‘RUMPOLE’ NOVELIST JOHN MORTIMER DEFENDS SEX PISTOLS IN ‘BOLLOCKS’

TRIAL, 1977
07.31.2014
03:08 pm
Topics:
Books
Crime
Music
Punk
Tags:
Sex Pistols
Never Mind The Bollocks
John Mortimer
Rumpole of the Bailey

 
Nothing represents the Sex Pistols’ ability to push buttons as well as the choice of the word “Bollocks” to appear
in the title of their first record in 1977. Unquestionably vulgar in an in-your-face way, the word was nevertheless
not obviously obscene, or “indecent,” to employ the legal terminology used at the time. It was offensive enough
that Her Majesty’s Government sought to suppress the display of the word in public—but not offensive enough for
that position to carry the day in court. “Bollocks” clearly has some relationship to the word “Balls,” but it’s not a 1:1
relationship—it’s a little like the word “freaking” to substitute for “fucking,” but better and more vivid. Bollocks to
that! “Bullshit” would be an a close synonym for American English. It’s the perfectly rude Sex Pistols word.
On Saturday, November 5, 1977, a policewoman named Julie Dawn Storey spotted the Never Mind The
Bollocks display in the window of the Virgin Records store in Nottingham. She went inside, confiscated a couple
of albums, and informed shop manager Christopher Seale that the appearance of the word “Bollocks” in the
display violated the 1899 Indecent Advertising Act. Then she arrested him. For the couple of weeks before the
trial, nobody could risk the legality of the album’s name—shop owners were forced to sell the album under the
table, and a Pistols’ expensive ad campaign appeared to go to waste because no publications would dare to run
it. Naturally all of this had the effect of adding to the Pistols’ reputation as the most controversial band in Britain.
 
Christopher Seale and the Sex Pistols’ immortal album art
 
On November 24, 1977, the court convened to rule on the fate of the shop owner, Christopher Seale, and Virgin
Records. Defending the Sex Pistols was a fusty-looking chap who didn’t look like he belonged on the same
continent as the Sex Pistols, much less the same courtroom. His name was John Mortimer, and by the time of his
death at the age of 85 in 2009, his status as one of the most beloved attorneys and novelists in British history
would be rock-solid.
Before the “Bollocks” trial, Mortimer’s primary claim to fame as a lawyer was his work on obscenity cases. He
successfully defended the publication in Britain of Hubert Selby Jr.‘s Last Exit in Brooklyn in 1968, and three
years later lost a similar case involving the scandalous Danish book The Little Red Schoolbook. In 1976, he
defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon for the crime of publishing James Kirkup’s poem “The Love that Dares to
Speak its Name” against charges of blasphemous libel; Lemon lost the case but it was overturned on appeal.
Although he would achieve much greater fame later, Mortimer had already been a writer of fiction for some years,
which may partially explain his interest in obscenity cases. In the 1960s he had written A Voyage Round My
Father, an autobiographical play about his relationship with his blind father (also a barrister)—it was later made
into a TV movie with Laurence Olivier and Alan Bates. With his wife, Mortimer also wrote the script for Otto
Preminger’s 1965 movie Bunny Lake Is Missing. In 1975 Mortimer began his lengthy series of bestselling comic
novels revolving around Horace Rumpole.
In 1978, just a year after the Pistols trial, Thames Television launched Rumpole of the Bailey, its immensely
popular series about a rumpled—if you will—and principled barrister who defends his clients against the weight of
the Crown with everything he’s got. Rumpole was portrayed by Leo McKern, who became synonymous with the
role—although DM readers might know him better as the heavy in the Beatles movie Help!.
 
Mortimer and McKern, in costume as Rumpole
 
As odd a fit as it may seem, Mortimer obviously had impeccable bona fides on free speech cases, which in fact
made him a perfect choice to defend the Sex Pistols in court. The website
20thcpunkarchives describes Mortimer’s strategy:
 
John Mortimer raised the question of why Seale was prosecuted for displaying the sleeve while the newspapers
that used the same image as an illustration were not. Mortimer continued to outline the history of the term
“Bollocks” tracing it back to roots in the Middle Ages. Mortimer continued by bringing in a Professor Kingsley,
head of English Studies at local Nottingham University. Kingsley told the court that the term had been used
from the year 1,000 to describe a small ball (or things of a similar shape) and that it has appeared in Medieval
Bibles, veterinary books and literature through the ages. He also revealed (not surprisingly) that it also served
as part of place names throughout the UK. Eyebrows were raised when Kingsley said that the term had been
used to describe the clergy of the previous century. In that connotation it was used in a similar fashion as the
word rubbish and used to describe a clergyman that spoke nonsense. The defense continued to intimate that
perhaps the prosecution was not interested in decency of the word in question but instead were waging war
against the band themselves. After making the case clear, the judiciary deliberated for twenty minutes and
felt compelled to dismiss all charges against Seale. The Sex Pistols’ cover was ruled as “decent” and set a
precedent that would protect other shop owners who displayed the cover.

 
Johnny Rotten had attended the trial wearing a safari hat. As he exited the courtroom, a reporter solicited his
comment—I remember hearing about this line when I was in high school, and it tickles me now just as much as it
did then. Rotten was quoted as saying:
“Great! Bollocks is legal. Bollocks! Bollocks! Bollocks!”