Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

12 Days on the Road: The Sex Pistols and America

Rate this book
In the mid-seventies, the Sex Pistols, the most controversial rock-and-roll band ever, erupted out of London, offending everyone from members of Parliament to the rock establishment it sought to unseat. With its raw, anarchic sounds, aura of sex and violence, outrageous behavior, and concerts that frequently degenerated into near-riots, the band changed the rules of rock-and-roll forever. Add to that the early death of band member Sid Vicious, by heroin overdose, and you have all the ingredients for a legend. In January 1978, the Sex Pistols came to the United States for a twelve-day tour, mostly of cities in the Deep South. 12 Days on the Road is an extraordinary moment-by-moment re-creation of that wild adventure by Noel E. Monk, the Sex Pistols' American tour manager, and veteran journalist Jimmy Guterman. Here is a sensational, "explosive chapter in the history of rock" ( Booklist ) that is also "a touching and improbable tale of innocence and exploitation" ( Kirkus Reviews ).

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 25, 1992

7 people are currently reading
579 people want to read

About the author

Noel E. Monk

5 books14 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
175 (29%)
4 stars
225 (37%)
3 stars
166 (27%)
2 stars
29 (4%)
1 star
8 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
Profile Image for Evan.
1,093 reviews923 followers
August 29, 2009
This is the account of the Sex Pistols' notorious tour of the American South in 1978; sort of the nadir, or the Altamont, if you will, of the punk era. I've always wanted to read about this, and here's the book. I saw it a few days ago at the store for $2 and couldn't resist diving in. Gotta love those guys. Yes, I happen to believe that "Never Mind the Bollocks..." is one of the greatest records ever made.

I have some issues with this book. Noel Monk, the SP's American road manager, writes about himself in the third person, which is disconcerting, but he does have a co-author, so this must be a compromise. Monk might be trying to come off as tough and funny by constantly settling old scores in print with writer-publisher-promoter and would-be anarchist, Tom Forcade, but in the process he just comes off as a bit of an asshole, and sometimes derails the narrative. (It's doubly troubling when you learn what ended up happening to Forcade). At times he seems like he's trying to do gonzo journalism, a la HST.

Otherwise, this is a detailed, on-the-ground, easy to read and flavorful account of this legendary tour. It's chronological, day by day and more or less hour by hour. Monk and Gutterman do a great job of capturing the personalities. The Pistols are seen in both their goodness and badness; the authors' views of the band are sympathetic, but balanced. There is genuine empathy for the plight of Sid Vicious, attempting and failing in his painful attempts at drug withdrawal. Among the comedies of errors are situations arising from the crew's constant vigilance to make sure he doesn't run off looking for drugs. Time, place, setting and dialogue are all well presented. Sometimes, the attempts at humor come off as overly precious, but overall it's hard to fault the book. It is good documentary material, yet the authors definitely have strong opinions about what constitutes good and relevant pop-rock music. I think just about anyone who cares about rock music and the crazy world of the record business (there's tons of insider in-fighting among the producers, promoters, artists, roadies, distributors and others in this book) will really enjoy reading this.

The final pages are a "where are they now" roundup (or where were they as of 1990 when the book was published). The fates of the people, and the places. The Memphis concert venue, for instance, "is now a Taco Bell." etc.

The KSAN San Francisco radio interviews discussed in the book can be found online in streaming audio at the WFMU Beware of the Blog website. They're pretty fucking hilarious. A nice supplement to this book.

Pages 141-142; The SP's are playing Baton Rouge in the down end of the tour, they're tired and relatively inanimate, and yet they're still something quite new and revelatory for those who've never seen them. A local record owner named Rink who hates punk and reveres art rock like ELP plans to take rotten tomatoes to the show attacking the SP's and their music. But when he hears the music, he stops cold. That leads into this lovely passage:

