2. The Pistols had played their first gig a year before, but their roots stretched back to 1972 when Steve Jones and Paul Cook formed a band called The Strand, playing with instruments stolen by Jones. Jones spent his weekends at Sex, the King's Road boutique run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, and asked McLaren to find his band a rehearsal space.

3. McLaren took control of the band, recruiting a green haired teenager called John Lydon as the new singer, and lifted their new name from a slogan on one of his own Sex T-shirts. Lydon changed his name to Johnny Rotten after Jones teased him about his slipshod oral hygiene, and then McLaren recruited John Simon Ritchie to replace original bassist Glen Matlock, renaming him Sid Vicious. Sid claimed this was because of his violent personality. Lydon claims he was named after a pet hamster.

4. The Pistols released their second single, God Save the Queen, in 1977, Jubilee year, with a classic sleeve by artist Jamie Reid depicting the Queen with a safety-pinned lip. Vegetarian DJ Tony Blackburn denounced the song as "disgraceful", claiming that the Sex Pistols made him "ashamed of the pop world". But not even Blackburn's mighty pop mojo was able to stop the punk juggernaut.

5. God Save the Queen looked set to claim the number one spot on Jubilee weekend, but the music industry orchestrated a shoddy fix to allow Rod Stewart to remain at the top, and spare Her Majesty's blushes by blacking out the Pistols song on official chart lists. The band's knack for attracting violence made it increasingly difficult for them to play live, and their Jubilee boat trip down the Thames ended with McLaren and Westwood up before the judge at Bow Street magistrates court.

6. In October of the same year, the Pistols released their debut album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols which went straight to number one, despite being banned by many shops.

7. Johnny Rotten left the band at the end of a disastrous American tour with the immortal line "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?". Lydon formed PiL, Sid recorded a version of My Way, while McLaren took Cook and Jones to Brazil to record with Ronnie Briggs for the film The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle. The movie had been started by veteran schlock director Russ Meyer, with a script by film critic Robert Ebert, but was eventually completed by Julien Temple, who later directed Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury.

8. Sid descended further into heroin and incoherence, and was eventually charged with murder after his girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found stabbed to death in their room at New York's famous Chelsea Hotel. Sid was released on bail and was later found dead from a heroin overdose, following which he became a poster boy for teenage nihilists everywhere.

9. The remaining Sex Pistols reformed for the Filthy Lucre tour in 1996. When asked if the band still hated each other, Lydon replied "Yes, with a vengeance, but we share a common cause, and it's your money."

10. At the 2001 Q Awards, John Lydon was given an "Inspiration Award". He used the opportunity to rail against the intellectualisation of punk, and heckled his way through the ceremony. Punk isn't dead, it's just getting a bit older.