The Sex Pistols and Bill Grundy Television Personalities THE BILL GRUNDY INTERVIEW Often misquoted, this is an accurate transcription of the interview which went out live on 1 December 1976. The original Sex Pistols line-up are seated - from left to right as the camera sees them - Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook. Bill Grundy sits to their left. Standing behind the Pistols are the punk hangers-on from the Bromley Contingent, Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin, Simon Barker and 'Simone'. Grundy introduces the band to the cameras. GRUNDY (To camera) They are punk rockers. The new craze, they tell me. Their heroes? Not the nice, clean Rolling Stones... you see they are as drunk as I am... they are clean by comparison. They're a group called The Sex Pistols, and I am surrounded by all of them... JONES (Reading the autocue) In action! GRUNDY Just let us see The Sex Pistols in action. Come on kids...

[Film of The Sex Pistols in action is shown; then back to Grundy.] GRUNDY I am told that that group (hits his knee with sheaf of papers) have received forty thousand pounds from a record company. Doesn't that seem, er, to be slightly opposed to their anti-materialistic view of life? MATLOCK No, the more the merrier. GRUNDY Really? JONES You dirty fucker! (Laughter from the group) GRUNDY What a clever boy! JONES What a fucking rotter. GRUNDY Well, that's it for tonight. The other rocker Eamonn, and I'm saying nothing else about him, will be back tomorrow. I'll be seeing you soon, I hope I'm not seeing you [the band] again. From me, though, goodnight. The cheesy signature tune plays [later copied and incorporated into the beginning of Television Personalities 'Where's Bill Grundy Now?' song] and the credits roll. Rotten looks at his watch, Jones starts dancing to the music, and Grundy mutters an off-mic 'Oh shit!' to himself.

The story made the front pages of the following morning's newspapers, amidst howls of outrage, including the now infamous Daily Mirror headline - 'THE FILTH AND THE FURY!'. The Pistols had cemented their place in television folklore. Tags: The Sex Pistols | Dangerous Minds The Sex Pistols Katie Phillips Some of the stories about the early days of The Sex Pistols are as well known as that tale of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the nativity and the visiting of the three wise bears. (Kings, surely?-Ed.) For example, we all know by now how John Lydon was spotted wearing a Pink Floyd tee-shirt with “I hate” scrawled across it, how he auditioned in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s shop SEX by singing along to Alice Cooper’s “Eighteen,” or how Steve Jones propelled the group into national infamy on teatime television by calling local news channel host Bill Grundy a rude word: Jones: You dirty sod. You dirty old man! Grundy: Well keep going, chief, keep going. Go on, you’ve got another five seconds. Say something outrageous. Jones: You dirty bastard! Jones: You dirty fucker!

[Laughter from the group] Grundy: What a clever boy! Jones: What a fucking rotter. Etcetera, etcetera…. Ah yes, some of these stories are so well known they’ve become part of the furniture of modern pop culture. So pull up a chair and have a seat. When that infamous interview happened in December of 1976, the PIstols’ manager Malcolm McLaren feared the band had blown their one chance at fame. How wrong could he have been? The next day (of course) the front page of nearly every tabloid newspaper in England featured the Pistols with headlines raving on about “the filth and the fury.” From that forth, the Sex Pistols were never ever out of the news again. Yet, here’s the thing—the very first words ever written about the Pistols in the MSM actually appeared in the New Musical Express a year before the Grundy show incident in the December 27, 1975 issue of the New Musical Express, in a review about a student ball. Peter Gabriel scrubs up nice: The NME when its writers were good.

The Pistols were just seven weeks old and had played only three gigs when they appeared at the “All Night Christmas Ball” at Queen Elizabeth College, Kensington, London, on November 27 1975. The Pistols were on a bill topped by the likes of Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames, Mike Absolom and Slack Alice . It was in a review of this all nighter by NME staffer Kate Phillips that the Sex Pistols were to be given their very first media name check. “Oh, yes,” says the Social Sec, “and then there are the Sex Pistols. You missed them.” “Were they any good?” I asked brightly. “They played for expenses,” he countered. The Sex Pistols were huddled against a far wall of the dance floor. They were all about 12 years old. Or maybe about 19, but you could be fooled. They’re managed by Malcolm, who runs ‘Sex’ in the King’s Road, and they’re going to be The Next Big Thing. Or maybe The Next Big Thing After That. Meanwhile, we drank a lot.

It’s been long assumed that the first mention of The Sex Pistols came from a review by Neil Spencer of the band’s Marquee gig in February 1976. Now we know different. Journalist and author Paul Gorman who first unearthed this little barroom fact also notes: Phillips was accompanied to the Queen Elizabeth College event by her partner and NME assistant editor, the late Tony Tyler (who was also with Spencer at the February 76 gig at The Marquee). In the “On The Town” section on page 27, it was tucked beneath the lead review by Chris Salewicz of a Birmingham gig by the briefly popular hard-rock outfit Mr Big (headlined: “A yob in a support band is something to be.”). Phillips started her column-and-a-bit thus: “I was there for six hours and I can hardly remember a thing. It must have been a great party. Looking back it was meeting the Sex Pistols that started my downfall…” She also wrote: “I was soon in no condition to meet the rugger student who reeled over to our little island of determined hipness. ‘Why is your hair so short?’ he burbled.

‘I mean are you in a gwoop or something?’ I warmed to the man. He had taken me for a Sex Pistol! A jig band came on. The students broke into the Gay Gordons. ‘What a monstrosity,’ muttered a Sex Pistol gloomily.” Criticised that day on the bus by my then-girlfriend for my absorption in the music paper, I packed the issue away but kept hold of it, understanding even then that halfway down page 27 of that week’s NME, Phillips and Tyler had stumbled across the future. So, there you have it. These then are the very first words, the very first first drops from which a deluge of salacious copy would follow. Continues after the jump… The Sex Pistols For the families of the striking fire fighters, Christmas 1977 was going to be a difficult one. With little or no money coming in, celebrations, presents, and even food were on ration. But something quite wonderful happened on that Christmas Day in Merrie England, when four of the country’s allegedly most reviled people brought happiness and festive gifts to the firefighters and their families.

