All language subtitles for BBC.Punk.Britannia.2of3.Punk.1976-1978.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup

'Hello and best
wishes, everyone,

'and happy birthday, Mary and
Jean, begins this batch of dedications.

'This is a record for
you all from the people

'who sent the message, Down By
The Lazy River, with the Osmonds.'

# What are you doing tonight?

# You got no place to go... #

1976.

Britain seems half asleep.

This programme
contains strong language.

'It was awful. The main
colours were orange,

'brown'

and mustard.

'People weren't as sussed
as what they are today.

'People weren't
as well travelled

'and we were still
stuck in this little hole

'as British people, I thought.'

You think of the '70s
as being modern times,

but they were very backward and
people's attitudes were very backward.

'There was one or
two TV channels.

'Everything seemed to end
at 11pm. There were no jobs,

'there was no future...'

There was a sense in
those early years of boredom.

'You don't remember your youth
as being populated by these guys

'who looked like the worst
kind of bureaucrat from 1952.'

Those were the people
who still ran the country.

Welcome to boring Britain.

A young generation
has been locked out.

But in a small pocket of
the London music scene,

something is stirring.

The UK is about to
be rudely awoken.

'For mash get smash.'

Dirty bastard. Again.
You dirty fucker.

What a BLEEP.

'Who do you think
you're kidding, Mr Hitler,'

If you think old England's done?

In the scorching summer of 1976,

the Sex Pistols, the
Clash and the Damned

were beginning to ignite.

# I don't want a
holiday in the sun

# I want to go to the new Belsen

# I want to see some of history

# Cos now I got a
reasonable economy

# Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason

# Now I got a reason
And I'm still waiting... #

As word gradually
spread through the country,

London was becoming a place
of pilgrimage for the curious few.

'There was this feeling that something was going
on in London. There'd been a couple of reviews

'of the Sex Pistols in the
music papers and we thought,

'"Hello! This sounds good."

'Then you saw this photo of Rotten
just looking incredible, mean and nasty.'

Finally, someone who's
looking different and challenging.

'Looking like we
felt! I think trying

'to get a punk band together in Torquay
at that time was never going to happen.'

I was always
escaping the suburbs

and gravitating towards
the centre of London.

If you're brought
up in the suburbs,

with all that ultra-conservatism
that goes on there,

there's a lot to
kick back against.

'I thought London was
central to everything.'

There wasn't a music
scene in Woking.

Meeting people my own age represented
a place where you could be yourself.

At that time we were
playing social clubs

to disinterested punters really,
who just wanted the bingo.

Maybe they'd have a dance towards the end
of the night, when they're pissed enough.

# I got no reason
It's all too much

# You'll always find me

# Out to lunch... #

'I read this review in the NME of the Pistols
and thought we've got to see this band.

'We travelled up and went to this all-nighter,
where we took speed for the first time.'

The effect of the pills and seeing this band
was like, "Wow! This is it, this is our time."

# We're so pretty
Oh so pretty... #

'It was such a
closed, small scene,

'maybe there was 500
people in the whole of England,

'maybe, who knew about it?'

It was very small, you knew
the faces you saw every week.

'What Johnny Rotten and Joe
Strummer, etc, were expressing,'

was so absolutely instantly
recognised right across the land.

'There was this
punk rock explosion.'

# Pretty

# Pretty vacant. #

News of the small scene
that had been incubating

in the heart of the capital
was slowly spreading.

# We don't care. #

We were aware of
a core of punk bands

that were starting to, sort of,

move out, get out
into the provinces,

and we would go and
see them, you know.

ROUSING GUITAR

But with virtually no support,

punk wasn't reaching its audience
through established channels.

It was all about word of mouth.

# Mystery man

# Be a doll, be a baby doll... #

It was just like,

you went there once,

there was the first few

curiosity seekers and so on,

and the next time you come,

it would be really
considerably different.

It just grew, I think, because
the UK is such a small place,

it was able to spread.

# Can't afford a cannon

# Neat neat neat She
can't afford a gun at all

# Neat neat neat She
can't afford a cannon

# Neat neat neat She
can't afford a gun at all. #

I remember Redcar, playing at
the Coatham Bowl. It was great.

But the Flaming Groovies
are the headliners.

That's who you want, isn't it?

Converting a few Flaming
Groovies fans was one thing.

But punk at the tail
end of '76 only really

existed in the minds
of the converted few.

But all that

was about to change.

They are punk rockers.

The new craze, they tell me.

Well, there's a conservative.

They are as drunk as I am.

He was the institution,

and we were not.

They are a group
called the Sex Pistols..

Bill Grundy was the host of a
pre-watershed news programme

called The Today Show,

on which the Sex Pistols
were a last-minute booking.

They are heroes,

not the nice clean
Rolling Stones.

Queen were going to go and
pulled out at the last minute, so there

we were, short notice,

and Bill Grundy didn't
want to interview us.

