Over 41 years ago The Sex Pistols held a boat concert on the Thames in London to publicize their second single, “God Save the Queen.” They got a few numbers in before the bobbies spoiled the fun.
From Open Culture:
The band had been dropped by EMI and then picked up by Virgin. The single had been banned and kept out of the official BBC charts and radio, despite selling enough to send it shooting up the charts. They were already controversial, and [band manager Malcolm] McLaren wanted to stoke that fire.
On board the Queen Elizabeth, the band and their manager, music press writers, fellow artists, punk fans, and a film crew directed by Julien Temple set off in the afternoon, with some publicly available beer to drink and some speed to do in secret.
Jon Savage, who would go on to write one of the seminal books about the Pistols and punk, England’s Dreaming, was on board and provides one of the best descriptions of the day:
The atmosphere on the boat was paranoid and claustrophobic, but also very exciting. They were by far the best I ever saw them that day. You can’t beat the Sex Pistols, jubilee weekend, “Anarchy in the UK,” outside Parliament.