This was Christmas Day 1977, when The Sex Pistols played a benefit gig for the families of striking fire fighters at the Ivanhoe’s club, Huddersfield, in the north of England. As has often been recorded, The Pistols were the most hated and feared group in the country, portrayed by the press as the biggest threat to any nation’s children since Herod slaughtered the innocents. They had been banned from nearly every civic venue in the UK and were on an MI5 blacklist. For many a politician or council member, the very mention of The Sex Pistols could cause the veins to ominously throb on their sweaty, flabby brows. But it wasn’t just The Pistols who these politicians and their obsequious press feared, it was the unions—in particular the fire fighters who were striking for a 30% wage increase. For two years, the fire fighters had waited for the Labour government to negotiate a pay raise, but nothing had happened. As the cost of food, fuel and taxes skyrocketed, the pay-in-the-pocket of the average worker was worthless.

Therefore, a ballot of the 30,000 strong Fire Brigades Union was held, which received 97.5% support for strike action. On the 14th November, 1977, the fire fighter’s strike began. On Christmas Day, 1977, the Pistols quietly organized a benefit gig for the Fire Brigade Union. This was done as surreptitiously as possible, for if the council discovered the Pistols were playing (especially on the Lord’s birthday), the venue would be closed immediately. Two shows were arranged at Ivanhoe’s club: the first was a matinee for the children, at which cake, food, presents were distributed by the band, as John Lydon later said: ”Huddersfield I remember very fondly. Two concerts, a matinee with children throwing pies at me, and later on that night, striking union members. It was heaven. There was a lot of love in the house. It was great that day, everything about it. Just wonderful.” While drummer Paul Cook recalled: ”It was like our Christmas party really.

We remember everyone being really relaxed that day, everyone was getting on really well, everyone was in such a great mood because it was a benefit for the kids of firemen who were on strike at that time, who had been on strike for a long time.” The Pistols paid for everything, and according to one young audience member “ you could just have anything you wanted! ” It was a Christmas Day to remember, as another young attendee Jez Scott later wrote about the gig in The Guardian : Johnny Rotten came out in a straw hat and they had a cake with Sex Pistols written on it, the size of a car bonnet. He started cutting it up but it soon degenerated into a food fight. He was covered head to foot. It was fantastic. I took a photo of Steve Jones, who did a rock’n'roll-type pose. I took one of Sid and he asked, “Do you want to put Nancy [Spungen] in as well?” Eventually the Pistols came onstage. I think they only played about six songs. I remember they did “Bodies,” but omitted the swear words because of the children. Steve Jones’s guitar sounded very raw and exciting.

During “Holidays in the Sun,” Rotten held out the mic and people were shouting out their names, but because I was probably the only punk there I tried to shout the lyrics: “Cheap dialogue/ Cheap essential scenery.” The gig itself was great. Sid had his leather jacket open and was hammering the bass. They were really on form and I was a bit overcome, really. I’d taken my album along but I was so excited talking to the Pistols, I forgot to get it signed. Sid was the easiest to talk to because he was like one of us, like a kid. I asked him what he was doing next and he said they were going to America. I’d like to think I said, “Don’t go, it’ll all go pear-shaped,” but I didn’t. Within a few weeks the band had split, Sid had been remanded for murdering Nancy and then he died. I wore a black tie with a Sex Pistols badge on it for a year in mourning. The following clips are from a longer program, but contain the memories of the fire fighters and their families who attended, as well as some actuality from The Sex Pistols and a very prissy politician.

The Huddersfield gigs were the final time The Sex Pistols played in Britain before going to America and splitting-up. The Professionals A year on from the release of The Sex Pistols first single “ Anarchy in the U.K .” and their infamous appearance on the Today show, Steve Jones and Paul Cook gave their first interview to Australian television. Lest we forget, it was Jones, more than Johnny Rotten or Sid Vicious, who launched the Pistols into the headlines with his stream of abuse at TV presenter Bill Grundy , and certainly without Cook’s disciplined drums and Jones’ era-defining guitar (together with Glen Matlock ‘s bass) and their song-writing talents Never Mind the Bollocks would have been a much lesser album. In this interview from 1977, Jones and Cook talk about the Pistols’ back history, records, and their appearance on the Today show: Jones: If someone wants an argument, you give them an argument back, don’t ya? He started it. He said, “Go on, you got another 5 seconds.” Cook: What did you say, Steve? Jones: I fucking gave him a load of abuse. He asked for, didn’t he? It was pretty funny.

It’s like, you know, they put all that on the front-fucking-page for all that. Just for swearing on television. Stupid. Cook: We forgot about the whole thing, a couple of hours after, we didn’t expect nothing to happen from it. Chuck Berry & Debbie Harry. Chuck Berry interviewed by punk zine Jet Lag in 1980. Berry shares his thoughts about “what the kids are listening to these days.” The Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen”: What’s this guy so angry about anyway? Guitar work and progression is like mine. Good backbeat. Can’t understand most of the vocals. If you’re going to be mad at least let the people know what you’re mad about. The Clash’s “Complete Control”: Sounds like the first one. The rhythm and chording work well together. Did this guy have a sore throat when he sang the vocals? The Ramones’ “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”: A good little jump number. These guys remind me of myself when I first started, I only knew three chords too. The Romantics’ “What I Like About You”: Finally something you can dance to.

Sounds a lot like the sixties with some of my riffs thrown in for good measure. You say this is new? I’ve heard this stuff plenty of times. I can’t understand the big fuss. Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”: A funky little number, that’s for sure. I like the bass a lot. Good mixture and a real good flow. The singer sounds like he has a bad case of stage fright. Wire’s “I Am the Fly” and Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures: So this is the so-called new stuff. It’s nothing I ain’t heard before. It sounds like an old blues jam that BB and Muddy would carry on backstage at the old amphitheatre in Chicago. The instruments may be different but the experiment’s the same. Click here to see larger image. Click here to see larger image. Ian Dury I miss Tony Wilson. I miss the idea of Tony Wilson. Someone who had an enquiring mind and was full of intelligent enthusiasms, like Tony Wilson. And who also didn’t mind making a prat of himself when he got things wrong. Or, even right. I met him in 2005 for a TV interview.

He arrived on a summer’s day at a small studio in West London. He wore a linen suit, sandals, carried a briefcase, and his toenails were painted a rich plum color - his wife had painted them the night before, he said. Wilson was clever, inspired and passionate about music. He talked about his latest signing, a rap band, and his plans for In the City music festival before we moved onto the Q&A in front of a camera. He could talk for England, but he was always interested in what other people were doing, what they thought, and was always always encouraging others to be their best. That’s what I miss. You get more than an idea of that Tony Wilson in this compilation of the best of his regional tea-time TV series So It Goes.

