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Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall
Sex Pistols performance in Manchester From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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On 4 June and 20 July 1976, English punk rock band the Sex Pistols performed two concerts at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. The shows were organised by local punk enthusiasts Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, who had formed the Buzzcocks in February that year after witnessing the band perform. The June performance would be supported by the Bolton group Solstice, filmed by Mark Roberts, photographed by Paul Welsh and recorded by Dave Eyre. Neal Holden provided lighting for the event. While the July performance was supported by the Buzzcocks and Slaughter & the Dogs and photographed by Al McDonell.
Among the audience were future members of Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths, the Fall, Simply Red, Magazine and Buzzcocks, who later cited the performances as primarily inspiring their musical careers. Other notable attendees included Martin Hannett, Tony Wilson and Alan McGee who later cited the gig as inspiring their launch of influential independent labels such as Factory and Creation Records. Alongside Sounds journalist Jonh Ingham, punk poet John Cooper Clarke, and writer Paul Morley, who'd later work for NME. In 2001, writer David Nolan produced a TV documentary about the show titled "I Swear I Was There" which was later followed by a book in 2006 titled "I Swear I Was There: The Gig That Changed the World". The show was also adapted in the opening scene to the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People.
Although the shows were attended by only a small crowd, they'd later be regarded as a pivotal moment in Manchester's alternative music history, as well as instrumental in the development of British post-punk, DIY music and indie rock. In 2021, Mark Roberts' original Super 8mm film which captured the 4 June Manchester show, was sold at an auction for £15,000. Additionally, the 4 June 1976 performance has been described by the NME as "the most important concert of all time".
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Background
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In 1976, the Sex Pistols first review appeared in the NME, accompanied by a brief interview in which Steve Jones declared, "Actually we're not into music. We're into chaos."[1] Among those who read the article were two students at the Bolton Institute of Technology, Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, who headed down to London in search of the Sex Pistols. After chatting with Malcolm McLaren at Sex, they saw the band at a couple of late February gigs.[2] The two friends immediately began organising their own punk rock group, the Buzzcocks. As Devoto later put it, "My life changed the moment that I saw the Sex Pistols."[3][4]
Subsequently, Devoto and Shelley later organised a concert for the Pistols to perform at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in central Manchester.[5][6] The gig was arranged in part because Manchester lacked a dedicated punk venue, with the pair leveraging their local connections to secure the hall for the performance.[7][8] The Manchester show marked the Sex Pistols first concert outside London, with their previous performances taking place at the Marquee and 100 Club, which often drew controversy due to their confrontational and chaotic onstage persona.[9][10][8]
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Performance and attendance
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The 4 June 1976 concert was supported by a Bolton group known as Solstice.[1][11][12][13] The show has been estimated to have been attended by a small crowd of around 30 to 50 people.[14] Among them were future members of Joy Division and New Order (Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner), the Smiths (Morrissey), Martin Hannett (Factory records producer),[15][16] John Cooper Clarke,[17] Buzzcocks (Howard Devoto, Steve Diggle[18] and Pete Shelley) and Simply Red (Mick Hucknall).[19] These artists later cited the performance as primarily kickstarting their musical careers, as well as their involvement in the punk rock scene.[20][21]
The original audio tape for the 4 June 1976 show was recorded by Dave Eyre, with Neal Holden providing lighting and Eyre operating as a sound man for the event.[11] Both performances were filmed by Mark Roberts and photographed by Paul Welsh.[22] The Buzzcocks were supposed to open for the Pistols but could not get a bass player in time, though would meet Manchester bassist Steve Diggle at the performance.[18][23]
On 20 July 1976, the Sex Pistols returned to Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall to perform a second gig, supported bySlaughter & the Dogs and the Buzzcocks.[24] Ian Curtis was in attendance and met his childhood friends Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner, and Terry Mason, who had previously noticed him attending shows at Manchester's Electric Circus, where he donned a donkey jacket with the word "HATE" painted on the back.[25] The group would later form the band Warsaw which later became Joy Division.[26]
Others present at the July show included further future members of Manchester's alternative music scene such as Mark E. Smith (the Fall),[27] Alan McGee (Founder of Creation Records), Paul Morley, (who later became a writer for NME),[4] Jonh Ingham (Writer for Sounds) and Tony Wilson (Granada Television presenter and founder of Factory records).[14][15][28] Wilson later remarked:[8]
[...] there was no pogoing. Pogo really hadn't been invented at that point. The people who were there were just sitting, sitting in these chairs just... gob smacked. I became involved and thought it was a good idea. It's like a Boogie Nights concept. The dawn of punk to the death of acid, taking you through two revolutions on their up and down cycles.
