CIVIC To Support The Sex Pistols And Frank Carter On Australian Tour

With just over a month to go until the Sex Pistols hit up Australia with Frank Carter on vocal duties, the explosive CIVIC have been added as local supports.

The Naarm/Melbourne quartet have been doing the rounds for close to a decade now, with their blend of punk, grunge, and rock coming together to assert them as one of the most ferocious and vital bands on the Australian scene today.

Having issued a few records in recent years (with 2023’s Taken By Force being their most recent), fans have been eagerly awaiting new movements from CIVIC. In September 2023, the band released their Hourglass single, and the new announcement they’ll be supporting the mighty Sex Pistols undoubtedly sits high on their list of achievements.

The upcoming tour for the Sex Pistols is the first time since their 1996 debut appearance that the band have performed in Australia. However, the forthcoming tour won’t see them joined by iconic vocalist Johnny Rotten (aka John Lydon), with Frank Carter instead being found up front.

In January, the iconic British punk band announced they’d be touring Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Fittingly dubbed Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter, they first played shows together last August for charity.

For that event, they performed the iconic LP Never Mind The Bollocks in its entirety, which they’ll also perform on their upcoming tour. The band’s current line-up comprises Carter – of The Rattlesnakes and Gallows fame – along with original Sex Pistols members Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, and Paul Cook.

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Lydon, however, has not been a fan of the band’s current lineup, telling British publication The i Paper that it “pissed [him] off” and resembled “karaoke.”

“When I first heard that the Sex Pistols were touring this year without me, it pissed me off,” he began. “It annoyed me. I just thought, ‘They’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all.’ I didn’t write those words lightly.”

He continued, “They’re trying to trivialise the whole show to get away with karaoke, but in the long term, I think you’ll see who has the value and who doesn’t. I’ve never sold my soul to make a dollar. It’s the Catholic in me – that guilt I don’t want to trip.”

Tickets to the Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter’s Australian shows are on sale now.