I didn't know that Steve had
found a bottle of Blue Nun

and gone to another
room and drunk the lot.

Suddenly millions of viewers,
sitting down to their early evening

TV dinners, were confronted by
something a little bit unexpected.

BILL GRUNDY: What
about you girls behind?

'We didn't have a clue
what was going to happen.'

Bill Grundy was just so

contemptuous of them.

It's what?

Nothing. A rude
word. Next question.

No, no. What was the rude word?

Shit.

'There he is. He's the
one goading us into it.'

He definitely had an eye on
the young ladies in the bin liners.

Always wanted to meet
you. Did you really? Yeah.

We'll meet afterwards, shall we?

You dirty sod.

I was being,

"Ooh, I've always wanted
to meet you", - not really(!)

So, he had a real attitude.

He picked the wrong guys, and
then halfway through the interview,

Steve's bottle of
Blue Nun kicked in.

You know, it was a
recipe for disaster.

Go on, you've got
another five seconds,

say something outrageous.

You dirty bastard. Again.

You dirty fucker.
What a clever boy!

What a fucking rotter.
That's it for tonight.

Swearing on
prime-time television

just didn't happen in 1976.

I mean, the reaction the
next day in the newspapers,

was just like, "What?"

"The Filth And The
Fury", and it was like,

exclamation mark. Front pages.

Far from revelling
in the scandal,

Sex Pistols manager Malcolm
McLaren was initially very worried.

Malcolm was ghostly white,
like, "You've ruined everything

"I've been working for.
You've just destroyed a year's

"worth of work by
swearing on television."

The next morning, he
saw all the front pages

and realised it was a good idea.

Next day, punk rock was
a national phenomenon.

# I am an Antichrist

# I am an anarchist... #

Fresh from their Grundy
Show appearance,

the Sex Pistols embarked
on the Anarchy In The UK tour

with The Dammed and The Clash.

But they quickly discovered
that being the centre of national

attention wasn't
necessarily a good thing.

# Anarchy-y-y. #

I remember it felt great

on the Sex Pistols' first
tour that was no tour.

We had a crate of
beer and I was drunk.

But the next day, that's like,

"No, that's just not right.

"Why are we banned?"

Relationship with God and a
right way with God in this world.

This protest is to make Wales
know, to let the people of this town

know, that we do protest.

On the rare occasion
a town council

allowed the Pistols to play,

they were met with a
mixture of local protesters,

and the odd curiosity seeker,
who managed to break through

the picket line.

# I want to be-e-e

# Anarchy-y-y. #

It's lowering the standard
of our people in Caerphilly.

It's degrading and
disgusting for our children

to hear and see such things.

PROTESTORS SING

How do you feel about
the crowd opposite?

There are entitled
to do what they want.

It was strange

to be part of something
where venues were being

withdrawn where you can't
play, you're being censored.

You felt persecuted.

Lines were drawn, and you
chose what side you were on.

How do you react to the
reputation that your group is the most

revolting in the country?

Look, our group is creating
a generation gap for the first

time in five years
in this country

and a lot of people are feeling
genuinely threatened by it.

We ain't even being
allowed to play.

'There was so much going on,'...

..so much vicious
hatred towards us,

because we were doing
something completely new,

'we looked like nothing
most people had ever seen.'

I try so hard to be nice.

It taught me that the British
are, by nature, very conservative.

# Anarchist

# I get pissed

# Destroy-oy. #

Almost overnight, punk had
become public enemy number one.

Punk rock has become almost
a battle cry in British society.

For many people, it's a
bigger threat to our way of life

than Russian Communism
or hyperinflation.

What I'm concerned about is
the manner in which certain groups

behave onstage.

Now they're bringing out
these freak punk rock groups.

We're not going to have
this punk rock brigade.

It's all wrong! HE BURPS

ROUSING GUITAR

But for much of Britain's youth,

punk meant
something else entirely.

# I want it with you

# Wishing your love
will see me through. #

I want it to do
something for me.

Look at me now, I'm nothing.

That's what punk is.

Punk was our time.

This was our music
and our generation.

There was a real sense of

these people are going
to destroy civilisation.

If you get a bit up for it,
that's bloody hard luck.

We're never going to back down.

It didn't matter about class,
but a lot of it was largely

working class,

but it mattered about
what your ideas were like.

# This is the future. #

There's people branding us.
They're saying I'm vile and obscene.

Do I look vile and obscene?

People looked on in horror,
because they just didn't understand

what we were, but what we really were
was a by-product of what was happening

and we threw it back at them,
and actually, it was quite a laugh.

I think punk was a time

when all the freaks,

misfits and outlaws,

had their moment,
their moment in the sun.

As '76 gave way to '77,

punk's clarion call
had been sounded.

A new generation was
sick of waiting for its turn.

There was still this whole idea

you could only advance
if you put in the years,

and that was across the board -

industry, art, commerce.

# Paint by numbers. #

A new do-it-yourself spirit
was beginning to take root.