Wilson (along with Janet Street-Porter) championed Punk Rock on TV, and here he picks a Premier Division of talent: Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Buzzcocks, John Cooper Clarke, Iggy Pop, Wreckless Eric, Ian Dury, Penetration, Blondie, Fall, Jam, Jordan, Devo, Tom Robinson Band, Johnny Thunder, Elvis Costello, XTC, Jonathan Richman, Nick Lowe, Siouxie & the Banshees, Cherry Vanilla & Magazine….. The tape fails there! The uploader ConcreteBarge has left in the adverts “for historical reference” that include - “TSB, Once, Cluster, Coke is it, Roger Daltery in American Express, Ulay, Swan, Our Price, Gastrils, Cluster & Prestige”. So, let’s get in the time machine and travel back for an hour of TV fun. Previously on Dangerous Minds Cain's Ballroom As part of the The Sex Pistols brief and notorious tour of the America (mostly through the South), one of the venues they played was Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they got a decidedly less than warm welcome.

In this entertaining and fascinating video, several Tulsa locals who were involved in the Pistols’ show reminisce on what it was like to be in the middle of the punk rock tornado that touched down on T-Town one night in 1978. Bliss was the opening act for The Pistols at Cain’s. A longhaired rock band with more in common with REO Speedwagon and Kansas than punk, one can only imagine what Mr. Rotten and the boys thought of this extremely odd pairing. Bliss. One of the more interesting outcomes of The Pistols’ performance at Cain’s was that it prompted the club to expand its booking policy from mostly country and western and classic rock to include punk and new wave. Cain’s is currently one of the best music venues in the USA and there’s an argument to be made that The Pistols helped trigger the evolution of the joint from something conventional into something much more adventurous. Another thing I like about this video is the complete and utter coolness of the men being interviewed.

They recognize that they didn’t quite “get” The Pistols back in 1978, but are more than willing to give the Brit punkers credit for bringing some much-needed change to rock ‘n’ roll and I think they respect the balls it took for Lydon and company to do it on such hostile turf. The video is nicely done by the folks at This Land Press . Your host: Lee Roy Chapman. Janet Street-Porter Who Killed Bill? is a Sex Pistols for Dummies, bargain-bin video, consisting of a mixed collection of original archive news stories (mainly culled from London Weekend Television) and documentary footage, which tells the rise, demise, and return of the legendary band. It’s worth watching for the first fifty minutes or so, before the film veers off into a section on Vivienne Westwood’s fashion, then returning for the Filthy Lucre tour of 1996, and then beyond.

As it’s all original TV archive, there are some classic moments, including the early Janet Street-Porter interviews with the Pistols, and then with Lydon after his spilt, as well as coverage of the public’s fury for the band, and one disgruntled councillor who riffs off a long list of adjectives to describe his distaste for Punk Rock, before finishing with: “Most of these groups would be improved by sudden death.” There is also sections on Sid and Nancy the tragic couple and Alex Cox’s film. What’s quite startling is how The Pistols all look so young, and Lydon comes across as a shy, tense, nervous individual who seems ill at ease with his celebrity, describing its affects: “It ain’t the person who changes, it’s people’s attitude towards them.” Sadly, no classic tracks, just bogus lift muzak interpretations of a rhythmic Punk guitar. And the Bill of the title is, of course, Bill Grundy, he of the infamous launch-pad, “Filth and Fury” interview. Paul Morley It’s been described as one of the most important gigs of all time , one that saw hundreds, even thousands of people claim they were there.

In truth only around 30-40 people saw The Sex Pistols perform at the Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall on June 4, 1976. But of those who did, most went onto form a generation of legendary bands - The Fall, The Buzzcocks, Joy Division, The Smiths. Also, allegedly in the audience were such future ambassadors of taste as Anthony H. Wilson, who would co-found Factory Records and the Hacienda nightclub, and nascent journalist/writer Paul Morley. Culturally, it was an event akin to the storming of the Bastille, for it unleashed a revolution. I Swear I Was There tells the story of that now legendary night, and talks to the people whose lives were changed by The Sex Pistols. With thanks to Graham Tarling! X-Ray Spex England: Thirty-five years on from Punk, and what the fuck has changed? The Queen is still on her throne. Celebrations are underway for another jubilee. The police continue to be a law unto themselves. The tabloid press peddles more smut and fear. The Westminster government is still centered on rewarding self-interest. And Johnny Rotten is a popular entertainer.

The promise of revolution and change was little more than adman’s wet-dream. All that remains is the music - the passion, the energy, the belief in something better - and that at least touched enough to inculcate the possibility for change. Raw Energy - Punk the Early Years is a documentary made in 1978, which details many of the players who have tended to be overlooked by the usual focus on The Sex Pistols and The Clash.

Here you’ll find Jordan (the original not the silicon pin-up and author) telling us, “it’s good females can get up on stage and have as much admiration as the male contingent”; the record execs explaining their dealings with The Pistols, The Clash, The Hot Rods and looking for the “next trend”; a young Danny Baker, who wrote for original punk magazine Sniffin Glue, summing up his frustration with “all you’re trained for is to be in a factory at the end of 20 years, and that’s the biggest insult…”; the comparisons between Punk and Monterey; the politics; the violence against young punks; and what Punk bands were really like - performances from The Slits, The Adverts, Eddie and The Hot Rods, X-Ray Spex, and even Billy Idol and Generation X. The Stranglers This Dutch TV documentary from 1977 captures some brilliant performances by The Stranglers, Blondie and The Sex Pistols. The bands are firing on all cylinders as they perform in Amsterdam. In 1977, this is what was moving my world. I had just arrived in New York City and I felt like a sail in a hurricane.

Slept all day and hit the clubs at night to see a rock revolution in the making. The Stranglers at the Second Avenue Theater were particularly awe-inspiring. Unsung heroes of rock and roll, which is probably as it should be - no more heroes. Though, I have my share. The Stranglers - No More Heroes, Something Better Change Blondie - Detroit 442, Love at the Pier Sex Pistols - E.M.I., Pretty Vacant, Anarchy in the UK The video quality is pretty rough, which seems appropriate - like an underground transmission from the distant past. It’s also in Dutch without English substitles, but it hardly matters. The music speaks for itself. Money According to editors at Record Collector magazine a rare recording of The Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” has gone on sale for $16,000 (£10,000). It is said the A&M recording of the song is the most valuable piece of vinyl in the world, because the band was dropped by the label before the track’s release, and the bulk of copies were destroyed.

