Swearing |Sex Pistols interview |Today Show |Thames TV | 1976
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- One of Thames Televisions most controversial moments, the infamous Sex Pistols interview that appeared on the 'Today' programme -- first transmitted 01/12/1976 -- John Lydon Aka Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones' four letter outbursts made front page headlines and national outrage. These outbursts propelled the band to stardom, making them household names.
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"Not like those nice clean Rolling Stones"
It was 1976. For those times, the Rolling Stones were an oldies act
They still had a dangerous image in '76. I assumed Grundy was being sarcastic with the 'nice clean' comment.
Of course.
billydeeuk and that one savage with the Nazi symbol
gamerfallsapart apoc and more ... just 30 years roughly after WW2 ended... that definitely ruffled a few moustaches!
"You dirty sod. You dirty old man." LMAO, classic!
Lizzy The Geeky Wonder as stated in "Seventeen"
MrOmegaBeams
The old estab twist makes a lecherous comment to a teenage girl and the punk rockers call him out on it...think 'they' made "a few 'dirty' words" the manufactured hysteria instead of the story at the hight of the feminist movement was that punk rock was pro-feminist(at its heart always left-wing/progressive before 'they' could co-op feminism by makeing the most disturbed members the new vanguard in the 80's which divided and ultimately destroyed the very clear and present danger the power of feminism in the 70's represented to the establishment, and has been busy creating connections in developing minds of the 'left' and 'insanity'. Monty Python was on british tv prior to this and said far far worse things than here without a media outcry.
The presenter asked Steve to swear and the most insulting thing he came up was this :)
@@simondyson8567 It seems pretty obvious they invited the punks on just to get them to say something "outrageous", it's not really an interview, the host just looks at the camera, says how rowdy and dirty they are, then just picks a fight with Lydon and that's the end of the segment
Now it’s Jonesy who is the old rotter lol
"Nothing, rude word. Next question" i love that :D ^^
+Terka Vlachová He sounded like a little boy caught swearing lol
+Jayne ikr xD
That was the start of the sex pistols career and the end of Bill Grundy's.
no no no what was the word ??
Was this interview pre sid or post sid?
"What a clever boy"
"What a fackin' rotter"
This is quite possibly the best moment in TV history
i quite enjoyed it, wish we could have more like this nowadays
@warguy403 And British TV's most requested clip of all time
@@futureshock7425 Is it true that while the interview propelled the group, it also destroyed Bill Grundy's career?
And cringiest
When John says "shit" at 1:18, he has the look and tone of an 8 year old that was just caught swearing by his father and asked to repeat what he just said 😂🤣
Ikr!
He did act like a precocious 8 year old until he reached his 60s.
he's always been a kid
@@lusio7182 still is to a degree although now looking after his wife with her illness must have made him grow up I guess. Pretty sad story as he seems to adore her ...
@@timothymillar2595 did he really stop in his 60s?
that svastika on that guys arm,how he got that inside the studio,imagine today somebody to do that
Why is he even wearing it?
+Lorra Paradzikovic
A misguided teenage rebellious statement to 1970's Britain
+Electric Boys shits n giggles
the guy's actually jewish
The tall white girl used to wear a nazi armband until her band played in France where they were confronted and she got beat down, she said it was some anti middle class statement.
Steve Jones seems to be the only one who genuinely doesn't give a fuck. Even Rotten looks a little worried!
Samuel Feynman Tribute page thats because he was pissed. Actually Rotten was the first to say the 'f' word when he said "we fuckin' spent it".
Eamonn McLoughlin Nope that was Jonesy aswell
Wow I thought it was Rotten. Sounds very much like him.
I wouldn't say it sounded like him at all. But anyway this moment in history is dissected again in the filth and the fury if you want to double check.
It did indeed. But isn't it amazing how Grundy admitted, "they are as drunk as I am." Talk about career harakiri.