# So break up, make up. #

Punk was about being an
active participant, rather than just

a passive consumer.

It made you think,
"Well, I can do that,"

so the next question is,
why the hell don't you do it?

# Make-up. #

Are you a singer? Yeah.
Have you sung before?

Not on stage, no.

Suddenly the spotlight belonged
to anybody who wanted it.

With very little resources,

we were very resourceful.

What did you sing? The
Lord's Prayer, via Twist & Shout,

Knockin' On Heaven's Door,

and a bit of Deutschland,
Deutschland Uber Alles.

There is a way, so long as
you're persistent and aggressive

and beat the hell out of them.

MUSIC: "Make Up To Break
Up" by Siouxsie & the Banshees

The whole idea you needed
someone's permission to do these things

was destroyed. People were
starting record labels and magazines.

# Foundation
starts to tremble... #

We thought we had
something to offer.

There was a climate for
things to be radically shaken up.

# Cracking up - up, up

# Face is cracking up. #

We said, "We don't have to
ask anyone else's permission".

We can just go ahead and do it.

MUSIC: "When I Need
You" by Leo Sayer

Everything old and established

was now open to attack,

and if the record
industry didn't get it...

MUSIC: "Breakdown"
by The Buzzcocks

In January 1977, a young band
from Manchester called The Buzzcocks

decided to release an EP...

themselves.

We worked out that for £500,

we could press 1,000 singles,

and a picture sleeve.

We decided to do an EP
cos people brought out EPs.

The Beatles had
loads of EPs and things.

It was good cos it
had four songs on.

If you just have a single,
you've just got two sides.

We went in and
we did four songs.

# I'm going to breakdown
Got to break it down, yes. #

I suppose we
released our own record

because it was the
easiest way of doing it.

And went into the
college and put it on,

and watched people's
expressions - "What the hell is this?"

I still do think it's one of the most
tremendous records ever made.

Before that, it had been ageing
hippies giving you the impression

that you shouldn't go
out and play a guitar,

unless you'd been
at it for 30 years.

As far as punk was concerned,

rock'n'roll had
spent two decades

growing ever more pompous.

Punk's mission was to
simply start all over again.

We started referring to the
bigger bands as the "dinosaurs",

rejecting the past.

MUSIC: "You're In My
Heart" by Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart and people like
that were getting to look sillier

as the years went on.

They just looked like Louis XIV.

And someone had
to cut their head off.

HE LAUGHS

# You're in my heart
You're in my soul

# You'll be my breath
Should I grow old. #

It's got nothing to do
with them any more.

Rod Stewart starts going
on with his string orchestra.

It's not what you feel like,

so you've got to have some
music what you feel like.

Otherwise you go
barmy, don't you?

MUSIC: "1977" by The Clash

The Clash's song 1977

captured this desire
to wipe the slate clean.

# Sten guns in Knightsbridge

# Danger stranger

# You better paint your face

# No Elvis, Beatles
or the Rolling Stones

# 1977. #

But the Year Zero
mantra hid a contradiction.

Punk defined itself
as the future of music,

but equally championed a
return to rock'n'roll's past.

Three chords. Three-minute songs

played loud and fast.

# No Elvis, Beatles

# Or the Rolling Stones. #

It was more about
an ideal, 1977,

rather than to
be taken literally.

I loved the Beatles,

but I loved also the Rolling
Stones and the Kinks.

The line of rock'n'roll that
goes right back to Elvis.

When Elvis first came out,

that was like nothing
they'd seen before.

When the Pistols came out, it
was like nothing you'd seen before,

in the same way.

A lot of us... I still had
Deep Purple albums.

People do forget,
when they look back,

we weren't from outer space!

Everybody liked
these people, really.

I never met anybody
that didn't like the Stones.

If you don't like the Stones,
what are you doing in rock?

What are you doing
in a rock'n'roll band?

We weren't consciously
lying about the rejections part,

but it was important to
define what punk was about.

To actually start
differentiating,

in a way that gave
punk its identity

to the wider public.

To be a punk in 1977

was to set yourself
in opposition

to society in any way possible.

MUSIC: "Identity" by X-Ray Spex

# Identity is the
crisis - can't you see?

# Identity

# When you look in the
mirror Can you see? #

One of the things I had
made for me at the time

was this rapist mask.

I used to wear this out in
clubs. It was a great look.

I got a pair of
leather trousers,

and I wore them for six
months without taking them off.

I'd end up dyeing
things in bathtubs.

I'd dye one side
of a shirt pink -

it was supposed to be
red but came out pink,

and the other side
yellow, and wear it.

It was wearing stuff that used to
arrive in brown paper envelopes

on the street.

Not just wearing it in the privacy
of your bedroom or dungeon.

The effect was fabulous,
and the girls looked great in it.

The dog collar - what
an amazing accessory.

"OK, you give us nothing.

"We've got no jobs, nowhere to
go, we can't afford to buy clothes.

