Fact #117340
When:
Short story:
In a notorious UK tv interview with chat show host Bill Grundy, The Sex Pistols unleash several four letter words. This infamous incident will inspire the band Television Personalities to release the single Where's Bill Grundy Now?
Full article:
Mark Rye (label manager, EMI) : This was the first serious tv we’d got on the band, and we’d only got it because Queen dropped out at the last minute, so there was a bunch of us sitting at EMI watching the show go out.
Glen Matlock (bassist, Sex Pistols) : Grundy was a big interviewer at the time, the first person to interview The Beatles. He’d done Elizabeth Taylor too. We got the show because Queen pulled out at the last minute. He didn’t really want to interview us, and he took it out on us, going, ‘Say something outrageous.’
John Lydon : We were supposed to go on and be nice boys. Grundy must have had a drinking problem. Steve was goaded into swearing after something I mumbled …
………..
THE GRUNDY CONVERSATION … EDITED HIGHLIGHTS
Grundy : I'm told you have received £40,000 from a record company. Doesn't that seem ...er ... to be slightly opposed to your anti-materialistic view of life?
Glen Matlock : No. The more the merrier.
Grundy : Well, tell me more then.
Steve Jones : We've fuckin' spent it, ain't we?
Grundy : Really?
Glen Matlock : Down the boozer.
(Grundy makes some comment to Siouxsie Sioux, who is with The Pistols)
Steve 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.
Steve Jones : You dirty bastard.
Grundy : Go on, again.
Steve Jones : You dirty fucker.
Grundy : What a clever boy.
Steve Jones : What a fucking rotter.
………….
John Lydon : Bill Grundy was a fat, sexist beer monster who knew nothing about us and shouldn’t have been interviewing us in the first place. All we did was point that out. All he was interested in was the tits.
Mark Rye : We all thought it was hilarious. The more outrageous it got, the more I was thinking, ‘Brilliant! This’ll sell loads of records.’
Paul Cook (drummer, Sex Pistols) : Steve was drunk but he was hilarious. His timing is so good. That it caused such a stink seems bizarre now but it’s an indication of how sleepy everything was.
Glen Matlock : When we finished, I wanted to go and have another drink in the green room. Malcolm just grabbed me and threw me into the limo EMI had provided. As we pulled off, half a dozen cops turned up with their truncheons hanging out. We waved at them nicely as we drove off.
John Lydon : After the Grundy thing, Malcolm got very frightened. He did not have a plan. Except destruction, really - trivialise the whole thing and take the fear away.
Glen Matlock : McLaren was terrified. He shit himself.
Captain Sensible (The Damned) : They came back to The Roxy in Harlesden, where we were all rehearsing. They looked utterly miserable. After the show, McLaren tore into them. He was convinced they’d blown it. He was appalled. ‘You fuckin’ idiots, you’ve ruined everything. We’re finished.’ He was apparently in tears. He thought it was all over. The vibe was bad for the rest of the day.
Malcolm McLaren : When we went down to the Green Room, there was Steve and Siouxsie getting hold of all the ringing phones and saying, 'This is Thames, get of the fucking phone you stupid old prat.'
Siouxsie Sioux : 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.
Malcolm McLaren : The EMI chauffeur came whizzing through the revolving doors and said, ‘Come on boys I've got to get you out of this straight away. There's going to be a storm.’
Jordan : It was the best publicity you could get really. It alienated the Sex Pistols from every ordinary, normal, God-fearing person in the country, which immediately made every child of those God-fearing parents absolutely adore the Sex Pistols. There was a great influx of outrage on the one hand, and love on the other.
Steve Jones : From that day on it was different. Before then it was just the music - the next day it was the media.
Paul Cook : Our lives changed totally after that. We became public enemy number one, couldn’t walk down the street without some arsehole having a go. It was that serious. You had to be careful of Teddy Boys, right wing thugs or boot boys, usually because of the mass hysteria that the press had instigated.