2:02 "Oh Shit.." He probably realized that this was the end of his career
Interesting Grundy's comment to the girl of "I'll see you after" which fuelled the swearing, especially, in the light of what we know now about the culture of the old guys that were highly respected at the time.
+Bruce Hurst aka Zincfreud I was thinking that. Back in the days where men with influence would manipulate their positions to have sex. Disgusting.
They still do.
Coming on to a girl live on TV as a presenter would be considered a punk rock act these days.
*The girl*? Lol. Siouxie Sioux,you mean :D
Bruce Hurst aka Zincfreud Yeah but she's hardly underage.
"Next question"
-John Lydon on interviews
That girl standing in the back with the bleach blonde hair and suspenders is Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees!! God bless her!
Thanks for sharing that.
God bless her and the fascist regime
hahahahaha
Vincent Ree Wow what a great finding, dipshit
Kid Sundance lol
He said "We'll meet later then shall we?" to which she softly replied "Doubt It"
I looked back at it there and she did say that in a soft tone lol
Lol, and your point is? Oh, she was up for it then, was she? XD Seriously pointless post. smh
yes! and that’s siouxsie from the banshees!
@@sunnyjim1355 it's easy to miss, he's doing everyone a service by pointing it out. Don't get your Pampers in a twist slim jim
@@11555Rambler pampers ahahhahaaggaha
"What a fucking rotter" 😂😂😂
love it
I've seen you in a lot punk rock videos 😂
best line in there..taught all me kids it
Considering the fact Steve Jones was severely abused growing up and very damaged, it sheds a whole new light on this. He was triggered by Grundy behaving inappropriately towards a teenage girl. It's actually quite sad when you understand the psychological forces that made Steve Jones behave like this. I do love the way Lydon is behaving like a nauhgty kid at school.
Thats not it. That’s because he was in relationship with Siouxsie Sioux at the moment. If you pay attention at Siouxsie herself, she looks at Steve when she hears the Bill’s response.
He was not acting inappropriately, nor did he insinuate anything sexual. The whole lot of these kids were behaving like surly schoolchildren. He was the middle-aged adult in the room.
@@liamsandal6360 I’ll meet you after is literally a way of saying you’re going to meet me in an intimate way, it’s literally him being a dirty bastard
Jones was right. Grundy was being a creep. Siouxsie Sioux was around 18/19 at the time.
@@Rook_Layne_Renoagree Grundy was being creepy at best. If a 53 year old had “sniffed” (as my Dad would have put it) one of my daughters at that age I’d have told him to @@@@ off.
41 years ago today! I remember watching it as a 13 year old and it's still the funniest thing I've seen on live TV. It's hard to imagine now just how much shock this caused at the time. Back in 1976 you weren't allowed to swear AT ALL before 9pm. Two minutes that changed my life and a lot of other people's... Next question!
Sounds like TV in Soviet Union. I remember when someone said "moron" or "idiot" on Soviet TV it sounded like bombshell.
"we facking spent it aint we "....sound like Victorian thieves
Steve supported himself before the Pistols as a burglar. He was also molested by his stepfather, and didn't know how to read. So _Bill Grundy_, whatever.
Steve had the worst.
McLaren admitted he tried to have Nancy kidnapped. And his idea of what you do when you've made it is try to meet Russ Meyer and Ronnie Biggs. Rough bunch. Lydon: "Another stupid idea Malcolm had was to ring up Charles Manson. What a great idea! Somehow he was going to take part in the film, or worse, produce the next record from prison. That was Malcolm's silliness."
LOOOL basically
Johnny would have been next in line with being raised in a poor Irish immigrant household.
Guys, Bill was drunk at the time and was trying to hit on Siouxsie. The band was just sick of it and put him in his place.
Wait....was that siouxie from siouxie and the banshees?
Yep. At the time of this interview, she was a member of what was essentially the Sex Pistol's fan club, the Bromley Contingent. Though it was the kind of fan club that got to hang out with the band.
