Simon Reynolds: Rip It Up and Start Again – Post-Punk 1978-84 (Faber)

IN JANUARY 1978, the Sex Pistols, then and now the most famous punk band in the world, split up. Johnny Rotten, the band's singer, most unstable musical element, and most adored and reviled member, had had enough. For the next nine months he largely disappeared from view, except for a promise to the music press that he would return with a new band who would be "anti-music of any kind".