It could even be argued the punk movement helped channel anger that could’ve resulted in something far worse.īut despite the media-generated hysteria, there was more to England’s Pistols than gobbing, swearing and pogo. The dissatisfaction that manifested itself on the streets of Notting Hill wasn’t caused by songs like Anarchy in the UK, quite the opposite, it inspired them. In direct contradiction to the story that it was punk ‘wot did it’, it is far more likely that institutionalised racism coupled with deliberate heavy-handed policing helped morph underlying frustration into the fury that sparked the riot.
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On August 30th Notting Hill Carnival broke out into a mass riot. In 1976, at the end of one of the hottest summers since records began, the discontent reached boiling point. Unemployment figures were careering uncontrollably towards the 1978 post-war high of one and a half million, hitting the young hardest. Throughout the early 1970s, discontent and disillusion among young Britons had been growing exponentially. The Pistols were as much a symptom of the social malaise infecting the UK, as the cause. If nothing else, the stories amounted to over- simplification. Scarcely able to disguise their unstinting glee, the British press reported that spitting and pogo dancing at the band’s gigs were encouraging acts of violence and self-mutilation among the nation’s young. Anxious to cash in on the Pistols’ notoriety, the tabloid headlines that followed the record’s release had more to do with the art of self-fulfilling prophecy than news. The title of the single Anarchy in the UK did nothing to alleviate that impression. To go straight to Part One of the interview click hereīy the time The Sex Pistols released their first single in November 1976 they’d already achieved a media reputation for inciting antisocial behaviour.
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Not only had they released their first single ‘Rich Kids’, but they had also recorded sessions for John Peel’s BBC1 radio show and appeared on Top of the Pops. Things were looking good for The Rich Kids, Glen’s new band. Also a photographer of the rock world, Sheila is known for her unique photos recording the earliest days of the UK punk scene. The meeting took place at the Holland Park house of Sheila Rock, the ex-wife of rock photographer Mick Rock. I’d met Glen in August along with Midge Ure, Rusty Egan and Steve New, all members of his new band The Rich Kids. On turning the cover, I realised it was the long-forgotten transcript of an interview I’d recorded with Glen Matlock in 1978, the year after he’d quit The Sex Pistols. I would take them to Chelsea Art School or wherever they would be playing and give one to a girl in the audience who looked cool.Earlier this year I was rummaging round my sister’s attic in Chichester when I came across an A4 ring-bound notebook. I sold them in the store, but at first I gave some away as a way of promoting the band. I must have made 20,30, not more than 40 shirts in all. We didnt, in any event, produce very many, and they were in quite small sizes. Just tell them its an artwork.ĭo this or youre out of this job. Oooh, if I get caught doing this Ill be slung out.ĭont be stupid. I know, Ive been to Saint Martins, Ive been there. Then I grabbed Glen Matlock who worked for us on Saturdays and was an art student. He used to perspire at the kitchen table, as if somebody was about to break down the door, charge him with being a paedophile and drag him off to prison. The image of the boy came from a gay magazine, an English one called Boys Express I purchased in Brixton, and the guitar shape was taken using the outline of Glen Matlock's bass.īernie Rhodes - who worked with me and printed my t-shirts - was a bit frightened about printing the nude boy image. I wanted to create something of a stir and the idea of the group and the name I gave them was that they were sexy young assassins and the way this boy stood with his cigarette could look like a smoking gun. I was acting on behalf of the group at that time.
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"This was my first attempt at making a Sex Pistols t-shirt. Malcolm McLaren, interviewed by Paul Gorman, October 2008: