SEX PISTOLS: The Gig That Changed Manchester Forever

On June 4th, 1976, the Sex Pistols played a small, badly attended gig in an inaccessible venue in Manchester, England, the Lesser Free Trade Hall to approximately 40 people.
Nobody, least of all the band themselves, could have know how far reaching the impact of that gig would be on the city, the country, and the wider world.
Many images and videos in my KZbin content have been found online without any attribution or credit available. In many cases I have therefore not been able to add a credit in the videos themselves due to lack of information. If your image or video has been used and a credit is required, please email me with your details and evidence of authorship and a credit will be added into the video description.
Many thanks, JH.

[@RealRoknRollr3108]

I saw this story on 24 hr party people but couldnt remember if Morrisey was there or not. It really was one of those events that was small but the ripples echoed out for ever. Great vid

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Cheers JP! Yeah that's the same place I first heard of it too! Made me want to dig into the story and get all the details... and here they are ha

[@waynesilverman3048]

No one was pogoing like in the film

[@eurikadude]

Ahh yes. The gig that pretty much created factory records and the next 20 years of British Music. As 24 hour party people puts it "If you have to choose between the truth and the legend, print the legend."

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Hahahahaha yeah it's hard to distinguish fact from embellishment in this story, because SO many people have repeated the embellishments! Still, it's a cracking story

[@freebee8221]

Yeah its a legend but its also true. They all got that spark from that pistols gig

[@3521rob]

They and others shook the establishment. Didn’t last long and we’re now in a very staid music scene.

[@AnthonyArena-g7l]

Was anyone from The Worst, The Drones, The Hamsters, and Slaughter & The Dogs at this first Lesser show? I see S & T D played the third show.

[@avacyn2000]

As a massive Pistols fan, it brings me joy to see you discussing them.

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Cheers JC. One of the most important British bands ever

[@markgreet3543]

I'm a huge fan as well, with a big collection and seen them live 6 times on reunion tours met glen and John both in Leicester my hometown.

[@freebee8221]

Iv never liked the pistols but I abslutely understand how influenchal they were.

[@roaringlion1977]

I WAS THERE! BOTH MANCHESTER GIGS. Absolutely changed my life! Went and bought a guitar the next day!

[@Flukey_1970]

I can imagine that would definitely be life changing. Hats off to you sir.

[@LiaM-sg8uw]

What's your name young man?

[@roaringlion1977]

I'm totally joking jajaja. I always heard lots of people claimed to be there.

[@haxio17]

@@roaringlion1977 Omg How interesting

[@jofhill1066]

Changed more than just Manchester. Changed the future.

[@davecook9770]

I was under 10 when the pistols played the Apollo in Glasgow but my older brother and sister were both punks at the gig and we’re supposed to be looking after my self and my younger sister as my parents were in Canada at a funeral at 4am Thay brought all thare punk mate back to our house for a bit of an after party I remember some bloke spewing out the broken window of the second story in to my garden it was amazing

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Hahahahaha man that whole era sounds so mad. Love it

[@datkondike]

RIP to Ian Curtis. One of the greats.

[@plejady]

bollox to curtis

[@catharinademeer2549]

Yes I miss the music from joy division and I miss Ian Curtis ❤❤❤😢😢😢I love the song love will tear us apart

[@deborahsmith4869]

​and bollox to you, sir, you jerk😮 @plejady

[@TheMancMod01]

Excellent video. I heard about this gig growing up in Manchester during the 80s and you can still see and hear its influence all over the city.

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Cheers Razzmatazz, glad you enjoyed it

[@wickamahn1852]

The Pistols changed everything for me................I was 11 years young at the time😁

[@Sleepy_I]

Loved this! I first heard never mind the bollocks as a teenager 20 years give or take after it was released. It blew me away from the first note. Still does. God only knows what it was like hearing it for the first time when it originally came out. The Sex Pistols are one of the greatest, most important bands of all time.

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

God Save The Queen and Anarchy are still mind-blowing. Listening to them (particularly the newer remasters) still make me want to jump around the living room and kick stuff over hahahaha

[@johnbarry1965]

My Mum bought me "Never mind the bolllocks" on my 13th Birthday, blew me away!!!!

