The Sex Pistols and controversy seemed to go hand in hand with one another.
In late 1976 the punk rock band who still relatively unknown to most of the public
would appear on British Television. Their appearance would result in one of the biggest
uproars on British Television history. That’s what were ging to explore in today’s video.
On December 1, 1976 the rock band Queen was set to appear on a program called Today,
a regional show on Thames Television. It was a live program so of course profanity was
forbidden. The program was hosted by a 53 year old anchor Bill Grundy, but the band had to bow out
of the appearance after frontman Freddie Mercury developed a tooth ache. Mercury wasn’t a big fan
of dentists but the pain became so unbearable he booked an appointment, his first one in 15
years. The band’s label EMI, instead offered up a new group they had signed named Sex Pistols. The
bandhad just released their first single “Anarchy in the UK” The band were also in rehearsals for
their 1976 Anarchy Tour at the time. Bassist Glen Matlock would recall how the interview
nearly never happened according to faroutmagazine saying, “We very nearly didn’t do it, “This big
limousine turned up outside this place. [Being] punk rockers we were like: ‘We’re not getting in
that thing.’ Then this phone call came through from [band manager] Malcolm McLaren saying:
‘If you don’t do it your wages will be stopped this week.’ We were all in the car like a shot.”
While the punk scene in the UK was getting a lot of coverage in the music press, the mainstream
media hadn’t really paid attention yet. The interview couldn’t have come at a better time.
In 1976, it wasn’t common to hear the f word spoken on tv. In fact it had only happened
twice up until this point and both instances caught the attention of the parliament. .
The interview was partially fuelded by alcohol on the sex pistols part
according to johnny rotten who said They made us wait a real long time in what they jokingly call
the green room, which was just free drink,” Guitarist Steve Jones recalled drinking a lot
ahead of the appearance while bassist Glen Matlock claimed the band didn’t drink that much ahead of
their appearance on the show. Another hting that may have provoked the profanity laden interview
was that Siouxie Soux was on the air with the band with the Sex Pistols that night and Grundy
had apparently been flirtatious with her before the band went live on the air. It was something
Johnny Rotten took note of and called him out. Here’s a clip of the the interview
Studio producer Mike Housego would recall the incident in 1992 “They were only allotted 90
seconds, and I thought, ‘Well, not much can go wrong…‘” programme’s researcher,
Christine Whitehead, had “warned Mike in advance that they might say ‘fuck’”.
Classic Rock Magazine would obtain documents from the Thames television
about the aftermath of the incident. A studio producer named Mike Housego
who was in charge of the live broadcast would write a memo after the appearance
that revealed that after the interview the band was taken to the green room where they were
harassing studio employees. Add to the fact that the studio only had 12 phone lines, which were
not enough to handle all the angry calls from the public. The phone calls that couldn’t be handled
by the studios phone system redirected the calls to the green room, which the members of the band
answered. Unsupervised in the green room, the band launched into more profanity at the angry callers.
In the years after the appearance there were several theories put forward as to what happened.
Some pointed the finger at host Bill Grundy for being under the influence,
a charge he has long denied. The internal documents that Classic Rock uncovered make
no mention of this. Others claimed that the whole thing was planned to
boost the band’s profile as Thames Television was partly owned by EMI.
Even though Today was a program that was limited to London and teh surrounding areas,
the interview made national headlines. The tabloids had a field day with the Daily
Mirror writing on their front page “The Filth and the Fury” with politicians weaponizing
the incident and vowing not to let the group perform for young fans and in their cities.
Of course any publicity is good publicity. The band’s manager Malcolm McLaren would write in 2007
“I knew the moment the autocue lady threw up her hands and her bag, her make-up cascading through
the air, that we had smashed the deception. It was live TV and the Sex Pistols were front-page.”
Guitarist Steve Jones’ had a different recollection of McLaren saying “He was terrified.”
So whatever happened to the host Bill Grundy? Well the television station wasn’t happy with his
behavior as they blamed him for antagonizing the band. He would be suspensed for two weeks with the
stations program director Jeremy Isaacs saying Grundy and i quote a gross error of judgment"
leading from and i quote "inexcusably sloppy journalism’ The Today program would be cancelled
several months after the incident and Grundy would never be seen in prime time TV again.
He would pass away at the age of in 1993 due to heart attack. In 2008, a survey
showed the Grundy interview as the most requested clip in UK television history.