Less fan club, more people who went to each gig
All the old geezers on TV were like that, I'm pretty sure of it. And Bill Grundy was indeed gross, trying to hit on her. A lot of TV hosts did that kind of thing. I've seen some videos. It's just despicable.
Put him in his place...... They were a bunch of ass wipes....
the music at the end wraps everything up so nicely lol
Robbie P Windy, The Association
I read the producer was praying for 'dear old' Windy to start up!
Then it was shocking to see people swearing on TV with dyed hair. Now it is shocking to see people smoking, and having an interviewer at 6pm being lewd and drunk. Bill Grundy is now seen as the shocking one!
very perceptive of you. Grundy's the punk now. Dirty old rotter! XD
Or wearing a swastika on live tv.
Steve's dance at the end.
Steve must have been looking at the monitor..... classic...
I never saw the program at the time but I remember reading about this in the papers in 1976. This interview caused an outrage when it was shown live on TV. I read that one man was so disgusted with the swearing that he kicked his TV set in. Watching it now I don't find anything shocking about the groups behavior on the Today program. I find it quite funny actually. Andrea.
I think they were acting like that on purpose because of the cameras and it was also part of their act. Andrea.
@@torp7215 and you do naturally.
You are right a man DID! kick his TV set in when he heard it.My older sis my mum and i actually watched this as i was a young sex pistols fan and i remember that comment in the paper the next day ...
@@glaswegiansouth-side2350
And used the f word when he kicked the TV! His Loss!
@@torp7215 ever get the fealing you've been cheated?
The look John gives when he says "oh yes they really turn us on" is so great
I don't know why but the end cracked me up big time!
The chirpy lite entertainment theme tune makes for a perfect ending
It's very Simpsonsesque before the Simpsons. Infact, 17 years before the programe would begin. The music alone is what The Simpsons would parody.
I can't believe this ever aired on television. I'm weirdly way less shocked by the Sex Pistols, who were just being straightforward and honest, and a lot more amazed by the clearly alcoholic lecherous presenter. They were completely right really, weird how the Sex Pistols had better morals than most of the people condemning and looking down on them
It went out live
At 0:36 they swear for the first time but Bill was so drunk he didn’t pick up on it lmao
imagine if Sid had been there....
Good point, he'd have made a field day out of it, he was much more suited to something like that than a moderate like Matlock.
Agreed...poor old Sid. Souxie Soux still looking as good today if not better.
Where was he?
He would fuck up the show lol 🤣
@@bigtuss7482 sid wasn't a member of the pistols yet . But I guess he could have hung in the background with the banshees he was always around the pistols then
Rotten is so hilarious in this one.
Michael I love how he's not phased whatsoever when everyone dances at the end
Only intelligent one out of them.
@@melgrant7404 I don't know, Matlock is pretty smart.
@@melgrant7404 Steve is smart too
my word would be dull
2:01 - Does Grundy mouth 'Oh shit'?
well spotted!
You can actually hear him say it. Hard to hear, but it's there.
Just right after, Siouxsie says "Cheeky Git!" which I've never noticed before.
Yes he does. But let's face it , he was drunk they were drunk the result was hardly a surprise! Seems so tame by today's standards.
Clockwork Orange was so influential in 70s Britain, from Bowie to the Bromley Contingent....
And coming next on Thames TV, Crossroads, tonight Benny tells Miss Diane to fuck this and fuck that, here to take us into the break is Simon Ferocious with the weather.
The "Nice Clean" Rolling Stones my ass..those fuckers did more drugs than Woodstock, and the Nazi armband is not because they are Fascists, Punks hate Fascism , it was a way of saying 'up yours' and your categories. People seem to forget how much this band influenced pop culture today, you hear bad words all over TV nowadays, The Pistols were the first. This band only released only one album and influenced an entire generation. Fuck i love the English and their beautiful accent and their Rock and Roll and their women too.
