Feature Clip: The Sex Pistols w/Bill Grundy on Today (December 1, 1976/Thames Television/London, UK)
When last we left the tale of how Malcolm McLaren ruined punk rock, he'd just come back to London in May of 1975 after a failed stint as manager of The New York Dolls. However, in managing The Dolls, he'd gotten a look at the emerging Lower Manhattan underground music scene. For Malcolm, bands like The Ramones and Television and Blondie represented the way forward for rock music. When he came back to his clothing store in London, now called SEX (in italics for added sleaze), he became fascinated with a trio of teens who had started hanging out in the shop in '74.
Steve Jones and Paul Cook were the singer and drummer, respectively, in The Strand, along with Wally Nightingale on Guitar and Del Noones on bass. When Del developed a habit for missing rehearsal, they replaced him with Glen Matlock, a part-time employee at SEX. Around the time McLaren returned from his failed journey with The Dolls, The Strand were being mentored by Malcolm's friend Bernie Rhodes. Under Bernie's oversight, they kicked Wally out of the band and Steve became singer/guitarist. When Steve found out Malcolm had been manager of The New York Dolls, he began pestering him to manage the band. Initially, Malcolm wanted no place in the music industry again. But then an idea struck him: Those other bands he had seen performing with The Dolls didn't really have a unified look. Sure, The Ramones had the street gang look and safety pins were common, but that's just because the kids didn't have enough money for new clothes. But otherwise, none of the aesthetic we would come to associate with punk rock had sprung up. If he could teach this band to make that kind of music, and play it while wearing clothing from his store, he and his partner Vivienne Westwood could define the look of this new (and, as of 1975, still unnamed) Punk Rock. More importantly, however, he could make a fortune. Malcolm agrees under one condition: They have to include the name of the shop in their band name. Steve, Paul, and Glen came back with the name QT Jones & His Sex Pistols. However, after a few shows under this moniker, Steve decides he'd rather just play guitar.
At first Malcolm started calling connections he had made in New York. Sylvain Sylvain was in talks to come over to sing for the new group, along with Richard Hell. When those plans fell through, they started auditioning singers by asking any short-haired man who came into the shop if he was interested in a career in rock music. If they showed the slightest bit of aptitude, they were out. Among those who responded positively was a teenager with green hair and teeth who walked in with a homemade "I Hate Pink Floyd" t-shirt who came through the store in August. This was John Lydon, who would be introduced to Malcolm and the band by Bernie Rhodes. The newly rechristened Sex Pistols would play their first show on November 6, 1975 at Saint Martin's College, opening for pub rock act Bazooka Joe. After playing a number of shows around London, they started attracting a group of weirdos who liked weird music. These core followers, who went on to start bands like Generation X and Siouxie & The Banshees, would later be called The Bromley Contingent, after the suburb where most of them lived.
The Contingent were the early adopters of the fashion at SEX, which was inspired in equal parts by the look of early American punks and BDSM culture. This look was absolutely radical for conservative 70's Br*tain, and they pushed themselves to adopt more and more shocking and outrageous styles and behavior. For example, spitting in public became a common act, and when that fun wore out, they turned to vomiting. In mid-1976, somebody (nobody quite knows who) introduced the swastika armband. I can't say with any certainty who was and was not involved with the far right at this point, but I can say that ironic Nazi symbolism was in vogue at the time. In the 30 years that had passed since WWII, the men and women who actually fought the Nazis had become The Establishment. To them, invoking Nazism was seen as flicking the V at the people who were making everyone's lives miserable. What the early punks didn't anticipate (and in some ways, were ground zero for) was that Neo-Nazis would see this as an invitation to the scene.
Things started to get worse in September 1976, when the media frenzy over (I'm) Stranded by The Saints triggered a race to sign bands in the (then-recently named) punk genre. On October 6th, EMI snaps up The Sex Pistols in a bid to release the first Brtish Punk Record. This would be a big win for Malcolm, who sought to go down as "the man who invented brtish punk." However, the band were unpleased with the slick production on their first recording of 'Anarchy In The UK' and requested another go. In their place, the historic first Br*tish punk record was New Rose by The Damned.
Things definitely got worse on December 1st, when Queen had to cancel at the last minute on a BBC TV appearance. They were scheduled to do a short interview with Bill Grundy on tea-time chat show Today, but Freddy Mercury required an emergency trip to the dentist. The BBC turned to EMI for a replacement, and frenzied EMI executives told them about a new group they were quite sure would be a big deal. Producers at Today blindly agreed, and EMI had the limos sent to The Pistols' rehearsal space. They had to coax the band out to the limo with promises of champagne and beer. The Sex Pistols and a handful of The Bromley Contingent were already well into their cups by the time they arrived at the studio. The 2-minute interview was just about the most offensive thing that could have aired in the 6:00 PM time slot. The outrageous clothing, the drunken antics, the swearing, and the swastika (worn by Simon Barker) resulted in national tabloid coverage on a show that only aired in London. The resulting media circus got The Pistols dropped from EMI, Today cancelled from television, and Bill Grundy's career never recovered. Worst of all, however, the swastika became a symbol associated with punk.
By the time Never Mind The Bollocks...Here's The Sex Pistols released in 1977, Glen Matlock wasn't in the band anymore. Malcolm McLaren was of the opinion that no publicity was bad publicity, and sought to stoke the media flames with more outrageous stories about the band. To that end, he would often play the band members off of one another to recreate that volatile but fascinating internal chemistry demonstrated by The Dolls and The Ramones. When Glen figured this out, he left the band, going on to start Rich Kids with other Bromley Contingent members. Not one to let a headline slip through his fingers, Malcolm McLaren announced to the press that Glen had been fired because he liked The Beatles. In his stead, they hired another kid out of the Bromley Contingent, a real shithead by the name of John Simon Richie, better known as Sid Vicious. Formerly the saxophonist for Flowers of Romance, Sid had no idea how to play bass, and never really learned on the job. For most gigs, Sid wasn't even plugged into an amp. They would have a roadie perform his parts offstage. Sid's biggest crime, however, was bringing his swastika t-shirt to shows, interviews, and photo shoots. His status as an instant punk icon lead others to adopt similar looks around the world.
Punks around the world eventually have That Talk, and by the mid-80s, the swastika was no longer welcome in most punk spaces. However, there is still an unfortunately large number of Nazis who didn't get the memo. But yeah, if you ever wondered why some elements of punk are uncomfortably close with the far right, that's why. Early punks were careless in their behavior, and Malcolm McLaren encouraged it. The early punks weren't vigilant enough to prevent Nazis from infiltrating their scene. They would suffer for this lack of vigilance as the decade wound to a close. But those struggles are stories for a different time.
Next Time: Punk Goes Literary?