There is no doubting, however, that the Ramones came first and the Rotten and co would’ve been inspired by them on the John Peel show whether they care to admit it or not, and apparently based on the clip below, Rotten most certainly does not care to admit it. And this animosity goes way back, as half Afghan Hound, half-human drainpipe, frontman Joey Ramone recalled on Conan: “When we first met [The Sex Pistols], it was our first tour over there [the UK] and yeah they wanted to come one like they wanted to start something.” Apparently, it would seem that the Ramones were able to diffuse the brattish behaviour of the Pistols and eventually they were seemingly able to shake hands. However, the Ramones were not going to forget the incident in a hurry and they had a few tricks up their leather sleeves when they next returned. As Joey Ramone explained with a beaming smile: “We came back in ’77 and we did a tour and Johnny Rotten wanted to come backstage, and a little prank that we pulled on Johnny is that we all kind of pissed in the beer and then Johnny Ramone gave Johnny Rotten as our little way of saying hello, our little greeting,” he said, adding: “Although that British beer is pretty bad, he probably didn’t know the difference.” British beer isn’t bad (you bloody heathens) but isn’t exactly a glowing indictment that Johnny Rotten didn’t seem to notice after all. No riot ensued or uproar broke out, just a few backstage winks and no doubt a bemused Rotten in the middle of it all. Whether or not he subsequently heard about this and thought it was about time that Marky Ramone got a lashing is anyone’s guess, but the pair certainly clashed on a punk rock panel in Los Angeles back in 2019. Aside from slurs like, “this daft is into drugs,” and, “Look at you, you look like a heavy-metal fucking reject,” one element that certainly sweetens the near-fight is just how quickly Henry Rollins reaches for his phone to film it—and in landscape too! The bottom line, however, was that punk was all about bringing the fun back into music and no matter how juvenile this behaviour may seem from two rock geriatrics, it’s certainly a barrel of laughs to watch.