THEY'VE been physically assaulted by royalists and generally condemned from every wobbly pillar of the establishment, but punk rock group The Sex Pistols have always pulled through until now.
Belfast City Council has succeeded where others have failed by banning the group from playing in the city's Maysfield Leisure Centre later this month.
The Pistols, currently in the throes of a highly successful reunion tour, have been told by the council that they are unwelcome" in the city due to the "blasphemous nature" of their act.
Sources close to the band say that it's probably no coincidence that the group's lead singer, John Lydon, carries an Irish passport and is highly critical of the British/unionist establishment.
The Mean Fiddler organisation, which is promoting the tour, says the cancellation of the Belfast concert, which was due to take place on July 17th, now renders the group's Dublin concert, scheduled for July 18th, uneconomical, and that has been cancelled also.
The band says it is eager to rearrange the concerts for some time later this year. People with tickets for either gig can claim a full refund at the point of purchase.
Good news for fans of the Pistols' support act, Iggy Pop, is that Mr Pop will play two solo concerts in Dublin's Mean Fiddler venue on July 16th and 17th.
It is difficult to discern just what is "blasphemous" about The Pistols' stage act. At a highly successful comeback concert in London two weeks ago, John Lydon made no derogatory religious references, but did at one point make a tongue in cheek remark about beating up some journalists in the audience because they had referred to him as "fat".
It appears likely that members of Belfast City Council are confusing blasphemy with antimonarchism. During their heyday, in the late 1970s, The Pistols had a hit with a record called God Save The Queen, which referred to the British queen as a "moron" and Britain as a "fascist regime".
