On 30th March 1976 The Sex Pistols made their first appearence on the stage of the 100 Club in London,this is being hailed as the birth of punk.I guess there are people who will disagree with this,but for British music fans it will probably be considered the start of Punk/New Wave music.Of course there are many that can be said to have influenced punk,or artists dubbed god-father of punk,but nothing before prepared us for the chaos that ensued when the Sex Pistols hit the scene.
For those able to receive BBC 6, they are doing a series of broadcasts this weekend to celebrate,aptly named
Pretty Ancient !

As I'm too young to remember so far back, I'll try to check out BBC 6 to see what I missed.

Pfft. What about the Ramones? According to Allmusic, the Ramones' first show was March 30, 1974 (March 30 was a big day in punk). I'm sure they would've celebrated The Ramones' first show if they were a British band.

But really, most people consider The Ramones to be the first punk band. And a happy birthday to The Sex Pistols anyway.

eh the sex pistols are okay

One of the seminal moments in punk rock history in the UK (pace justin )was on 1 December 1976. An early evening TV programme (at about 6.30) ran a live interview with the Sex Pistols that made them a household name overnight due to their cultivated attitude as punk rockers and the exceedingly strong language they used in their chat to the presenter, Bill Grundy. Grundy afterwards labelled them as "yobs" and it made all the headlines in the newspapers next day. The interview is available in full on guardian.co.uk. They certainly pulled no punches! Ah, the memories.