Idols Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion

This programme contains some strong language

It may seem excessive

but once I get on stage it will all make sense.

You see, this routine you have to do it every single time.

Come rain or shine.

# Now I'm here... #

Luke Spiller is lead singer of The Struts.

He is about to show off a new stage look to the crowds

at the Isle Of Wight Festival.

Sweet.

We make music which is designed for big crowds,

with people ready to have a good time.

Life is a pantomime, why not dress for the occasion?

# Yes, you made me live again... #

It's a look deeply influenced by a spectacular moment in British

music and British style, the heyday of the dramatic rock gods, Queen.

It was larger than life. It's theatre, as well.

Killer music, great frontman, even better outfits,

Queen were in the vanguard in an age when our rock and pop stars

were an other-worldly pageant of outrageous outfits.

This is a later creation. Getting a bit more fancy in a way,

a bit more frilly.

The 1970s was the age of artistic collaboration between great

musicians and brilliant designers.

I think anyone going out on the stage wants to really

project their own magical, original image.

The stage costumes they created could be inspired by mythology.

The Arthur Cape was velvet.

And it had a huge embossed sword on the back,

which was absolutely beautiful.

And they could inspire fantasy.

Of course you're naked under leather,

there's no room for anything, you just wear like a little

G-string, that's all you have the room for.

They could also be acts of provocation.

I mean, Malcolm always quipped that

he'd formed a band to sell trousers

and unless in a band that have the right trousers on it doesn't work.

This zip goes right round the back up the arse.

I don't know, I really don't know!

The sheer theatricality of this collision of music

and style would help us to express just what we wanted to say

and just who we wanted be.

# The light pours out of me... #

MUSIC: I'm Free by The Who

By the early '70s, British music stars were tearing open

the dressing-up box and going a bit wild.

Top Of The Pops was full of blokes

wearing more make up than your mum.

And then there was Bowie,

the prettiest thing of all -

a shining pioneer in a decade of anything-goes liberation.

# I'm free... #

He turned the everyday rock star into fantastical characters,

androgynous aliens in cross-dressed finery.

# And freedom tastes of reality... #

ARCHIVE: He'd be the first superstar of pop

to wear shorty dresses on stage.

But if the boys could dress up like the girls,

maybe the girls could dress up like boys.

# Well, you call your mamma Tiger

# And we all know you ain't lying

# And your boyfriend's name is Eagle

# And he lives up in the sky - high high

# Watch out the tiger don't go claw the eagle's eye

# But let the eagle take the tiger by surprise

# Scratch out her eyes

# So make a stand for your man, honey

# Try to can the can

# Put your man in the can... #

That's memories.

# ..Get 'em while you can

# Can the can... #

I do like the leather jumpsuit, catsuit.

It's foot-stomping, biker-gang,

you know, she's like one of the boys.

# So make a stand for your man, honey

# Try to can the can... #

Remember the platform boots.

That was my concession to glam rock

and that was the only concession to glam rock.

# Catch him while you can... #

Christmas Day 1973, and viewers of the Top Of The Pops special

were shaken out of their mince pie stupor by a stomping Suzi Quatro.

# Well can the can... #

It was an unlikely, but monumental, moment for women's sound and style.

My look was surprising because it was, er, female, you know,

a rock'n'roll female, this just wasn't done, I mean,

look at that, you know, that shocked people,

with the bass and the guys and the rock'n'roll.

Suzi's tough girl style heralded something we now call "rock chick".

The stuff of life as a rock'n'roll mould-breaker is now

stored in a tiny room at the top of her house.

This is... It's funny, it's my ego room, it's everything I've

ever done, and you kind of get lost up here.

When I first arrived, that's how I looked. Oh, my God, look at that.

# A one, a two, a one, two three... #

Suzi brought her rootsy edge with her

when she came to Britain on her own in 1971 to make her name in music.

She had in hand a contract with Mickie Most

renowned star maker and producer.

It was in Britain that Suzi would

combine her boogie-based rock'n'roll with her full-on leather look.

I played this for years and years, I mean, you can hardly lift it.

It's a professional Les Paul recording bass.

Anyway, here's my clothes.

Let's see, first of all the original, which is here.

That's an old, one of the old suits. I like that detail,

the zips are good.

I was a big, big Elvis Presley fan from the age of six, seriously.

# Everybody let's rock

# Everybody in the whole cell block.. #

Then in '68, I saw his come-back special.

He had leather on.

And I thought, "Ah, bang, bang, bang, that's what I want to wear."

That 1968 American TV show

had brought a raunchy, leather-clad Elvis

back from the rock'n'roll wilderness.

And then when Can The Can was ready to come out,

I had the big meeting with Mickie Most

and he asked me what I wanted to wear and I said,

"I'm wearing leather," and he was against it

and I just wouldn't give in.