"That's why Jim Rink experiences a revelation as he cradles his tomatoes. As the sound rushes by him, he realizes that the music he hawks at Record Rink doesn't touch people because it isn't fun. This is fun, playing loud and fast and dirty. And if you listen to the words, you can hear that the Sex Pistols can make a statement and be fun. Rink throws his tomato at the stage (it smashes inside Cook's bass drum), but he does so to become part of the show, not to attack it. Tonight this 30-year-old premature curmudgeon sees and hears that the music of those a decade younger is still viable. Rink, a man who has memorized more blues scales than he'd like to admit, doesn't care that Steve Jones isn't the best guitar player he's ever seen. The following morning, Rink plans to throw away his Emerson, Lake and Palmer records and redesign his store. His whole record collection will change. He'll start listening to music that's fun. He'll start having fun."
Profile Image for Brie.
1,647 reviews
June 9, 2021
It is always fun to read a person's story. Not sure how truthful this book is but it is a fun read. And I am sure what was left out was either very mundane or too crazy so had to remain out of the book.
Profile Image for Patricia.
206 reviews4 followers
March 19, 2021
This was a pretty good account of the Sex Pistols' tour of America and contained a lot of info I didn't know about a band that was hugely influential despite only lasting for a very short period of time. The only slightly annoying thing about the book is that Noel Monk chose to write the book in third person, and I'm not quite sure why - maybe so he could write about himself being cool and tough without the appearance of bragging? It was weird. I read his Van Halen book and I'm not sure there was any benefit to changing the perspective.
Profile Image for James.
147 reviews1 follower
May 18, 2017
I know about the Sex Pistols and can even spout a few words of their songs. But not much beyond that. I am aware that they were short-lived, that their influence is a polarising issue, that Sid Vicious was a character that met a tragic end, and you can't believe everything you see in The Great Rock 'n Roll Swindle.

But even if I didn't, I'd have read this.

12 Days on the Road is an engrossing blow-by-blow journey of the Pistols as they toured the United States in 1978. The tour would end in their implosion, followed not long afterwards by Vicious' death. What went down on the tour is not dealt with in great detail, neither in Swindle nor even The Filth and the Fury, a documentary film that looks at their rise from the view of the surviving band members.

This fills that gap. Co-written by Noel Monk, the road manager of that tour, he was a freelance manager, hired to handle the band mainly because he was happy to take the job. A seasoned pro, Monk knows his way around the landscape of prima-donna rockers and the world they attract. He would later road manage Van Halen on their first tour and then become their manager. So this guy is no chump.

But the Pistols would be a very different kind of experience for him. Monk had no investment in the mythology of the Pistols or even punk. He took a job and was good at it. But he also got to know the band and was able to give a surprisingly personal side to them.

This is not intentional, though I'm certain Monk wanted to elevate Sid Vicious' reputation. The bass player and mascot of the Pistols is shown to be a tragic figure, an angry but perplexed kid who though he'd found his niche to deal with the world. Monk spent a lot of time with Vicious, much of whose shenanigans on the tour had to do with heroin withdrawal. It's fair to say Monk saw something in Vicious and wanted to show that dimension.

But he also plays it straight. This is not a book about just Sid. Johnny Rotten gets top billing as well, though he is cast as very antisocial and perhaps a bit too brainy and forward thinking for the outfit. The other two members on the tour, Paul Cook and Steven Jones, are disappointingly background characters.

But this may be because they caused less trouble for Monk than Vicious and Rotten did, so he spent less time around them.

It is also about a tour, a stomp through a bizarre series of venues heading through the South of the US before crashing into San Francisco. The four main characters are Vicious, Rotten, the Tour and Monk himself, peppered with the road manager's own recollections of crazy groupies, the Pistol's seemingly sleazy manager McLaren, and a strangely zealous magazine publisher.