[@brianlawrence8401]

I was 14 in 1977. My brother who's 10 years older than me thought he was at the cutting edge of new music listening to the like of Deep Purple, Rolling Stones etc - radical bands to him but I hated it. The alternative was the three minute pop songs, Top Of The Pops stuff, by the like of Mud, Showaddywaddy etc. and I hated that too. I thought maybe music wasn't a thing for me; then I heard Never Mind The Bollocks, Damned, Damned, Damned and The Clash and my life changed, there was actually music out there that I could relate to. I did start a band but ended up going down other roads and making a decent career, however I still play in a band and we play punk rock, Indie, Alternative covers. We played a couple of weeks ago and we always play two songs in particular - Teenage Kicks (who doesn't play that?) and Pretty Vacant. When we played both people of all ages just sprung into life, an old song like Pretty Vacant that talks of teenage boredom and not giving a shit has 60 year olds dancing like 16 year olds - an absolute classic and not even the best song on Never Mind The Bollocks (that would be Submission)

[@johnbarry1965]

@@brianlawrence8401 I saw all the hullabaloo about the Pistols prior to hearing them and seeing them in photos and being 12 thinking that they were a naughty version of the Bay City Roller,I was intrigued and then I read that were going to be on Top of the Pops, watched it at my Nan's house doing "Pretty Vacant" and that was it for me, love at first sight. That's the day that I fell properly in love with music,still am head over heels with music from the 1940's to 2023 ish!!!

[@jesusgavemeaids]

I'm curious how people reacted or thought of punk before the Sex Pistols. Mostly because I haven't heard about that - mostly sex pistols crap. When I was a kid I used to hear people actually claim the sex pistols started punk 🤣😂🤣😂

[@MickDude]

Brilliant video James. I’ve seen this story so many times but never as concise and fact packed as the way you research and present. Love it. ❤️

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Cheers Mickdude! I'm really enjoying branching out into some other UK bands I love. After Oasis, punk is pretty damn high on the list for me

[@MickDude]

@@JamesHargreavesGuitar Nice one. I’ll look forward to them. 👍🏻

[@jessehalper]

Any one else at the 2nd trade hall gig in 1977? After the gig Mark Roberts my cousin, (that filmed that super8), Howard D the band and I crossed the road to the pub and had a few very quick pints. Then we went back to the hall and dismantled the gear on stage and loaded the van for the trip back to London. We did such a crap job of it there wasn't enough room for all those that had made the trip from London. I drove Rotten and Maclaren to the station and they returned by train. True story

[@LiaM-sg8uw]

Devoto was a fucking genius

[@TXRBL]

The Pistols along with The Ramons changed my life too. Suddenly in 1977 we, Punks, were cool and all the cool kids who had treated us like shit for our whole lives, were L7. I’d been playing bass since 69 and was part of the original DC Hardcore scene. Some of the best days of my life.

[@ladyhonor822]

AMEN Philadelphia USA 🇺🇲☦️🙏❤️

[@punkisinthedetails1470]

L7 were pretty cool too.

[@keithhorler8938]

what a great video James,The sex pistols are my era .loving your channel,mate.

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Cheers Keith! Bit before my era, but my era wouldn't have happened without them. Heroes.

[@keithhorler8938]

@@JamesHargreavesGuitar so glad they happened right up until now,saw afflecks palace and pastel in Bristol last week.The're flying the flag now.They were absolutely spot on.Enyoy your channel James.Thank you.

[@GT380man]

@@keithhorler8938 I like the two bands & it was James who gave their publicity a little boost.

[@sixer6er]

Ah for a time machine. Great video James 👍

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Thanks for watching :)

[@zinga79]

This video is awesome but just reminds me how much I want the old days back, I wasn't around for the Pistols gig (born 79) but loved living through the 90's now I just get depressed when I think about the state of the world but least I have those memories :)

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Yeah me too, the music scene is utter crap right now, but it was this way in the past too, and then the scene exploded later... we've just got to keep watching and waiting I guess

[@markgreet3543]

I'm 49 been a fan and collector since 1986, my dream came true when I saw them live 1996,2 times, then I saw them 2002 and 2007, 2008 never mind the hype best band ever, I met glen and John as well.