The disc is on sale at 9991.com , where it is described as: “SEX PISTOLS God Save The Queen (Well, this certainly shouldn’t need any introduction. Quite simply, a MINT unplayed copy of the legendary withdrawn 1977 UK original A&M 7” b/w No Feelings, in the A&M company sleeve. Obtained from an ex-industry source with impeccable credentials, this is not only one of the rarest records in existence but is certainly the most sought after and no serious record collection is complete without it, regardless of your thoughts on the band or indeed the music itself. A period piece of punk/musical/social/history. I hope this goes to someone who will love and cherish it as much as i would. Be quick before the original reluctant seller wants to buy it back…).” Check here for more details.

Selling a record for such a large sum of money may go against the popular notion of Punk Rock, but this is nothing compared to last month’s report on The Sex Pistols’ graffiti , at an apartment in Denmark Street, London, which academics, Dr John Schofield and Dr Paul Graves-Brown said Johhny Rotten’s doodles usurped the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb . Really? Such hyperbole only confirms The Sex Pistols’ relevance is long gone. Never mind the bollocks, here’s Motörhead. Top of the Pops When I was growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Top of the Pops was essential, nay compulsory viewing. You see, for a certain age group TOTP was the only music show on British TV. Yes, there was the excellent Old Grey Whistle Test with “Whispering” Bob Harris, which had Zappa, The New York Dolls, Deep Purple and alike, but that went out long after sundown and well past most young uns bedtimes.

It would really take until the arrival of the pop promo for music shows to become ubiquitous, which meant back in the days of mop tops, glitter and platform boots, Top of the Pops was King. Top of the Pops was the BBC’s legendary, Top 40 chart run-down show. It ran between 1964 and 2006, when it was pulled by the Beeb bosses due to a lack of viewers or, too much competition - depending who you read. It was an inevitable demise for music had changed after Rave, and the diversity and choice available meant what most youngsters listened to was rarely reflected by a show centered around the record sales of bland and talentless groups squeezed out by music industry execs. Moreover, because TOTP was a chart run down show, you were likely to see David Bowie in the same studio as The Osmonds or, The Sex Pistols on the same show as Hot Chocolate. Even so, there was always moments to treasure from Jimi Hendrix , to Bowie’s “ Starman ”, Alice Cooper’s “ School’s Out ”, The Smiths with a gladioli-waving Morrissey singing “ This Charming Man ”, to Blondie “ Dreaming ”.

And yes, there was The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Move and so on, right up to The Damned, The Jam, Marc Almond, and even Nick Cave . But for all the great and the good, there was always a lot of shit. Something that is more than apparent in this 2-hour compilation of forty years of Top of the Pops. It’s an odd mix with some great, and some inexcusable songs, and a lot of brilliant ones missing. Yet, for all the good, the bad and the ugly, it does tell a story of how music has changed for better and worse over the past four decades. Top of the Pops 40th Anniversary 1964 - 2004 1964: Billy J.

Kramer & The Dakotas - “Little Children” 1965: Sandie Shaw - “Long Live Love” 1966: The Seekers - “The Carnival Is Over” (Performance was from 1965) 1967: Procol Harum - “A Whiter Shade of Pale” 1968: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - “Fire” 1969: The Hollies - “Sorry Suzanne” 1970: Free - “All Right Now” 1971: T.Rex - “Get It On” 1972: Roxy Music - “Virginia Plain” 1973: Slade - “Cum on Feel the Noize” 1974: The Three Degrees - “When Will I See You Again” 1975: Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” 1976: The Real Thing - “You to Me Are Everything” 1977: Queen - “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” 1978: The Jam - “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight” 19

79: Ian Dury & The Blockheads - “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” 1980: Adam and the Ants - “Ant Music” 1981: The Human League - “Don’t You Want Me” 1982: Culture Club - “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” 1983: UB40 - “Red Red Wine” 1984: Wham!

- “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” 1985: Eurythmics - “There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)” 1986: Pet Shop Boys - “West End Girls” 1987: Bee Gees - “You Win Again” 1988: Yazz And The Plastic Population - “The Only Way Is Up” 1989: Lisa Stansfield - “All Around the World” 1990: Sinéad O’Connor - “Nothing Compares 2 U” 1991: Seal - “Crazy” Anarchy in the U.K. The student riot is a great British tradition. From Oxford’s St Scholastica Day, on February 10 1355, when a couple of undergraduates complained about the quality of beer served in their local hostelry, leading to an all out battle that left sixty-three students and thirty locals dead. Through to 1968, when plucky youngsters attacked the American Embassy over the Vietnam War, with eighty-six people injured and over two-hundred arrested.

To the Poll Tax Riots with its famous Battle of Trafalgar in 1990, which left 113 injured, and 339 arrested. Today in London, Britain’s great students have been protesting against the triple hike in tuition fees, leading to running battles with the police, vandalism of property and an attack on a car containing HRH Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, as the Daily Telegraph reports: Demonstrators kicked the Rolls-Royce as it travelled to the Royal Variety Performance in central London. White paint and bottles were thrown over the car and a window shattered. The Prince and Duchess were “unharmed” and continued with their engagement at the London Palladium, a Clarence House spokesman said. The attack occurred on Regent Street at the end of a day of protest that turned into a riot and left 10 police officers injured, six of them seriously. Matthew Maclachlan, who witnessed the attack on the Prince’s car, said: “The police cars at the front of the convoy drove straight into crowds at the top of Regent Street. They got trapped in that mob and it meant that Charles and Camilla were on their own further down the road except for a Jaguar travelling behind them.

“Charles and Camilla’s car ran into such a concentration of people that it had to stop. It was stationary for a lot of the time, then would squeeze forward an inch. They had just one bodyguard in the car with them and a chauffeur. “We couldn’t believe it. The car had really big windows so Charles was very much on display. People were trying to talk to him about tuition fees at first but when more people realised what was happening, the crowds swelled and people were throwing glass bottles and picking up litter bins and throwing them at the car. You could hear all this smashing. “There was one protection officer in the Jaguar behind, dressed in a tuxedo, and he was opening the car doors and using them to bash people away. His car took a real pummelling.” No, not quite anarchy in the UK, but good to see students carrying on a great tradition, which gives me an excuse to blast this olde favorite. Footage of rioting students after the jump… Sex Pistols - Bill Grundy Interview 1.12.76 - YouTube Sex Pistols - Bill Grundy Interview 1.12.76 Want to watch this again later?

Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Jun 6, 2007 Sex Pistols on the Today show, hosted by Bill Grundy, broadcast 1st December 1976. I edited this from various sources to reconstruct the full version as nobody ever seems to show it in full. Category The filth and the fury - In-depth - Transdiffusion The filth and the fury Glenn Aylett 24 Feb 2013 5 comments. tbs.pm/2330 Nowadays television is liberal towards bad language. Although there is still a 9pm watershed, before which bad language is strictly controlled, “fuck” can quite easily be found in dramas, films, stand-up comedy routines and in reality shows such as ‘Big Brother’.

