Did you know that Soft Cell’s ‘Sex Dwarf’ video remains banned from UK tv airing?
Soft Cell video for “Sex Dwarf” is still banned from being shown on UK television and this 38 years after it was filmed. In 1981 Tim Pope directed the video featuring Soho brothel workers wielding chainsaws, a dwarf wearing a fetish outfit and piles of raw meat as Almond performs the song in a tiny codpiece.
In an interview with Yahoo Marc Almond says: “The video for ‘Sex Dwarf’ was ahead of its time, in the way we were using transgender people, or we would use people who were prostitutes that we found around Soho, people that were working in clubs. And then here was the dwarf himself, which really went against what you were supposed to do!”
Live Maggots !
Also included is Dave Ball reacting in horror as Tim Pope unexpectedly throws live maggots at them. You can see the uncesored version below.
The ban doesn’t bother Almond at all: “I’ve never wanted to release it publicly, officially, because it became such a legendary thing. We like the fact some people have seen it and created this urban myth about it. We like that it’s bootlegged and slightly seedy.”
And here’s that legendary banned video!
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Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
