The Year The Sex Pistols Saved Christmas

Yes, the Sex Pistols.

The snarling, high-energy hard rock quartet pulled the trigger on “punk rock,” firing a shotgun blast of adrenalin, anger, and social critique into the face of pop culture and urban rock scenes around the world. No cow was sacred in the Pistols’ no-holds-barred lyrics: they savaged conformity, comfortable obliviousness, and the 70s “me generation” — but aimed their most devastating musical tirades at Thatcherite England and the widening gulf between the moneyed and the working class.

Over the years, I have heard bits and pieces of the story of how the UK’s most notorious media outlaws did something you’d never imagine if you bought the conventional press hype. The Washington Monthly‘s Kathleen Grier has put the pieces of the story together in a holiday must-read:

Cast your mind back to December 1977, At that time, the Sex Pistols were the most reviled rock band in English history — banned by the BBC and from most performing venues, sensationalized by the British tabloids (“The Filth and the Fury!” screamed an infamous Daily Mirror headline), even investigated by the MI5, Britain’s central intelligence domestic counter-intelligence and security agency.

At the same time, as Christmas approached in Huddersfield, in the north of England, firefighters were heading into the sixth week of a strike. The website Dangerous Minds fills in the background:

For two years, the fire fighters had waited for the Labour government to negotiate a pay raise, but nothing had happened. As the cost of food, fuel and taxes skyrocketed, the pay-in-the-pocket of the average worker was worthless. Therefore, a ballot of the 30,000 strong Fire Brigades Union was held, which received 97.5% support for strike action. On the 14th November, 1977, the fire fighter’s strike began.

It was looking like the striking workers and their families weren’t going to have much a Christmas that year. Workers were earning no wages and couldn’t even pay their bills, so how were they going to pony up the money for Christmas presents? One of the firefighters’ children remembered, “our parents were struggling and there were arguments, bills weren’t getting paid…”

This is where the Sex Pistols came in. It’s unclear how it came about, but the Pistols arranged to play a benefit show on Christmas day for the striking firefighters and their families. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the impetus came from John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten, because the most striking characteristic of his politics has always been his strong sense of class consciousness and solidarity with his working class Irish roots.

It would be the Pistols’ final UK concert with Sid Vicious in the lineup. You should read both the Washington Monthly and Dangerous Minds posts. The video clips from the actual performance (above) are a joyous riot. On December 26, the BBC will broadcast a full-hour documentary by Julien Temple on the Huddersfield concert; with any luck, it will be shown in the states.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.