Palazzo Editions scoops history of the Sex Pistols from Simpson

Palazzo Editions has scooped Sex Pistols: I Wanna Be Me, a "vibrant" history of the punk band from Dave Simpson. 

Publishing director Rob Nichols acquired world all language rights and audio rights directly from the author. It will be published on 1st September 2022. 

Simpson writes for the Guardian and Uncut and has written The Fallen: Life In And Out of Britain’s Most Insane Group (Canongate) which was selected as a Sunday Times and Observer music book of the year. 

The publisher wrote: "The Sex Pistols were no ordinary group. Their story might be short, and not without its casualties, but their legacy is undoubted; one listen to their ferocious, raw rock and roll will soon tell you that. No British band since the Beatles has done as much to shape the nation. Musically, the Pistols’ impact was enormous and continues to resonate; they didn’t just kick down doors; they trashed the music industry’s house. For a band who (really) only released one album and four incandescent singles – ’Anarchy in the UK’, ’God Save the Queen’, ’Pretty Vacant’ and ’Holidays in the Sun’ – they gave birth to a sea of imitators and inspired a DIY aesthetic still alive today."

"With the release of Danny Boyle’s series ’Pistols’, we felt it was time for a new and vibrant history of the Sex Pistols," said Nichols. "Dave Simpson’s book on the Fall, The Fallen, is one of my favourite rock biographies, making Dave the obvious choice to tell the Pistols’ chaotic, fast-lived and extraordinary story. With brilliant design from Amazing15, we’ve created what we hope will be a must-have book for fans, old and new.”

Simpson added: "As a kid who’d lost my father at an early age and who was being raised by a single mother, the Sex Pistols captured my developing frustrations at how society was run like no band had previously. It was obviously the case for many more thousands of us, especially working-class youth. Spending months writing the book, I wanted not just to delve further if possible into the Pistols’ well-documented history, but to examine the forces that made them and their impact up and down the country. I delved into my own archive of interviews stretching back 20 years, but also spoke to people in the regions, for whom the Pistols were a transformative, even life-changing force."