[@plejady]

have a drink and put pistols on

[@swiftbobber]

Amyl and the sniffers are special

[@plejady]

@@swiftbobber hahaha anal sniffers are bollox - fake

[@amathis7292]

I was actually there even though I was born in October of that year, great show!

[@plejady]

that makes two of us

[@trevoraindow2440]

Those last few words spoken about playing small venues to small cowds and keeping at it, how true! Awesome peice of film was this, loved it. Trevor Aindow Musicain/Author

[@manephewlenny6401]

15:33 is one of the best pictures of Peter Hook I've ever seen.

[@martygould5114]

I was the lead guitarist in a punk band from 1987 - 2003. The singer's favorite band was The Clash and I drew my inspiration from the guitar playing of Captain Sensible. We wrote the majority of the songs. However, the Pistols were always under the surface in our writing. I didn't get to see Lydon until PIL, and Doug, my songwriting partner, saw Lydon with the Pistols on the Filthy Lucre tour.

[@plejady]

divorce your partner

[@SomedayTomorrow369]

Thanks James really enjoyed this , Not long ago I watched the Disney series don't know how close it was to reality but I did enjoy it , Nice one James as always keep up the good work my friend )))

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Cheers CT - not seen the Disney series yet, but Johnny Rotten apparently hated it and said it was wrong... but then he says that about alot of things hahaha

[@SomedayTomorrow369]

@@JamesHargreavesGuitar 🤣

[@punkoid76]

@@JamesHargreavesGuitar Matlock didn’t like it either.

[@NeoNyder]

That Disney series is 100% garbage,

[@apemoon1731]

I've seen the first two episodes of the series and I have to admit that I enjoyed them. They may not be totally accurate, but it was interesting spotting some of the well known faces from the time. Especially the Bromley contingent.

[@anadraham2995]

Just wonderful James 🎩💙🎩

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Thanks for watching :)

[@richardfowler5163]

A true Paradigm Shift. The Pistols really did change music, clothes sense, politics and the culture. A fantastic band.

[@TP42411]

I believe they formed 'Warzaw' before they became 'Joy Division '

[@halcyon289]

Early Punk was like Skiffle . Short lived yet incredibly influential . And ............both were British !!!

[@markgreet3543]

I'm a huge sex pistols fan 250 items in my collection, met glen and John and seen them live on reunion tours excellent band with longevity. So many bands loved the pistols, I have the bootleg at Manchester it was a magical moment in change.

[@plejady]

I love you

[@GT380man]

Just such an EXCELLENT short documentary, James. You could have made it twice as long and you might even get more views. You have established yourself as a purveyor of fine content, so now you get to write the rules for your material. Do what you want, ignore trends.

[@dockerdave]

Fantastic vid. Thanks so much. It's one of those legendary, touchstone moments that I've always heard of. It's so good to hear the details of it. What an incredible time it must have been

[@semajdis]

That site has something serious going on with it. It is the site of the Peterloo massacre, the site of Dylan going electric and the "Judas!" comment and then the Pistols' gig that kickstarted, some would argue, an economic boom that has kept the money coming into the city to this day. It will be interesting to see if anything revolutionary comes of the place whilst it is a Radisson Hotel.

[@rike94]

Now that's a way better background

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Yeah I'm getting there!

[@MaquiladoraIII]

All that's missing is a huge stack of Marshalls and a pedalmobile.

[@georgeetboom7719]

Bazooka Joe are primarily known as the band that headlined when Sex Pistols played their first concert[2] on 6 November 1975 at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Adam Ant has since recounted how he left the band directly due to a dispute over Sex Pistols' performance, which he was the only member of the band to have enjoyed.[3]

[@NewGoldStandard]

Great video! I didn't know this part of the story at all. Lydon's quip back to the punter, "why, did you want some sex?" is awesome.

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Hahahahahaha yeah he was a right character.

