As well as photographs, other visual material includes promotional posters, record covers, fanzine articles and so on. The accompanying text describes the rise and fall of the band, their songs, their image, fashions and band members. This is done in some detail, mostly referencing previous books, interviews and articles.

Early chapters cover the lives of Sex Pistols band members, largely London working class backgrounds. Their genesis as a band is described, as is the music & fashion scene present in the UK in the mid 1970s.

Band manager McLaren is prominent in the bands evolution, including their music, promotion and fashion. The bands initial influence on other aspiring musicians is presented as is the long-term influence on the British music scene.

Memories are vague after so long and recollections by various individuals vary. Still, if anyone is interested in reading about the beginnings of UK punk, the Sex Pistols and the many other bands of the same era, this book will satisfy. I’m not sure there is anything new being presented in the text, but it provides a fairly coherent story of a few years of change in the UK music industry.

I suspect that many people will mostly enjoy this book for the photographs. Early Sex Pistols photos , the band playing live as well as many off-stage moments. The photos (and text) are in chronological order, so the evolutions of clothing, attitude and music are evident. As is the bands downfall and disintegration. Many other bands and individuals are captured in the photographs. Contemporaries of the Pistols or emerging bands and musicians influenced by the Pistols.

Towards the end of the book, we see more colour photographs, the fateful US tour and the demise and disintegration of the band, and of course the sadness of Pistols bassist Sid Vicious early death.

I enjoyed reading this book and looking at the photographs. Anyone who enjoys the music that came out of the UK in the early days of Punk, will enjoy this book. It provides an important visual document of not only the Sex Pistols evolution and short-lived life, but of the many bands influenced by their music and attitude. I wish the author success with the publication of this book.

Burning briefly but brightly! Love them or loathe them, the Sex Pistols wrote music history.
This book features some interesting trivia: Pretty Vacant based on Abba’s SOS? Sex Pistols getting their first TV appearance due to Freddie Mercury’s toothache? Timothy Spall going to school with Johnny Rotten? And Sid Vicious was named after a hamster?
With its artwork, the lavish illustration, the insight into the scene, this is pure genius. A screaming rotting bible to punk rock!

A must-have for Sex Pistols fans and for fans of the punk rock scene, in general. Informative, detailed, full of photographs and the iconic font style headings, Simpson's book is an experience.

The sex pistols were original in concept and execution. They came out while Apple in disco we’re making the scene. The relationship with each other in the public would be a tumultuous one their original bass player left because he couldn’t stand to be in the same room with Johnny rotten who was as good as his name. Punk was a concept for the working classes and when they hired Sid vicious they brought in the first prince and princess a punk with seditious and Nancy spongin who were both die long before their time. This book covers their two year career the relationships the downfalls the puke the sex all of it. It isn’t along book but has many pictures and Minnie horror details of the life of a band who even though you may not be able to sing or name one of their songs you know exactly who people are talking about when they say the sex pistols. I received this Book by net galley for free but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

This is a must-have for fans of punk rock music!
In hardback format it features 150 iconic photographs of the Sex Pistols, accompanied by detailed description of their background and rise to fame.

Being in my early  40s I was too young to remember a lot of  the band's history. However, i've grown up with the music and have always enjoyed it! Having recently watched the Danny Boyle tv drama series "Pistol" this book was a fascinating read and gave more detail on the events covered.

The text is detailed but it is split up by the photographs and punk font style headings, so is good to dip in and out of!

This book would make a great gift for a music lover (I may treat myself to a copy for my birthday!)

Wow! After watching 6 episodes of “Pistol” which is brilliant adaptation from Steve Jones’ “Lonely Boy”“ combined with Danny Boyle’s visionary direction, I start devouring each musical videos, interviews to have a better understanding the inside dynamics of Sex Pistols!

A group is born at sex store, becoming the significant symbol of anarchism against the rooted bureaucracy, poverty, inequality!
This book put a light on different facts that weren’t mentioned in the series: like we have to be thankful Mercury’s toothache which had prevented him to take stage on tv program and Queen is replaced by Sex Pistols which helped them to promote their album “ Anarchy in the UK”.
This group is born at the right time when unemployment figures in
raising blood pressures in sitting rooms around
1975 were the highest since the Second World
the north and Inflation had skyrocketed while OPEC Oil crisis had pushed country into the recession. UK had been in the middle of political and economic crisis as the edgy, rebellious, provocative musicians team up to protest the unfairness of system!

This book feed me curious mind to learn more unknown facts about the group and their unconventional rising from their ashes and their meaningful tragic ending.

So many thanks to NetGalley and Palazzo Editions for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.