Sex Pistols 2026 tours mark 50 years of punk

Sex Pistols are back on major stages in 2026 with guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock joined by vocalist Frank Carter. According to a detailed tour announcement from Pollstar, the band will play a North American club run from September 11 to October 18, 2026, under the banner Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter.

How the 2026 tour is structured

The current live campaign combines summer festival and outdoor dates in Europe with an intensive North American club tour in the fall of 2026. A Pollstar report lists a 20-date North American leg starting September 11 at Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas and ending October 18 at Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, with stops in cities such as Austin, Houston, Nashville, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix. The Pollstar tour breakdown emphasizes that tickets for this leg went on general sale on March 6, 2026.

Before heading to North America, the band are scheduled to play a series of European festival and headline dates, including several in Germany. Rock and Roll Garage highlights stops at Save The Core in Nuremberg on July 4, an open-air show at Südbrücke in Cologne on July 5 and a performance at the Musik-Arena of the Tollwood Sommerfestival in Munich on July 6, alongside further dates in Italy, the UK, Finland, Bulgaria and France in June, July and August 2026. The Rock and Roll Garage listing presents these shows as part of a wider 2026 world run.

Fifty years of Anarchy in the U.K.

The 2026 touring cycle is explicitly framed as a celebration of 50 years of punk and of the band’s debut single Anarchy in the U.K., first released in 1976. Euronews reports that the December UK and Ireland leg is marketed as the Anarchy in the U.K. Tour, with dates at Dublin’s 3Arena on December 7, Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange on December 9, Glasgow’s O2 Academy on December 10 and two London shows at O2 Academy Brixton and Eventim Apollo on December 18 and 20 respectively, all under the banner Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter. The Euronews feature notes that these shows mark 50 years since the original single.

UK rock station Planet Rock underlines that this anniversary arc also includes outdoor summer shows at The Piece Hall in Halifax and Castlefield Bowl in Manchester in July, followed by Cardiff Castle and Scarborough Open Air Theatre in early August 2026. Taken together, these UK and Irish dates show how the band are treating the 50-year milestone as both a historical commemoration and a practical touring framework, folding legacy status into a busy contemporary schedule rather than a one-off reunion.

How the band sounds in 2026

Musically, the current live incarnation leans heavily on the original 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, which remains a cornerstone of punk rock. Setlists from recent shows in Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl, reported by British outlet The Razor’s Edge, show a core run through Anarchy in the U.K., God Save the Queen, Pretty Vacant and Holidays in the Sun, with Frank Carter largely respecting the phrasing and sneer of Johnny Rotten while adding his own hardcore-informed intensity.

The touring line-up’s sound is rooted in distorted, mid-tempo guitar riffs, shout-along choruses and tight, no-frills drumming that stays close to the late-1970s arrangements. While the stages and production values have grown compared to the original club days, reports from both European outdoor shows and smaller UK venues emphasize that the band continue to favor a raw, relatively unembellished live mix over extensive backing tracks or visual theatrics, keeping the focus on performance energy and audience participation.

Where Sex Pistols stand now

The next confirmed live date for Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter is July 4, 2026 in Nuremberg at the Save The Core festival, followed by Cologne on July 5, Munich on July 6 and a North American tour leg starting September 11, 2026 at Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas.

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