After seeing the Pistols live in 1996, Alan McGee head of Creation records, the man who famously 'discovered' Oasis, paid for a full page advert in the week's UK music press, out of his own pocket, to set the record straight.

CRE1976 - A CREATION RECORDS STATEMENT

SEX PISTOLS - SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE

I never saw the Sex Pistols in 1977. They never came to Scotland. I saw everybody else. Everybody. The Clash three times in '77. Buzzcocks, Ramones. Everybody. I got a ticket on Wednesday night in a way out of embarrassment that I never stayed around to watch them at Finsbury Park which I had heard they were like cabaret'. I went half expecting it to be part comedy part irrelevancy. What I saw destroyed my preconceptions. Granted they are no longer a social phenomenon, that they had to wait almost 20 years to play their music and be judged on that shows you how much of a social phenomenon they actually were. The Sex Pistols at Shepherd's Bush Empire were simply stunning. Literally the best rock'n'roll band around. If you accept Oasis and to my mind 3 Colours Red are the most exciting rock'n'roll bands in the country, then accept this that both Noel Gallagher and Chris McCormack told me separately that "they are better than us". I stood with Noel as he sang every song. Steve Jones is the man The Throb has always wanted to be. It is lazy to say they are cabaret. They blew everybody away. I came along cynical and it was one of the best gigs I have ever seen. John Lydon utterly majestic after being so long unfocussed. Steve Jones the rock'n'roll guitar player. Glen Matlock the songwriter. They were only ever shit live in '77 because he had left. The band was amazing looking and sounding. Paul Cook shaved head and soul. The Sex Pistols changed my life in 1977 and in 1996. They are Gods to a man. Rock'n'roll should always be this great. This was 'Never Mind The Bollocks' note for note. It's still beautiful. If you don't get it now, you would have never got it then. Britpop? More like Shitpop. You're welcome to your mediocrity. This band are our alternative royal family. God Save The Sex Pistols.

- Alan McGee, 20th July 1996

(above) John photographed by Paul Burgess