"We'll wear these
fucked-up old tights.

"And, what's more, we'll
look great while we do it."

It was like, "Fuck you.
We can wear what we like.

"I know this might upset
you. Who gives a damn?"

But notoriety came at a price.

Now that punk was a
matter of national controversy,

many of the pubs that had
nurtured the pub rock scene

only a year earlier,

had shut their doors.

In those days you couldn't
go in the pubs, man.

You couldn't go in clubs.

They were reluctant
to put punk bands on,

because they didn't
want that type in there.

Punk needed a home.

A place where it could
truly express itself.

It was in the middle
of Covent Garden.

It was like the
surface of the moon.

The only people that you saw

were punks and opera-goers.

To me, it's central - the
Roxy was the heart of it.

The Roxy, in all ways,

was the most important
pilgrimage you could make.

The whole essence
to the place was punk.

# We're talking into corners
Finding ways to fill the vacuum

# And though our mouths are dry

# We talk in hope to
hear something new. #

The place held, officially, 160.
We had maybe 360 in there.

So it was mayhem, but fun.

We were getting
phone calls from bands.

"Are you a punk band?" "Yeah."

Where are you from?" "Sheffield."
"You're playing next Thursday."

Simple as that.

# Bored teenagers Seeing
ourselves as strangers... #

When you'd see those
kids jumping up and down,

it wasn't about getting
hurt or having fights.

No-one had done that before. There
had never been that seething mass

of frustration and anger.

The Roxy was where many
of punk's new set of manners

were given space to evolve.

Why nod, when you could pogo?

Why cheer, when you
could hurl an arc of phlegm?

There's no option
but to accept the fact

people will gob on you.

It almost became
the defining sign

that this isn't the way
things were before.

It all began with The
Damned's Rat Scabies.

I was watching the Pistols.

Jonesy was gobbing all over the
stage and he fucking gobbed at me.

And I gobbed back.

The audience just saw
it as a great leveller.

What would have been
unthinkable a year earlier

was now the norm.

Gobbing was the new applause.

I remember one
night I was singing,

and there was this
double-headed spit coming at me.

I was trying to get out
of the way. This way -

and I could still see it.

I was trying to go that way. I
didn't know which way to go,

and "Boosh!"

It was the most revolting thing.

If they didn't spit at you, it
means they didn't like you.

# Bored out of our heads
Bored out of our minds. #

Every new movement needs
somewhere you can all gather.

The Roxy was that place.

The place where it all
fomented, and started happening.

But despite having
found a common cause,

and a place to call home,

the punk scene in '77

was far from being
a happy family.

Within the movement, there
was lots of different tribes,

but that made for
healthy competition.

That's what was
special about the scene.

You had these different camps
trying to one-up each other.

MUSIC: "Ambition"
by the Subway Sect

"My band's better than your band.
You're shit. We're the business."

It wasn't like some big commune
of people working together

for the greater good.

God forbid.

Punks didn't like each other.
No camaraderie whatsoever.

At all. None.

It was all competitive.

All these bands of
people I'd known - mates,

were all incredibly
oppositional.

It was really jealousy
that was driving it.

They wanted to
outdo the Pistols.

So, constantly fighting that.

Punk wasn't a unified movement.

It was a bunch of
really jealous people

trying to outdo each other.

But although the scene
appeared fearless and free,

a young band from Woking would
show that punk was already becoming

something of an exclusive club.

The Jam were a band playing
the same gigs as punk bands,

and had the same
energy in their music.

Turning up in suits and all
that was seen as a bit silly.

I don't know why, but we'd
always dressed the same onstage.

I'd made everyone go
to Burton's and get suits.

I'm only laughing cos
some of them were atrocious!

HE LAUGHS

Like split-level loons
and satin jackets,

but that's another story, folks.

Yeah, it was to stand out. To
be different from everyone else.

When everyone else was covered
in safety pins and all that shite.

MUSIC: "In The City" by The Jam

# In the city there's a thousand
things I want to say to you

# But whenever I approach
you You make me look a fool

# I want to say

# I want to tell you

# About the young ideas

# You better listen now
You've said your bit. #

We used to take the piss
out of them for tuning up,

which Paul Weller hated.

I used to get a
lot of flak for that.

They thought it was
kind of too "muso".

# We want to say

# We're going to tell you

# About the young ideas

# You better listen now
You've said your bit. #

The Clash and the Pistols seemed
to me like an upper-middle-class

kind of Kensington
Market kind of thing.

With the Jam, you knew exactly
where they were coming from.

I think we appealed to
people who were like us.

I think we appealed to a lot
of people from the suburbs.

We weren't really part
of a hip London niche.

That was the same all
over the country, really.

I think the songs I was writing,

people understood, cos they
saw themselves in those songs.

Despite appearing as
outsiders to the punk scene,

The Jam were most
definitely inspired by it.

The Pistols played
short, spiky songs.

I think from that experience,

I went back and started
writing in that style a little bit.

