Rare original 4.25 x 2 ticket for a Sex Pistols concert at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on a snowy January 11, 1978. The reverse is numbered "000862," and the original advance ticket price of $2.50 has been stamped over with "Advance, $3.50." In fine condition.
The Sex Pistols embarked on a brief yet furious US tour in January 1978. Originally scheduled to start a few days before New Year's, the band's criminal records made American authorities reluctant to issue visas, resulting in the cancellation of the tour's first four shows. Avoiding obvious punk hotbeds like New York and Los Angeles, band manager Malcolm McLaren looked to bolster the band's bad-boy reputation by booking them in 'Bible Belt' cities like Atlanta, Memphis, Baton Rouge, and Tulsa in an attempt to snag some publicity and a few Christian protests in the process-his plan worked like a charm.
According to Larry Shaeffer, the concert promoter for Cain's Ballroom, the ticket price was increased when the band's manager, Malcolm McLaren, told him that the band was broke and unable to get around. Could they get $1500 instead of the originally agreed upon $1000? Shaeffer reminded him that the show was not going to sell out, and that the weather would potentially hurt ticket sales even further, but he agreed, and boosted the ticket price by a buck. Shaeffer notes that he printed up 1,270 tickets for the show-the capacity for Cain's at that time-and that only about 800 were sold.