Indeed, catching five minutes of this reality show a few summers ago, two housemates let rip with a pile of obscenities that, had it been shown in the seventies, would have led to its immediate cancellation by the IBA, the resignation of several television executives and a public furore that would have lasted for weeks. Instead this kind of behaviour is considered acceptable for a programme like ‘Big Brother’ and “fuck” is frequently used now in hard-hitting dramas with few complaints beyond the usual Daily Mail editorials that few people take any notice of. Rather than feeling offended by bad language, most viewers are now desensitised to it and in some cases see it as essential to add realism to a post-watershed drama. Certainly it would look comical now for characters in a violent drama not to swear, whereas in something equally violent like ‘The Sweeney’ from the seventies, the language is very restrained by today’s standards. Although television had moved on with the permissive society of the 1960s, a naive and completely dated series like ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ was only finally put to rest in 1976, its portrayal of the police seemingly stuck in the fifties.

And while displays of nudity and the use of mild profanities were allowed in series like ‘Play for Today’, television was still very conservative by today’s standards. Thames, where the Sex Pistols conducted their infamous interview with Bill Grundy, had a hit with Opportunity Knocks, a talent contest created in 1956 which tended to feature totally uncontroversial, middle-of-the-road singers, cabaret acts and working men’s club comedians, hosted by notorious right-winger Hughie Green, whose audience, had Green commented on how awful punk rock was, would have mostly agreed with him. Britain, in spite of the liberalisation of the sixties, was still largely a socially conservative country and the hostility, not just from older people but by the majority of teenagers, towards the Sex Pistols and punk rock was not surprising. The country was also going through a major economic crisis, with unemployment well above a million for the first time since the thirties, double digit inflation, industrial unrest and the humiliation during the autumn of 1976 of having to approach the IMF for a bailout as the country was apparently bankrupt.

It was not without a grain of truth when the Sex Pistols spoke of “No Future UK”, as the country seemed to be in terminal decline. For the punk movement, the economic crisis could not have come at a better time as its music was just right for the downbeat nature of the times. Conversely, the pretensions of bands like Yes, with their triple concept albums and massive guitar solos, were just as big a turn-off for punks. Nick Hornby wrote “in 1976, England was a dark shade of grey. We had just come through the ruinous three-day week, with its attendant blackouts; we ate Wimpys, watched ‘On the Buses’, and hurried to the shops before they shut at five. Our rock music was dreary and pretentious, and our comedians told racist jokes on prime-time TV”. Punk in the autumn of 1976 was still very much a tiny sub-cult and attracted little attention beyond a few articles in the NME. A television interview was to change all this. ‘Thames Today’ was a highly successful news magazine for the London region, hosted by Bill Grundy since 1970.

Born in 1923, Grundy was the son of a factory owner and a geology graduate from Manchester University. His main interest in life was journalism and Grundy successfully auditioned for a newsreader’s job with Granada when it opened in 1956. Just as Grundy became famous, or infamous, for introducing the Sex Pistols to the world, he had presented the then-almost unknown Beatles on a Granada show to perform their first hit, ‘Love Me Do’. After a successful career with Granada, Grundy, whose reputation as a witty and penetrating interviewer was well known in the industry, was invited to host ‘Thames Today’, a show which regularly attracted three million viewers in the London area. He also became famous nationally when he appeared as an interviewer in the film version of ‘Man About The House’. Grundy became notorious in a matter of two minutes when Freddie Mercury of Queen, ironically a musician punks hated as they considered him part of the rock establishment, had to pull out of an interview on ‘Thames Today’ on 1 December 1976 due to ill health.

EMI decided to send along their latest signing, the Sex Pistols, who turned up at the Euston Road studios in full punk attire, with John Lydon, then using the name Johnny Rotten, wearing a swastika armband (a deliberate shock tactic as the war had only been over for 31 years and memories were still strong), and the band’s hangers on, who included future punk star Siouxsie Sioux. Grundy, whose musical tastes were mostly classical, took an instant dislike to the group and decided to destroy them on air, knowing that most of his viewers would feel the same about such an anti-social looking group. That this was not to be a typical Grundy interview as would have occurred had Freddie Mercury turned up was made clear early on. The interview began when Grundy proceeded to introduce and provoke the band, with tongue firmly in cheek, even making a joke about “the nice clean Rolling Stones” to wind the Pistols up and provoke a response, although the band ignored it. He joked that he was under the influence as he introduced them – “…they are as drunk as I am!” Initially he received mocking but polite responses from Glen Matlock.

However, Steve Jones, when asked by Grundy what the band had done with the £40,000 given to them by their record company, said: “Fuckin’ spent it”, which was apparently not noticed by Grundy at the time. This was followed by two more uses of the word “fuck” by Jones (only the fourth and fifth occurrences of this on British Television at the time, the only previous occasions being on BBC2 on two little-watched arts shows). Following this, when Grundy asked the group what they thought about his musical heroes Beethoven and Mozart, John Lydon gave a sarcastic answer about the composers and then muttered the word “shit” under his breath, but when asked, said that it was nothing but a “rude word”. Grundy insisted that Rotten repeat what he had said, which he did loudly, and then responded mockingly when Rotten complied. Next, Grundy jokingly made advances on Siouxsie Sioux, who appeared in the background, by saying “let’s meet afterwards shall we?” Steve Jones responded by calling Grundy a “dirty sod” and a “dirty old man”.

Grundy further goaded Jones to “say something outrageous”, a challenge Jones was ready to meet. He called Grundy a “dirty bastard” and a “dirty fucker” (to which Grundy mockingly responded “what a clever boy”) and finally proclaimed “what a fucking rotter.” As the interview ended, Grundy commented acidly “I hope I never see you again” to the band. Some viewers, who were by now aware that Grundy had made a massive mistake by goading the Pistols that would cost him his career, noticed he seemed to mutter something on the lines of an obscenity under his breath as the credits rolled. Although this was a programme that was only broadcast in the Thames region, the repercussions were immense. Thames switchboard was jammed with complaints, although to be fair to the Sex Pistols many viewers rang in complaining that Grundy was drunk and had goaded the band into swearing on air. One viewer was so incensed with the interview he kicked in his television screen and others were disgusted with Thames for allowing such an anti-social looking group airtime.