+Ludwig van Beethoven AND the Rolling Stones, or more likely their management, basically had Brian Jones killed because he started wearing Nazi uniforms for fun, and hanging out with Satanists.
Wrong. The Pistols were neither the first influential punk rock band (that would be The Ramones) nor the first band to ever curse on television (that would be Jefferson Airplane on The Dick Cavett Show in 1969....they said "fuck" and "motherfuckers"). The UK punks came late to the game and were wannabe rebels until GG Allin came along and showed them how it was done.
Frank Pontone Also wrong. The first influential band in punk was The Stooges.
Chuck Finn spot on..mc5s in the mix as well
Ludwig van Beethoven the presenter was being sarcastic
I wish steve had gotten the chance to say this to saville :P
Josh Walsh johnny said he’d fucking kill saville, but the kiddie fuckers at he bbc banned him in ‘78, extending the abuse saville had on his other victims
1:18 "Good heavens you frighten me to death..."
"Good heavens you frighten me to death!"
That is the most British thing I've ever heard.
No it was when one of them said "he's like your dad this geezer ain't he"
@@preparetoholdyourcolour7080 ‘or your grandad’ lol
LOL an electronic version of "Windy" by The Association (1967) @ 2:02 & Steve Jones' dancing to it, makes my day.
Boy... that escalated quickly! hahahaha
raptorjesus959 It really got out of hand fast
Lol I love how they play a muzak version of "Windy" by The Association as an outro and the Sex Pistols start dancing.
I love how every single person onset obviously is actually quite drunk, in contrast to Grundy's attempt to pass that off as a joke.
They're smashed out of their trees 😂
why did they cut off the end when they started dancing that was the best part
@OldSchool You guys need to do a UA-cam search for "PiL on American Bandstand"...
Never tire of watching this
this is so iconic never let this die
What gets forgotten or lost about this interview is that at the very end of the interview Grundy says "oh shit" lol
He was drunk and this ruined his career, not some SP.
Can't believe no one got upset over Steve's t-shirt.
In a sense I think because the older generation had won the war, and kicked Germany's arse , the symbol was seen as something defeated and not a threat in the mid seventies ,as it might be taken now
I like how Johnny looks at his watch at 2:04!
"Are we done here? I've got to catch my train home" was what he might have been thinking...
He says in his autobio that he had to take the train home that night.
After, of course, Malcolm panicked :P
Yes they threw rotten out of the car at the nearest tube station
@@CrossCuntryFranco not even that Malcolm went mad lol, yelling and everything
@@sgf1169 As Jonesy himself said: "McLaren was-- he was terrified, y'know? He was shitting himself, he was death-white, y'know, gasping: 'Fucking hell, you'd better get out of there, quick!'"
To be fair, Lydon never would have swore (again) if Grundy didn't press the question. He tried to deflect it, but Grundy prodded him. Same case for Steve, as well. Grundy was being pervy towards Siouxsie "We'll meet afterwards"), and Steve called him out. Grundy provoked him to say something outrageous ('We've got another five seconds..."), and Steve was just all too willing to oblige him.
🙌
Grundy was just tipsy and thats why he was sacked later.
Love Johns smile when Steve says ‘bastard’ ...like an excited schoolboy hearing someone being rude to teacher!
"We fucking spent it didn't we". He missed that one
2:02 - A little known fact: the Sex Pistols wrote that music at the end.
Yeah... who knew? The Association would have been crap without the songwriting of the Sex Pistols! Haha! ;-)
I don't know if I'm missing a joke but that's most certainly Windy by The Association.
@@boonstuff Yep it's Windy by the Association
Lmfao! "Well that's it for tonight".
And forever XD
apparently Queen was supposed to be the guest at this interview but they pulled out last minute leading to a hurried decision to appoint sex patrols to fill in the gap.
I find myself laughing hard when Johnny Rotten says "Oh they're wuuuuunnnnnnnderful people"
I can’t believe this caused the level of outrage that it did.