It was only really listening to
The Clash, and reading their lyrics,

that I started to think about
what's going on around me.

Prior to that, I'd just written
about, you know, girls.

In May 1977, The Jam
appeared on Top of the Pops.

# In the city there's a thousand
things I want to say to you. #

APPLAUSE

At the forefront of a new rock
phenomenon known as "New Wave",

there go The Jam
and In The City.

But as the record
industry slowly woke up

to punk's commercial potential,

a tension at its heart

began to emerge,

between staying independent
and gaining mass exposure.

Any record deal we
signed in those days,

I'd seen them
straightaway as the enemy.

They'd sign us. They'd
give you the right smiles.

They'd go, "Oh yeah,
we love what you're doing.

"Sign on the contract", and two
days later, it's a list of demands.

The Pistols' attitude

had ensured they had already
been dropped by two labels

by mid-1977. Punk
and the record industry

were not the
easiest of bedfellows.

MUSIC: "EMI" by the Sex Pistols

"Wouldn't it be nice if you wrote a
song about this, that or the other?"

"Would it be?

"Yeah, it might be nice.

"But this is what I'm doing.

"This is what I was paid to do."

# A&M. #

MUSIC: "Complete
Control" by The Clash

When The Clash signed to CBS,

punk found itself
at a crossroads.

Could they have their
cake and eat it too?

I can remember a serious
debate within The Clash

about whether they
should sign to CBS.

If it was important to
get the message out

to as wide an
audience as possible,

or if you should do it
on an independent label,

and risk that 14-year-old
in Newcastle or Glasgow

never getting the message.

I said punk died the day
The Clash signed to CBS.

I felt they would have made
such a massive statement

if they had made
their own records,

through their own
independent record label.

Yeah, it's all a business.

Does it shock you that
you wanted to destroy it

and it still is a business?
Well, we signed up with them.

We weren't going to
go into a hippy thing,

and stay in one corner of the
world and no-one hears about you.

If you want to come
out of that corner,

you have to deal with the
real world, and that's business.

MUSIC: "White Riot" by The Clash

In May '77, The Clash embarked

upon the White Riot tour,

with the Buzzcocks,
Subway Sect, and the Slits.

The tour would
quickly cement them

as the new voice of Britain's
dole-bound generation.

# White riot - I want a riot

# White riot - a riot of my own

# White riot - I want a riot

# White riot - a riot of my own

# Black man got
a lot of problems

# But they don't mind
throwing a brick... #

Mainly it's
remembered for the fact

it was the first time that
punk had played in a big place.

It was like a
bunch of crazy kids,

all on holiday together
- like on a Butlin's.

It was like, "We're all going on
a summer holiday" type thing.

Me and Mick Jones
were going out together,

and breaking up on-and-off

throughout the tour, so
it was all very dramatic!

The first night of
the White Riot tour,

at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park,

was just chaos.

The most scary-looking
mean guys walking round,

in nothing else other than DMs,

Y-fronts

and an old overcoat.

At the bus stop. They didn't
even wait till they got in the gig!

2,000 uninitiated people
turned up that night.

It was the most incendiary
and scary gig I've ever been to.

There was a few chairs smashed.

Like with the Teddy Boys,

when they ripped up
the seats at Bill Haley.

So that was like the same thing.

It was fairly harmless.

Disengage the seat in front
and throw it into the orchestra pit.

And we had to pay for it.

HE LAUGHS

# White riot - I want a riot
White riot - a riot of my own! #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

DUB REGGAE PLAYS

While The Clash were inciting
white riots all over the UK,

punk and reggae

were beginning to
find common cause.

It was interesting to
see how my culture

was turning on my
white contemporaries.

They dug the bass lines.

They dug the musical
reportage aspect of the lyrics.

They dug the
anti-establishment vibe.

Didn't mind the weed, either.

At punk gigs, the only thing
that made it bearable for me

was that DJs would
play quite a lot of reggae

and roots reggae and dub,
which was the golden period.

Phenomenal music that
is just earth-shattering.

One of the key tracks played
on The Clash's White Riot tour

was White Man In
Hammersmith Palais.

By assimilating reggae
into their songwriting,

The Clash were
beginning to reach out

and expand punk's
musical borders.

# Midnight to six man

# For the first time
from Jamaica... #

We couldn't do it just straight.

It was cos we
didn't understand it.

It was like we sort of
understand it differently.

We had to put ourselves into it.

# Ken Boothe, UK pop reggae

# With backing band
sound system... #

I actually took Strummer
to Hammersmith Palais

the night he was inspired to
write White Man In Hammersmith.

Reggae lyrics was like
the currency of street speak.

It was like slogans.
Under Heavy Manners.

"Cramp and paralyze them
and those that worship Babylon."

Punks really dug
that kind of lyricism.

There was a great similarity,

in terms of they were
both rebel musics.