I said, "I'm wearing leather." And then he said, "OK, OK, OK,

"what about a jump suit?"

And he came up with the idea of the jump suit but the leather is mine.

Suzi's leather look was a tribute to her American rock'n'roll roots

but Mickie Most might have been inspired by '60s It girl

Marianne Faithful, sleek in leather

in the cult movie Girl On A Motorcycle.

But Suzi didn't just go to a greasy biker shop for one of her jumpsuits.

They were made by a true master of leather.

Far from the infectious stomp of Can The Can, in a bucolic chateau

in Normandy, Brenda Knight carries on the work of her husband

and business partner, the man who crafted Suzi's look - Nigel Preston.

This is very, very similar to Suzi Quatro's leather jumpsuits.

It's a skinny, dark brown gloving leather, um, kind of biker

and fabulous pants, really, really great.

I think it was a marvellous combination.

Suzi and Nigel worked really well together

because her music is very raunchy, very strong.

MUSIC: 48 Crash by Suzi Quatro

Nigel manipulated leather, making it a lavish, luxuriant material.

The way that we stand out as designers is by using

the very softest gloving leather,

meaning it moulds and moves to the body.

People go, "Ah, is it leather?

"It feels like silk."

# Well, you got the hands of a man

# And the face of a little boy blue, ooh

# And when you stand, you're so grand

# There's a case just for looking at you... #

She loves to move on the stage

and these clothes were very strong, very sexy, very overt, and they

clung to her body as she moved, so it probably felt and looked amazing.

I thought the jumpsuit was great, cos you could just leap all over

the stage, which is what I do, and everything stays in one place.

Suzi was, literally, completely comfortable in her look.

She owned it.

# You got the kind of a mind of a juvenile Romeo, oh... #

'When I zip up the suit, that's me.

'I become her, I mean, like I say, I have an ego room,'

you know, because I like to go out and shut the door.

It's the same kind of thing, you zip up the suit,

you start to change into the public side of me, which is Suzi Quatro.

# You're so young

# But like a teenage tearaway

# Soon you'll be torn... #

The leather jumpsuit was the garb of a stage persona, Suzi Quatro,

electrifying rock'n'roll heroine.

For her, the whole look was empowering.

But, as she discovered, it was also the provocative stuff of fantasy.

This picture here, I actually nearly didn't go on stage

that night because it's an artistic drawing of me with big boobs and

I got very, very upset and I went to the promoter and I said,

"How dare you do that, I'm not going on stage."

And when I walked out I'm sure

I heard the audience go, "Oh," because it's like, I'm not like that.

Anyway...

Suzi was treading the fine line encountered by many women

on stage and in life - am I dressing for me or for them?

Girls, will you please turn...

And lovely, there you are, all round.

And we must preserve...

RATTLING

The proceedings have been temporarily suspended.

In 1970, the many millions watching Bob Hope's classy

presentation of Miss World had their enjoyment disrupted

by flour chucking protestors.

Their message?

Women aren't sex objects.

And although Suzi Quatro was a pin up in a leather catsuit,

she still believes she was making a fundamentally feminist statement.

I gave women a place in rock'n'roll, an acceptable place in rock'n'roll.

All my life I wanted to be somebody and here I am!

MUSIC: The Wild One by Suzi Quatro

I know what I've got, and there ain't nobody going to take it away from me.

So let me tell you what I am!

# I'm a red-hot fox, I can take the knocks

# I'm a hammer from hell, honey, can't you tell

# I'm the wild one... #

'It gave women real balls.'

That's what it was all about, you know - stand up there and be counted.

That, that was my message. It's still the same message now.

# You can't hold me down, I'm the wild one

# Yes, I'm the wild one

# Well, it ain't no use

# Turn me loose

# More, more, I can't keep score. #

But it was in an altogether more innocent setting

that a leather-clad Suzi strode into the life of one young woman.

In the mid-'70s there was a programme called Happy Days

and my favourite was the Fonz

and I absolutely loved it

and then this girl came on all dressed in leather,

and it was Suzi Quatro.

Hubba-hubba-hubba!

Happy Days was every British kid's window on a romantic

vision of American teenage life.

He's so glad to see me.

And biker-jacketed Suzi appeared as the aptly named Leather Truscadero.

-What's this music con you're into?

-It ain't no con.

When I first discovered Suzi Quatro, I started growing my hair long.

I have what I call the Suzi Quatro shake

and I literally just wash it, shake it and it's more or less done,

there's no fussing.

The feeling of empowerment

when you didn't have to wear thick make-up, long eyelashes,

short miniskirts, you could wear

something comfortable and still look good in it, and it was so wonderful.

Rocker girls, by dressing the same as the men,

continue the struggle for equality that the middle-aged

and middle class have apparently given up.

MUSIC: Motorbikin' by Chris Spedding

But it was all very well wanting to look like Suzi Q -

affording it was another matter.

