Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols is the only studio album by English punk rock group Sex Pistols, released on 28 October 1977 by Virgin Records. At the time of its release, the band was already extremely controversial, having sworn on live TV, been fired from two record labels and been banned from playing live in most parts of England. The album's title added to that controversy, with some people finding the word "bollocks" offensive. Many record stores refused to carry the album and some record charts refused to list the album, showing just a blank space instead.
Close to completing a deal with A&M Records, in March 1977 Sex Pistols entered Wessex Sound Studios to record with producer Chris Thomas and engineer Bill Price. New bassist Sid Vicious played on the track "Bodies", but his performing skills were not considered fit enough to record the full album, so the band asked manager Malcolm McLaren to convince previous bassist Glen Matlock to perform the instrument for the sessions. Matlock agreed on the condition that he was paid beforehand. When payment was not received, he declined to show up. As a result, Thomas asked guitarist Steve Jones to play bass so work could begin on the basic tracks. Jones' playing was so satisfactory that Thomas had him play the bass tracks for all the remaining songs recorded during the sessions. Four tracks—-Clinton Heylin suspected they were "God Save the Queen" (Thomas stated he and Price "gave up" trying to use Vicious' bass track), "Pretty Vacant", "EMI" and possibly "Did You No Wrong"—were recorded during the two days at Wessex, with "God Save the Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" receiving vocal tracking from Johnny Rotten and final mixing during the period.
As a result of these sessions, Thomas and Price began work in earnest on what would become Sex Pistols' full-length album. Four days after recording was completed, Sex Pistols signed with A&M, yet on 16 March the label terminated the contract, and several thousand pressed copies of the forthcoming "God Save the Queen" single were destroyed.
Despite being dropped by A&M, McLaren instructed Sex Pistols to continue work on the album. While McLaren pondered whether or not to sign the offer presented by Virgin Records, he signed a French deal for the group with Barclay Records in early May 1977. At the same time, the group resumed work with Thomas and Price. Thomas temporarily departed the session partway through (a timeframe Heylin places as sometime in late April and early May), leaving Price to produce what Thomas estimated as five songs. Heylin narrowed down the potential Bollocks tracks Price may have produced to "Liar", "New York", "No Feelings", "Problems", "Seventeen" and "Submission", in addition to the non-album track "Satellite". Meanwhile, the band had been rejected by several potential labels, including CBS, Decca, Pye and Polydor.
Eventually Virgin's offer was the only one that remained. McLaren still hoped to sign with a major label, and posited issuing a one-off single with Virgin to increase the band's appeal to the larger record companies. Virgin owner Richard Branson refused, so on 18 May Sex Pistols finally signed with Virgin.
Two weeks later, the label rush-released "God Save the Queen" as a single. During promotion of the single, Rotten stated that work on the album was ongoing, and, obscuring Jones's assumption of bass duties, insisted that the bass performances on the in-progress album were split between Matlock "on the Chris Thomas tracks" and Vicious. The band returned to the studio with Thomas and Price on 18 June to record "Holidays in the Sun", the first song they had written without Matlock.
That night after visiting a nearby pub, Rotten, Thomas and Price were attacked by a large group of men, and the incident made newspaper headlines the following Tuesday. That month an eleven-track preview of the album began circulating, first reviewed in the fanzine 48 Thrills. At this point, Rotten maintained that the forthcoming album would include no cover songs, and none of the Sex Pistols's previously released singles but "Anarchy in the U.K.", which was out of print. With "Pretty Vacant's" release as a single, it was due to be replaced on the track list. Sex Pistols returned to Wessex once more that August to record a brand new song, "Bodies". It was on this track Vicious recorded his only bass part for the album.