‘London Calling’ vs ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’: Which album sold the most copies?
In the mid to late 1970s, one genre took hold and kept on tightening its grip.
In an era of ever-increasing political tension, with countless social issues beginning to bubble in a way that would eventually boil over into the miners’ strikes and countless other protests, punk felt like the answer. Especially in the UK, after the rock and roll of the ’60s and ‘70s no longer felt like it stuck it to the man enough, punk emerged as if it was a natural reaction. It popped up as if it were a scream of rage that the country could no longer hold back, and at the forefront, there were two bands.
Well, really, there were more than two, and all of them played across two days in September at London’s The 100 Club in 1976. During their ‘Punk Special’, the venue just off Oxford Street gathered the blossoming class leading the charge of punk, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, Buzzcocks and more. But the busiest crowd gathered on the evening of September 20th, the first night of a two-day special, for a one-two punch of greatness.
The Clash went on first and sent the crowd wild, then the Sex Pistols followed, and the atmosphere was so explosive, the amount of friction would’ve set the room aflame. However, as expected of the Sex Pistols, the band had a bone to pick. Despite being in the same scene and social circles, Johnny Rotten and his gaggle didn’t have much nice to say about their punk peers. “Nobody gives a toss about The Clash,” John Lydon once said, claiming that the band’s songs “didn’t have any content, and they really didn’t seem to stand for very much at all other than this abstract socialism”.
The Clash were much kinder, but only really about a small corner of the band. “I’m a Glenn Matlock fan,” Joe Strummer said, only really nursing a soft spot for the quickly-fired bass player, stating, “He wrote the tune to ‘Anarchy in the UK’. You gotta have a tune, you can’t just shout gibberish.”
The rivalry burned on. Lydon called them “copycat wankers” and called out Strummer for being a faker when he said, “Joe Strummer was living in a mansion”, raging, “No. Fuck that. Look, he pretended to hop off buses, you know, like in his studded leather jacket. It’s nothing personal, I liked Joe. But you can’t be a champagne socialist, you’ve got to be more honest with us than that.”
Really, though, the proof of which band led punk lies in the fact that they both put out era-defining albums, with London Calling from The Clash, and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols from, of course, Sex Pistols, but then, that begs the question of which came out on top.
So, which album sold the most copies?
If you’re looking for a simple answer and a clear winner, the trophy goes to The Clash. London Calling has reportedly sold over five million copies worldwide by now and is one of those albums people are almost expected to have in their collection as a truly iconic record.
In comparison, Never Mind The Bollocks, which is just as visually iconic as its title and its cover is plastered on posters and t-shirts worldwide, didn’t sell as well, with stats claiming that their 1976 album has sold around 1.7million copies, falling far short of The Clash’s mark.
However, measuring impact and influence isn’t that simple. Even though The Clash have sold more, the Sex Pistols’ one and only record was nothing short of seismic. It debuted at number one despite the complete shock and outrage over the band, and then it stuck around in the charts as a bestseller for almost a year, spending 48 weeks in the top 75, to become forever an album that completely and utterly captured the zeitgeist and defined a moment.
In contrast, London Calling peaked at number nine on the UK Charts. The title track was a hit, but when it came to soundtracking that era and moment in time, Sex Pistols took the crown there as a band that represented and defined punk both in the moment and in retrospect, even if their album didn’t shift as many copies.
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