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“All the music that you will hear has been chosen by Johnny Rotten and is from his personal collection.” so said interviewer Tommy Vance, later of the absolutely vital Friday Rock Show and BBC Radio One of course. Back in ’77 TV was on the radio and broadcasting on London’s then rather influential Capital Radio, on July 16th, 1977, the then Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten spent two hours on Tommy Vance’s show. The appearance has become the stuff of legend, It was to become something regarded as an important appearance for Johnny Rotten, soon to become Mr Lydon (again), the show was regarded by some as being one of the first signs of a properly serious rift between Rotten and Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, some have said the radio show was the first real public appearance of John Lydon. The appearance on the show and the fallout between McLaren and Lydon is well documented in Jon Savage’s essential book on that period of musical time, England’s Dreaming 

Glitterbest [McLaren’s company] were even more furious when Capital Radio’s Tommy Vance show was broadcast on the 16th. Lydon had obviously had enough of McLaren’s public control and now made his own power move: “It’s fashionable to believe that Malcolm McLaren dictates to us but that’s just not true. What really amuses me about Malcolm is the way they say he controls the press: media manipulator. The point of it all is that he did nothing: he just sat back and let them garble out their own rubbish.”

Even worse for Glitterbest was the way in which “Johnny Rotten” came across: according to the Sunday Times, “a mild-mannered liberal chap with a streets of Islington accent.” Lydon had had enough of being dehumanized: just as earlier he had irritated McLaren by turning up to a photo session dressed as a Teddy Boy, he now chose records for the show by Neil Young, Peter Hamill, Doctor Alimentado and Captain Beefheart – McLaren still splutters about this one. “I like all sorts of music,” Lydon said disarmingly.

The interview – reported verbatim in the music press – enabled a wider audience to relate to Lydon and put him within some sort of recognizable Rock context. This was exactly what Glitterbest wanted least: McLaren had a Year-Zero approach to pop culture which, as the script he was working on displayed, was hardening. For him and for Reid, this was a “shit” interview, because it established Lydon as a “man of taste,” and thus “lost his and the band’s threa

For some of us Van Der Graaf fans, the show has become an almost legendary thing because of the Peter Hammill airplay and indeed for John Lydon’s comments, that acknowledgement that ties Hammill and his band Van Der Graaf Generator to the creativity of early punk, that so called Prog Rock, the properly progressive stuff, was never the real enemy. The fact that Johnny had played the tracks is something we’ve heard about for years. Here it is in audio form and there’s Johnny’s comments (on the third part of the You Tube versions) and “Oh peter Hammill’s great, a true original, I’ve just liked him for years, if you listen to his solo albums, I’m damn sure Bowie has copied a lot out of that geezer, the credit he deserves has just not been given to him, I love all his stuff…. it is about punk, he didn’t mean it to be, but it is, it’s true, you’re nobody’s business…”     

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It was the Summer of 1977, Lydon was just 20 years old at the time, he hadn’t really revealed himself like this before, it is good to actually hear it rather than just read about it. Other people have pieced bits of the radio show together before, Dangerous Minds had put together a tracklisting which in turn made me go put together a self indulgent Spotify playlist just for my own listening pleasure. There are recordings of most but not all of the show up on Soundcloud, the whole show is there via three YouTube posts. The Hammill tracks and the comments are on the third part of the show on the third YouTube post. 

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In terms of the Spotify list, I’m assuming playing the Pistols track Did You No Wrong was not John’s choice and more something that was put in when the interview and the show was edited together. The track listing is down there, and for those who do the Spotify thing there’s the playlist (I made month’s ago now) and yes, well Gary Glitter? There’s no pleasure in listening to Mr Glitter these days is there, I’ve left him off the Spotify playlist (and well Neil Young isn’t on Spotify, there is a version of his song on there though so that will have to do).

I’m not sure where John Lydon is these days with some of his political views, his thoughts on Trump and such seem a little astray, I’ve always had a lot of time and respect for the man and his music though, always had time for his point of view, always prepared to listen if not to always agree. This page and this piece is about something that happened in the Summer of ’77, not what john is doing and saying now, and from our point of view this page is as much about Peter Hammill as anything else. Peter Hammill, a man who still makes excellent records and still doesn’t get the credit some 46 years after Johnny Rotten first pointed that out. I’d maybe argue that those early moves of PIL don’t get the as much credit as they should either, credit where it really is due and all that. Anyway, here’s the recordings of the radio show  and further down you can foind the Soundcloud version of the Hammill moments.

And yes, I know all this has been documented in other places, I was just pulling it all together in once place, along with a Spotify list, for my own personal enjoyment really and well, i thought I may as well share it with you…

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The poster of the YouTube bits comments “Capital Radio Interview with Tommy Vance. 16th July 1977. Last section of show. I’ve left the adverts and news reports in as I feel they give a feel for the time and show that ‘Punk’ couldn’t have happened at any time other than when it did.The last 20 minutes of this video are made up of various punky tracks that I must have added at the time or some way along the line. Enjoy or ignore….”

Thsoe adverts are excellent peices of history and yes, the three parts of the radio show were posted on You Tube some years ago by someone from Department S, we do note that on the YouTube version, Rotten’s comment about Bowie while talking about Hammill and his “I’m damn sure Bowie has copied a lot out of that geezer”, has been edited, I guess a Bowie fan posted the YouTube (was it you Vic? is Vic there?). The full quote is there for all to hear on the Soundcloud version just at the end of Eastbourne Ladies and then the start of Institute of Mental Health. It is well documented that both Bowie and Lydon had a big respect for Peter Hammill and Van Der Graaf Generator

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The tracklisting of the radio show and a Spotify version of the tracks played that day in thr Summer of ’77….

    Tim Buckley – Sweet Surrender
    The Creation – Life Is Just Beginning
    David Bowie – Rebel Rebel
    Jig a Jig
    Augustus Pablo – King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown
    Gary Glitter – Doing Alright With The Boys
    Fred Locks – Walls
    Vivian Jackson and the Prophets – Fire in a Kingston
    Culture – I’m Not Ashamed
    Dr Alimantado & The Rebels – Born For A Purpose
    Bobby Byrd – Back From The Dead
    Neil Young – Revolution Blues
    Lou Reed – Men Of Good Fortune
    Kevin Coyne – Eastbourne Ladies
    Peter Hammill – The Institute Of Mental Health, Burning
    Peter Hammill – Nobody’s Business
    Makka Bees – Nation Fiddler / Fire!
    Captain Beefheart – The Blimp
    Nico – Janitor Of Lunacy
    Ken Boothe – Is It Because I’m Black
    John Cale – Legs Larry At Television Centre
    Third Ear Band – Fleance
    Can – Halleluwah
    Peter Tosh – Legalise It

And if you do do the Spotify thing then….