Monk co-wrote this. Yet it's better to not look at his as the author, but another player in a notorious flash in history. Light on its feet, the story moves perhaps a little too fast at times. But it's surprising and interesting, and a little sad too. Well worth picking up.
46 reviews
December 15, 2017
The sad thing about the Sex Pistols at the point of their one and only U.S. tour was that the band was already falling apart; Sid was a mess; just a junkie who added image but couldn't really play bass and would often be awol looking for a fix. Steve and Paul got along and provided the music but they didn't really get along with John who was the poet of the band. Their manager, Malcolm McClaren himself was a posuer and didn't dirty his fingers with the day to day issues that are cataloged well here by Noel Monk. Monk, who wrote the book but oddly refers to himself in the third person, does a good job detailing what a pain it was getting the band to the next show on this short and bittersweet road trip. There are parts of the book whose importance is dated, such as the account of the dude from High Times magazine who was traveling to each show trying to shoot a documentary about the tour. He was a royal pain for Monk but ultimately, who cares? What is special about the book is that, even with all the myriad of problems encountered by a rock band who most of America thought only had a talent for vomiting on stage, music and passion still shown through. Monk himself became a fan and he writes about many others who came to their shows ready to throw tomatoes at the band and instead came away with life-changing inspiration. Many folks who saw the Sex Pistols on this tour formed punk or new wave bands themselves. It's sad that the band couldn't keep it together beyond this tour but the force of their music and poetry continues to reverberate throughout the world.
Profile Image for Steve.
37 reviews
February 21, 2016
Noel Monk was a no-nonsense Vietnam vet given the arduous task of policing the Sex Pistols through their chaotic tour of America's deep south in 1978. This is a fascinating period of the band for me so this book was a joy. Although the tour only lasted 12 days there's plenty here to keep the reader interested. It's quite a grim adventure and some of the tales of the band's and particularly Sid's excesses can be jarring, especially one harrowing story of a groupie's rather unfortunate liaison with a diarrhea suffering Vicious. I'll leave that one for your imagination.
A classic tale of debauchery, heroin, cowboys, punks, culture shocks and the collapse of the most important band of the '70s. A classic!
Profile Image for Geoff.
12 reviews1 follower
August 20, 2008
Best read as a supplement to books like "England's Dreaming" (just so you can truly but the Pistols in context as the Monkees of the punk world-- fun songs by a prefabricated band) the book is alternately hilarious and depressing. The book covers the final days of the Sex Pistols as they take their ill-fated tour of the States. Sid Vicious is a hopeless junkie, Johnny Rotten is totally in love with himself and Paul and Steve want out. A very good document written by a man on the tour.

