IS SID VICIOUS? WHO CARES? CALL 473-5386 TO SPEAK TO THE PUNK OF YOUR CHOICE.”

December 28, 2012 8:36 AM

Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen Take Phone Calls on New York Cable TV (1978) Part 2 Part 3 Stiv Bators is also on the panel.

From the late-seventies broadcast from The Efrom Allen Show on New York cable television. YouTube channel includes Ramones, Blondie, Divine, Marilyn Chambers and moar.

posted by Sailormom (9 comments total)

I'll have to see more of this when I get the chance, but what I found interesting is that, in almost any other city, this would turn into some Jerry Springer-esque culture clash, but in New York, most of the callers are just ragging on Sid Vicious for being derivative of the Who.
posted by jonp72 at 8:49 AM on December 28, 2012 [5 favorites]

Very cool. This was 34 years ago, and in terms of the communications technology available at the time (and the level of professional polish) compared to what we have today it's a much bigger gap than the difference between 1978 and 1944.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:53 AM on December 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

You call it "professional polish" I call it "corporate sanitizing".
posted by DU at 9:47 AM on December 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

I meant that as a compliment. I have a soft spot for today's low-budget commercials for used car lot, mom-and-pop restaurants, etc. because there about the only remaining examples of that rough-around-the-edges media aesthetic.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:55 AM on December 28, 2012 [3 favorites]

My world is to small. Nancy Spungen is burried in a Jewish cemetary not far from where my parents live. I visit the grave sometimes when I am visiting - just because I am driving right past it and it's no effort at all and because of that it seems rude not to.

And so just this past Christmas and I am at the typical English Christmas dinner here in Stockholm with my friend Michael and his sambo (Swedish for co-habitating partner) whom I have known for a decade out of the blue tells me about the time she partied with the Sex Pistols.

"I was 16 and they were playing in Växsjö and my girfriend and I sneaked out to see them."

Apparently, she knew someone connected to their visit and so she gets back-stage passes.

"They trashed the hotel room. Johnny Rotten was really rotten and no one liked him," she says.

I never saw the Sex Pistols perform, but the whole six degrees of separation thing is getting me down.
posted by three blind mice at 1:17 PM on December 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

I never saw the Sex Pistols perform

I'll be you a 2017 tour is being talked about.
For the kids.
posted by Mezentian at 3:14 PM on December 28, 2012

"I'll be you a 2017 tour is being talked about.
For the kids."

I saw the Sex Pistols on a reunion tour, a few years back. That's something I never thought I'd say... And I still kind of wish I couldn't. When you closed your eyes, it was exactly like listening to Never Mind the Bollocks. But then you opened your eyes, and they were old guys dressed young, thrashing away on their guitars, and there was actually something kind of depressing about how they still sounded exactly like that one iconic album they recorded a lifetime ago. It was sort of like watching a spot-on Sex Pistols cover band or something. If they ever come to your town, I'd suggest staying home and giving the album a spin instead.

As for this video, Sid comes across as quiet, unhappy, charismatic and very, very young, none of which is too surprising. Somebody pointed out years ago that he looked a lot like the young Tom Cruise, and I've never been able to un-see it, since then.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:30 PM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Smack is a hall of a drug.
posted by Catblack at 9:01 PM on December 28, 2012

Their appearance on the $7,000 gameshow was way better.
posted by alex_skazat at 11:13 PM on December 28, 2012