The Sex Pistols were masters of making polarizing first impressions, and their TV debut was no exception. Never did Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, and the rest of the band cease to jar, baffle, and disgust the public viewers who did not understand their mission as a punk rock band. That included their first television appearance on September 4, 1976.
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You might not be a fan of The Sex Pistols, but you have to respect where they came from as a band. They never pulled back their personalities and marketed themselves through sheer shock value. They did this for the entirety of their career, and they teased who they were when they took the stage for an episode of the TV show So It Goes.
Hosted by Tony Wilson, So It Goes was historically known to invite rock stars, journalists, and other colorful entertainment figures on the show. That being said, it is no surprise that they invited The Sex Pistols on the show in 1976. However, what is rather surprising is that Wilson and his producers reportedly kept the Pistols’ show as is.
Down With the Queen and up With the Sex Pistols
Prior to the band’s TV debut on September 4, 1976, The Sex Pistols were just a small band solidifying their brand, marketing their reputation, and working on their debut album, Never Mind the Bollocks. In other words, they had yet to cement themselves as the grotesquely charming and nefariously rebellious punk band of the late 70s. They were on their way to making it, and this opportunity was seemingly an enormous one.
On the show, The Sex Pistols, of course, performed one of the many controversial songs in their catalog. That song was “Anarchy In The UK”, and as you might imagine, it ruffled some feathers, but that was always one of The Sex Pistols’ main aims.
Following the broadcast of this episode, The Sex Pistols went on to release the single officially. After that, The Pistols would go on to make an even more polarizing TV appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today Show. All of these factors led to an opportune storm, a storm that The Sex Pistols would go on to ride until their demise just two years later in 1978.
The ever-controversial Sex Pistols might have only been around for two years, but they accomplished their mission as a band, given that we and the masses still talk about them to this day.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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