Scanlan tells the story of how McLaren's projectdesigned, in any case, to failfoundered on the development of the Pistols into a great rock band and the inconvenient artistic emergence of John Lydon. Moving between London and New York, and with a fascinating cast of delinquents, petty criminals, and misfits, Sex Pistols: Poison in the Machine is not just a book about a band, it is about the times, the ideas, the coincidences, and the characters that made punk; that ended with the Sex Pistolsbeaten, bloody, and overdosedsensationally self-destructing on stage in San Francisco in January 1978; and that transformed popular culture throughout the world.