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December 15, 1977…A Sex Pistols Odyssey Begins For NBC And Me!

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

December 15, 1977…A Sex Pistols Odyssey Begins For NBC And Me!

On this day in 1977, one of the biggest stories in that year’s music history began, and I was part of it.

On December 15, two days before their scheduled appearance on ‘Saturday Nigh Live’, The Sex Pistols were denied visas to the US, which was a huge story in itself. In New York, a last minute substitution was made and Elvis Costello filled in…that infamous night got him banned from SNL. Here is a short video explanation of what happened.

Here is what happened on SNL

After missing SNL, The Sex Pistols were finally granted visas and flew in to Atlanta on Thursday, January 5, 1978. They were supposed to have debuted at CBGB’s in NYC, but the gig at The Great Southeast Music Hall turned out to be their American debut show and that was big news.

At the time, I was the mid day DJ at Atlanta’s legendary 96 Rock. After I got off the air at 2 PM, I went over to the venue for sound check and somehow, Sid Vicious and I hit it off and I spent the day and most of the night with the band. I somehow also became their host and driver too, taking them to eat and to a leather shop across from Margret Mitchel’s house at Peachtree and 14th Street on “the strip”.

After the amazing sold out show, they asked me to take them bar hopping and I did. It was such a wild night, the Atlanta Constitution had a story on our little traveling party the next day, but thank God they didn’t get the “hole” story! I’ve only told the curator at The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame all the details, but it’s safe to assume that there was sex, drugs and rock and roll that night.

The photos below are the only pix of Elvis Costello on SNL that infamous night and the pix of me (far left) with Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten (leopard coat) were taken by Sex Pistol drummer Paul Cook. -Bobby Ellerbee



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9 responses to “December 15, 1977…A Sex Pistols Odyssey Begins For NBC And Me!”

  1. Ray Duke

    Bobby, would love to hear the uncut story sometime!

  2. Ray Dilfield

    96Rock was a great station in its day. I used to be a partner in Sam’s Tape Truck that did a lot of remotes for them from GSMH and the Agora. Good times.

  3. Tom Williamson

    Amazing!

  4. Kerry Manderbach

    I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to have sat there in front of my TV that night, only to see a guy I had never heard of appear instead of the Pistols. It was McLaren’s mismanagement that allowed this to happen (he should have made sure they were good to enter the States). I disliked Elvis for a while afterwards, but ended up going to see him when he appeared in St. Louis. Towards the end of his show he made scathing remarks about the radio station that was promoting the concert but didn’t play his music much (KSHE-FM) and his crew unfurled a large banner that had the logo of the competing station that was actually playing his material on air (KADI-FM). He then launched into “Radio Radio”. At the end of the song he stalked off stage and his sound crew adjusted the amps to produce white noise, which drove the audience out of Kiel Auditorium. I gained new respect for him that night.

  5. Dave Lennie

    Costello repeated his crime during the SNL 25th Anniversary Special when he interrupted the Beastie Boys’ performance, said the same line, and broke into Radio Radio (with the Beasties) again. I think that was all planned ahead of time, but from a viewer standpoint it was still cool and unexpected.

  6. Dave Miller

    Fun night! BTW here’s some of the Elvis Costello appearance: https://youtu.be/eD_24nDzkeo

  7. Terry Drymon

    O whadda night

  8. Dan Cepeda

    Cool story. I doubt a local DJ would have that kind of access to a big breaking act nowadays. That Elvis Costello performance was epic and such a great, rebellious moment of TV history. It’s fun to think of what might have been if the Sex Pistols made it to SNL, but I’m very glad this EC moment happened!

  9. Bill Gorman

    The boxy looking “N” logo on the NBC cameras was debuted in 1976 at a cost of $1M. It was soon noted that it was much too similar to the logo used by Nebraska’s Educational Television Network. A lawsuit followed. NBC settled out of court giving ETV new broadcasting equipment, an $800,000 mobile unit and $55,000 to help design and implement a new logo for Nebraska;s ETV network. http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2011/09/one-of-nbcs-great-blunders.html

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