![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/John-Lydon-Mick-Jagger-Split-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Acroterion \/ Bert Verhoeff \/ Anefo \/ Nationaal Archief <\/p>\n
Sun 7 June 2026 16:00, UK <\/p>\n
When Mick Jagger<\/a> sat down to discuss Some Girls with NBC TV in 1978, he agreed that the album \u201cstinks\u201d when questions regarding the controversy it had whipped up were raised.<\/p>\n He went on to quip, \u201cThe next one is going to be more racist and more sexist. It\u2019s going to be a whole bunch better.\u201d This felt like a desperate bid to clamber aboard the punk bandwagon from a 35-year-old missing the point. He needn\u2019t have bothered.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always new bands,\u201d Keith Richards rather more dryly mused. \u201cI\u2019ve seen them come and go, most of them.\u201d While the rest of the world was hailing the movement as revolutionary<\/a>, he saw nothing new in punk, explaining, \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re trying a little too hard to make something new out of something that really isn\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n On this front, he simply thought the bands were ripping off The Stones, ripping off other bands. \u201cWe didn\u2019t consider what we were doing particularly new when we did it,\u201d he mused, as per 50 Licks<\/a>. \u201cWe were really rehashing old stuff. It\u2019s just that people had missed out on it the first time around.\u201d <\/p>\n In this cycle of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, he just saw punk as the new instalment. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about, and what The Sex Pistols and The Clash and The Stranglers etc, are doing now in England is rehashing what we did for people who missed out on it then,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Adding, \u201cI see a lot of similarities in terms of images, PR wise, sound-wise, of what they\u2019re doing to what we did. Some of the press stuff, you could just delete \u2018Rolling Stones\u2019 and put in \u2018Sex Pistols\u2019.\u201d This outlook put The Stones at loggerheads with the younger kids on the block.<\/p>\n Punk wasn\u2019t merely about vitriol and violence, but that is where Jagger was willing to meet them. Regarding their run-ins, the gyrating frontman scolded: \u201cThey\u2019ve stopped short at violence. I think even Sid Vicious is basically a nice guy, but Johnny Rotten keeps talking bad about me.\u201d Before threatening, \u201cHe\u2019ll get his rotten teeth kicked in one day.\u201d<\/p>\n The source of this acrimony stemmed from Vicious\u2019 decree that the mainstream rockers had lost their way. He told Rolling Stone: \u201cI despise those turds. The Stones should have quit in 1965.\u201d Later, the band\u2019s manager, Malcolm McLaren, plucked that same crusted turd out of the punchbowl and hurled it at the wall when he commented on the death of Elvis Presley. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just too bad it couldn\u2019t have been Mick Jagger,\u201d he controversially quipped.<\/p>\n Needless to say, Lydon and Jagger were circling each other as the \u201870s began to build towards a \u2018changing of the guard\u2019 moment. Yet, in the middle of this culture war, both battling bands found unlikely unity in their contempt for one glaived group.<\/p>\n It is telling of the times that when I recently spoke to Hugh Cornwell about the abuse that The Stranglers faced, he was glad of it. \u201cThat\u2019s what you did in those days, you know, slag people off, because that\u2019s how you got in a headline,\u201d he explained, going on to joke that he almost saw being bashed by Jagger as a stamp of approval.<\/p>\n That goes to show how self-assured The Stranglers were in their worth when you consider how harsh Mick\u2019s mocking words were (and he wasn\u2019t the only one). In 1977, the angered Stones frontman decreed, \u201cDon\u2019t you think The Stranglers are the worst thing you\u2019ve ever fuckin\u2019 heard? I do. They\u2019re hideous, rubbishy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Continuing his cutting diatribe in the NME by adding, \u201cSo bloody stupid. Fucking nauseating, they are.\u201d<\/p>\n If anything, Lydon\u2019s appraisal was even harsher. He found them so bad that they caused him to inflict pain on himself. \u201cI wanted to have my ear pierced,\u201d he told Sirius XM, \u201cbut you know this was England then, and it was all \u2018men don\u2019t do things like that\u2019. So that\u2019s why I decided to do it. So we did it in the women\u2019s toilet at a pub called the Red Cow, while The Stranglers were playing.\u201d<\/p>\n Why then and there, you might ask? Well, beyond the Dutch courage flowing freely, Lydon is quick to offer up his own withering reasoning when it comes to his peers. \u201cTerrible band live, awful<\/a>. Good record, fun records, but live didn\u2019t carry,\u201d he said of The Stranglers. \u201cSo we had nothing better to do but go in the toilet with a safety pin and a bar of soap.\u201d<\/p>\n If we\u2019re to believe Cornwell that most of the attacks you saw in the press in that period were orchestrated, then why were The Stranglers targeted so fiercely? Well, the following quote from Richards offers a bit of insight: \u201c[The Stones] outpunk the punks. Because they can\u2019t play, and we can. All they can do is be punks.\u201d<\/p>\n To the contrary, The Stranglers really could play. Contrasting Lydon\u2019s remarks, there are thousands of appraisals, including one from John Cooper Clarke, that hail them as one of the finest live bands of the \u201870s. Perhaps this combination of chops and cutting jib made them a worthy target for Jagger and Lydon for their own obvious reasons.<\/p>\n In truth, though, The Stranglers were rather proud of the putdowns. Cornwell, who was more of a jazz man \u2013 as you can see when he selected his nine favourite records for Far Out<\/a> \u2013 and Jean-Jacques Burnel were happy to assert that the Sex Pistols were \u201call wimps\u201d after the late Stranglers keyboardist Dave Greenfield pinned Lydon against an ice cream van.<\/p>\n However, while the story so far might have been one of bitterness and vitriol, in finding common ground, a far more tender end arose between Jagger and Lydon. Accepting that their war of words was perhaps closer to friendly banter than the press had cottoned onto, a relative closeness was fostered between the two frontmen, and eventually Jagger ended up secretly paying for Sid Vicious\u2019 legal fees. It remains a gesture that Lydon is deeply moved by. <\/p>\n \u201cFor that, I have a good liking of Mick Jagger,\u201c Lydon said years later. \u201cThere was activity behind the scenes from Mick Jagger so I applaud him.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Sid](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sid-Vicious-1977-Bassist-Sex-Pistols-Arne-S.-Nielsen-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Arne S. Nielsen \/ National Archives of Norway<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-Stranglers-1970s-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
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