[@GT380man]

@@JamesHargreavesGuitar He’s still just as intense now. And as unusual a thinker. He’d hate me saying it, but he’s culturally important to many of us of similar vintage. I was 16 as they arrived & immediately got my hair cut almost skinhead (I was stick thin and ridiculous looking), dyed it bright red, ripped my shirts and scribbled obscenities on it with black marker pen and got a pair of drainpipe jeans so tight that I couldn’t walk properly (or pee out of the fly. If I needed a pee, tough, I waited till I got home). I’ve just remembered, we formed a punk band and played twice in public. I couldn’t play the bass, so that’s what I held & hit. Only one of us had the slightest artistic talent & it definitely wasn’t me. A fella called Andy McGuinness worked with The Vapours and designed their logo. Remember “Turning Japanese”? As a result of that long, hot summer of ‘76, things got a lot better for me. I’d suffered neglect in my childhood and was effectively orphaned that spring, as my dad emigrated with his second wife (my mum had died in suspicious circumstances, which her family to this day said was murder, dad being a doctor, and pathologically selfish, it’s entirely possible). So that year, catalysed by the Pistols, I got a completely new life, things to do that I’d not previously considered (going to gigs, eg seeing The Stranglers locally as a highlight). I was also prompted to find other punk rock bands & became a lifelong Ramones fan. Finally, and probably most influentially on my entire life, I remember clearly deciding that, while I wasn’t inclined to go out of my way to offend people, I wasn’t going to GAF what people thought about me. Much later in life, a coach asked the group being coached: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” That question formalised what had crystallised inside me that same year. I wasn’t intimidated by life in any way since. It’s not externally obvious, but very many people don’t do things they want to do, because they’re afraid. If you’re into punk, it’s almost impossible to be truly intimidated. Those lads who, having seen the Pistols, formed bands, have been the same. No prisoners, no fear. The funny thing is that, being a 1960 arrival, I also loved prog rock, especially Floyd, Genesis & Yes, glam rock derived artists especially Bowie (David, miss your presence in the world every day, RIP) and loads of other artists / bands, from Joni Mitchell & Bob Dylan to Zappa and Sigur Ros. Thank you hugely for an excellent & entertaining video about a life changing event ❤

[@mickharrison9004]

A very good and narrated presentation much appreciated 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

[@stevewilcock4767]

Sex Pistols live at Burton on Trent was a classic. Cheers.

[@dacra9625]

Agree, Steve. I’ve always owned the vinyl and now the CD of the Burton show. “They don’t like us…”

[@stevewilcock4767]

@@dacra9625 Believe it or not I had a Bootleg tape of the gig given to me many years ago.Alas it was stolen. Cheers.

[@ClaydenLee]

Love your channel James, a great watch as always. I'm a bit of a Pistols/70s punk geek, and there's a lot of seperating the wheat from the chaff when people try to tell their story, but you took me there. Good work!

[@davidwood9966]

It's cool how you included Prodigy, they're right up there with all the other Brit bands.

[@ladyhonor822]

Thank you. I LOVE SID VICIOUS ☦️🙏😇💋❤️ AMEN 🇺🇲RIP ANGEL 💋

[@ladyhonor822]

And I believe he was named after Johnny's hamster 🐹. 😇

[@ladyhonor822]

In-your-face Charlie Murphy. (Dave Chappelle).

[@willdann7497]

great vid i loved that doc on youtube - Mark Smith is hilarious

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Hahahahaha yeah him and Johnny Rotten... a pair of characters

[@nandooasis]

great vid mate ! congrats from bs as

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Cheers Fernando :) Thanks for watching

[@hisgracelorduxbridge]

Love your telling of this story James 😊

[@robinwallace1399]

Great video.. cheers. I remember the Hype leading up to the album coming out getting the vinyl And playing it full blast. Still a brilliant album 😉

[@davidsummer8631]

The Lesser Free Trade Hall must be a Tardis because how else could thousands of people get into a venue which on the outside looks like only a few hundred could fit in

[@GT380man]

Weren’t there just 40 in the audience?

[@robertsonmark3890]

The Lesser free trade hall was within the Free Trade Hall itself. It could fit around 150. The main Free Trade Hall had a capacity of nearly around 3,000.

[@winnipegperfectcircleflyin7859]

Excellent discription and history.

[@damightyscoob]

Great video James!

[@jamespeatling7660]

Great account. I think the NME must have published article by midweek for Howard & Pete to turn up for 20th Feb. I also believe Clash& Pistols were at Roundhouse to see Groovies & Ramones on 6/6/76 not in Sheffield. Joe Strummer says he asked the Ramones to let them in through the dressing room window in filmed interview. The Clash had rehearsal room there.

[@13StJimmy]

A question that often comes up is “If you could go to any concert in history what would it be?” And while I’d love to see Oasis at Knebworth, this is always my answer. Not only do I love the pistols and the buzzcocks but I’d probably be so motivated to get off my ass and actually write and perform music to the public instead of just to myself 😂

[@RighteousBrother]

Out of all the gigs that have ever happened, The Who in their prime, The Beatles, The Stones, The Doors, Hendrix .....you use Oasis at Knebworth as an example!!?? Sorry I know I'm being a d*ck but jeez......

[@2nd100k]

jesus christ... the beatles, monterey pop, isle of white? woodstock? or even live aid. bloody knebworth 😂

[@arlenearmstrong8270]

I think the second gig gets unfairly dismissed for not being the first, it's only three weeks later and in the same month. According to Glen Matlock after the first gig the Pistols wrote and rehearsed a new song that they first performed live at the second Manchester gig. A song called "Anarchy in the U.K."

[@crose7412]

@Arlene Armstrong From 4th June to 20th July is 6 weeks but I get your point about those Sexy Pistols coming on in leaps and bounds. 'Anarchy in the UK' was the song they chose to perform for their first television performance which was also filmed in Manchester for Tony Wilson on 'So It Goes' on 28th August. A whirlwind of a summer! I like too that in amongst all this they played the inauspicious venue of Hastings Pier on 3rd July where Poly Styrene was spending her 19th birthday and also subsequently formed a group. People never talk about the explosion of a Hastings music scene though - it's funny how these things do or don't spring up, almost defying reason.

[@TheDandob1982]

The students that put on uni gigs billed them as S.P.O.T so the powers that be wouldn’t cancel the gigs

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Ha! Clever

[@FHIPrincePeter]

Ray Rossi told me another story. I loved his story about the Flyer where he Billed his own Band "Slaughter and the Dogs" as the main group and the "Sex Pistols" as the supporting act knocking the Buzzcocks off the bill altogether.

[@crazylikeafox1000]

I’m in the states, I was in the 9th grade and took a pair of shears and chopped my hair as soon as I heard them. Just like Johnny.

[@jackwalls7170]

Patti Smith really started it all...as evidenced by Patti being on the cover of NME weekly February 21, 1976❤

[@mrfry3]

I think Siouxie and Billy Idol were there as well. And most of the Bromley Contingent.

[@peasant1381]

Saw them as a teenager on So it Goes and then live 20 years later in Auckland NZ. Bollocks is still my favourite album

[@joeydowney2865]

Don't forget they played at Eric's in Liverpool around the same time as well

[@degrassi420]

james i’d love to see you make more punk videos i always love your research and insight

[@turnfordguitars]

Great video, but! You say the Manchester gig was their first gig outside of London!!! After saying shelly & devoto saw them in high Wickham & welwyn garden city! Both of which are definitely outside of London! 🤔

[@stuartcarswell2815]

Great piece...this gig cannot be under estimated...and I was there 😜

[@sb6482]

like 10,000 other people. allegedly

[@stuartcarswell2815]

@@sb6482 I've met/worked with 3 people who did go!

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Me too! I was there too! (and then I was born 7 years afterwards...)

[@stuartcarswell2815]

@@JamesHargreavesGuitar met Si Wolstencroft the other night James...what an absolutely splendid chap he is... very much looking forward to reading his book...he drummed for the fall for 11 years..I did for 1 night!

[@glynbusby4892]

It would be great to find the solstice guys to get their take on the night

[@MickDude]

I was there. x

[@MickDude]

….no I wasn’t.

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

I was there too

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Maybe

[@plejady]

@@JamesHargreavesGuitar could I have your babes?

[@glasgowcsc2715]

what an utterly sensational video

[@JamesHargreavesGuitar]

Thanks for watching :)

[@stevenhall1785]

Would love to see some joy division content

[@andrewstubbs822]

Excellent research and narration.

[@ac9110]

Officially about 40, people claiming to have been there 140,377.

[@adude9882]

Was Gary Barlow there?