Leslie Hill (MD, EMI) : I had some personal reservations but I felt here we were again with something big. It was like another Beatles - 50,000 singles sold in just a few weeks - and we’d been talking for years about finding a new Beatles. It wasn’t just the Sex Pistols that were the problem. It was the damage I knew would be done to us in the recording industry at large because, if we let them go, people on the outside would see us again as a fuddy-duddy record company.
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Glen Matlock (bassist, Sex Pistols) : Grundy was a big interviewer at the time, the first person to interview The Beatles. He’d done Elizabeth Taylor too. We got the show because Queen pulled out at the last minute. He didn’t really want to interview us, and he took it out on us, going, ‘Say something outrageous.’
John Lydon : We were supposed to go on and be nice boys. Grundy must have had a drinking problem. Steve was goaded into swearing after something I mumbled …
………..
THE GRUNDY CONVERSATION … EDITED HIGHLIGHTS
Grundy : I'm told you have received £40,000 from a record company. Doesn't that seem ...er ... to be slightly opposed to your anti-materialistic view of life?
Glen Matlock : No. The more the merrier.
Grundy : Well, tell me more then.
Steve Jones : We've fuckin' spent it, ain't we?
Grundy : Really?
Glen Matlock : Down the boozer.
(Grundy makes some comment to Siouxsie Sioux, who is with The Pistols)
Steve 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.
Steve Jones : You dirty bastard.
Grundy : Go on, again.
Steve Jones : You dirty fucker.
Grundy : What a clever boy.
Steve Jones : What a fucking rotter.
………….
John Lydon : Bill Grundy was a fat, sexist beer monster who knew nothing about us and shouldn’t have been interviewing us in the first place. All we did was point that out. All he was interested in was the tits.
Mark Rye : We all thought it was hilarious. The more outrageous it got, the more I was thinking, ‘Brilliant! This’ll sell loads of records.’
Paul Cook (drummer, Sex Pistols) : Steve was drunk but he was hilarious. His timing is so good. That it caused such a stink seems bizarre now but it’s an indication of how sleepy everything was.
Glen Matlock : When we finished, I wanted to go and have another drink in the green room. Malcolm just grabbed me and threw me into the limo EMI had provided. As we pulled off, half a dozen cops turned up with their truncheons hanging out. We waved at them nicely as we drove off.
John Lydon : After the Grundy thing, Malcolm got very frightened. He did not have a plan. Except destruction, really - trivialise the whole thing and take the fear away.
Glen Matlock : McLaren was terrified. He shit himself.
Captain Sensible (The Damned) : They came back to The Roxy in Harlesden, where we were all rehearsing. They looked utterly miserable. After the show, McLaren tore into them. He was convinced they’d blown it. He was appalled. ‘You fuckin’ idiots, you’ve ruined everything. We’re finished.’ He was apparently in tears. He thought it was all over. The vibe was bad for the rest of the day.
Malcolm McLaren : When we went down to the Green Room, there was Steve and Siouxsie getting hold of all the ringing phones and saying, 'This is Thames, get of the fucking phone you stupid old prat.'
Siouxsie Sioux : 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.
Malcolm McLaren : The EMI chauffeur came whizzing through the revolving doors and said, ‘Come on boys I've got to get you out of this straight away. There's going to be a storm.’
Jordan : It was the best publicity you could get really. It alienated the Sex Pistols from every ordinary, normal, God-fearing person in the country, which immediately made every child of those God-fearing parents absolutely adore the Sex Pistols. There was a great influx of outrage on the one hand, and love on the other.
Steve Jones : From that day on it was different. Before then it was just the music - the next day it was the media.
Paul Cook : Our lives changed totally after that. We became public enemy number one, couldn’t walk down the street without some arsehole having a go. It was that serious. You had to be careful of Teddy Boys, right wing thugs or boot boys, usually because of the mass hysteria that the press had instigated.
Leslie Hill (MD, EMI) : I had some personal reservations but I felt here we were again with something big. It was like another Beatles - 50,000 singles sold in just a few weeks - and we’d been talking for years about finding a new Beatles. It wasn’t just the Sex Pistols that were the problem. It was the damage I knew would be done to us in the recording industry at large because, if we let them go, people on the outside would see us again as a fuddy-duddy record company.