Tabloids blew it bigger than it was. Remember this was preYT era, you could not control the sruff if you weren't in network.
Rotten was complaining back in those days that was lack of freedom all over.
I see on a TV show, smoking, tshirt with tits on it, swastikas and a drunk tv host flirting.
Imagine if Rotten was young today when you're not even allowed to express your opinion without being cut from the business forever.
Bill Grundy lost his career over that clip..silly sod, I remember seeing him some years later on a park bench in Stockport, pissed out of his head drinking out of a bottle in a brown paper bag..
@signoguns I highly doubt it.
Thank you, Freddie Mercury's teeth.
This still makes me laugh
Punk was never a FRONT for John Lydon: he truly had some qualms with society. He seemed to be disgusted with the whole idea of celebrity. He also seemed to despise the shallowness of what culture had become. He saw the phoniness of authority as well as how this so-called authority only served the ruling class. His posture would influence far more people than what was previously understood. For instance, at Disco Demolition Night in Chicago, 1979, I wonder how much his words and actions had stirred the people in attendance. I believe John Lydon opened the lid on a bottle which could never be fully closed: he informed the masses of all the phoniness which surrounds us. There would be no going back.
The ginger one was Simon Barker one of the Bromley Contingent, as he was gay and Hitler was totally opposed to homosexuals as 'subversives' it would be ironical for him to have been a serious Nazi. Of course people knew what the Swastika represented then, as I said the Swastika wasn't adopted by punks as an alliegence with Nazism, they were just giving it a different kind of role in the way they used it.
Well actually the German planes had the Iron Cross on them rather than the Swastika.
The good old days, when we had real freedom of speech in television.
That ruined the guys career lol, hahaha
Need1eBanger "You have the right to free speech, as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it!"
-Joe Strummer
+Miosolo And what happened to Joe Strummer after he said that? Anything?
+Need1eBanger before the 5 second delay
Ryan Denziloe
I don't know, Fuck you.
Bill's final "Oh shit" as he realises he's just torpedoed his TV career.
Steve is a hoot in this!!! lol,
Apparently he downed two bottles of Blue Nun in the Green Room before it. 😂
Steve is hilarious. Always liked him.
I have always thought that the last part, the closing, is hilarious, for all the context of what was that interview, the perfect closure
Career over, fucked. Brilliant 😀
Nice clean Rolling Stones? I think not. The Stones were the preemptive strike to the Pistols' nuclear option. Incredible music evolution from the mid 60s to mid 70's. Gargantuan! Proud to be a Brit under these strokes of uplifting genius.
Stones were rebellious like some bunch of drunk girls.
grundy did not want to interview the sex pistols but his producer said if he didnt he would sack him as grundy was alreafy losing the plot with his boozing/attitude, so he did the interview, but it went off the rails and he got sacked anyway..LOL.
Whatever became of him?
glad he got sacked, dirty lecherous condescending thing he was
@@Neville60001 show suspended for 2 weeks, canceled for good early 1977.
Actually Grundy continued presenting other shows but he had serious drinking problem which marred his career.
@@marguskiis7711 he was due to present an episode of Great Railway Journeys, crossing Europe by train. But story is he "fell down the neck of a whiskey bottle" in Switzerland during a dry run for the trip. One Eric Robson took his place. May explain why it's the only episode in which the presenter is seen in a stand-up at the very beginning, but not again, only verbally narrating the program.
Oh no! I'm gonna kick in my television set! lololol
the man who did that was a pathetic loser
YOU CAN JUST HEAR BILL GRUNDY AT THE END SAYING OH SHIT! A LORRY DRIVER THAT WAS WATCHIG THIS WAS SO DISCUSTED WITH THE SWEARING PUT HIS BOOT THROUGH HIS NEW TV SET
My actual role models and hero's xD
Lemmy kilmister said that the Beatles were more hard-cases than the college boy rolling stones. Who am I to question the word of god?