# Moving on the Queen's highway

# Looking like a streak of lightning... #

My first pair of leathers I found in C&A's

but they weren't real leathers, they were satin, black satin.

Real leather is a very expensive thing to buy.

I think it's because of what it is,

it's very hard to find in ordinary places.

# It takes your breath away, but I like it... #

Frances eventually got the leather look.

And that rock chick style

has entered the bloodstream of women's fashion.

MUSIC: Satellite by The Kills

# Lost her behind the station

# Lost her behind the moon

# Operator, operator, dial her back

# Operator, put me through... #

And of course it's still just right for musicians with a bit of edge.

I suppose when I was a kid

I liked the look of bands that looked like gangs.

There's a feel about gangs where it's quite a sort of masculine...

You feel like tough or invincible or something.

I don't know, it's kind of like a shield.

-None of this is conscious, none of this is like...

-Just attractive.

"No, I won't wear that because it's woollen, it's not tough."

It's not really that,

trying to trace back why you're wearing motorcycle boots.

I don't think that's conscious either.

I just think you like certain things and they all come together,

the sound and look. I have no desire to look like a roadie.

When I'm on stage, I'm on stage, you know,

you're supposed to look incredible.

That's supposed to be inspiring,

it's not supposed to be anything else but that.

The Kills are following in a venerable tradition

of draping rock'n'roll in leather,

and since Suzi Quatro, it's a style women have aspired to

and sometimes perfected.

Whilst many young women in the 1970s

were fighting to shake off the restrictions of the past,

for some young men, life was altogether better.

MUSIC: Dreamer by Supertramp

# Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer

# Can you put your hands on your head? Oh, no! #

For the bright young fellows of middle-class Britain,

this was a golden era.

They were the boys of peacetime and educational opportunity

and could look forward to a life of prosperity.

But many sought escape from the benign boredom

of their indulged lives in the mind-expanding musical

and stylistic fantasies of progressive rock.

CHEERING

This is King Arthur and the Myths and Legends of the Knights of the Round Table.

It brings back wonderful memories. It was absolutely fantastic.

Three nights we did at the Wembley Empire Pool.

In May 1975, 30,000 people came to see prog rock maestro Rick Wakeman

unveil the latest concept to emerge from his fertile imagination -

a musical version of the Arthurian legend on ice.

The BBC beamed this extravaganza into our homes.

I put the orchestra on it, I put the two choirs on it and the band,

and the skaters skated round us

so wherever you were, people could see something.

I shipped everybody in from Eastern Europe.

Ice skating was not popular at all

so everybody thought I was barking on every front, really.

For the stage look to go with his spectacular journey

into a misty, mythic British past...

..Rick channelled his inner Merlin.

There was a review in America

that said that I looked like a demented spider

with the legs and arms going everywhere

because I had pedals up here and arms out,

so I became very aware of this, I was getting in really weird positions

to try and reach stuff and touch stuff.

Then, one day, Rick saw a DJ perform wearing a cape.

And then it hit me -

that's the way to stop looking like a demented spider

because any movements, the cape just moves and everything's great.

So it became a natural thing.

I basically had a cape made from 1972 onwards

for every tour that was done.

The Arthur Cape was velvet.

It had a huge embossed sword on the back,

which was absolutely beautiful.

I think that was filmed just before the cape fell off.

It took about three months to make,

cost a lot of money, they all cost a lot of money,

but at that time, it didn't really matter

because it was such an important part of what you were doing.

I'd been working a lot with the likes of Marc Bolan and David Bowie

and in their glam rock era, I just thought, "Hold on a minute,

"they look really good and it makes them into different characters."

MUSIC: Hang On To Yourself by David Bowie

Rick longed for the sheer visual impact of Bowie,

and the look that would carry his audience with him

on his wondrous musical journeys.

It was an urge that took Rick and his prog rock peers

like Emerson, Lake and Palmer,

and Genesis, into some seriously fantastical stage looks.

To achieve his on-stage transformations, Rick has for years

gone to a very special costume shop.

You're now looking at a little old man,

but 40-odd years ago,

that's what I used to look like.

That's the band I was in when I was a teenager.

Probably nearly 50 years ago, thinking about it.

But quite a few celebrities for you to look at.

From his headquarters in a shed in Rotherham,

Neil Crossland creates not fashion garments but showbiz costumes.

I don't serve public, I'm purely and simply showbiz.

Rick Wakeman is in the company of some illustrious names.

You've Freddie Starr, Simon Cowell.

Steps, JLS, Girls Aloud...

And there's Rick.

I think that was one of the first jackets I made him,

the snakeskin one.

That one was full-length, down to his ankles.

And he looked fabulous in it.

This is Rick's file - I've just dug it out. But...

