You learn a great deal about people in interviews. Not just what they say, but how they say it and the body language they show. The managers of the interviewee will try to get them to reveal as little as possible, but ask the right questions, and you can break the shield.
Throughout history, there have been plenty of car crash interviews. Whether it’s celebrities walking away, getting heated in debate with the interviewer, refusing to answer any questions, or simply fulfilling their media obligations, there are plenty of disasters.
There is one car crash interview, which was broadcast to the UK audience in the early evening, that defined a genre. A last-minute interview on the program Today with Grundy, which should have been with another band, but they had to cancel. This week, the Beat Marches On to 1st December 1976, when Queen frontman Freddie Mercury had a dental emergency.
EMI were in a panic. Due to Freddie’s need to visit a dentist for the first time in 15 years, they needed to find a replacement for the TV interview. There was only one option left for them, they had to give up the slot to a rival. They sent a then-unknown group called the Sex Pistols.
The Pistols had just released their first single Anarchy in the UK just a few days before, so EMI thought it would be a good idea to help promote the single as the replacement for Mercury. Little did anyone know at the time, but this would be one of the most infamous interviews in British TV history.
Grundy was the go-to journalist for ITV affiliates. Having started at Granada Television in the mid-1950s, he quickly became a household name when he hosted the local news programme. This quickly morphed into national coverage when he reported on the UK elections. He even hosted a special report on the death of JFK in 1963.
In 1976, Grundy switched from Granada to Thames Television and became the host of the Today program, an early-evening daily show about what’s going on in London. Despite all of the host’s experience, nothing could prepare him for what was going to happen on the first of December edition.
The Sex Pistols were reluctant to appear on the show. They were at the forefront of the punk movement, and appearing on the Today show wasn’t very punk. They only agreed to go when the band’s manager, Malcolm McLaren, threatened to dock a week’s pay if they didn’t.
Once convinced, they, along with some hangers-on more commonly known as the Bromley Contingent, piled into a limo sent by Thames and headed off to the studio. While in the green room, they helped themselves to the fully stocked bar.
Many of the people who worked on the show had their doubts about this band. One producer, Mike Housego, thought that, as they were only on for about 90 seconds, not much could go wrong, even though a researcher named Christine Whitehead (no relation) had warned they might say fuck.
The time had come. It was time for the interview. A video was shown to make the audience aware of the new punk phenomenon, and the band, along with the Bromley Contingent, was ushered into the studio.
Grundy could sense they had been drinking. He said as much in the introduction, claiming ‘They are as drunk as I am,’ which to this day the presenter and his son have denied that he actually had a drink before recording. He was known, however, to like a drink and was described as a Dean Martin type who always had a drink but never appeared drunk.
The host tried to entrap the Pistols about the punk ethos. He asked what they had done with the £40,000 signing bonus, a somewhat modest reply from bass player Glenn Matlock saying ‘It’s gone’. Grundy then pressed the question when guitarist Steve Jones, who seemed more under the influence than the others, cut in and said, ‘We fucking spent it, ain’t we…Down the boozer.’
Grundy then goes on to list classical composers, obviously to goad them into misbehaving more, which grabs the attention of singer Johnny Rotten who looks sarcastically into the camera and says ‘They really turn us on’ to which the host replies ‘what if they turn other people on?’ and Rotton mumbles ‘That’s their tough shit’ which is heard but not understood so is asked to repeat the rude word reluctantly, so everyone can hear.
Grundy then brings his attention to the Bromley Contingent, who are standing behind the seated band. He asks them, ‘Are you enjoying yourself?’ The reply from the first woman on the right, who became a pop star in her own right, Sousie Sioux, ‘enjoying myself’, Grundy shockingly replied, ‘Are you?’ Sioux rebutted with ‘I’ve always wanted to meet you.’
This part is when the interview went into anarchy. It also gets very awkward with what we have learnt about 1970s TV presenters. Not that Bill Grundy was ever accused of any wrongdoing, but when a man in his fifties gets flirtatious with a 19-year-old woman, it gets uncomfortable.
The band do the right thing and calls Grundy out on it. Led by Jones, calling him a dirty old man. Embarrassed by the misread, the host goads the band into more swearing and is called ‘A dirty fucker’ and a ‘fucking rotter’, then the interview ends. All it took was 90 seconds to ruin a career. You could see that Grundy had messed up as he mouthed Oh shit while the credits were rolling and the band did a dance to the theme song.
Understandably, there were many complaints from the public. The 12 phone lines Thames TV used were clogged quickly. The overspill was strangely diverted to the green room, where the band was post-interview, and they decided to answer the ringing telephone. Let’s just say their replies weren’t pleasant.
The careers of both participants went in separate directions after the interview. Grundy was suspended for two weeks after meeting with the TV bosses. By early 1977, the show was taken off the air. It never regained its reputation, and neither did its host, as he never worked in prime-time television again.
The Pistols, on the other hand, became a household name. The antics of the band on the TV show put them on the front page of newspapers the next day. If anyone missed the show, then they would know about the band by the time the paper hit their doorstep.
The band had a number one album and three top ten singles after the interview. It wasn’t all sunshine for them, as the notoriety of the band rose so quickly that the relationships within it started to fracture. Matlock was replaced by Sid Vicious in early 1977, and by 1978, after a disastrous USA tour, the band was finished.
The incident, as legendary as it is now, does beg the question: could anything like this happen now? Everyone is media savvy now, as they have a camera on their phone. TV companies are so scared of getting sued by people that many of their live shows are on a five-second delay, so they can catch anything offensive. So it is unlikely, however, that there can be something that slips through the cracks on occasion.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for nine years, specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
The Beat Marches On has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/The-Beat-Goes-On-Blog-107727714415791 and an X page: @TheBeatGoesOnB1
Websites used for research were:
What really happened when the Sex Pistols appeared on the Bill Grundy show | Louder
45 years on from the Sex Pistols’ appearance on ‘Today’
Swearing |Sex Pistols interview |Today Show |Thames TV | 1976
If you want to request a story for The Beat Marches On blog, you can contact jwhiteheadjournalism@gmail.com. We cannot guarantee that the story will be published, but it will be considered.