4. Cancelled

The Rise and Fall of ... vor 11 Monaten

The band face the music and harness British outrage.

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In the aftermath of the Bill Grundy interview, the Sex Pistols
became Britain’s most notorious band, not for their music, but
for the chaos that followed. To some, they were a threat to
society itself, and instead of ignoring them, middle England lost
its collective mind.

Episode 4 of the Rise and Fall of Sex Pistols plunges into the
wreckage of that moment: a UK tour collapsing date by date,
sackings from two major labels in just six months, and how
manager Malcolm McLaren spun outrage into art.

From smashed toilets to moral panic, from Caerphilly to
Buckingham Palace, this is the story of how doing nothing made
the Pistols more famous than ever.

Episode 4 features archive interviews from: Johnny Rotten, Steve
Jones, Paul Cook, Malcolm McLaren and Sid Vicious alongside a
brand-new interview with punk author and historian Chris
Sullivan.

Presented by Gina Birch and Steve Lamacq

A BBC Audio Production