THIS DAY IN HISTORY

[IceWizard]

The BBC bans the Sex Pistols’
“God Save the Queen”







1977
May 31



Thirty years after its release, John Lydon—better known as Johnny Rotten—offered this assessment
of the song that made the Sex Pistols the most reviled and revered figures in England in the spring
of 1977: “There are not many songs written over baked beans at the breakfast table that went on
to divide a nation and force a change in popular culture.” Timed with typical Sex Pistols flair to
coincide with Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee, the release of “God Save The Queen” was greeted
by precisely the torrent of negative press that Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren had hoped.
On May 31, 1977, the song earned a total ban on radio airplay from the BBC—a kiss of death for
a normal pop single, but a powerful endorsement for an anti-establishment rant like
“God Save The Queen.”

While some in the tabloid press accused the Sex Pistols of treason and called for their public
hanging, the BBC was more moderate in its condemnation. In response to lyrics like “God Save
The Queen/She ain’t no human being,” the BBC labeled the record an example of “gross bad taste”—a
difficult charge to argue, and one the Sex Pistols wouldn’t have wanted to dispute. Even with the
radio ban in place, however, and with major retailers like Woolworth refusing to sell the controversial
single, “God Save The Queen” flew off the shelves of the stores that did carry it, selling up to
150,000 copies a day in late May and early June. With sales figures like that, it seems implausible
that “God Save The Queen” really stalled at #2 on the official UK pop charts, yet that is where it
appeared, as a blank entry below “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” by Rod Stewart, the ultimate
anti-punk. Like every other effort to suppress the song, refusing even to print its name in the
official pop charts played right into the Sex Pistols’ hands

Like naughty schoolboys concerned only with the approval of their peers, the Sex Pistols baited
the British establishment throughout their brief career, but never more so than during the Silver Jubilee.
When they took to the waters of the Thames and attempted to blast “God Save The Queen” from
giant speakers loaded onto a boat chartered by Virgin Records chief Richard Branson, the police
dutifully responded by chasing the boat down and arresting its passengers when they reached
the dock. When members of Parliament threatened to ban all sales of the single, a Virgin spokesman
replied: “It is remarkable that MPs should have nothing better to do than get agitated about records
which were never intended for their Ming vase sensibilities.” Like the BBC ban announced on this
day in 1977, these incidents only fed the controversy the Sex Pistols had set out to create.







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