THE Sex Pistols won't be coming, read the headline in the Gazette 25 years ago.

A tentative booking for the controversial rock group at the Winter Gardens was cancelled after they asked for too much money.

And a future visit was ruled out after the Pistols shocked the nation with "crude four-letter words" in an infamous incident on Bill Grundy's Thames TV chat show.

"They are potential troublemakers and we would rather bar that element than see violence here," sniffed a Winter Gardens spokesman.

After signing a £40,000 recording contract the group "got big-headed and wanted rather more than we were prepared to offer," said the spokesman.