SEX PISTOLS Featuring FRANK CARTER Announce '50 Years Of Punk' Celebration Shows For Summer 2026

Punk titans SEX PISTOLS featuring Frank Carter have announced headline shows for summer 2026, marking 50 years of punk.

The original members of the PISTOLS — Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock — will be joined by frontman Frank Carter for headline shows at The Piece Hall, Halifax (Saturday, July 11); Castlefield Bowl, Manchester (Sunday, July 12); Cardiff Castle (Saturday, August 1) and Scarborough Open Air Theatre (Sunday, August 2).

The punk movement in the U.K. was born in 1976 and led by the SEX PISTOLS, who kicked down conventions of music and style, shaking up and changing society forever.

The new PISTOLS once more emerged in 2025 as a force of chaos and celebration — and 2026 will see them celebrate 50 years since the band's infamous show at Manchester's The Lesser Free Trade Hall — a gig hailed by NME as "the most important concert of all time", inspiring an audience packed with people who would become the next generation of artists.

From Australia to Japan, through European festivals and a legendary show at the Royal Albert Hall — where Carter conjured a giant circle pit — they have torn venues apart throughout 2025. A return to London's 100 Club before an audience that included Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller and Bobby Gillespie, sealed the revival.

For Steve Jones, the mission is simple: "If it ain't fun, I ain't doing it. I'm too old for bullshit."

Formerly of GALLOWS and FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES, Carter joined the line up in 2024, to help save London's iconic Bush Hall and soon received rave reviews for his energy and new life brought to SEX PISTOLS' music.

In summer 1976, SEX PISTOLS played two gigs at The Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester — shows cited as responsible for the punk rock boom in Northern England, in turn inspiring Manchester's alternative and the U.K.'s indie music scenes.

The shows played to audiences of fewer than 50 people, but among them were future members of JOY DIVISION, NEW ORDER, THE SMITHS, BUZZCOCKS and SIMPLY RED, along with Factory Records' founder Tony Wilson.

This past September, Carter and SEX PISTOLS canceled their previously announced summer/fall 2025 North American tour after Jones broke his wrist.

The 2025 North American run with Carter was scheduled to begin September 16 at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas and conclude on October 16 in Los Angeles.

SEX PISTOLS were expected to perform their iconic 1977 album "Never Mind The Bollocks" in its entirety as well as other material.

When it eventually happens, SEX PISTOLS' upcoming run will be the band's first tour of North America since 2003, when they were joined by their original singer John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten).

When this lineup — featuring the GALLOWS singer — made its debut in 2024, the Standard wrote: "Carter and three of the original SEX PISTOLS members led the thronging, sweaty crowd through a night of unadulterated punk rock mayhem at Bush Hall." Louder described the show as: "Sheer joy. They should tour it everywhere. God save their mad parade."

Lydon has been estranged from the rest of SEX PISTOLS after unsuccessfully attempting to block the use of the band's songs in "Pistol", a Hulu miniseries based on Jones's 2016 memoir "Lonely Boy" that dramatized the SEX PISTOLS story.

SEX PISTOLS featuring Frank Carter U.K. 2026 shows:

Saturday, July 11 - TK Maxx Presents Live at The Piece Hall, Halifax, with THE UNDERTONES and PANIC SHACK

Sunday, July 12 - Castlefield Bowl, Manchester with DR JOHN COOPER CLARKE

Saturday, August 1 - TK Maxx Presents Depot Live at Cardiff Castle with THE STRANGLERS, THE UNDERTONES and PANIC SHACK

Sunday, August 2 - TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre with THE STRANGLERS, THE UNDERTONES