If you’ve never seen an episode of Beware of Buzzcocks, perhaps because you either live in the United States, do not own a television or have lived off the net as a socially incompetent hermit, you would unfortunately have missed this glorious moment. But fear not, we are here to fill you in on this golden slice of unexpected history.
First released in 1996, Never Mind The Buzzcocks was a comedy panel show on the BBC that combined musical trivia with complacent British wit and – at times – challenging humor. It became a nationwide hit, and saw a myriad of celebrities and music legends embrace the game.
On March 6, 1998, Motorhead’s Lemmy appeared in series three of the show and unsurprisingly charmed the audience with his characteristic charismatic dry humor before making fun of The Clash and eventually storming off.
Apparently, he felt that his colleagues on the panel were making fun of him, which to be fair was standard practice on the reverent show.
Although the last minute was never captured as it took place after the main filming was completed and the production team was working on remakes, there are plenty of footage of his time in the program that we could not help but look back on with joy.
Hosted by comedian Mark Lamarr, the show starred alongside Lemmy, team captain Phil Jupitis, Richard Fairbrass, Stone Rose’s bassist Mani, Rick McMurray of Ash, Bucks Fizzs Jay Aston and Status Quos John Coughlan.
While participating in one of the show’s many comic tasks, namely I fought against the law, a challenge where teams guessed which of a given list of crimes or trials a pop / rock star had been involved in, and whether they had won or lost their case. . The task at hand was to find out what crime-punk rock icons The Clash had committed.
“In ’77, rock and roll outlaws The Clash were arrested to appear before a judge,” Lamarr said. “But what had they really done?”
The possibilities were either exhibition one. drummer Topper Headon had stolen too many “beautiful pillowcases” from a hotel in Newcastle, exhibition b. Joe Strummer blew his nose on a naan bread in a curry house in Birmingham, leading to fights with other diners or exhibition approx. Bassist Paul Simonon assaulted a journalist by holding him down and writing “white riot” on his forehead.
While the introduction to the assignment is read aloud, in which The Clash is described as “rock and roll outlaws”, Jupitis pointed out that Lemmy had begun to chuckle to himself over such a performance.
Jupitis weighs his options and then gives his thoughts on the matter and says, “Nicking pillowcases, it’s not very Clash, is it really?”
In response, Lemmy states, “Yes, it is,” before explaining that he himself has stolen “most” of hotels, including drugs, and “chambermaids.”
It turns out that Lemmy was actually right, and The Clash was actually arrested for stealing too many pillowcases. His team, however, voted that the answer was appendix b. The naan-bread-induced struggle, the fools, proves once again that you should never doubt Lemmy’s wisdom.
See the clip below: