The story of the Sex Pistols' final tour - and ultimate undoing - will be told in new releases coming from UMC in March.

Live in the U.S.A. 1978 will mark the first complete and official releases of three of the punk quartet's seven American concerts in January 1978. Presented for the first time in sequence are the tour's opener at the South East Music Hall in Atlanta, Georgia on January 5, a particularly raucous performance at Dallas, Texas' Longhorns Ballroom five days later, and the premature conclusion of both the tour and the band at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on January 14, which ended with an essential onstage resignation by frontman John Lydon. The 3CD set features each album individually packaged in its own cardboard wallet, with a booklet of rare photographs. Each album will also have staggered standalone releases on vinyl (pressed on red, white and blue vinyl, respectively) as well as digitally, available February 28, March 8 and April 25 - the latter day also being the street date for the CD box.

While the group's 1977 was full of watershed moments in their native England - where punk rock captured the mainstream for the first time and represented a new wave of youthful rebellion in the face of restless unease within the monarchy - the Sex Pistols entered 1978 at a near breaking point. Lydon (then known as Johnny Rotten), guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook had difficulties with the band's unpredictable, drug-addled and barely musical bassist Sid Vicious, as well as chafing under the management of impresario Malcolm McLaren. The success of chart-topping album Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols at home was significantly more muted in America, where it reached No. 108 on the Billboard charts despite widespread acclaim in the music press. The band were at a particularly low ebb when arriving in America: Jones' criminal record in England made securing a work visa difficult, venues in the Northeast could not confidently host the group, Vicious was almost immediately arrested for attempting to buy heroin in Memphis, and Lydon was suffering from a particularly virulent flu that found him frequently coughing up blood. Jones and Cook were feuding with Lydon, and everyone was feuding with Vicious.

While the Atlanta set was one of the comparatively saner shows of the trek - the group amended some of the lyrics to "Anarchy in the UK" to reflect the country in which they were visiting - the Dallas performance was punctuated by Vicious spitting blood at a member of the audience, who proceeded to rush the stage and punch him in the face. (He went to the hospital that night after attacking his own label-provided security detail, and would insult the audience at nearly every show, resulting in reciprocal abuse.) The Winterland set found the band at their breaking point, adding the tasteless outtake "Belsen Was a Gas" to their set and concluding with a cover of The Stooges' "No Fun." As the number concluded, Lydon knelt on the stage and sneered, first to himself then to the crowd: "This is no fun...at all. No fun...Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Within four days, Lydon announced his departure from the group, and the Sex Pistols would implode. McLaren would assemble haphazard recordings with the remaining members before Vicious went to jail in New York City after his manager and girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found dead in a room they shared at the Chelsea Hotel. He was released on bail on February 1, 1979 after being jailed for an unrelated assault, and died of an overdose less than 24 hours later.

The provenance of these recordings is not entirely known and was not divulged at press time; product descriptions offer "vital, primal and compelling" as ways to describe the sound. (Selections from the Winterland show were briefly heard on the posthumous Pistols collection The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle and even appeared on one of Warner's Loss Leaders compilations in the States.) Fans will start to find out closer to the release dates over the next few months, and the curious can pre-order from the links below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Live in the U.S.A. 1978 (Virgin/UMC, 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

All tracks previously officially unreleased except where noted

Disc 1: Live at South East Music Hall, Atlanta, GA - 1/5/1978 (Red LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. God Save the Queen
2. I Wanna Be Me
3. Seventeen
4. New York
5. Bodies
6. Submission
7. Holidays in the Sun
8. EMI
9. No Feelings
10. Problems
11. Pretty Vacant
12. Anarchy in the USA

Disc 2: Live at Longhorns Ballroom, Dallas, TX - 1/10/1978 (White LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Intro/Radio Ad
2. God Save the Queen
3. I Wanna Be Me
4. Seventeen
5. New York
6. EMI
7. Bodies
8. Belsen Was a Gas
9. Holidays in the Sun
10. No Feelings
11. Problems
12. Pretty Vacant
13. Anarchy in the UK
14. No Fun

Track 8 released on Sex Pistols box set - Virgin SEXBOX1, 2002

Disc 3: Live at The Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA - 1/14/1978 (Blue LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. God Save The Queen
2. I Wanna Be Me
3. Seventeen
4. New York
5. EMI
6. Belsen Was a Gas
7. Bodies
8. Holidays in the Sun
9. Liar
10. No Feelings
11. Problems
12. Pretty Vacant
13. Anarchy in the UK
14. No Fun

Track 6 released on The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle - Virgin VD 2510, 1979. Tracks 13-14 released on Troublemakers - Warner Bros. Loss Leader PRO-A-857 (U.S.), 1980. All tracks released as Live At Winterland 1978 - Castle Music CMRCD198, 2001