[@chrisbacos]

Even though this was England punk rock was the shot-in-the-arm rock music needed in the mid-1970s. A person can only listen to soft rock carried over from the late 60s for so long.

[@paulmcgeechan8503]

Yep, you might not have got any of those bands if not for this concert. But we still would have had The Saints.

[@starjunkie5328]

The RAMONES couldn't play a lick either, but began an entire movement in NYC at the CBGB, at first. Then came the Talking Heads, Blondie, DEVO, etc. Eventually, the music MUST change.

[@acrodave9287]

I wasn't there, I was 11! I was vaguely aware of it though because I used to flip through my sisters inkies (the music papers) and saw the articles starting to show up. What really stuck with me was their appearance on 'So it Goes', the Tony Wilson fronted pop culture programme on Granada TV. We'd just got a colour TV (Ooh, posh!) and after the blue denim and nicotine brown of the Old Grey Whistle Test, it was the colourfulness that stuck! When people think of the 70s, they think it was tie dye, bright flower children colours and kaleidoscopic Top of the Pops glitter visuals. All I can remember before the whole Punk thing was an endless brown smudge, old blokes in pubs with empty eyes, betting shops and the smell of stale beer, a horrible quiet threat of ever present violence. In retrospect (20/20 hindsight, yeah?) that whole period was a boil that needed lancing, and the Pistols were the ones to step up with the scalpel! As I say I was 11 to about 15 when all this was going on, not quite old enough to fully participate but of the right age for it to have been formative... and it bloody well was, or I wouldn't be writing this now! Thanks for reminding me, I have to go away and have a reminisipackage now... Cheers, great video!

[@ryanjavierortega8513]

I’m going to check out that doc, another plus from watching James!

[@brighton59]

I've personally spoken to 4,000 who were there that night 🤣

[@plejady]

you have good hobby

[@brighton59]

@@plejady so many bullshitters claim to have been there on the night, my 4,000 figure might be a little OTT perhaps nearer 3,999 and they're just the ones from Manchester

[@plejady]

@@brighton59 hahaha have you got a feeling they been cheated? others clime to be in contact with extra-terrestrial beings ...

[@TorquilBletchleySmythe]

This gig spawned and maintained the Australian alternate music scene, and can be heard today in bands like Grinspoon. Check out "Dead Cat", it's Ludoneswue, brash and unpolished. Brilliant.

[@haxio17]

Really nothing I would see as connected

[@TorquilBletchleySmythe]

@@haxio17 If you can't hear the Lydon influence in the vocals of Grinspoon's DCx3, you're not listening. The Pistols inspired Radio Birdman, the Celebate Rifles, Lime Spiders, and pretty much every other Aussie alternate scene band who didn't want to sound like AC/DC, The Angels or Cold Chisel.

[@helenbartoszek243]

Wish I'd been there, but Australia is so far away I'd never have made it in time.

[@markgreet3543]

Great review,this is very interesting.

[@byrd-is-the-word]

Might be interesting ... but sound was messed up ... kept cutting out ...

[@mattharrison5068]

So refreshing to hear 1. Without the Smiths, you don't get brit pop (suck it 90s revisionists) 2. The reason people were there was because they WEREN'T interested in popularity, take that 90s focusing on marketing and ruining alternative music for the people that were there in the 80s - we never have this conversation because 90s kids can't handle it, and 3. A clear explanation of how the pistols are so much more historically relevant, take that people saying the clash are most important just because personal preference.

[@haxio17]

I agree But plenty are the 80's 90's Generation

[@louistracy6964]

I thought I didn't have anything more to learn about those two gigs. And I was right.

[@intelligencelimited2708]

Surely Joy Division couldn't have formed on that night, since Ian, despite knowing the others, hadn't yet hooked up with them, Stephen Morris wasn't on the scene, and they weren't initially called Joy Division. It's like calling the Quarrymen The Beatles.

[@plejady]

So what?

[@Joeelkins.]

Love a bit of Tavistock social agendas

[@GT380man]

I know what you mean but the bands were authentic. MacLaren & Tony Wilson surely aren’t Tavistock? Maybe Malcolm was?