All I do, I am not an artist, but I just scribble drawings up,

put the pieces of cloth that it's going to be,

like a snakeskin one or a polka dot one.

That's the last cape I did him in the gold glitter.

It looks good under the spotlights.

Despite their style partnership, Neil wasn't a '70s prog devotee

I am the wrong age.

My music was back in the '50s and '60s.

And I stopped virtually listening to music in 1967

when the Beatles went weird, it put me off a bit.

But for a lot of people,

the Beatles weren't quite weird enough.

They wanted prog rock to deliver musically complex epic fantasy.

And Rick plunged into the past for his inspiration -

musically and sartorially.

Most of the time, it's historical

because most of the great stories and myths and legends are historical

and it's tailor made, you know, to paint pictures to it.

Prog rock is painting pictures.

I'm a great history buff, myths and legends buff,

always have been.

I'm in a livery company, Worshipful Company of Glovers,

I'm a freemason,

I'm a knight templar, which is fantastic.

Prog's arcane intellectual leanings and musical dexterity

won it a loyal, if geeky, following -

the clever boys of middle-class Britain.

You'd be walking around school with an album cover under your arm

and that would be saying a lot about who you were,

what music you liked - a kind of social identity, really.

# Once I had a dream Nothing else to do

# Sat and played my mind in time with all of you... #

Prog identified us as a particular group or tribe in itself.

The other sort of music that people liked,

the sort of tinkly two-minute 45-second singles,

it was a lot of froth, as far as we were concerned.

So when you had King Crimson coming on

and doing 21st Century Schizoid Man -

"Cat's foot, iron claw, neurosurgeon, scream for more..."

# Neurosurgeon, scream for more

# At paranoia's poison door... #

"21st Century Schizoid man."

# 21st Century Schizoid man... #

It's not exactly "Obladi Oblada", is it?

Indeed not.

Jonathan Smart spent his youth

gallivanting about the Sussex countryside with his pals,

nicknamed the Blossom Crew.

We were really enjoying ourselves,

being incredibly silly, skipping around,

very pretentious as well,

waving Tolstoy in front of the camera.

The spirit of prog may have been a bit pretentious,

but style-wise, a prog rock crowd was pretty predictable.

Every time you go to a gig,

you have a cursory look at the audience,

but you know what it's going to be like

and they're almost, to a man,

going to be between 16 and 20

and the young, white, affluent kids of the particular town you're in.

They're all going to have long hair,

they're all going to be wearing slightly tattier clothes

than they need to wear.

We would be wearing these outrageous loons,

flares, for example.

Army surplus was absolutely de rigueur,

so everyone had to have a army surplus great coat.

I had an ex-Polish airman's flying jacket.

In the school playgrounds and university campuses of Britain,

platoons of prog rock fans shuffled their scruffy way to lectures -

a vision in flared denim, cheesecloth shirts

and coats made for old soldiers.

It wasn't a look destined to last.

We've been picked to go on University Challenge tonight.

To the station!

The sound and style of prog faded away

and rock music followers found a different kind of remedy

to the tyranny of the ordinary.

A dizzy brew of showmanship, theatrical pomp

and personal liberation.

It was November 1974

and Queen were at the height of their Sheer Heart Attack Tour.

# Yes, you made me live again... #

You could be very big in a theatre like that.

You're very close to your audience.

The sound and the lights and the smoke and the bombs

and whatever and the costumes and the music

was quite an onslaught.

This was the tour that would launch Freddie Mercury and Brian May

as rock gods.

They had the big vocal, the big guitar

and the big hair.

And on this tour, they treated thousands

to a big new look to match.

# Don't worry, baby I'm safe and sound

# Down in the dungeon Just peaches and me... #

I was quite stiff in the early days, you know,

but the costumes helped me to feel

that I had a, sort of, physical part to play in the show

as well as the musical part.

Freddie Mercury called this fabulous stage costume "the eagle suit"

and it had flown from the imagination

of a brilliant British designer.

Though she wasn't the most obvious choice.

They phoned me up one day

and said that they would like for me to design some things for them.

I had done some jersey tops for Mark Bolan

but apart from that, I hadn't done anything for men.

SHE LAUGHS

I hadn't seen anything of what they did,

I didn't know anything about what they played.

Young Zandra Rhodes was at the forefront

of the London fashion scene in the '70s,

but she was actually a womenswear designer.

When Freddy and Brian came I gave them free rein.

In the beginning, Zandra would just kind of dress us.

We went in and talked and said "We want to be dramatic,

"we want things which emphasise our movement on stage",

and she just kind of did it for us.

So this is the original piece that Freddy tried on.

It looks very original. It's come out of a packing case.

This was actually the top of a wedding dress idea

that then got put on the front of Vogue magazine

on Princess Anne.

I was experimenting with pleated satin

and how the circles would look when they flowed around.

