Bill Grundy And The Sex Pistols

The single incident that involved the Bromley Contingent and the Sex Pistols and which propelled the latter and Punk Rock into the eye of the media hurricane was the Bill Grundy TV incident.

In 1976 UK TV consisted of just 3 channels, BBC1, BBC 2 and ITV. As such, these channels commanded huge audiences for programmes and the Sex Pistols were about to hit TV. Eric Hall (later more famous as the cigar chomping agent for footballers like Gazza aka Paul Gascoigne) arranged for them to appear instead of the EMI band Queen on the Today programme whose presenter was Bill Grundy. While an EMI limo was off to Heathrow to pick up The Heartbreakers flying in from New York to appear on the ‘Anarchy Tour’, the Sex Pistols with Bromley Contingent members Severin, Siouxsie, Simone Thomas and Simon Barker were partaking of the drinks in hospitality and preparing unwittingly to enter television history, as the chasm between youth and age was forever expressed in two minutes of television.

Goaded by a drunk and lecherous Grundy to say something controversial, the Sex Pistols swore on live TV and all hell broke loose. For the next three days, acting with typical commendable and righteous indignation, the moral media went into overdrive. The Daily Telegraph, Mirror, Mail, Express and Sun all devoted front pages to the band. The Daily Mirror’s front page ‘The Filth & the Fury’ was the later title of Julian Temple’s Sex Pistol’s film. Others were ‘TV Fury At Rock Cult Filth’ (Daily Mirror 2.12.76), ‘Who Are These Punks’ (Daily Mirror 2.12.76) and ‘Siouxsie’s a Punk Shocker’ (Daily Mirror 3.12.76).

Punk goes public in a media frenzy!

All this tuned the full media glare on Punk Rock and its reproving eye.

Nils Stevenson (Siouxsie & the Banshees Manager) Amazing response from the national press: the story’s on every front page and news bulletin. We’re no longer enigmatic freaks, we’re suddenly despised ‘Punks’. People used to get out of the way, but now they barge me off the pavement. Nils & Ray Stevenson, Vacant, 1999

Siouxsie We didn’t realise how important that incident was…We were in the Green room afterwards, the phones started going – people complaining about the filth – and us answering, saying “F**k off you stupid c**t.”… All of a sudden we were Public Enemy Number One. Siouxsie Mojo 2000 about the Bill Grundy incident

Oh yes, in true tabloid style, the media wanted blood and the usual method was the demonisation of Punk as foul-mouthed, violent anarchists, out to shock and disgust. Thanks to the media, if you were a Punk you were an outsider, a rebel and to a youngster that’s a very appealing, potent rock ’n’ roll combination. With the amount of press it got there could hardly be a teenager in the country unaware of Punk Rock. Youth, rebellion and rock ’n’ roll were once again front page news in both tabloid media and the music weeklies and it simultaneously galvanised part of the populace to form bands overnight, change direction and dress differently while allowing other parts to react with disgust, disbelief and quite often violence. All good fun!

At the same time it helped polarise the weekly music press causing a flurry of letters into their letters page denouncing and supporting. If you were a kid then it was quite easy to see what side of the fence you should be on. New writers like Burchill and Parsons in the New Musical Express came through as the voice of youth and this new style. Elsewhere you had Caroline Coon and Jonh Ingham writing for Melody Maker, and Chas de Whalley and Giovanni Dadomo for Sounds.

However, if it was hard enough getting gigs as a Punk Rock group pre-Grundy it was ten times worse afterwards. Venue bans, fear of violence, limited playing ability and equipment meant bands had nowhere to play. The Sex Pistols Anarchy tour featuring the Damned, Clash, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers (basically the cream of the so-called ‘Punk’ movement) found their initial twenty-six dates whittled down to just three as bans following their TV appearance came into force and not helped by McLaren’s inflammatory wind-ups to the press. It suited McLaren’s publicity machine fine to portray Punk as a snarling, vicious, spitting anarchic machine out to destroy the public’s morals and the very fabric of society, as we know it.

It will be very likely there will be violence at some of the gigs” says tour organiser Malcolm McLaren “because it is violent music. We don’t necessarily think violence is a bad thing because you have to destroy to create.  Daily Mirror, Who Are These Punks? 2.12.76

Music and fashion were now inextricably linked in a Punk scene and fascinated the media, not least the sexual aspect of the clothes.

