December 01st This date must go down as perhaps the most significant in the Pistols career. The group Queen were unable to appear on a LWT television interview and at the last minute, EMI put forward the Sex Pistols to appear on the tea-time 'Today' show hosted by Bill Grundy. The band were busy rehearsing in Harlesden , North London for the upcoming tour but were chauffeured to the studios where they met McLaren and some of the Bromley contingent. Grundy was ill prepared for the interview and the band wound him up as he got ready to start . He has no real questions for the group and soon loses control finally egging on Steve Jones to swear on camera after trying to flirt with Siouxsie. Read the transcript or listen to the interview

December 02ndThe press went mad in Britain,propelling the Sex Pistols to the status of public enemy number one. Bill Grundy was banned from appearing on TV for two weeks and his career never really recovered. On the eve of Anarchy in the UK tour the Pistols were front page news in all the tabloid papers. Most notable being the Mirror's headline 'The Filth and the Fury' with a story about a lorry driver called James Holmes who was so incensed by the interview that he kicked in his TV set . From this point on the Sex Pistols would not be able to move in England without the media in attendance. One outcome of this was an increase in violence against punk fans by readers of the tabloid invective.

December 03rd This was meant to be the first date of the tour taking the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned and Johnny Thunders Heartbreakers to Norwich University. The gig was canceled despite protest from the students. Newcastle City Hall also canceled the gig booked for 5th .At EMI record plant, the workers who packed the Pistols single were refusing to handle it, causing a shortage in record shops who were enjoying steady demand. See the tour poster

December 04th The tour moved on to Derby but was stopped again when councilors insisted on a private preview of the bands before granting permission to play. McLaren and the band decided not to go along with this .McLaren said 'We're not going to encourage censorship. If we perform for these idiots we'll end up doing matinees for every council in the country.' The tour moved on to Leeds.

December 06th After a bit more media fueled trouble at the hotel, the Anarchy tour finally opened at Leeds Polytechnic. Unfortunately what could have been a pressure valve for the mounting frustration failed to come right on the night. The audience were apathetic and hung back unsure what to do, failing to be drawn by Rottens taunting.

December 07th The original date in Bournmouth was canceled and the tour moved on to Sheffield for a hastily arranged gig that evening. Disappointed again, this also fell through at the last minute. It was decided that the Damned should leave the tour as they had offered to play at the Derby gig when the other groups stood by the Pistols and refused.. It solved the problem of running order between the Clash and the Damned as well. At EMI's annual general meeting careful consideration was given to the future career of the Sex Pistols with EMI. In a press release they said that the company would do all they could to restrain the bands public behavior and mentioned terminating the contract. The single 'Anarchy in the UK' entered the charts at number 43.

December 09th The tour arrived in Manchester and found that many of the city centre hotels wouldn't have them. Police were in attendance as the bands reached town and finally found accommodation at the Arosa hotel in Withington. The manager told the local paper, the Manchester Evening News,' I have booked them in for one night. They seem like decent people and I will expect decent behaviour from them.'
That night with Buzzcocks playing support as replacement for the Damned the gig went ahead at the Electric Circus in Collyhurst. Originally Granada TV was going to film proceedings but Tony Wilson was stopped from taking a camera crew by Granada bosses. Once again the audience contained many of the people who would go on to change the face of music in the next few years. It was at this gig that Ian Curtis met Peter Hook and Bernard Albrecht for the first time and talked about forming the band together who would become Joy Division.
Most people remember the night for the Pistols lacklustre performance and violence from people who had come to engage in some 'punk-bashing' spurred on by incessant media misinformation since the Grundy affair. At the Arosa hotel an hour after the gig finished the bands were ejected . The manager said in the next days paper that they had made too much noise, upset other guests and had had girls in their rooms. 'They were filthy and their language was filthy' he said.

December 14th Following the cancellation of a gig at Cardiff the tour moved to the Castle Cinema at Caerphilly. The gig went ahead but a number of concerned townsfolk and the local vicar mounted a protest vigil outside the venue.

December 19th Unable to find any more venues from the original list the Pistols return to Manchester for another gig at the Electric Circus. Again the location of the venue in a rough part of town led to a lot of trouble for those who attended the gig. Peter Hook (Joy Division and later New Order) remembers local youths throwing bottles at the punks from the top of the nearby flats