Sex Pistols Bill Grundy 1976 Interview – Nick Hornby Foreword

Description

On December 1, 1976, the Sex Pistols appeared on Bill Grundy’s early-evening Today program and managed, in a matter of minutes, to turn themselves from an emerging punk band into a national scandal. The exchange became one of the defining moments in British punk history, helping introduce the Pistols—and punk itself—to a much larger public. This Guardian publication reproduces the interview and surrounds it with an excellent period photograph and, importantly, an afterword by Malcolm McLaren.

But there’s another reason to want this one: Nick Hornby wrote the foreword. Hornby looks back at the Grundy appearance and places those few infamous minutes in the context of British television, popular culture and his own memory of the period. That makes this an appealing crossover piece: certainly a Sex Pistols and punk collectible, but also an easily overlooked bit of Nick Hornby bibliography. Published by the Guardian in 2007 as number 8 of its 14-part Great Interviews of the 20th Century series.

A terrific little piece of punk history—and one the Nick Hornby completist may very well have missed.