# They ain't got no
roots rock rhythm. #

MUSIC: "God Save The
Queen" (National Anthem)

As Britain prepared itself for the
Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations

that summer,

the Sex Pistols prepared to
release their second single.

Of course I wrote God Save
The Queen. I wrote the rewrite!

# God save our gracious Queen

# Long live our noble Queen. #

The original lyrics
were unacceptable.

# God save the Queen

# The fascist regime

# They made you a moron

# Potential H-bomb

# God save the Queen

# She ain't no human being

# There is no future

# In England's dreaming. #

It came about quite easy.

It was just an ongoing
thought process.

Finally, I decided
to put pen to paper.

Ran to the rehearsal
studio, really proud of it.

Knew the band wouldn't
catch on what I was saying.

And somehow managed
to squeak it onto vinyl.

# We love our Queen

# God saves. #

It was the poetry of the street.

The poetry of new England.

The poetry against
the Silver Jubilee.

It was a great challenge to
that ghastly kind of arse licking

of the monarchy
that was going on.

# We love our Queen

# God saves. #

To promote the single,

manager Malcolm McLaren
arranged for the Pistols

to perform a gig on the Thames,

to coincide with the
Queen's own river procession.

Punk had its perfect stage.

But the band were getting sick
of McLaren's art school pranks.

# We mean it, man. #

By that time, the band
were on full collision course

with Malcolm -
particularly John.

John had a lot of
power over Malcolm,

but Malcolm controlled
the purse strings.

There were a lot of conflicts.

Ever get the feeling
you've been trapped?

I was woken up that morning,
told there was a boat trip.

I didn't really want to
go, but went anyway.

Sid felt the same.

'Steve and Paul felt the same.'

I've had enough
of your bullshit.

They weren't
talking to each other.

They weren't happy. They didn't
just have contempt for the audience -

they had total
contempt for themselves.

It was a very
unhappy little trip.

MUSIC: "Problems"
by the Sex Pistols

# Problems. #

The public outrage that
the Pistols' appearance

with Bill Grundy had unleashed

was insatiable.

So there we were.
Before we knew it,

the police boats were all around
us saying, "Stop, desist, come in."

The police go, "Which
one's Johnny Rotten?"

"Oh, I cannot
tell a lie, 'occifer',

"it's him down there, innit?"

HE LAUGHS

The ultimate reward.

They don't even know the
demon that they're chasing.

Malcolm McLaren was
coming down the gangplank,

and shouting out

the kind of stuff that
Malcolm would shout.

"Fascist pigs" and
"bully boys", and all that.

I just heard a copper
say, "Where's McLaren?"

And they gave
Malcolm a hammering.

They spun him round like
a top and smashed him.

# Problem

#Problem

# Problem

# Problem. #

It reflected what had
happened to the whole scene.

It had got really
nasty and violent.

Played out. Too much, too soon.

But that was the
time when I thought,

"Hang on a minute. This
isn't actually fun any more.

"This is a turning point."

The real topper was the
Pistols had reached number one

with this alternative
national anthem,

and it had been
erased from the charts,

which is a
wonderful situationist,

and kind of surrealist
achievement.

To have a number
one that didn't exist.

For many, the God
Save The Queen boat trip

had been a stunt too far.

The moral provocation that
the Pistols had revelled in

was turning ugly.

Round about the summer of '77,

Johnny Lydon was attacked,

and it got nasty.

There's always
outside infiltrators

that want to do you
harm late at night.

We used to walk
down the King's Road.

Someone would say, "There's 40
Teds coming from Sloane Square."

And it was a regular thing

on a Saturday afternoon

that kids were being
beaten to a pulp.

There were all these different
factions. Tribes everywhere.

It was always some sort of
war going on against someone.

MUSIC: "A-Bomb In
Wardour Street" by The Jam

# Where the streets
are paved with blood... #

But there was more than
youthful pride at stake.

Racial tension in the UK

was coming to a head.

Two months after the Jubilee,

in Lewisham, south London,

the Anti-Nazi League would clash
violently with the National Front.

# It's not my scene at all There's
an A-bomb in Wardour Street

# They're calling in the army
They're calling the policemen... #

Politics, particularly with young
people, were coming to the fore,

because of the rise
of the National Front.

Unthinkable as it is now, at
the time it was broadly believed

that people of colour could
be rounded up and "sent back".

That's what we
were fighting against.

We weren't fighting to defend
our multi-cultural society,

they were building the boats.

# A-bomb in Wardour Street

# It's blown up the West End

# Now it's spreading
through the city. #

Though the gigs were exciting

- not just ours, but all
the gigs around that time -

they were also
fucking very scary.

It was a very,
very violent time,

but our music reflected
that as well, I think.

Set against this backdrop,

a new generation of punk
bands were emerging,

which were all about their
working-class audience.

MUSIC: "CID" by the UK Subs

# One false move,
you could be dead

# Cos he's an underground
undercover agent for the CID

# CID, CID

# Got a loaded .44
Walking armoury store. #

The earlier punk scene,

we was almost like ponces.

