Bill "oh shit" Grundy Turns Chip-pan fire into House Fire. Infamous Interview with the Sex Pistols...

Full Bill Grundy with the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie Interview



This interview lives in infamy, as members of revolutionary Punk group "The Sex Pistols" swearing on live prime-time TV, using the f-word, s-word and a word that decribes an illegitimate son! There was no bleeping or anthing. This was featured on the "Today" show, presented by Bill Grundy. The F-word had been uttered on TV before, but this was still seen as very shocking, in 1976, as it has only been uttered 3 times before.

Much of the blame was put on poor Grundy. He seemed to take a very hands-on approach though jokingly, perhaps a clever way to get into the minds of these young rebels, claiming to be drunk, but of himself being of the older generation, alot older at 54 infact, he made himself look extremely foolish. He didn't seem to hear the first swear word by Sex Pistol's Steve Jones, answering where their £40,000 given to them by EMI record labels, which was "f***ing spent it", however as the chatter dragged on, Grundy must've had tunnel vision, thinking how ratings will shoot up. He asks both Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones to repeat what they had just said, in colourful fashion.

Also, Grundy, still in dumb/joking mode, has a little banter with another punk girl star of the time, at the back of the group, the white-haired Siouxsie. He jokingly prods her if they would like to meet up afterwards. That fell flat. The interview ended, Grundy himself going "oh shit", as the sound was beginning to fade to the ending credits, but that gets caught on camera. Grundy knowing this wasn't really his day, but still meeting it with a smile on his face. However, after this, it was all over the newspapers nationwide, despite not everyone had seen it. Grundy didn't disappear altogether, but whatever momentum he had on TV, came to a crashing end. He was slapped in the hand for 2 weeks, while his "Today" show finished 2 months later.

It was touch-n-go, as The Sex Pistols were breaking the manistream, and Punk music as a whole, with the hit "Anarchy in the UK" in 1976, a controversial single that was deemed anti-religious and promoted mob violence and disorder. It was a year later, they had their biggest and even more controversial hit "God Save the Queen", an almost anti-thesis to the British national anthem, regarded as insluting by the older generation.