Sex Pistols' Scandinavian tour of 1977, with the band at the height of their notoriety, saw the curious and the concerned gather to gawp and gaze. On the night of July 20, the tiny Pingvin Club in Oslo saw its official capacity of 200 overcrowded, the audience a mixture of the bohemian and the bemused, including bearded hippies with the legend Sex Pistols inelegantly scrawled on the their jumpers.

Trygve Mathiesen's tale is a forensic examination of forces surrounding the band at a specific time and place when the possibilities were still endless, even though their eventual collapse was only months away. Using original shorthand notes from the group's press call, Jonny Rotten is at his most articulate and forthright, with Sid Vicious playing the punk rock delinquent of popular myth to a tee. Just as illuminating, however, are the first hand testimonies of those who witnessed their show at the Pingvin, and the ripple effect that ensued. As Asle Kristiansen observes, one of dozens of eyewitnesses interviewed, «it was probably the first time in 15 years that rock was 'dirty' again».