We were into fashion,

and into that sort of aesthetic.

There was two waves
which came along.

The Sex Pistols' audience

were art school and very snobby.

Very middle class.

And we were working class.

If the first wave of
punk was the theory,

the second wave was the
reality of council estate Britain.

For many, the godfathers
of this second wave

were a band called Sham 69.

MUSIC: "Borstal
Breakout" by Sham 69

# And all I can think
of is baby I think of you

# Don't worry, baby
I'm coming back for you

# There's going to
be a borstal breakout

# Going to be a borstal breakout

# Going to be a
borstal breakout. #

Sham 69 was, I think,
incredibly important.

Jimmy Pursey was a
very complex character,

who had this
understanding of the white

council house kid.

When I heard Sham 69, I
thought, "These are the real punks.

"Cos they're real
working-class kids

"from horrible areas.

"And they've got nothing else."

I mean, that's punk.

Probably more pikey
than fucking working class.

I had that observational
way of saying,

"He's the kid that's
going to get the sack.

"He's the kid that's
this character."

Of course, those working-class
kids are 70% of our country.

The one thing I gave
them was that belief -

if I believed in me, they
could believe in themselves.

But Sham 69's raw street appeal

was beginning to attract
certain unwanted elements

to the punk scene.

The National Front, or
the British Movement.

They saw a recruitment
drive being able to take place,

because of the working
class kids coming to our gigs.

# There's going to be
a borstal breakout. #

Thank you. APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Jimmy Pursey
quickly found himself

being the unwilling icon
of a resurgent right wing.

Once the press had said,

"National Front, British
Movement, skinheads

"at this gig",

it invited them all to come.

So, of course, it's catch-22.

I was damned if I did,
or damned if I didn't.

Jimmy Pursey was
trying to lessen the angst

of what was happening to
the white council house estate.

Leaning out into the audience
and talking to these kids.

And saying you don't
have to become racist

to handle what's going on.

There's another voice,
another way of articulating this.

MUSIC: "If The Kids
Are United" by Sham 69

It was the most
emotional period.

Hell's Angels, punks, whatever.

Every different
tribe was around me,

saying, "Jimmy,

"where are we going?"

# United! United! #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I'd never seen anything
like it in my life before.

I'd never felt that emotion.

Harder, rougher and less
art-school than the first wave,

it was arguably the
second wave of punk bands

that truly reflected the sound
of Britain's troubled streets

in '78.

In Northern Ireland,
groups like Stiff Little Fingers

were tapping back into
punk's revolutionary rhetoric.

# An alternative Ulster

# Grab it, change it, it's yours

# Get an alternative Ulster

# Ignore the bores
and their laws

# Get an alternative Ulster

# Be an anti-security force

# Alter your native Ulster

# Alter your native land. #

The reality of life,
it was just boring.

Bands wouldn't come and play.

They were either frightened to,
or nobody thought to invite them.

The security forces at the time

had a ring of gates and
fences round the city centre,

which were locked from
about six-thirty, seven on

in the evening.

A world away from the
increasingly trendy London scene.

This wasn't rebellion
for its own sake.

Punk in Northern
Ireland made sense,

because kids had something
very real to rebel against.

# They say you
will never be free. #

It was all the kids

were going to concerts
together, and clubs.

There was some meeting together.

A good excuse for Catholics
and Protestants to get together.

It was a huge explosion,

and everybody was
playing at the same time.

From that point of view,

it probably did bring the
communities together.

But it wasn't a conscious thing.

It was just simply that people
wanted to go see those bands.

# Alternative Ulster

# Go and get it now! #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

But there was a
growing sense by 1978

that punk's
nihilism and attitude

was becoming nothing
more than a costume.

# Walking down the King's Road

# I see so many faces

# They come from many places

# They come down for the day

# They walk around together

# And try and look trendy

# I think it's a shame

# That they all look the same. #

Is imitation the
greatest form of flattery?

Is it?

It ain't.

Punk had sort of outgrown
itself, within a year, I thought.

I remember walking
down the King's Road

and seeing all these
stereotype punks

with their mad
Mohicans and tartan kilts

and all that caper.

Doing photos with
the American tourists.

I thought, "This ain't what
it's supposed to be about."

# They heard John Peel
play it Just the other night

# They'd like to buy
the O Level single... #

The idea that you had to
wear your Nazi armbands,

and follow the fashion.

To me, punk was
about rejecting fashion.

You told me to go and
look at the punk rock scene,

which I'm afraid I didn't
know very much about.

There's a great piece of film of
Derek Nimmo going into Seditionaries

to be kitted out
as a punk rocker,

which I think sums
it up a little bit.

LAUGHTER

There was no escaping it.

Punk was becoming as orthodox

as the world it had
set out to destroy.