However, the appearance on ‘Thames Today’ gave punk rock the attention it needed to become the most controversial music cult of all time and I often wonder if its sudden explosion on the scene would never have happened if Freddie Mercury was available to be interviewed. Nick Hornby wrote in The Guardian in September 2007 “Until December 1, 1976, very few people had taken much notice of punk. There wasn’t much music you could buy: the Pistols’ single Anarchy in the UK had been released the week before, and the Damned’s New Rose a month or so before that, but it was perfectly possible to own every English punk record ever made without spending more than a couple of quid. The very next morning, however, it became a national phenomenon, and the cause of a hilarious moral panic”.

Indeed, something as foul and controversial as the Sex Pistols was a complete change from what was dominating the pop charts of the time: Abba owned the singles chart in a way not seen since The Beatles and were the sort of band even grandparents liked; the Christmas number one would be Johnny Mathis warbling “When A Child is Born”; the album charts were dominated by American rock bands like The Eagles and home-grown rock bands with long hair and longer guitar solos. Suddenly punk, which was the polar opposite of all this, was thrown into the limelight and met with the kind of scorn and opposition that made the original hostility towards rock and roll twenty years earlier look tame. The reaction was immediate. Bill Grundy was immediately suspended from Thames, and ‘Today’ was cancelled two months later. Grundy would later be relegated to local television in the North West and would die in obscurity in 1993. EMI, fearing a backlash from record buyers, revoked The Sex Pistols contract.

The day after, the Daily Mirror led with the headline “The Filth and the Fury”, featuring a photograph of the band in an anti-social pose, which also drew more attention to them and probably helped kickstart the careers of other punk acts like The Clash and The Damned. Punk was now thrust into the big time and the reaction was swift, the popular press attacking it for its grimy image and fashions, and many local authorities banning punk acts from playing at their auditoria, fearing outbreaks of violence and anti-social behaviour (not always totally far from the truth, as punk fans had a habit of spitting at their favourite bands, while non-fans sometimes attended gigs merely to attack punks). As for the media, the reaction to punk in the early days was, in the case of ILR stations, not play it as it was considered unattractive to advertisers, or in the case of BBC Radio One, then the only national pop station, restrict it to specialist shows like John Peel’s late at night programme as the music was not considered suitable for daytime.

‘Top of the Pops’, as it was supposed to reflect what was in the Top 40 each week, never had a ban on punk rock, it was just that bands like The Clash and The Sex Pistols hated the “establishment” pop show and refused to appear, although later bands like The Boomtown Rats, who were more melodic and suited to TOTP, were always willing to turn up. (I do recall the Top of the Pops dancers did occasionally forsake their disco routines for a token punk record to show the programme wasn’t biased, performing a very bad interpretation of The Clash’s “Bankrobber”). Also, the minority Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2, more noted as the home of progressive and American rock under host Bob Harris, gradually shifted to a new wave/punk direction in the late seventies and Harris found himself steadily elbowed out by younger presenters like Anne Nightingale, though it must be said round about 1977-78 the show was an uneasy mix of punk and progressive acts with Harris and possibly most of his audience showing little enthusiasm for the new music.

However, when the Sex Pistols decided to name one of their songs “God Save The Queen”, referring to the Queen as they sang “they’ve made you a moron, a potential H bomb”, and released the single in Jubilee week in 1977, it was too much for many people. Britain in 1977 was swept up in a patriotic tide not seen since the Coronation 24 years earlier, with flags and bunting and patriotic displays everywhere (except for the punk hardcore, most young people were swept up in the Jubilee celebrations as well), and here were a group of badly dressed yobbos rubbishing an institution that most people held dear. The reaction was swift from the print media. As “God Save The Queen” headed up the charts and looked likely to become the Jubilee week number one, the BBC and IBA decided to ban the single, leading Record Mirror to comment on 2 June 1977, “150,000 sales! Now Total Blackout” (at the same time, some patriotic workers at the single’s pressing plant refused to press copies).

On the ban on “God Save The Queen”, the controller of Radios One and Two, Charles McLelland commented, “the single is in gross bad taste. We don’t feel the single is suitable to be played on Radios 1 or 2. It is unfortunate because we would like to be able to play everything”. An IBA spokesman also commented on the single as “offending good taste and decency.” Many punk conspiracy theorists believe the BBC manipulated the charts so that “God Save The Queen” was replaced as the Jubilee number one by a Rod Stewart ballad. However, it has to be said all through the year of punk, punk acts found it extremely difficult to break the stranglehold on the charts by conventional musicians as in the socially conservative atmosphere of the time most young adults simply didn’t like punk, so maybe Rod Stewart was more popular after all. The often belittled and sometimes physically assaulted punk poster boy John Lydon received a savage beating shortly after the “God Save The Queen” furore by a group of long haired young men, while punk musicians and followers battled on against a largely hostile media.

However, by 1978, about the same time unemployment and inflation started to fall, punk seemed to have passed its peak and new trends such as the Mod revival, a second generation of punk inspired heavy metal acts like Motörhead and American disco music competed for the teenage market. John Lydon walked out on the Sex Pistols during a disastrous American tour, telling the crowd “ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”, and formed a new post punk act called Public Image Limited where he dropped the Johnny Rotten name and the punk clothes, while the Pistols struggled on as a pantomime act with the hopeless Sid Vicious on vocals until Vicious’s death in February 1979 from an overdose more or less spelled the end of an era. The following year the place for protest music moved from the dying embers of punk to Two Tone, an update on reggae and ska from the sixties, where an even more severe downturn at the start of the eighties found Two Tone acts singing far more articulate songs like “Stand Down Margaret” about the state of the nation than “Smash It Up” by The Damned from a few years earlier.

Also the sixties style suits the bands wore and the more melodic nature of Two Tone/ska music was far more media friendly. For all punk proved to be a shortlived, if legendary to its followers, trend, its influence was gradually felt in the media. In 1978 Thames finally axed the veteran ‘Opportunity Knocks’ after 17 series, with Hughie Green’s infamous “Stand Up and Be Counted” rant against the Labour government leading to his dismissal after ignoring warnings from the broadcaster not to mention politics on his show. Even more dramatic than Bill Grundy’s fall from grace, Green was never seen on television again and an attempt by his followers to get the show back on air was a damp squib. In his place came a show just right for the punk era, ‘The Kenny Everett Video Show’, a completely anarchic comedy and music show with rapid fire sketches, performances by contemporary music acts and, of course, a punk send up in the shape of Gizzard Puke.