The final pieces for Freddy and Brian

were made of flowing white satin.

It's quite heavy but when you're in a garment,

and it's balanced on your body, I think...when you're moving,

you want something that's got a certain amount of weight to it.

It was the start of a long creative relationship,

with Zandra giving Queen a visual flamboyance

to enhance their extravagant rock.

I think she what she gave us was very important

because it helped us define a very dramatic style.

Parallel to us, there were people doing glam rock,

but glam rock was really something slightly different.

Glam rock was sticking together lots of gaudy colours

and it was a lot of fun,

whereas we're heading much more towards theatre

than kind of just dressing up to look flash.

Designer and artists had come together

to create vividly attired theatrical personas

the band could inhabit on stage.

The clothes were so important to Brian

that he kept as many as he could

and they are now neatly catalogued in his attic at home.

A lot of this is either on or off-stage uniform for Queen,

if you like, costume.

This one I had a bit of input to.

I said I'd like a gold one and a different kind of shape,

a more bird-like shape to this,

but the fabric is, of course, all Zandra's own.

I'm glad that we still have this one because it's my favourite, really.

This is a later Zandra creation -

getting a bit more fancy, in a way, and a bit more frilly.

You know, she's such a creative joy to be around, Zandra,

and she still is.

# She keeps Moet et Chardon

# In her pretty cabinet

# "Let them eat cake", she says

# Just like Marie Antoinette

# A built-in remedy

# For Khrushchev and Kennedy

# At any time, an invitation

# You can't decline... #

In many ways, for Queen to go to a women's designer like Zandra

for their clothes made perfect sense.

# She's a killer queen

# Gunpowder, gelatine

# Dynamite with a laser beam

# Guaranteed to blow your mind... #

Playing fast and loose with gender identity

was de rigueur for rock stars of the era.

Freddie Mercury in particular

embraced the sexual ambiguity of the moment.

In 1974, he told Melody Maker,

"I play on the bisexual thing because it's fun -

"even to talk about being gay used to be unheard of.

"But gone are those days."

# I want you to be a woman... #

In those days, it wasn't clear that Freddie was gay anyway,

but nobody cared - that was the nice thing.

Freddie really represents freedom to a lot of people.

At that time, that was a fairly new concept.

I'm kind of proud that we represented that to many people.

Indeed, for those inspired by Queen, gay or not,

even a small town in Wales

could be the stage for stylistic adventures.

The first time I saw them,

they were singing Seven Seas of Rhye.

We were singing it in school

and we thought, "Oh, the album will be coming out now,

"we'll, er...we'll go to town and we'll buy it."

And we'd seen photographs of Freddie Mercury

with his black nail varnish,

so we thought, "Oh, we'll do that."

And we had a few funny looks as we went into town on the bus,

but, erm...it was just, you know,

had to do it, had to make an event of it.

Sadly for Andrew, there wasn't much glam gear in the shops of Glamorgan.

So he had to scour the bottom of the market

for clothes that added a little sparkle to daily life.

We'd go to charity shops -

there weren't so many of them around in those days

but you managed to pick up something with a bit of glitter on it.

You'd buy things that were bright yellow

or bright purple with a flare.

So it was just a way of, not so much standing out,

but copying your idol.

I've got to admit that I went a little bit too far

and...had a curly perm to look like Brian.

And I've got a photograph.

But Andrew wasn't alone. Queen were and are loved.

Apparently one in three British families own a copy

of their greatest hits

Getting together in a concert where

I would suggest 80% of people were either wearing glitter,

make up, wigs, made it more of a community spirit.

SONG: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

You turn up there and the place is filled to the rafters.

And you just imagine, "Oh, right, then, there could be people

"living in a village 20 miles away who you don't know,

"but they are as unique as you are where they're from."

Queen were enthralling, and their theatrical, costumed

stage presence kick-started a style of rock performance that has

rippled down to today.

SONG: It Could Have Been Me by The Struts

# Wanna feel pride and shame

# I don't wanna take my time

# Don't wanna waste one line... #

Luke Spiller, frontman of the Struts, has enlisted the woman

who made Queen dazzle.

-I was enjoying that.

-Cool. I like this one.

For the Isle of Wight festival, he wants a bird-like,

theatrical costume to shimmer under the stage lights.

-..and you've got several different looks.

-I mean, satin would look good.

It's good with the light on it, the satin.

It's got a wonderful sheen

that I think would catch the light as you're moving.

And that's what I want to achieve, really. Something like whoosh!

I'd hand paint all the gold so it would be just little tiny lights

of gold and we could always glue more glitter on if you want something.

Yeah, that'd be good. The more glitter the better, really.

That's what I thought after I'd been speaking to you.

It's not all about Queen, but you know, admittedly it's a big part.

You know, working with Zandra, and that's what I explained,

I wanted something which was reminiscent from that era,

to create something which is slightly new and exciting.