@mike murray And sir Lemmy kilmister is more of an expert in rock music than bill Grundy ever was
I only recently noticed (After reading it) that Grundy doesn't mouth "Oh -Kay" at the end...he mouths "Oh SHIT" !
"He's like your Dad in he this geezer" :'D lmao
or yer grandad.
Great, put someone stuck in 1921 in a room with that lot, suprised they didnt go for the jugular sooner.....
'what a fucking rotter' is the best phrase ever uttered on TV
Johnny is adorable♡♡♡
2024 anyone 👍👍
At 1:20: Just worked out what Johnny mutters 'Oh, alright, so you're playing games, i'm right impressed". Followed by Glen trying to make the band laugh, and none of them do. He looks over to see if John's laughing and when he sees John isn't even acknowledging him, Glen's smile drops and he quickly looks away and up at Souxsie!
Also noticed that it's John that says "We fuckin' spent it, in't we?" at 0:35, even though Jones has said it was him.
@0:35 I wonder why Bill Grundy didn't hear or react to the F Bomb but managed to pick up on the Sh*t @1:09 by Lydon which was quieter?
1:21 He clearly didn't say, "Oh alright, Siegfried."
You can't really hear it over the music but at the end Grundy says "oh shit" - he knew he'd just kissed his career goodbye. It's sad that this his legacy, he was actually a really good journalist in his day.
say something paul dammit
As Glen noted in his autobiography, all Paul did was feign a yawn. That summed it up for him.
"U Dirty fucker"...
Its Steve Jones dances that makes it. brilliant
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I think Grundy just wanted to let that pass as it was in the reply to the first question. He probably wasn't anticipating the use of the 4 letter words that occured, if he did he'd of probably refused to have done it in the first place.
In fact if he or Thames TV knew what was going to happen they'd tried to find another group on EMI, was it too early for Kate Bush ?
From Grundy's position the interview from Hell, from the group's and Pistol fans everywhere an absolute scream !
Grundy was drunk and wanted to provoke them to do something stupid like rockstars do.
@jayrox40 - Thank you for the comment. I am afraid that the entire show does not exist in our collection. It was never recorded at the time of broadcast.
*They were entertaining. He should have them on again.*
It’s quite odd that the controversial bit was the rude word . As opposed to a) the presenter coming onto the young girl . 😂 nuts. Ah the 70s.
Siouxsie's face at 1:35 after being creeped out after getting hit on....priceless
She wasn't creeped out. She was interested.
Brilliant! Never gets old!
the interviewer got fired for provoking these guys and trying to get them to react on air. im glad, he seemed so stuck up and self righteous any way, he needed to be taken down a peg or two
Bill Grundy once punched the waiter at a restaurant for getting his order wrong, so he deserved it, the fucking rotter.
Didn't he swear at the end himself? I think he mouthed shit during the credits. What a hypocrite.
Old bastard.
I remember this live! It was this interview more than any other single event which set them on the road to changing youth culture forever!
"What a fucking rotter!" Sounds like something out of Dickens time.
i love how bill grundy turns to the band and says 'oh shit!' just before the credits. he knows hes in trouble
Made me kick my cell phone. Filthy Lucre!
I remember this interview from when I was in high school in 1976. That hilarious t-shirt Steve wears is what most males should all wear. That way other males can stare at their own chests. : )
Is it me or does John sound like a sexy squirrel?
Love how john looks at his watch, and sits like he's not arsed at the end, while jones is dancing around like a complete twat haha
"I've always wanted to meet you", Siouxsie Sioux says. Bill Grundy answers, "We'll meet afterwards, shall we"? It was all downhill from there! Grundy's cheap pickup lineup directed at Siouxsie just set Jonesy off, and launched the band and punk into nationwide, then worldwide infamy.
She seemed interested to meet him later. She lit up like a Christmas tree 🎄
I've seen this reenacted but nothing comes as close as how incredible the original is...history right there and Grundy is a perfect foil!