How the Sex Pistols Saved Christmas!
When they were around for the first time, the Sex Pistols were considered vile, evil and a threat to everything that was good and decent about Great Britain. It might surprise you to learn that they had a very soft side. From Dangerous Minds:
This was Christmas Day 1977, when The Sex Pistols played a benefit gig for the families of striking fire fighters at the Ivanhoe’s club, Huddersfield, in the north of England.
As has often been recorded, The Pistols were the most hated and feared group in the country, portrayed by the press as the biggest threat to any nation’s children since Herod slaughtered the innocents. They had been banned from nearly every civic venue in the UK and were on an MI5 blacklist. For many a politician or council member, the very mention of The Sex Pistols could cause the veins to ominously throb on their sweaty, flabby brows.
But it wasn’t just The Pistols who these politicians and their obsequious press feared, it was the unions—in particular the fire fighters who were striking for a 30% wage increase.
For two years, the fire fighters had waited for the Labour government to negotiate a pay raise, but nothing had happened. As the cost of food, fuel and taxes skyrocketed, the pay-in-the-pocket of the average worker was worthless. Therefore, a ballot of the 30,000 strong Fire Brigades Union was held, which received 97.5% support for strike action. On the 14th November, 1977, the fire fighter’s strike began.
On Christmas Day, 1977, the Pistols quietly organized a benefit gig for the Fire Brigade Union.
Keep reading. And there’s more video like this, too.
http://youtu.be/STI4Vf8tDD0