A month later, it's ready,

and Luke prepares to show the Isle of Wight his Zandra-designed outfit.

Ta-da!

Looks good, right?

I can see by the smile on your face that you like it.

Yeah, so as you can see, she's hand painted all of these on,

which are great.

And it's obviously been pleated as well,

so it gives it that kind of like winged effect.

This one kind of finishes like that,

so it's more of a... More of a Zorro kind of effect, you know.

I'm a showman at the end of the day, and that's what I love to do.

It's not in me to just sit there and just sing the songs.

Who likes my outfit, by the way? Do you like it?

This was made by Zandra Rhodes,

I want to dedicate this next song to her.

It's not like, "Oh, what am I going to wear

"to make this kind of statement?" I'm choosing things to wear

to enhance the performance.

There is just nothing like that feeling of actually

being in tune with the people you're making music with

and also in tune with the audience and interacting with an audience.

I think there's a certain mystique about a group, you know,

you feel that you're a part of the world that they're creating,

and that can be comforting in a world which is harsh.

You know, you identify with someone who is spinning

some kind of magical web.

# Nothing really matters

# Anyone can see... #

Queen's kind of magic was to capture a sense of joyful

personal liberation.

But they were also unwittingly responsible for

another moment when music and fashion came together

to shocking, energising effect.

In December 1976, the producers of a London tea-time chat show

couldn't get the rights to broadcast a Queen video,

so they asked the record company to book another band

for the slot instead.

I remember that day very, very, very strongly.

I phoned up Malcolm McLaren and I said, "Malcolm, we've got on TV."

He said, "Great, Top Of The Pops?" I said, "No." "Supersonic?"

I said, "No." "Well, what the hell is it, Eric?"

I said, "It's Bill Grundy's Today Show tonight.

"They'll be doing it tonight." "I don't bloody want to do that."

I said, "Do me a favour, we've got to do it.

"It will be the greatest plug." I was bullshitting, really.

"It will be the greatest plug the boys are going to have.

"This is a monster, monster plug, sensational,

"it's going to be marvellous."

They are punk rockers. They're a group called the Sex Pistols.

We didn't dress up for it

because we didn't know we was going to do the TV show.

We was actually rehearsing for the Anarchy tour at that time,

and erm...

and we just, you know, come as you are.

Well, suppose they turn other people on.

That's just their tough shit.

-It's what?

-Nothing, a rude word.

What was the rude word?

-Shit.

-Was it really? Good heavens.

-You've frightened me to death.

-Oh, all right.

-What a clever boy.

What a fucking rotter.

The exploding expletives might made a few people choke

on their fish fingers, but that wasn't the only shocker.

A cry went round the country. What are they wearing?

Steve's got a pair of leather trousers and a tits T-shirt.

Siouxsie always had her own kind of look.

I always wanted to meet you.

-Did you really?

-Yeah.

John's got his mohair sweater on.

I've got me red trousers on again.

We'll meet afterwards, shall we?

You dirty sod.

-You dirty old man.

-Go on.

-You dirty fucker.

Well, that's it for tonight.

It was like lighting a blue touch paper.

The shock waves and the ripples started spreading out very quickly

because it was all in the national press.

SONG: Pretty Vacant by The Sex Pistols

# There's no point in asking, you'll get no reply

# Oh, just remember I don't decide

# I got no reason, it's all too much

# You'll always find us... #

The Pistols were more than just a spiky new music thing.

# We're so pretty

# Oh, so pretty... #

They were also a style statement, an effervescent extension

of the avant-garde fashion of Vivienne Westwood

and Malcolm McLaren.

We were formed in Malcolm McLaren's shop.

Not by him, but aided and abetted by him.

And...I got myself a job there,

you know, working at Malcolm's, which really stuck out

like a sore thumb. It was a total antithesis of what was going on

in the tail end of glam rock Britain.

Afghan coats and great coats and things.

McLaren and Westwood had a shop on the Kings Road

they called Seditionaries.

The shelves had rows of patent stiletto ankle boots, rubber skirts,

and T-shirts mixing swastikas and sexually explicit images

with slogans shouting, "Destroy,"

"Chaos," and even "Cambridge Rapist."

Vivienne, a fashion and art graduate,

was influenced by everything from shortbread tin Highland tartan

to sadomasochistic bondage gear.

The trousers all come with a little loincloth on the back..

Everybody wants to know what that's for. It's just a loincloth,

it's just a gesture.

You could always point out that maybe it's got some connection

with the fact that this zip goes right round the back up the arse

as well. I don't know, I really don't know!

For anyone tantalised by the magical mix of clothes and music,

Westwood and McLaren were visionaries.

Punk was very, very stylish.

If you think about it, really what Malcolm and Vivienne did with

the Sex Pistols was pretty extraordinary.

