1. No Future

The Rise and Fall of ... vor 11 Monaten

A trail of chaos that changed British music. Ep 1 traces the band’s turbulent origins.

0:00

17:38

“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” spat a deflated
Johnny Rotten before walking off stage in San Francisco. The Sex
Pistols were finished. One album, a handful of singles, and a
trail of chaos that changed British music.

But where did it all begin? How did a green-haired kid from
Finsbury Park, nearly killed by meningitis and raised in poverty,
end up fronting the most incendiary band in British history?

In Episode 1 of The Rise and Fall of Sex Pistols, Gina Birch, a
founding member of The Raincoats, and Steve Lamacq drag you back
to the murky mid-70s and dive into the turbulent origins of
punk’s most iconic band.

From stolen Bowie gear to backroom pub auditions, this is a story
of disillusioned youth, of a fetish shop on the King’s Road, of a
snarling, short-sighted teenager, and of a chaotic Britain. The
perfect breeding ground for a cultural revolution that the Sex
Pistols were being primed to lead.

Featuring archive interviews with: John Lydon, Steve Jones, Glen
Matlock, Paul Cook, Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood and Bob
Geldof.

Presented by Gina Birch and Steve Lamacq

A BBC Audio Production