Cool! I like the 1977 Rolling Stone article linked at the end of the piece as well. I'll read just about anything about music I like (and even quite a bit about music I'm not that fond of).

Recently I've been rewatching the DVDs covering this era (Filth & Fury, Punk Rock Movie, several Clash DVDs, etc) which has also sparked to me to break out some of the old punk books and articles - so this is perfect timing!

Thanks for this, BP. What most people don't realise is that the Pistols' appearance on Bill Grundy's show wasn't seen around the country, because it was a regional news programme, for the London area. I was living in London at the time (I'd just moved there) and didn't have a TV, so I missed it, although of course everyone was talking about it the next day. It was some years before I ever saw the clip. It wasn't considered 'fit for broadcast' until, I think, the 1990s when people finally were allowed to say 'fuck' on television.

I got a job at Sounds (a now-defunct music paper) in early 1977, and so was in the heart of it all, as it was happening. British music had been in the doldrums for a few years, awful 'prog-rock', disco, teenybopper music, and very little that was new or exciting.

I wouldn't exactly say that punk was a breath of fresh air, because far too much of it stank to high heaven. The middle-aged A&R men were desperate not to miss the next big thing, and they were signing anyone and everyone.

There was still a huge amount of respect for the Royal Family in 1977. I suspect that much of this was because what we knew or were told about them was very tightly controlled. It was way before the days of Charles & Diana, tapped phone calls, and TV confessions of adultery. Royalty was greatly revered by the working classes. The street where I grew up in the Midlands had a street party on Jubilee Day, and there were street parties held all over the country to celebrate and flag-wave. Virginia Wade had just won Wimbledon, the first Briton to do so in decades, and there was a great sense of national pride.

So the Pistols were an affront to the Establishment and to 'right-thinking' people everywhere, allegedly. By that time I no longer had contact with my parents, but I can guess what their reaction would have been - outrage and horror. I can hear my dad saying "I fought in the war for the likes of them. National Service would do them good ..."

The only Pistol I ever met was Sid Vicious, and then just briefly when he came into the Sounds office (above Covent Garden tube station) one day. He was practically incoherent and although the lights were on, there was nobody home.

Everyone knew John Lydon was a shrewd bastard and that he and McLaren were only in it for the money.

My god, it was a lifetime ago.

Oddly, the Rolling Stone article goes on to quote Bernard Brooke-Partridge (the ’loathe and detest’ chap) as having said:

Now, I’ve seen many of the groups play. I’ve nothing against Mick Jagger and his ilk. Some of his gestures appeared lewd, and they were probably meant that way, but the audience was not tearing up the seats. I will say this for the Sex Pistols: there’s one band that’s a damn sight worse: the Bay City Rollers.

a sad instance of the Pistols failing to outdo the Rollers in provoking reactionary contempt…

wow essexjan - you worked at Sounds in 77?!?! That is way too cool. I didn't start picking it up until around 1982, but I backtracked and found a lot of issues from punk's first wave which greatly influenced what I was listening to.

wow essexjan - you worked at Sounds in 77?!?!

My thoughts exactly. One more reason I'm in awe of our ej!

I liked how this article points out that Grundy was sort of egging the Pistols on in that interview... even back then the instinct of the mainstream media was to focus on the freak show more than the music.

Also, that quote misteraitch found is cracking me up.

You do, of course, realise that this makes me older than dirt.

essexjan:

You do, of course, realise that this makes me older than dirt.

Yeah, but it's punk dirt, which actually works in your favor. A few years ago a co-worker told me about his first concert (that his parents drove him to) and I explained that I was the guy that hung all of the posters at the show. I saw him do the math in his head and then he looked concerned, and finally asked "How old ARE you?". I suddenly felt much older.

But very, very cool dirt!

In my defence I will say that I was still in my teens when I worked at Sounds.

Everyone knew John Lydon was a shrewd bastard and that he and McLaren were only in it for the money.

I just can't believe this. From what I understand, Lydon didn't make much, if anything, off the Pistols. Not until recently, of course. And what about PIL? That was hardly a commercial enterprise. He could've totally cashed in at that point if he had wanted to.

He probably didn't make much money from the Pistols but he always wanted to, which was against the ethos of the times. I believe he started buying property in the late 70s and now has a substantial portfolio.

Well, I think he was seeing all the money McLaren was getting out of their name and naturally wanted a piece. Can't blame him for that. Wanting to make money and it only being about the money are two totally different things. That US tour he was sick for many of the dates, and McLaren barely shelled out for tissues.

To bring this full circle: that U.S. tour opened here in Atlanta, and my parents REFUSED to let me attend. I was only 13 at the time, so I couldn't get there myself... ah, to have missed history by just *that* much.

Wanting to make money and it only being about the money are two totally different things.

What I meant was that, when everyone was spouting off about how it was all about anarchy, sticking two fingers up to authority, not selling out, etc., it was as plain as a pikestaff that McLaren and Lydon thought all that was a load of bollocks and that they were in it for themselves and what they could get out of it.

Yeah, funny, it's clear to many English parents they were a nasty sort, but to a lot of American parents they must've been seen as pure evil incarnate.

it was as plain as a pikestaff that McLaren and Lydon thought all that was a load of bollocks and that they were in it for themselves and what they could get out of it.

Now that, to borrow a phrase from your side of the language, seems spot on.

I will say this for the Sex Pistols: there’s one band that’s a damn sight worse: the Bay City Rollers.

a sad instance of the Pistols failing to outdo the Rollers in provoking reactionary contempt…

Oddly, the Ramones (who the Pistols considered mentors and heoes, were fans of the Rollers. They based they 'Hey! Ho!' in 'Blitzkrieg Bop,' on 'Saturday Night,' figuring they might have a hit.

Also, while UK Punk was definitely not without it's great moments (the Pistols, The Damned, X-ray Spex, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers), the New York and Detroit bands were far better and more influential in the long run.

/blatant regional chauvanism