What Malcolm and Vivienne did was high style,

way above everything else that's going on.

The look was what we sort of picked

and chose from Malcolm's to suit our personality.

We weren't clothes horses,

it just happened to be where we started out from.

# I am an antichrist

# I am an anarchist..."

You all look kind of similar in a band, it's a bit like an army

wearing its colours. You know, it's a declaration of intent.

# I wanna be anarchy... #

I got me anarchy shirt.

I haven't got it any more cos I used it to wash the car.

Dunno if it's punk to wash it with the car,

or punk to not have a car in the first place.

I mean Malcolm always quipped that he'd form a band to sell trousers,

and unless you're in a band that have got the right trousers on

it don't work. So it's a joke, but it's true

People think of it, I think, as being street fashion -

ripped clothes with safety pins.

Yes, of course, but nobody had seen a lot of that before.

# Ever fallen in love with someone?

# Ever fallen in love?

# In love with someone? #

It didn't take long for punk to become a frequent presence

on telly and on the streets -

hungrily devoured by young people

fed up and frustrated by '70s Britain.

Mid-70s Britain was a dump.

There was a real air of despondency.

And a song like God Save The Queen,

although the song's exactly the same,

it was actually originally called No Future.

It just seemed like there was no future.

# There is no future

# In England's dreaming... #

But to crack the punk aesthetic,

you needed to be more than disillusioned -

you needed to be daring.

Kids who didn't live in London,

who weren't hip to what was going on down here

because they just weren't here, they saw it

and it, kind of, fitted in with the fact

that they was looking for something. All round the country,

bands were being formed overnight.

# I belong to the blank generation

# And I can take it or leave it each time

# Well, I belong to the generation

# But I can take it or leave it each time... #

I used to read the New Musical Express every week

from when I was about 12, 13.

They'd have photographs of the earliest punks

wearing really outrageous clothes and talking about the music.

So it was just very, very exciting.

No wonder!

There wasn't much else going on in Louise's part of the world.

SONG: Nessun Dorma

My parents played opera, so you couldn't have a bigger contrast.

When they put music on, it would be things like Puccini

and stuff like that.

I lived in a quite a middle class suburb of Edinburgh

and I hated it. There was nothing there.

It was just all detached houses with nice leafy gardens.

# Identity... #

For Louise, that punk moment was an escape

from her suburban incarceration -

even if King's Road style was out of her reach.

Only really wealthy middle class punks who had parents with money

would actually be able to afford anything from Seditionaries.

There was that whole kind of ethos of do it yourself,

so I would be going to the charity shops

and spending my very meagre pocket money

on things like grandad shirts that I would paint and customise.

This was a shirt that I bought from Oxfam or somewhere,

and probably only paid about 50p for it.

And then I stencilled slogans all over it.

So it says "Absolute filth."

Some of it was lyrics.

It says here "I am a cliche,"

which is from one of the X-Ray Spex songs.

And, "God the save Queen, she ain't no human being."

That was from the Sex Pistols.

Then we've got, "love comes in spurts," there,

which was from Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

So there was a few bits of lyrics on there.

# When you look in the mirror

# Do you see yourself?

# Do you see yourself on the TV screen?

# Do you see yourself in the magazine?

# When you see yourself does it make you scream...? #

For all its street scruff reputation,

punk shared some of the spirit of Freddie Mercury in a catsuit

or Rick Wakeman's in a cape.

The Punk look was also a fabulous performance.

There was a real theatricality about how we all dressed.

I would spend hours getting ready.

If I was going to go to a gig, I would probably spend about

half and hour just on my hair, making it spiky.

But it didn't last long.

The Grundy appearance sent punk stellar,

but it also spelled the beginning of the end.

I think by 1978/79, it had definitely become a uniform.

In the back of the music papers, you'd get all these adverts

for bondage trousers and punk T-shirts and things like that,

so then you could just buy the look

rather than actually making your own look.

Not a bad cut.

I got this for free and I quite like it.

It's a nice lightweight suit.

I mean, why do you expect me to be walking around

in bondage trousers at the age of 57?

Cos it ain't going to happen.

Well, that's a shame.

But what's undeniable is that punk has woven its way

into the fabric of our fashion heritage.

Victoria Line, platform number five. Two stops.

I got to admit today, it's...

I'm not happy with it, it's not the best.

Matthew, I'll be down in a minute or so, OK?

Big gate at the end there, love.

Greg Cousens is London Underground's legendary punk rock

customer services assistant.

That one there, you've got an open journey.

His bosses had no objections when he decided to gel up his hair

and dye it red a few years ago.

His Mohican, even on bad hair days,

brings him a lot of love at Oxford Circus Tube station.

Passengers disembarking, do so as quick as you can.

It seems almost as if I have become almost a bit

of a tourist attraction on the station.

'It's just become a bit of an ice breaker, you know?

