An exceedingly rare UK Sex Pistols Bulletin promotional poster, rushed out by the group’s management in the wake of the group’s notorious December 1, 1976 appearance on the Today television program (aka the Bill Grundy show). Designed by Jamie Reid and Sophie Richmond, the poster makes use of the tabloid headlines that followed the group swearing on television.
As Wikipedia notes, Although the program was only broadcast in the London region, the ensuing media coverage occupied the tabloid newspapers for days. The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline “The Filth and the Fury!”, and asked “Who are these punks?”; other papers such as the Daily Express (“Fury at Filthy TV Chat”) and the Daily Telegraph (“4-Letter Words Rock TV”) followed suit. Thames Television suspended Grundy and the interview effectively ended his career. Steve Jones reflected; Grundy was the big dividing line in the Sex Pistols’ story. Before it, we were all about the music, but from then on it was all about the media. In some ways it was our finest moment, but in others it was the beginning of the end … In terms of the Sex Pistols having any kind of long-term future, this sudden acceleration was the worst thing that could possibly have happened.
The fallout from this appearance led to most of the dates on the band’s Anarchy in the U.K. Tour (with The Clash, The Damned and The Heartbreakers), set to begin just two days later, being cancelled, and the band’s eventually being dropped from EMI Records.
This is only the second example we’ve had of this very rare poster in nearly 5o years. In Excellent rolled condition, with faint age related toning to the top left edge, and horizontally across the poster a few inches from the bottom (across the word ‘Fury’). It will frame beautifully. 14″ x 22 1/4″
From Wikipedia: Queen were booked for the Today show of 1 December 1976, but they cancelled their appearance at the last minute due to vocalist Freddie Mercury needing emergency dental surgery. They were replaced by the punk band the Sex Pistols, appearing at short notice accompanied by their entourage. The show was broadcast live and uncensored on weekdays in the early evening, a time when spoken obscenities were forbidden.
The interview began with Grundy introducing the band, stating “they are as drunk as I am”, although Grundy later denied being intoxicated during the interview to the press. The interview resumed following a playing of the music video for the song “Anarchy in the U.K.”. Grundy was dismissive towards the band, speaking to viewers instead of directly to them and referring to them as “that group” in his challenging of what he felt was hypocrisy over the philosophy of punk. Initially, he received mocking but relatively innocuous responses from bassist Glen Matlock.
Grundy said “I am told… that that group… have received £40,000 from record company…. Doesn’t that seem to be slightly opposed to your anti-materialistic view of life?” Matlock replied “No, the more the merrier.” When Grundy asked the band to explain further, Steve Jones quipped: “We fuckin’ spent it, ain’t we?” Grundy did not comment on the profanity but responded “I don’t know; have you?” Matlock said that the money had all gone “down the boozer”. Grundy then asked the band “are you serious?” in reference to their music, comparing them to musicians such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Brahms. Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) sarcastically replied “They’re all heroes of ours, ain’t they?”. When Grundy enquired further, Lydon went on, stating “Oh, yes, they’re wonderful people; they really turn us on!” Grundy responded with, “What if they turn other people on?”, to which Lydon dismissively remarked, “That’s just their tough shit.” When challenged by Grundy, Lydon said, “Nothing – a rude word! Next question.” Grundy insisted that Lydon repeat what he had said. When Lydon did so – “Shit” – Grundy tauntingly retorted, “Good heavens! You frightened me to death,” to which Lydon called him “Siegfried” as Matlock muttered that Grundy was “like [a] dad… or [a] granddad.”
Grundy then turned his attention to the female members of the band’s entourage, known as The Bromley Contingent, which included Siouxsie Sioux. He asked, “What about you girls behind? Are you worried, or are you just enjoying yourself?” Sioux responded, “Enjoying myself”. Grundy responded “Are you?”, to which she and Simone Thomas chorused, “Yeah.” Grundy responded, “Ah, that’s what I thought you were doing.” That prompted a large exhalation from a band member. Sioux said, “I’ve always wanted to meet you”, to which Grundy responded by saying, “Did you really? We’ll meet afterwards, shall we?” Interpreting this as a sexual comment, Jones began openly insulting Grundy, calling him a “dirty sod” and a “dirty old man”. Grundy asked Jones to “say something outrageous”, a challenge that Jones met by calling Grundy a “dirty bastard” and a “dirty fucker”.Grundy responded, “What a clever boy!”, and Jones added, “What a fucking rotter!” As the show ended and the credits rolled, Grundy mouthed, “Oh shit” as the band began dancing to the closing theme.
The interview made the band a household name overnight in Britain and brought punk into the mainstream. They launched the UK Anarchy Tour, supported by the Clash and Johnny Thunders’ band the Heartbreakers, over from New York. The Damned were briefly part of the tour, before McLaren kicked them off. Media coverage was intense, and many of the concerts were cancelled by organisers or local authorities; of approximately twenty scheduled gigs, only about seven actually took place. Following a campaign in the south Wales press, a crowd including carol singers and a Pentecostal preacher, protested against the group outside a show in Caerphilly. Packers at the EMI plant refused to handle the band’s single. London Conservative councillor Bernard Brook Partridge said, “Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worst of the punk rock groups I suppose currently are the Sex Pistols. They are unbelievably nauseating … the antithesis of humankind. I would like to see somebody dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it.”
Three concerts were arranged in the Netherlands for January 1977. The band, hungover, boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on 4 January; a few hours later, the Evening News was reporting that the band had “vomited and spat their way” to the flight. Despite categorical denials by the EMI representative who accompanied the group, the label, which was under political pressure, released the band from their contract. In one journalist’s later description, the Pistols had “stoked a moral panic … precipitating the cancellation of gigs, the band’s expulsion from their EMI record deal and lurid tabloid tales of punk’s ‘shock cult'”. As McLaren fielded offers from other labels, the band went into the studio for a round of recordings with Goodman, their last with either him or Matlock.
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