The punks, and plenty of non-punks including this author, loved it as it was completely the opposite of the rather stolid ITV light entertainment of the time and light years of the ageing Hughie Green intoning “I mean it most sincerely folks”, which he probably wasn’t sincere about, as he introduced another cabaret act on his show. Also just right for the times was ‘Tiswas’, again a completely anarchic Saturday morning kids show that had started on ATV in 1974, but whose popularity in the Midlands had gradually persuaded most other ITV regions to ditch their Tarzan repeats and tame offerings like ‘The Saturday Show’ and show ‘Tiswas’. Still fondly remembered now, ‘Tiswas’ was two hours of mayhem – OK it fulfilled its IBA remit to be educational by having brief serious features amid all the custard pie throwing – where Chris Tarrant, Sally James and Bob Carolgees behaved as badly as they wanted, celebrities were gunged and showered with water, and the audience behaved like they would at a punk gig.

Again, like Kenny Everett, it was a show you loved or hated as it was up against the more sober and respectable ‘Swap Shop’ on BBC-1, where entertainment was provided by tame pop acts like Liverpool Express, John Craven interviewed Margaret Thatcher and the whole atmosphere was respectable and middle class. (Indeed, ‘Tiswas’ haters, who mostly preferred ‘Swap Shop’, frequently vented their anger in the letters page of Look-In, one letter I remember saying “Tiswas is so unfunny and boring I wish someone would throw a custard pie at it.”) However, what would the majority of teenagers really want to watch: John Craven discussing the economy with Margaret Thatcher or the Phantom Flan Flinger? Chris Tarrant was probably right when he made a coded attack on ‘Swap Shop’ when he said “this is what will take over from Waggoners Walk” [a tame radio soap on Radio 2 that was being scrapped in 1979]. However, the punk influence really began to make its mark in comedy and entertainment in the eighties.

Comedy in the late seventies was dominated by an old guard who were perceived by a new wave of comedians, often punk fans, to be racist, sexist and unfunny. The so called alternative movement, where young comedians performed a politicised and totally non-racist and non-sexist act, began to gain ground at the start of the eighties. Some of the acts had a madcap edge to them, which could have been influenced by Kenny Everett, that was completely at odds with traditional stand up. (The madcap, anarchic edge to alternative comedy was best represented by the alternative movement’s first sitcom success, in 1982, with ‘The Young Ones’) Although traditional comedy acts and entertainment shows continued to dominate the television in the early eighties, a gradual change started to appear.

The launch of Channel 4 in 1982 and its determination to be radical and cutting edge – one could almost class it as the punk rock channel as it was determined to move away from the BBC and ITV style of programming – saw alternative humour rise to prominence with the often political and obscenity strewn ‘Comic Strip Presents…’ becoming its first major comedy hit and comedians favoured by BBC-1 and ITV not welcome on shows like ‘Saturday Night Live’. Although punk was just about dead by the time Channel 4 launched its ‘Top Of The Pops’ rival, ‘The Tube’, in 1982, the show was hosted by a former new wave musician, Jools Holland, who was the keys man in Squeeze, and the show had an anarchic, punkish edge to it that contrasted with the ordered format of Top of the Pops, which had barely changed since 1964. However, Holland had his own Sex Pistols moment in 1986 when his use of “fuck” in a promo for ‘The Tube’ led to the show being cancelled and several Tyne Tees executives receiving warnings.

The more conservative BBC and ITV gradually moved with the times and by the end of the decade, with the spectacular dismissal of Benny Hill by Thames in May 1989, entertainment’s version of the punk revolution was almost complete with entertainers popular at the start of the decade either dead, retired or relegated to hosting game shows and the new guard in charge. Also attitudes to bad language were gradually relaxed, with EastEnders and Brookside sometimes featuring language that was far stronger than that heard in Coronation Street, although the f-word was still banned before 9pm, a situation that exists now. By the mid-nineties no-one under 50 seemed shocked by swearing on the television and nowadays a housemate letting loose with a string of obscenities in the ‘Big Brother’ house is barely commented on. Certainly the successor to the IBA, OfCom, seems to regard the use of bad language as acceptable after 9pm and certainly would not ask Channel 4 to drop the show as would have happened in the seventies. However, while someone using the f-word no longer shocks, the way it is often used wantonly by some comedians tends to look boring and immature.

Even punk now is seen as little more controversial than the music trends that have come and gone in the last fifty years. Radio 2 will quite willingly play old punk songs on Sounds of the Seventies, while John Lydon has become almost respectable by appearing on I’m A Celebrity (the Sex Pistols in their heyday openly hated most television entertainment shows) and making adverts for butter. Nick Hornby commented in The Guardian about how attitudes towards punk have changed, saying “if ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ were to be released now, Daily Telegraph readers would be offered an exclusive free download”. Punk is now seen as no more harmful than glam rock was and no one is threatened by it. However, the music, just as it totally altered the music industry in the late seventies, has also had a lasting impression on television. This article originally stated that Kenny Everett’s punk character was Sid Snot. It has since been corrected to note that the character was actually Gizzard Puke. Amazon.com: Agents Of Anarchy: Sex Pistols: MP3 Downloads TITLE added to MP3 cart Agents Of Anarchy MP3 Music, June 21, 2010 "Please retry" Your Amazon Music account is currently associated with a different marketplace.

To enjoy Prime Music, go to Your Music Library and transfer your account to Amazon.com (US). Fix in Music Library Sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC. Additional taxes may apply. By placing your order, you agree to our Terms of Use . Related Video Shorts Original Release Date: June 21, 2010 Release Date: June 21, 2010 Number of Discs: 2 Label: Landmark (Entertain Me Ltd) Copyright: (c) 2010 Landmark (Entertain Me Ltd) Total Length: 1:34:19 By Best Of All on April 8, 2009 This is a 2-CD odds-n-ends collection of studio work produced by Dave Goodman and live recordings, with a couple of interviews tossed into the mix. The Goodman demos have been available in a variety of bootleg and official bootleg releases, both on vinyl and CD. This is not a comprehensive collection - it has nine tracks - with the disc concluding with an interview of band members before the infamous January 1978 Winterland Ballroom gig.

The second disc has a dozen live tracks and the December 1976 Bill Grundy interview that actually has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Though the set hops around various points of the band's career, it is a nice sampler for new fans or a means for others to supplement their discography with material they may have had difficulty tracking down on CD. 1.0 out of 5 stars Never Mind The Quality By Tim Donderevo on July 16, 2009 I downloaded the version of MY WAY from this album, and its TERRIBLE QUALITY. It sounds like its either been recorded from the DVD of the Great Rock N Roll Swindle with the level clipping or compressed at a really low level for the MP3 download. Look elsewhere to get MY WAY - I suggest buying 'The Great Rock N Roll Swindle' soundtrack CD from Amazon: NOTE: This version does not include the opening verse and full orchestration from the Movie version of the song.

