Kraftwerk by Tim Barr

Kraftwerk by Tim Barr

Author:Tim Barr [Tim Barr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 1998-09-16T16:00:00+00:00


6

PUNK’S VERY OWN version of kristallnacht took place on Wednesday 1st December 1976 just as London was settling down to tea. The Sex Pistols had been drafted in at the last minute to fill a vacant slot on the early evening Thames Television show, Today. Hosted by Bill Grundy, Today was an innocuous local programme that combined minor celebrity chat with a fairly undemanding look at the day’s current affairs – the kind of cheap n’ cheerful programming that broadcasters used to plug the gap between the end of the main news and the beginning of the proper (i.e. expensive) evening schedule. Until that night, Today could hardly have been accused of being epoch-making stuff, but it was about to find itself in the eye of a storm.

Unprepared and expecting another group altogether (the original guests were supposed to have been another EMI signing, Queen) Grundy was reluctant to interview the Sex Pistols at all but was eventually forced to accede to pressure from the show’s producer. Minorly irritated, Grundy was even more dismayed when he was introduced to the group and noted their scruffy, street-urchin appearance. But the Pistols had also brought some fans – including Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin – with them, both as a way of providing some moral support and adding some background colour to the event. Siouxsie, with bleached blond hair and a star painted over one eye, was eye-catching enough for Grundy to pay her at least some attention.

As the show went on air, Grundy’s irritation increased when the Sex Pistols began reading the introduction from his autocue along with him. As the interview got underway, however, there was little to suggest anything out of the ordinary was about to happen. Initially, the group were behaving more or less like naughty schoolboys but when Grundy, sensing he was getting nowhere, turned his attention to Siouxsie and essayed some minor flirtation the band’s guitar player Steve Jones jeered. ‘You dirty sod,’ he chided. ‘You dirty old man.’ Grundy’s temper bit the dust. In what has become one of the most notorious exchanges in British broadcasting history, Grundy rounded on Jones. ‘Well keep going, chief, keep going,’ he prompted, testily. ‘Go on, you’ve got another ten seconds. Say something outrageous.’

Jones duly obliged. ‘You dirty bastard,’ he retorted. Grundy, losing control rapidly, urged him to go on. ‘You dirty fucker,’ offered Jones, seeming almost embarrassed by being put on the spot in this way. This time Grundy responded with sarcasm. ‘What a clever boy,’ he sneered. In turn, the guitar player’s reply was revealingly old-fashioned. ‘You fucking rotter,’ he smirked.

Though it now seems no more shocking than an exchange of schoolboy taunts, in the television climate of 1976 expletives weren’t thought acceptable even for late-night viewing. The furore began, almost before the programme ended as the telephone lines at Thames Television were jammed with viewers calling to protest. Within a few hours, the story was being carried by the main evening newscasts. When Britain woke up



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