The Filth and the Fury

---

Well, now, as we come towards | the end of this evening on BBC 1 ,

Michael Fish takes a late | look at the weather.

Again, a good deal of cloud.

A little rain from time to time | for much of the day,

but later on that rain is going | to become ever more persistent

and eventually, | I think that rain

will probably turn out to be | fairly heavy.

What you've seen in any | documentary about any band,

before or since, is how great | and wonderful everything is.

It's not the truth of it. | It's hell, it's hard.

It's horrible. | It's enjoyable to a small degree

but if you know what you're | doing it for,

you'll tolerate all that

because the work, at the end | of the day, is what matters.

We managed to offend

all the people we were | f***ing fed up with.

The Labour Party, who'd promised | so much after the war

had done so little | for the working class

that the working class were | confused about even themselves

and didn't even understand what | working class meant anymore.

It was cold and miserable.

No one had anyjobs. | You couldn't get ajob.

Everyone was on the dole.

If you weren't born | into money,

then you might as well have kissed | your f***ing life goodbye,

you weren't gonna amount | to anything.

The germ, the seed | of the Sex Pistols

generated from that.

Now is the winter | of our discontent

made glorious summer -- | by this sun of York.

England was in a state | of social upheaval.

It was a very, very | different time.

Total social chaos.

There was rioting | all over the place.

You have to join | the picket line.

There were strikes on every kind | of amenity you could think of.

Pound power.

The TV channels would | go on and off randomly.

People were fed up | with the old way.

The old way was clearly | not working.

There's a little bit | sticking up there.

You can see it | in the reflection.

Ultra Bright | gets you noticed.

You're told at school, | you're told at the job center,

you're told by everyone | that you don't stand a chance.

And you should just accept | your lot, and get on with it.

That's where you're gonna get | the social strife.

Hate and war... | and race hate.

When you feel powerless...

you will grab any power | you can...

to retain some kind | of self-respect.

Want something on how many | people have been mugged?

Don't lay your hand on me... | I'll break your f***ing jaw!

That man is sad | 'cause he's misinformed,

and he's misled, | and he's used.

Yes -- I am a racialist. | And why?

Who's made me a racialist?

This government -- | the conservatives,

and every stingy, | stinking councillor

who sticks up for the n*gger.

And I'll stand by my words,

'cause I don't like these people, | never will do!

Words are my weapons.

Violence is something | I'm not very good at.

I don't think you can explain | how things happen,

other than sometimes | theyjust should,

and the Sex Pistols | should have happened, and did.

We went out in the garden.

Get off your arse!

I was born | in Queen Charlotte's Hospital

on September 3rd, 1955...

And I lived with my mother | and my stepfather

who I thought was my dad, | in the basement

in Shepherd's Bush.

And I slept at the edge | of their bed on a camp bed.

My real dad, he bailed | when I was two.

His name was Don Jarvis. | He was an amateur boxer.

I definitely didn't feel | wanted as a child.

Well, I was born and raised | around West London,

the Shepherd's Bush | and Hammersmith area.

It was typically | working class.

I met Steve 'cause we lived around | the corner from each other.

I went to school | near Paul and Steve,

next to Wormwood Scrubs | Prison.

Me dad was a factory worker,

and mum worked at | a powder puff factory.

If you were to look back at me | as a school kid,

you'd see a very shy, quiet,

Iittle church mouse kind of | character in North London.

Irish immigrant parents.

My mum taught me | to read and write

after meningitis, a serious | illness I had at seven,

when I was in a coma | for a year.

When I came out of hospital, | I was completely brain wiped...

Old memories had been erased... | Didn't remember anything at all.

Just backwards in everything.

It was like having to start | all over again.

# Pictures of Lily... #

How does it get from the man | to the egg?

I actually got put back a year | 'cause I was so stupid.

And I would never pay | any attention in class,

I was just always | daydreaming.

Steve was quite wild at 1 0, | 1 1 years old.

I think he was always getting | into trouble then.

You should make sure that you've | got the thing around the right way.

On the other hand -- | I got four fingers and a thumb.

I question everything, | I always have done.

If we were doing Shakespeare,

a teacher would give me | a hard time,

and he wouldn't tell me | what I wanted to know.

I'd ask outright questions,

and you're not supposed | to do that.

You're just supposed | to accept,

"lt's Shakespeare. | It's great, you're not."

That's not good enough | for me.

I would steal. I mean, | that's all I knew how to do.

I used to watch my parents steal | at Tescos when I was six.

And I was always | getting in trouble.

And so that's all | there was -- music.

# Flavors of the | mountain streamline... #

I was totally into music -- | Roxy Music and Bowie.

I thought that musicians fell | from the sky at that point.

I didn't think anyone | could be a musician.

# School's out forever! #

I was very quiet at school | up until about 14 or 1 5,

when I decided | I'd had enough.

I knew we were being | fobbed off...

and basically given a shoddy | third-rate version of reality.

So you would not be capable | of questioning your future,

because you didn't have one.

My mother loved Alice Cooper | as much as I did.

She had an extremely | varied taste for everything

from lrish folk music | to T. Rex...

To some early Bowie.

Lots of the heavy metal | that was around at the time,

everything. | Extremely Catholic taste.

# I want all you skinheads | to get up on your feet #

# Put your braces together | and your boots on your feet #

There was a lot of black kids | down Shepherd's Bush,

and we used to go | to their parties

and listen to ska music.

It sort of developed | from there really,

I think, our interest | in music.

I think it was Wally... | the famous Wally Nightingale,

who said, | "Well, let's start a band."

At the time, Wally said | Steve would be the singer,

and I would be on drums.

Wally actually played guitar, | and so it was up to each of us

to go off and learn | our instruments.

We used to rehearse | and rehearse,

and just kind of like, | fantasize, really.

If I wanted to wear something

that T. Rex was wearing | the week before,

I'd go down King's Road | and f***ing steal it.

I always used to end up | at "Let It Rock" which was owned

by Malcolm McLaren | and Vivienne Westwood.

All the other shops we went in | down King's Road,

you'd walk in and you'd get | 1 0 poofs on you,

asking you what you want, | "Can I help you?"

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes