The main attraction to conclude day one. At this point the Pistols had some notoriety, but infamy was some months off yet (the Bill Grundy 'Today' interview on the eve of the Anarchy tour took place on 1st December 1976).
Half of the tracks that make up the Pistols set went on to appear on their 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols' album whilst others cropped up as B-sides on those '77 singles. Other iconic songs, the likes of 'No Future' ('God Save The Queen') and 'E.M.I.' were still in their late stages of creation ('No Future') or the events that inspired them ('E.M.I.') had yet to happen. Although the songs were in place, the release of 'NMTB' was still more that a year away as the band became the hottest potato of all for those record companies that engaged with them (most notably the establishment label 'E.M.I.' and the American giant 'A&M').
Many of those that participated in these early punk gigs (such as Siouxsie and Marco) have gone on record to state that punk died with the Grundy interview and the furore come media circus that followed in its wake. If this is so then punk in its intended form did not even make it in to 1977 and was enjoyed by just a couple of hundred people in London and Manchester! Luckily, there was plenty more good stuff to come in 1977, but I happily concede that all of those early gigs throughout 1976 would have been something to behold... before a variety of people and organisations manipulated 'punk' and took it over to a large extent.
Once again, over to 'Sniffin' Glue'.
'During the interval the Sex Pistols showed up. I approached Johnny Rotten, who was slouched over some chairs with Glen Matlock:
SG - Would you do Top Of The Pops?
Rotten - Great, why not? Should be good.
SG - There's a rumour going around that your song, 'Anarchy In The UK' was made just to promote Malcolm McClaren's 'Anarchy' shirts, is that right?
Rotten - No, that's just other bands jealous of us... anyway the song came first!
SG - Yea, it's said that it was all planned.
Rotten - Well, all I can say to that is, "Yawn".
SG - Just, "Yawn"?
Rotten - Yea!
The Pistols were fucking brilliant! They were really on form, there was kids on chairs, tables... the following they've got is amazing. No one in their right mind could say they "can't play", they're getting better every gig. No, there was no violence, they just played!'
The punk and the prophet
Roxy, London 1977
In this briefest of interviews, Rotten does indeed allude to simmering rivalries between those bands that eventually coalesced into what we know understand to be punk.
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