[@peterdavidson3268]

I didn't attend this event although I was already aware of their (the Pistols) existence, if only via an article in Harpers and Queen shown to me (I wasn't a reader) by someone who knew I'd be interested - but I did go to see them during the Anarchy Tour gig (there were two dates eventually due to cancellations - the Anarchy tour took place during the time of the infamous Bill Grundy interview) at the Electric Circus, Sunday 19th Dec of the same year. At that gig Buzzocks opened, followed by the Clash, Heartbreakers (ex New York Dolls) with the Pistols on last - ticket on the door cost about a quid or maybe £1.50, if memory serves me correctly?

[@neilhumphrey4197]

One off John's best sayings was never trust a hippy and ever had the feeling you've been cheated good night

[@rodneycraft1005]

Very good, thank you.

[@punkisinthedetails1470]

Johnny is the original mad ferret

[@alansimms2238]

Lots of people forget slaughter and the dogs which was a great Manchester punk band… which should have been bigger than they did but poor management

[@stormhawk3319]

Manchester, apart from The Hollies, didn’t have any music bands prior to the 1976 Pistols gig.

[@RenaissanceMan29]

Nirvana did to the 80's hair metal scene what The Sex Pistols did to the those who came before them... magnitude was massive. Same could possibly be said for Oasis, who were carrying to torch for the UK, following the likes of the Pistols.

[@JillDinardo-mb6ii]

I agree,you can really feel the Pistols.

[@dhollongstreet4725]

Pile it deep. Lets start with what were the SP before the movie Sid and Nancy? One could really say SP became popular in 1986. A good 10 years after the Manchester gig. No one was saying they were at the gig in 1981,.....1987 yea we were at the gig. SP was not getting any radio play, outside of some college stations. Gary Oldman made the Sex Pistols.

[@electricrussellette]

College stations? They don't exist in the UK. John Peel would have played them a lot on his BBC evening show.

[@MarksWorldOfAdventure]

I can't really hear the Sex Pistols influence in Simply Red's music

[@plejady]

me too

[@troygaspard6732]

There is a scene in the movie 24 Hour Party People, where after seeing the legendary Sex Pistols show, a bunch of friends arive at their flat and instantly take a Pink Floyd poster off the wall. Out with the old, bring in the new.

[@thevelointhevale1132]

It took the London Scene to create the Manchester Scene ...

[@ryanjavierortega8513]

Smith Slams Rimbaud The kind of headlines we need

[@lucasroche8639]

It sounds daft now but drainpipe trousers, baseball boots, short, coloured hair and a brightly coloured T-shirt stood you out in the general publics eyes as someone who is trying to destroy society and the world, as fun as it was to be a punk in the late 70s/early 80s it could be dangerous just leaving the front door because people would randomly attack you, I got beaten up a few times just because of the style and where I bought my clothes, something that thankfully doesn't happen very often nowadays.

[@plejady]

yes in 2023I will attack you for not looking like a punk

[@haxio17]

Now it's just the Normies imitating Decades Old Styles

[@haxio17]

@@plejady No one looks like a Punk to those who were there for the era It looks like people cosplaying ha ha

[@buttneked3963]

The Netflix or Hulu Pistols documentary nailed the character look. Malcolm looks like the Malcolm to me. I thought it was a very good documentary, although I wasn’t into the punk scene in the 70’s. I now in 2023 wish I was.

[@haxio17]

LoL No

[@jamespeatling7660]

Sorry,incorrect date,should be 4/7/76.

[@grahamblack1961]

Steve Jones made that comment about being into chaos, years later he said he had no idea why he said it, it was just a stupid throw away comment. I love the pistols but there's so much bs surrounding them, it's hard to discern reality from fantasy.

[@fiskrond9212]

Could you do one of these vids on JAMC..

[@bodg2093]

Great series by Danny Boyle available on Disney+. Interesting to see how the band were manufactured to an extent by the architect of cultural chaos, Malcolm (you’ll never live like common people) Mclaren, in partnership with the stylist, Vivien Westwood. Even John Lydon had to audition.

[@bighill8272]

Mark E Smith went to the second date, 20 July 1976, so his anecdotes are misplaced in this video. Don't believe me? Read the book!

[@Yttio]

I wish that never happened because in that world, oasis wouldnt exist

[@radgybenno]

Throwing your flares in the bin, an extraordinary act of rebellion 😂