BBC BANNED JOHNNY ROTTEN IN 1978 FOR TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT JIMMY SAVILE

I missed this, when it came out in late September 2015. John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, the lead man from the legendary British Punk Rock band, the Sex Pistols appeared on Piers Morgan’s show with a previously-banned 1978 clip from an interview he did on BBC Radio. In the old recording, the young Punker said he wanted to make a film about people he wanted to kill. The interviewer asks, “So, who else is on the goner list?” to which, he replies, “It’s endless, believe me…I might kill Jimmy Savile. I think he’s a hypocrite.” As he listens with Morgan with a studio audience, he responds to the old recording, “Weren’t I right?” The audience bursts into applause. The recording continues, “I think he’s into all kids of seediness, that we all know about but are not allowed to talk about. I know some rumors! I bet none of this will be allowed out.” The 1978 interviewer raises concerns about libel, which is prosecuted as a crime with a much greater degree of ease and frequency in the UK than it is in the US. The young Johnny Rotten responds, “Nothing I’ve said is libel.” Piers then questions Lydon as to whether he knew then about Savile what everybody has come to know about him, now and he adds, “Yeah. I think most kids did, too. Most kids wanted to go at ‘The Top of the Pops’ [the most influential pop music show on British television at that time], but we all knew what that cigar-muncher was up to. I’m very, very bitter that the likes of Savile and the rest of them were allowed to continue.” He also notes that as a result of these comments, he was banned from BBC Radio for quite a while. Morgan says, “It’s shocking. He got away with it for another 30 years.” Lydon responds, “Not only him, there were a whole bunch of them.And these are the purveyors of good taste, huh? Well, I’m still here. The rest of that are still alive, I say there should be jail time for them. Jail time!” The audience applauds again.

Alexandra Bruce

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I missed this, when it came out in late September 2015. John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, the lead man from the legendary British Punk Rock band, the Sex Pistols appeared on Piers Morgan’s show with a previously-banned 1978 clip from an interview he did on BBC Radio. In the old recording, the young Punker said he wanted to make a film about people he wanted to kill. The interviewer asks, “So, who else is on the goner list?” to which, he replies, “It’s endless, believe me…I might kill Jimmy Savile. I think he’s a hypocrite.” As he listens with Morgan with a studio audience, he responds to the old recording, “Weren’t I right?” The audience bursts into applause. The recording continues, “I think he’s into all kids of seediness, that we all know about but are not allowed to talk about. I know some rumors! I bet none of this will be allowed out.” The 1978 interviewer raises concerns about libel, which is prosecuted as a crime with a much greater degree of ease and frequency in the UK than it is in the US. The young Johnny Rotten responds, “Nothing I’ve said is libel.” Piers then questions Lydon as to whether he knew then about Savile what everybody has come to know about him, now and he adds, “Yeah. I think most kids did, too. Most kids wanted to go at ‘The Top of the Pops’ [the most influential pop music show on British television at that time], but we all knew what that cigar-muncher was up to. I’m very, very bitter that the likes of Savile and the rest of them were allowed to continue.” He also notes that as a result of these comments, he was banned from BBC Radio for quite a while. Morgan says, “It’s shocking. He got away with it for another 30 years.” Lydon responds, “Not only him, there were a whole bunch of them.And these are the purveyors of good taste, huh? Well, I’m still here. The rest of that are still alive, I say there should be jail time for them. Jail time!” The audience applauds again.

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