They dance to songs that preach destruction…devotion to the cult means wearing safety pins through their nostrils…other Punk hallmarks include swastikas and hairstyles that look as though they have been created with carving knives…Punk Rock girls, with lips painted black, are just as startling. Their outfits include shocking coloured tights with just a G-string over them, and t-shirts with zips over the boobs. Daily Mirror 1.12.7

Punk was now over ground and the media helped disperse the fashions to a wider audience. Clothes, hairstyles and body adornments now ranged through all the extremes. And the media soon latched onto them. The magazine New Society concisely, if sometimes inaccurately, described the Punk look.

Their hair is cut close to the bone, often dyed bizarre colours. Make-up is worn by both sexes…Some wear black vinyl or see through black fishnet vests. Drainpipes, lurex trousers and stiletto heeled shoes are popular with the girls, while the boys wear shirts with the arms torn off at the shoulder, or T-shirts slashed as if with knife thrusts. Body jewellery includes leather straps, chains, razor blade pendants (implying the use of cocaine), and earrings in the shape of scissors. The overall impression is of Clockwork Orange meets New York sado-masochism with just a hint of Weimar.

A few days after the Bill Grundy and the Sex Pistols incident ‘SEX’ the shop changed its name to Seditionaries. In contrast to the provocative and aggressive clothes it sold, its exterior of frosted glass made the interior invisible from the street. It also gave it an air of anonymity and a shop for those in the know, not the causal passerby. A plaque outside bore the shop’s name and the following message.

Clothes For Heroes
Open Monday to Saturday
11am TO 6pm

Inside the shop was stark with images of a bombed-out Dresden on its walls. As the Sex Pistols achieved notoriety so did focus on the clothes they wore leading to their appearance in magazines as diverse as Harpers & Queen, Just 17 and Honey.

Likewise just days after the Sex Pistols media controversy, the system was already digesting and making Punk palatable for the masses. In true two faced media style though, The Mirror in its Daily incarnation was the scourge of Punk Rock while its Sunday edition (12.12.1976) was offering fashion tips. In it, Eve Pollard gave a full page guide on how to dress like a Punk. The kindest thing to say though is it’s laughable.

Over the past few weeks we have seen the ugly side of Punk Rock. But there are hundreds of nice ordinary kids who don’t spit and shout obscenities and who believe one good thing has come out of Punk rock: PUNK FASHION.

There then followed an article around a main picture of four clowns dressed hideously in what they thought was trendy Punk rock attire of bin bags, safety pins and bog chains. The article then breaks down that look by price for the wannabee Punk.

Tot up the cost of their outfits this way: Launderette bags 15p, dustbin liners 10p, safety pins, 15p a packet; small paper clips, 15p a packet of 30; large, 25p a packet. From stationary shops anywhere. Lavatory chains from 59p, at larger Woolworth’s.

The article finished with some cautionary advice about piercing your nose, ears or cheeks with safety pins. It hurts and it can go wrong!

What’s interesting is that already key faces like Pirroni, Severin etc. weren’t aware of Punk Rock growing. For them and others it was some vague concept loosely based around look, style, attitude and influences. They were quite precious about it and hated the fact that someone could just get a ready made version of Punk from the media.

Marco Pirroni (the Models) We were just doing things and weren’t aware we were getting involved in some big movement. Suddenly other people got it fully formed from the papers (it wasn’t because they weren’t as hip as us. It was OK because they lived in different places and were a lot younger at home with their mums and dads).

When the Pistols came on TV, they just saw Punk Rock fully formed, fully done with all its fashions and rules blah blah blah and then they read about how to be a Punk in the Sun, Mirror and Daily Mail.

We didn’t know how you were supposed to be a Punk. We didn’t even know we were Punks. We didn’t worry about what we were or what we were doing. We were just doing it. There was a clear divide between originators and followers. Suddenly there was these people coming in who were saying ‘I’m a Punk.’ Punk77 Interview

Whatever the opinion the Bill Grundy incident had a seismic impact on the Sex Pistols; banned from playing and eventually dropped by EMI which suited the image and McLaren’s but was in effect disastrous for the band and sowed the seeds already for their demise. It also had a seismic effect on Punk which became media fodder and touched a nerve in the nation’s youth, swelling its ranks and sending it firmly overground much to the dismay of its originators (or rather those lucky to be in the right place at the right time) which would lead to a massive increase in fans and bands.

After Bill Grundy and the Bill Grundy and the Sex Pistols incident, things would never be the same again!

Check out the Urban Myths take on the event.

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