'People will come up and say, "Love your hair."'

And when he goes out with his mates,

Greg ditches the underground uniform for quite another.

Got the old bondage trousers, band T-shirts, leather jacket,

big boots, all the rest of it kicking about at home

if I wanted to sort of dress up to go out.

I don't want every customer services assistant to look like me,

because if everybody looked like me,

I would probably have to change it and do something else

to be a bit different.

For Greg, punk has allowed him to be assertively individual

whilst dressed in a uniform.

MUSIC: Oh, Bondage, Up Yours! by X-Ray Spex

For us, his mohican has become a symbol of British culture itself -

a message to the world that our country

is more than royals and rubbish weather.

But that's not the whole story.

Do what you want, be different -

the punk ethos flowed into the best of British fashion and design.

Music, actually, is the thing that drives me more than anything.

Punk gave you the freedom to do whatever you wanted to do.

That's where I felt that I started to be able to express myself.

It was like a light switched on.

It was like, "Yes, of course you can do this."

Pam Hogg, inspired by the energy of punk

launched her first fashion collection in 1981.

I just found these this morning,

and I can't believe it, it's just like...

It's so innocently made, because I didn't know how to make anything,

so I was just making it up as I went along.

To fasten things I used these rivets

and the sleeve is the shape of an arm!

Look at that.

SHE LAUGHS

This is like punk because it's got the riveting

and it's got an edge to it.

The biggest gift you've got is your individuality.

Use it!

# Personality changes behind our own smile

Pam found her musical soul mate in a woman

who had been one of the year zero punk gang -

A true style original - Siouxsie Sioux.

I remember the first time I met her,

she called me over and started chatting to me,

and I'm standing looking going, "This is Sioxsie Sioux!"

I think she just thought "Kindred spirit!"

# Dear Prudence

# Won't you come out to play...? #

And she was.

Their long collaboration started just as Siouxsie

was leading punk style to more mysterious,

and altogether darker places.

# The sun is up

# The sky is blue

# It's beautiful

# And so are you

# Dear Prudence... #

You had the survivors, the sort of Goth contingent -

Siouxsie and The Cure.

# Look around, round, round Round, round... #

It was like a black stallion standing up there.

It wasn't a guy, it was a woman.

Oh, my God, she looked incredible!

And she came on with this, when she's singing away.

It was her. It wasn't anybody else.

Love at first sight, you know what I mean?

# When you think your toys have gone berserk

# It's an illusion... #

Who wasn't inspired by Siouxsie Sioux?

The way she did her eyes.

-She loves her cats!

-SHE LAUGHS

# You have no choice... #

Wow, I mean, I remember when I'd see something like the Banshees on TV,

it would, you know you'd be agog, because you'd see them very rarely.

There was your nan sat there, obviously horrified

at what she was seeing.

"It's the end of the world!"

# Following the footsteps of a rag doll

# We are entranced... #

Captivated by visions of Siouxsie,

Johnny Melton left his East Anglian village

and starting hanging out at the Batcave -

a Soho club full of eyeliner-wearing curiosities.

On his first night there, he was recruited as the keyboardist

in a band called Specimen,

mainly on the basis of his hair.

I was like, "Well, I can't really play anything."

They were like, "Oh, it's OK you've got cool hair."

So, yeah, I was in.

What am I doing in this picture?

Well, I'm kind of, I'm kind of hanging over a piece of wood

with my tail cheekily poking over the top.

It was just wanting to go somewhere theatrical with a look.

It's not really a sexual look at all, is it?

You wouldn't go out and think you're going to get laid

dressed as a cat or something.

We were kind of more prone pull a pout than cast a spell.

For the Batcave brood,

for Siouxsie and for her design collaborator Pam Hogg,

it was about startling visual drama -

about keeping the shock and awe spirit of punk alive.

I think Siouxsie had fantastic style.

All that Pam Hogg stuff that she wears -

I'm a big fan of Pam's. I think she's one of our treasures.

A really, really unique designer.

These descents into the dark side of style

spawned a whole new tribe - legions of the undead,

who still wander the streets of towns cities across the world -

Goths.

She doesn't want to be a Goth.

She is not a Goth, in her mind, she is not a Goth.

But these Goth kids, they idolise her.

But she's individual.

The '70s saw the pop and rock go theatrical -

an extravagant, outlandish image move centre stage.

MUSIC: Public Image by Public Image Limited

And how we followed them!

And the designers who crafted these looks of the stars,

started to become as vital as the musicians who displayed them.

The embrace between British fashion and British music

was becoming ever more passionate.

Next week...

..the rise of the stylist...

..the video...

and the brand...

give us ever more shocking looks.

# Behind the image Was ignorance and fear

# You hide behind his public machine

# You still follow the same old scheme

# Public image

# Public image

# Goodbye. #