Ever get the feelin' you've been cheated?
Profile Image for Brian.
71 reviews
May 7, 2013
One of the properties out there I would love to turn into a movie one day (god willing). Great book and it was hard to put down. A lot of good intimate details about the sex pistols on the road for the first time in the U.S. traveling around Texas and beyond. Fascinating!
Profile Image for Padraic.
291 reviews41 followers
February 27, 2009
Oh. My. God. I've seen a very poor quality video from this tour - taken from the back of the San Antonio venue. Johnny leans into his mike as C&W types literally spit at him, and purrs, "F*ckin' cowboy faggots..." Reality TV was years away, but upon arrival never bested this scene.
Profile Image for Jon  Bradley.
374 reviews5 followers
March 23, 2026
I read this as a scanned paperback copy on the Internet Archive. I had an interest in reading about the Sex Pistols first American concert tour in 1978 since I recently purchased a ticket to see the Sex Pistols in concert in Kansas City this coming September. Actually the version of the Sex Pistols I will see will be Jones, Cook, and Matlock with a guest vocalist since John Lydon won't be appearing. Well, three out of four of the original lineup ain't bad, or at least that's what I'm telling myself. I was also interested in reading about that long-ago tour since during the tour the Pistols performed in two US cities that I have history with: Tulsa, Oklahoma where I was born and where I was attending high school when the Pistols arrived in 1978, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana where I lived from 1987 to 2022. Per the book, the 1978 tour was ill-conceived and completely chaotic. The shows were raucous, confrontational, and violent, staged in small clubs in the Southeast USA (Atlanta, Memphis, San Antonio, Baton Rouge, Dallas, etc) where the Pistols were greeted with curiosity at best and contempt at worst. Sid Vicious, deep in the throes of heroin addiction, was forced to go cold turkey by the tour managers and addressed his withdrawal symptoms with violent outbursts and endless bottles of vodka. The band was riven with internal tensions between the various members and their manager, Malcolm McLaren, who seemed clueless as depicted in the book. The tour lasted a short 14 days, so it's a short book with a chapter devoted to each of those days. It's not a particularly well written book but I found it fascinating nonetheless. Four out of five stars.
Profile Image for Greta is Erikasbuddy.
856 reviews27 followers
January 22, 2018
I've been in a Sex Pistols kick lately.
I really enjoyed this book.
Have you seen "Sid and Nancy"? Remember the part where the band comes to America? This book documents that time.
But what about Sid in the hospital when he crashes through a glass door and the band breaks up in the hospital?
That doesn't happen.
What happens is Johnny refuses to go with the band to South America to play back-up for a train robber. The band just falls apart. Nobody really cares about it anymore.
And now I wonder how viscous Sid was. I say that because if you hear Rotten talk he can't fight. But if you read this book all Sid wants to do is fight.
Profile Image for John Lyman.
587 reviews6 followers
October 10, 2020
Informative yet tedious at times. Some sections contained conversations between individuals with no direct witnesses or observation by the authors, pretty hard to believe they knew what was actually said. Strange how Monk is referred to in third person. His book about Van Halen was much better than this one. It was cool to get some inside story and details of that fateful tour. The band’s dissolution was far less dramatic than I expected. I assume Monk kept detailed journals or many of the interpersonal exchanges would have to be informed recreations, not quotes.
Profile Image for Timothy Minneci.
Author 7 books8 followers
March 19, 2019
Getting a day-by-day, hour-by-hour account of the Sex Pistols infamous tour of the U.S. is the proverbial accident you cannot take your eyes off of. Pairing well with "England's Dreaming" by Jon Savage, this is a must read for any fan of the Pistols, 70s punk or the behind the scenes world of touring bands. Would love to see this turned into a mini-series on Netflix or HBO where all the debauchery could be properly explored.
Profile Image for Erik.
259 reviews26 followers
June 26, 2019
A good, bird's eye view of the legendary Pistols' tour throughout Texas. I read this as a teenager when I was in full-on punk rock mode. Naturally, I loved it. Everyone back then romanticized Sid Vicious, and I remember particularly loving all the details on Sid and his unpredictable behavior, (and his truly disgusting hygiene.)
Profile Image for Angela.
600 reviews10 followers
February 4, 2017
I really enjoyed reading about the last days of the Pistols and their doomed American tour. It makes you realize how they were just a bunch of mixed up kids and not the idols they are made out to be.
42 reviews
February 17, 2024
Enjoyed in that finished the book and wanted more. At times a little repetitious (Sid is gone, Johnny is a jerk, the video cameras need to be thrown out of the venue), but maybe that is the point. A little more context to the band’s burnout.
Profile Image for John G.
9 reviews
July 10, 2024
Wow. There’s no way to prepare yourself before you read this. You’ll just say WTF multiple times as you go from page to page. 😜 I loved this book! The Pistols are one of my all time favorite bands. Grateful someone documented all this madness.
31 reviews
December 20, 2025
Any memoir involving a de-lousing of a rock star is a worthwhile read. Do not need to like their music, like them as individuals, like their manager, etc etc - this is an insider’s view on what makes a memorable band. ‘Nuff said
Profile Image for Rich.
838 reviews2 followers
January 4, 2018
Probably more like a 3.5 - started slow but was a fun, if basic, book.
Profile Image for Tammy  Lynn Doyle .
198 reviews7 followers
July 28, 2018
Fun, interesting and a little sad. Brings the 1970s punk phenom into a crazy light, showing the vast difference between music in the U.K. and the USA!!
Profile Image for Ana Cranberry.
1 review1 follower
March 9, 2019
Illuminating if somewhat biased, view of the Sex Pistols, and their antics through America.
Profile Image for  Jo ✨☾.
559 reviews2 followers
May 6, 2023
This book talks about quite an adventure the Sex Pistols had in America !
Profile Image for catechism.
1,413 reviews27 followers
February 6, 2015
In January of 1978, the Sex Pistols went on a 12-day tour of the States. The last show was at the Winterland, in San Francisco; the band broke up that night. The story goes that they all hated each other by then and that the show was absolutely terrible, but everyone who went to it was changed forever because even on a bad night, the Pistols were not like anyone else.

