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Letter From Britain

Anarchy In The UK

You have to hand it to them. The Sex Pistols, I mean.

March 1, 1977
Simon Frith

You have to hand it to them. The Sex Pistols, I mean. They’ve been ‘n’ gone ‘n’ got more publicity than any rock group since the Stones lifted their legs against those petrol pumps. More, probably, and just for saying naughty words on television. Front pages, concerts cancelled, the good ladies of EMI refusing to even touch their single in the packaging department —“Yuk!”. And, most amazing of all, free commercials! The News of the World, world’s biggest selling newspaper, has been advertising its no-holds-barred-or -unphotoed expose of punk rock with a thirty second clip of Johnny Rotten and the boys playing the only four notes they know. It’s the only punk rock most kids in Britain have ever heard or seen and if the Pistols can’t make it as the new Rollers after this lot, then they deserve to be squelched to death by the combined forces of *the Respectable Women of Britain, Inc.

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