Never Mind The Bollocks | rhino.com Never Mind The Bollocks Rhino Factoids: Sex Pistols on the Walk of Fame Submitted by rhino on Tue, 09/13/2016 - 2:12pm 11 years ago today, the Sex Pistols found their way onto the Avenue of Stars in London’s Covent Garden, an honor which would seem way more impressive if they hadn’t ended up removing all the stars only a year later. Tags: On This Day in 1977: Sid Vicious uses a bicycle chain very irresponsibly Submitted by rhino on Wed, 06/15/2016 - 1:48pm 40 years ago today, one of the most infamous incidents in the all-too-short life and times of Sid Vicious took place within the walls of a legendary London punk club. Having spent the initial months of 1976 slowly but surely building up their reputation as one of the premier punk bands in London, the Sex Pistols found themselves returning to the famed 100 Club in London for the fifth time.

At this stage of their career, Glen Matlock was still the band’s bassist, but the aforementioned Mr. Vicious was very much one of the Pistols’ regular hangers-on, and he was hanging out with them that very night. Tags: Rhino Factoids: A Very Punky Holiday Season Submitted by rhino on Fri, 12/26/2014 - 2:26pm When you think December, you tend to think of the holidays, but if you were living in the UK in December 1976 and had even a passing interest in popular music, then your daily waking thoughts were likely less about what presents you were going to get and more about what the next Sex Pistols controversy was going to be. It was one hell of a December for the Pistols, starting with the very first day of the month, when the band made their infamous appearance on the UK talk show Today, hosted by Bill Grundy.

Surely you know the story: Johnny Rotten made the mistake of muttering “shit” under his breath, which was bad enough, but then Steve Jones started getting riled up when Grundy began to act flirtatious with Siouxsie Sioux, who’d come onstage with the band, and when Grundy made the mistake of suggesting that Jones “say something outrageous,” Jones happily acquiesced, dropping a couple of F-bombs and assuring that the Sex Pistols would make the cover of The Daily Express.

(The headline of their story will likely sound familiar: “The Filth and the Fury.”) The producer and director of Today were fired as a result of the incident, Grundy earned a two-week suspension, and the Pistols suddenly found several dates on their upcoming tour canceled, but EMI stood behind the band, saying, “We feel that in many cases the media deliberately provoked this act; in no way does this affect the group’s relationship with EMI.” Tags: Rhino Factoids: The Sex Pistols say, “Hello, EMI!” Submitted by rhino on Thu, 10/09/2014 - 12:26pm 38 years ago today, music fans in the UK awoke to discover that the Sex Pistols had been signed to a deal with EMI Records, a situation which it’s fair to say didn’t play out in quite as successful a fashion as the label might’ve hoped. Nor did the band let them forget it: even now, you can hear a summary of the Pistols’ brief stint on EMI as the closing track of the band’s lone album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

In his book Punk Diary 1970-1979, George Gimarc describes the Sex Pistols’ meeting with EMI as “a four hour rush meeting,” with the label’s A&R manager, Nick Mobbs, quoted as saying, “For me, the Sex Pistols are a backlash against the ‘nice little band’ syndrome and the general stagnation of the music industry. They’ve got to happen for all our sakes. Here at last is a group with a bit of guts for the younger people to identify with.” Clearly, Mobbs wasn’t the only person at the label who was excited about the Pistols’ possibilities: the band earned a reported £40,000 payday when they signed to EMI, which isn’t a bad payday when you consider that they were dropped by the label a mere three months later, having released precisely one single during their tenure. Tags: Rhino Factoids: S.P.O.T.S.

(Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly) Submitted by rhino on Tue, 08/19/2014 - 10:37am 37 years ago today, the Sex Pistols embarked on a brief set of dates around the UK, but because of the amount of infamy they’d already accumulated during the course of their career, the band decided it’d be in their best interest to be booked at venues under fake names, resulting in what has come to be known as the S.P.O.T.S. tour, an acronym which stands for Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly. In an interview included within Sex Pistols: The Inside Story, by Fred & Judy Vermorel, Paul Cook was asked to explain the thinking behind doing the secret gigs. “Well, we decided to do these gigs, like, just for one, ‘cause we want to play anyway, and we hadn’t played in England for such a long time,” said Cook. “And we couldn’t publicize them, ‘cause if we did, some councilor might just come and say, ‘Right, you’re not playing here,’ we they have done and they can do, for any stupid reason.

So we decided to go to each individual promoter ourselves, who owned their private clubs and who could put us on without having to ask someone else, and told them to keep it secret. But we knew enough word would get out that people would know we were playing – which they did. So it weren’t totally unfair on the fans anyway, ‘cause most of them who wanted to see us come to see us. And all the places were packed out, so enough word got ‘round for people to know we were playing.” Tags: Bill Grundy - IMDb IMDb 29 December 2016 2:33 AM, UTC NEWS Producer | Miscellaneous Crew | Actor Bill Grundy was born on February 20, 1923 in Chorlton, Manchester, Lancashire, England as William Grundy. He is known for his work on What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), The Flower of Gloster (1967) and All Our Yesterdays (1960). He was married to Jane Nicholson. He died on February 9, 1993 in Marple, Cheshire, England.

See full bio » Born: a list of 637 people created 10 Sep 2014 Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Bill Grundy's work have you seen? User Polls 1960 All Our Yesterdays (TV Series documentary) (producer) Hide 1962 People and Places (TV Series) Presenter 2012 What to Expect When You're Expecting (writer: "Shivas Regal (Theme For Gypsy)") 2001 Manitou's Shoe (writer: "Theme for Gypsy") 1999 Mickey Blue Eyes (writer: "Shivers Regal") Hide 1978 In Search of... (TV Series documentary) Himself Did You Know? Personal Quote: Go ahead. You've got five more seconds. Say something outrageous. (His infamous last words to the Sex Pistols, December 1976, "Today Programme." The Pistols obliged him, and the ensuing ruckus cost him his job.) Trivia: Conducted the legendary interview with The Sex Pistols in 1976 on the Today show.

The Pistols were swearing and some people felt that he goaded them during the interview. It is remembered as a landmark in British TV history. See more » Star Sign:

Question: Who carried out the infamous interview with the Sex Pistols on the Today show in December 1976?
Answer: Bill Grundy