HeHere We Go!
Sex Pistols collection time!
This time it’s…
Never Mind The Box Set Here’s The Sex Pistols. Belsen Demo.!
An unofficial 7″ EP of “Belsen Was A Gas”, riding on the coat-tails of the NMTB 35th Anniversary box set.
▼ Related article
🧷 Basic specs
- Title: Never Mind The Box Set Here’s The Sex Pistols. Belsen Demo.
- Artist: Sex Pistols
- Format: 7″ single (45RPM)
- Release date: October 2012
- Label/Catalogue number: Not On Label / SSEX
- Sleeve type: picture sleeve
🧷 Tracklist
A1：Belsen Was A Gas (Demo Sex Pistols 1977)
A2：Belsen Was A Gas (Live Sid Vicious 1978)
B1：Belsen Was A Gas (Live Sex Pistols 1977 Wales)
B2：Belsen Was A Gas (Live P.I.L. 1979 Manchester)
🧷 Pressing/variant details
✔️ Matrix numbers
- Side A: SSEX-A1
- Side B: SSEX-B1
✔️ Sleeve
The front is styled after the NMTB sleeve.
The back is a band photo shot in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
Rather than a paper wrap-around, it’s a bi-fold picture sleeve. The card stock is reasonably sturdy.
✔️ Labels
Side A features a mystery mohawked punk.
Side B shows the same punk’s back.
✔️ Inner sleeve
The original was a thin, plain paper inner sleeve that looked likely to mark the vinyl, so I’ve swapped it for a plastic one.
🧷 Collector’s notes
✔️ Four versions of Belsen
① Demo Sex Pistols 1977
3This was the centrepiece of the 35th Anniversary box — the same studio demo, unaltered.
② Live Sid Vicious 1978
This is the “Belsen” from Sid Sings.
③ Live Sex Pistols 1977 Wales
The label says “Live Sex Pistols 1977 Wales”, but this is actually a recording from the Stowaway Club, Newport, Shropshire, 23 December 1977 (Never Mind The Bans tour). It’s the same recording as the one on Where Were You In ’77?
There’s more than one Newport in Britain, and the one in Wales is by far the best known, so my guess is the bootlegger simply mixed up Newport, Shropshire with Newport, Wales when labelling it.
④ Live P.I.L. 1979 Manchester
Belsen also got the occasional airing during PiL’s (Public Image Ltd.) early gigs, after the Pistols split.
The Creation For Liberation benefit gig at Belle Vue King’s Hall, Manchester, on 23 February 1979, is said to have been PiL’s last performance of the song.※
What’s included on this EP is actually the take where they fluff it and stop partway through, rather than the full performance — which is a bit of a shame, really.
※With thanks toVintagerock’s Weblog. for the reference. 🙏
✔️ How did this one come about?
This bootleg seems to have followed fairly quickly after the “Belsen Was A Gas” demo first surfaced on the 35th Anniversary box set in 2012.
At the time, “Belsen (Demo 2)” still hadn’t been released, so it reads like a case of “let’s just pull together whatever Belsen recordings are already out there.”
Box set or no box set, this is a proper collector’s item in its own right.
✔️ Pressing numbers
The four colours released alongside each other — pale blue, red, claret (burgundy), and white — were each limited to 250 copies. There was also a white label test press, apparently limited to 10 copies.
For the black vinyl I’ve got, the pressing number isn’t clear. Given how easily I picked it up, though, my guess is there were more of these than the coloured pressings. That said, it doesn’t seem to command much of a premium either, so it’s probably not wildly common.
🧷 Next time
Next up is the compilation “Anarchy in The U.S.A.”
see you then!
byebye👋
For collectors interested in Japanese editions
If you are drawn to the design and information found on Japanese releases, particularly obi strips, you may want to take a look at my Never Mind The Bollocks Japanese CD OBI Gallery.
This page organises each obi strip variation issued for the album individually, presenting the obi itself as the main focus in a collector-oriented reference format.
It is intended as an entry point for those interested in Japanese obi strips.
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