Sex Pistols kick off comeback tour 30 years on

LONDON (Reuters) - A group of 50-somethings will try to put some anarchy back into rock'n'roll on Thursday as the Sex Pistols launch their brief reunion tour with a gig at Brixton Academy in London.

The British foursome are getting back together to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their seminal album "Never Mind the Bollocks ... Here's the Sex Pistols", considered one of punk music's most influential records.

"I'm back, and I'm here to kick some bottom," lead singer John Lydon told the Daily Telegraph.

The 51-year-old, still snarling after all these years, now lives in Los Angeles, where the band performed a small gig last month as a warm-up to a sellout seven-night set in Britain -- five in Brixton and shows in Manchester and Glasgow.

"It started out as one night at Brixton," Lydon said.

"We thought may be 5,000 will want to see us, but it's turned into a bigger monster than any of us had any concept of. It'll be awfully tiring on the old tonsils."

The tour reunites the four surviving members of the band behind pioneering punk tracks "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy in the U.K."

Lydon is joined by guitarist Steve Jones, 52, bass player Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook, both 51.

The Sex Pistols formed in 1975, united by limited musical ability and a vague belief that they had an alternative to the pompous music of the day.

Matlock, a key songwriter, was ousted in early 1977. He was replaced by Sid Vicious, who could not play bass at all but is considered the band's best-known member.

"Never Mind the Bollocks" topped the U.K. charts in 1977 but Lydon quit the following January during a disastrous American tour. Vicious died of a drug overdose in 1979.

The band first reunited in 1996 for their "Filthy Lucre Tour" and then again in 2002 and 2003. Lydon and Jones live in Los Angeles, the others in London.

The Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year but refused to show up, sending a rude, handwritten note instead.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison and Paul Casciato)