MUSIC: "Babylon's
Burning" by The Ruts

# With anxiety

# Babylon's burning
Babylon's burning

# With anxiety

# Babylon's burning
Babylon's burning... #

You wear those clothes,
and you drink snakebites,

and you vomit
all over the place,

and you gob.

It was like, "Oh God, don't bring
it down to this - to these rules."

I found it very
disturbing, really,

because the whole ethos of
punk was you did what you want.

The media cliche
became an accepted cliche.

You forget that this
isn't what we were doing.

We were trying
to get rid of all that.

# Babylon's burning
Babylon's burning

# Babylon's burning. #

Once something
becomes easy to copy,

then it loses its power.

In January of 1978,

at the height of
their popularity,

the Sex Pistols pushed
the self-destruct button.

Oh yes, the last Sex
Pistols gig in San Francisco.

Yeah.

Funny how these things just...

trip off the end of your tongue.

Ever get the feeling
you've been cheated?

Good night.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

I meant it.

I was so fed up with the
idiocy of the management,

and the dissipation of the band.

For many, punk died the
day the Pistols split up.

But, by pulling the plug, they
neatly sidestepped a problem.

Punk was everywhere.
It had taken centre stage,

and its oppositional stance
was now unsustainable.

One of the great achievements
of the punk movement

was to blow away some cobwebs.

It was a great
kind of full stop.

But you can't look at punk
unless you understand

that its nihilism
and its anarchy

was the seeds of
its own destruction.

There was a feeling in the air
of, "This is all going downhill."

By the end of
'79, it wasn't fun.

I think if you're not having
fun, you should stop.

The bands that remained
faced a dilemma.

If punk was no longer
rallying against the status quo,

then what should it do?

You only began to see
light at the end of the tunnel

when The Clash brought
out London Calling,

and it's like, "Ah! We're free."

You can actually embrace
all the world is offering.

That was a milestone record.

Because it broke the
shackles of punk rock.

# London calling

# To the faraway towns

# Now war is declared
And battle come down

# London calling

# To the underworld

# Come out of the cupboard
You boys and girls... #

There was a feeling
that punk music

had really painted
itself into this corner.

We were thinking
along the lines of,

"It's about all music."

We were just playing all
the music that we liked.

# Of that truncheon thing

# The ice age is coming
The sun's zooming in

# Meltdown expected
The wheat is growing thin

# Engines stopped
running but I have no fear

# Cos London is drowning

# I live by the river. #

The Clash survived,

because within the
language of The Clash

is this desire for change.

But it wasn't just The Clash
learning how to leave punk behind.

# I'm down in the
tube station at midnight

# Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

# I first felt a fist

# And then a kick I could
now smell their breath... #

Things outstayed their
welcome, didn't they?

We took what we wanted, and
what we thought we could use.

And we did our
own thing with it.

# An amateur band
rehearse in a nearby yard

# Watching the telly and
thinking 'bout your holidays

# That's entertainment

# Ah... #

We learned to develop, really.

It took us a couple
of albums to do that.

# Let's get together
Before it's too late... #

Some of punk's
original class of '76

were even beginning to carve
out careers as bona fide pop stars.

A lot of people that had
served their apprenticeship

in the punk rock era

had learned a thing or two.

I certainly did.

# So unlock the jukebox
And do yourself a favour

# That music's lost its taste

# So try another flavour

# Ant music... #

I certainly became a pop singer.

Punk was over.

My intention was to just
to get this thing sounding,

looking, different from
everything else around me.

MUSIC: "Hong Kong Garden"
by Siouxsie & the Banshees

# Harmful elements in the air

# Cymbals crashing everywhere

# Reaps the fields
of rice and reeds... #

It's weird. My first reaction

to Hong Kong Garden -

when we first wrote it -

I just thought,
"Ooh, it's too poppy."

When I thought
about it, I thought,

"I love pop music."

MUSIC: "Arabian Nights"
by Siouxsie & the Banshees

# They said I'd be impressed.

# Arabian nights

# At your primitive best. #

There are some curveballs

within the realm of pop.

So really, it's a perfect

platform for anything, really.

MUSIC: "Your Generation"
by Generation X

# Well, that's your generation

# Oh yeah.

# Time for generation... #

We thought,
"Let's use the radio.

"Let's use the TV. Let's
use the newspapers."

# Bring hell from above

# Because in the midnight hour

# She cried, "More, more, more!"

# With a rebel yell

# She cried, "More,
more, more!" #

It certainly gave me a future.

MUSIC: "Public Image"
by Public Image Limited

# Hello. Hello... #

In a little over two years,

punk had both torn down
the walls of the establishment,

and imploded. But how would the
generation of bands that followed

face the questions that had
been thrown up post-punk?

# You never listen
to a word that I say

# You only see me for
the clothes that I wear

# Or did the interest
go so much deeper?

# It must have been
the colour of my hair

# The public image. #

# What you wanted
was never made clear

# Behind the image
was ignorance and fear

# You hide behind
this public machine

# You still follow
the same old scheme

# Public image. #