Sex Pistols call off Jubilee gig

Punk rock band The Sex Pistols have called off a gig planned for the Queen's Jubilee weekend, their promoter has said. But it looks likely that the notorious quartet, now in their 40s, will play a concert later in the summer. The group, widely seen as the first and greatest of the punk rockers, caused outrage on 3 June 1977 by playing a gig on a boat in the Thames during the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations.

The entire group - Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious - were arrested, along with their manager Malcolm MacLaren. The band also released the single God Save The Queen at the time, which was banned from BBC radio and TV. Promoter John Giddings said that plans to re-release the single around the time of the Queen's Golden Jubilee were still on track. The promoter, who is managing director of London music promotions company Solo, said the decision to cancel the Jubilee concert came because "they simply didn't want to play that weekend".

But he promised that a later concert would go ahead "at a palace". "I can say it will take place this summer within the M25 and will feature all four original members."

There has been speculation that the concert could take place at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Stadium on 21 July. But an annual teenage rock band and classical music competition, due to take place on the same day at the nearby Crystal Palace Concert Bowl, might lead to difficulties over noise levels. A spokesman for Bromley Council said they had not yet received an official application for the concert to take place. Mr Giddings said the Pistols' singer and frontman John Lydon, formerly Johnny Rotten, would fly in from Los Angeles to join the three UK-based members this summer. He said that the quartet had spoken to each other in recent weeks, but added: "To say they were looking forward to it is maybe going a bit far".