This book chronicles that tour. It was written by the tour manager. In the third-person present tense omniscient. So that was awkward. Interesting, I suppose, but the third person was totally ridiculous and there were a lot of places where he was very obviously repeating gossip and lore that he'd gotten from someplace else rather than just recounting what the hell happened on the tour.

As for what did happen: Well, Sid was kicking heroin against his will and kept trying to get away; the tour was being stalked by someone trying to make a movie and I think there may have been ninjas (yeah, I don't know, either); the band was falling apart and they couldn't write new songs -- the songwriter in the Pistols had been the pre-Sid bassist -- and their manager was totally useless. Everyone drank a lot and popped pills and spent 80 percent of their energy trying to get Sid Vicious to take a shower. Good times!
Profile Image for Jess.
34 reviews3 followers
January 20, 2012
Talking as much about the revolution that was the early punk movement as the quirks of the band, Noel Monk (author and American road manager) records the chaotic first and last US tour of the Sex Pistols in almost diary format. Depicting Johnny, Sid and...those other guys...as part young boys and part barely caged monkey (when you wipe your own poo on the wall and break furniture wherever you go, monkey-like is an accurate title) you begin to know the intimate details of the band that you can't see from listening to an album.

Dropped into the machine that was and is the music industry and intent on smashing the anarchist bent of the Sex Pistols' lyrics into the rigorous standards of southern America in the 70's you watch all hell break loose. Much like Monk, the reader can only sit back and watch it all happen, horrified yet not looking away.
Profile Image for Todd Jenkins.
52 reviews6 followers
March 26, 2008
The tour diary from hell. By the time the Sex Pistols crashed and burned at Winterland, they were guaranteed a berth in the annals of infamy. This memoir recants the author's trip across the U.S. with the band on their disastrous tour. It provides an unpleasantly vivid window into the attitudes and personalities of the band members, from Johnny Rotten's insecurity-covering snarl to Sid Vicious' drug-addled cluelessness and lack of musical talent. It's not a pretty read, but this is about as close as one can come to actually being there when the whole bloody thing imploded.
Profile Image for Ola.
112 reviews3 followers
January 22, 2008
12 Days on the Road chronicles the 1978 US tour of the Sex Pistols, told from the view of the band's road manager.

For the majority of the time Johnny Rotten was sulky and apathetic; Sid Vicious was going through heroin withdrawal---in the background Steve Jones and Paul Cook hated them both. It all makes a very fascinating story to tell.
21 reviews12 followers
February 11, 2010
Writing is above average for this kind of book. Very thorough and amusing account of the Pistols' U.S. tour. Lots of colorful detail that pushes the narrative and tour forward. It paints a really pathetic portrait of Sid Vicious and documents how Johnny Rotten was essentially squeezed out of the band due to Malcom McClaren's management (or lack thereof). I'd say this is essential reading if you are a true Pistols fan.
Profile Image for Andre' Delbos.
57 reviews
April 14, 2020
An easy to read page turner laying out the ill fated original Sex Pistols 1978 US tour, sourced primarily from the account of tour manager Noel Monk. Save an unfortunate evening in a Tulsa hotel room between Sid Vicious and female fan there is little to shock or outrage. Still, 30 years after publication it evokes a lost era of early British punk and the reverberating effect it would have in the US.
Profile Image for Steve.
265 reviews9 followers
April 8, 2011
British Punk meets the American South. A generally unremarkable account of the Sex Pistols' late Seventies tour of the southern states. Co-authored by the group's manager, the book focuses more on the problems the manager faced than providing any real insight into the band or punk movement it launched.
Profile Image for David Wert.
28 reviews1 follower
March 24, 2008
I love the Sex Pistols - so I really enjoyed this behind the scenes look at their disasterous US tour that ended with the break-up of the band in San Francisco. If you enjoy punk rock this is a great look at one of the pioneers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews