The Great Southeast Music Hall gained international notoriety when Alex Cooley booked the first U.S. appearance of the Sex Pistols, Jan. 5, 1978. The Hall was packed minutes after the doors open at 7:00 p.m. Among the attendees that night are 5 television crews, approximately 50 members of the press, several police officers and vice squads from both Atlanta and Memphis(where they would perform the next night)... after a local band called Cruisomatic opens the Pistols take the stage at about 10:15 p.m.; Rotten asks, "Where's My Beer?"... "You can all stop staring at us now," Rotten says after opening with "God Save the Queen," "We're ugly and we know it... See what kind of fine upstanding youth England is chucking out these days?"...About 60% of the audience is standing and doing an Americanized version of the Pogo throughout, 20% of the audience is nasty, yelling yelling and throwing things at the band, and 20% of the crowd clearly does not know what on earth is going on... And that's Punk Rock!! Nine days later, Rotten would play his last show with the Pistols.
Ten months later, Sid Vicious would be arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. After Sid spent some time in Riker's Island Prison, McLaren convinced Virgin Records to put up the $50,000 to bail Sid out. At a party celebrating his release on Feb. 2, 1979, Sid Vicious died from an overdose of heroin.
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