The 20 July 1976 show marked the Buzzcocks first ever live performance, where they played songs such as "Breakdown", "Time's Up", "Oh Shit" and "I Don't Mind" which later appeared on their debut EP Spiral Scratch and album Another Music in a Different Kitchen. They also performed a cover of Captain Beefheart's "I Love You, You Big Dummy", which was also later covered by lead singer Howard Devoto's post-punk band Magazine.[24] Devoto and Shelley would be present at both June and July shows.
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Critical reception
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On 31 July 1976, music journalist Jonh Ingham reviewed the 20 July concert for Sounds,[29][30] where he stated the Sex Pistols' performance at the Free Trade Hall had sullied the "fifties atmosphere" and that Buzzcocks frontman Howard Devoto sounded "a lot like Johnny Rotten" while comparing the rest of the band to the Pistols, and stating that apart from "more gigs", the only thing the Buzzcocks needed was a "hell of a lot more volume". Ingham later described the Sex Pistol's set:[24]
WHILE EQUIPMENT was changed the capacity audience posed. The David Bowie lookalikes all had the distinct advantage of looking like their skinny hero, perhaps the benefit of plastic surgery. There was a profusion of Neanderthals in stringy hair and leather, one of whom dug the Pistols by bellowing "Stooges!" and pounding seats to oblivion.
According to Ingham, the show's sound stage was not properly arranged, he stated:[24] "Unfortunately, the PA was more expectation than actuality, the Pistols sounds man having to patch together a mismatched jumble of amps to gain results. Under the circumstances, it's a wonder the sound was as good as it was." The review concluded with Ingham stating:
At John’s [Lydon] encouragement the front pidly filled with wildly boppin people. One enthusiastic couple pushed each other back and forth in time to the express train rhythm, and God help anyone in the way. By the time ‘Problems’ had blasted to a close the joint was screaming. For an encore, John tore up his shirt.
In regards to an audience member, he wrote, "one trend setter sported a high-class homemade Sex Pistols t-shirt".[24]
Set list
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On 4 June 1976, the Sex Pistols were supported by Bolton band Solstice who also performed their own set list. The Sex Pistols' set list consisted of nine songs that would later appear on their debut album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols; alongside four covers originally performed by bands such as the Stooges, the Who and the Small Faces. The only show to be recorded on tape would be the 4 June show by sound man Dave Eyre. The July show would see the Pistols perform songs such as "I'm A Lazy Sod".[24]
In August 1977, audio recordings of the 4 June 1976 Manchester performance were first released on the bootleg live album The Good Time Music Of The Sex Pistols. On 19 August, 2016, the first official release of the performance would be the album Live '76 which featured every recorded Sex Pistols live performance from 1976 and was put on the label Universal UMC. The following songs were performed at both the June show:[8]
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Track listing
(The set list for the 4 June 1976 show).
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Legacy
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The Sex Pistols 4 June 1976 gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall has been described by the NME as being "the most important concert of all time",[31] while the BBC labelled it "one of the most influential gigs of all time".[1] The concert has been cited as responsible for setting the punk rock boom in Northern England.[32][33][32] The show inspired Manchester's later alternative music scene,[34][15][35] which contributed to the development of the British independent music scene in the 1980s,[36][37][15] as well as the development of post-punk, DIY music and indie rock.[38][39]
A 17-year-old Morrissey present at the show, later wrote to the NME saying he would "love to see the Pistols make it".[40]
Additionally, the shows inspired those who attended who were either not previously musically inclined or who had only a slight interest in rock to form bands and create music, or to contribute to the local punk music scene through independent labels and fanzines.[8]
In 2001, writer David Nolan produced the TV documentary on the performance titled "I Swear I Was There". Which was later followed by a book titled "I Swear I Was There: The Gig That Changed the World".[14][8] Nolan later stated:[4]
[...] it’s one of those moments in popular culture whereby you can put your finger on it and say: that was it, that was the day, that was the time, that was the year that was the precise moment when everything took a left turn. And that is the music that we’re listening to now, the clubs we have in Manchester, the way we buy records, the independent music scene, basically came out of that audience.
In 2002, the 4th of June 1976 performance was adapted in the film 24 Hour Party People by director Michael Winterbottom.[41][1]
In 2016, Mark Roberts' original Super 8mm film that captured the Sex Pistols 4 June 1976 performance was briefly featured in an anniversary artwork exhibition at Tyneside Cinema.[42] In 2021, the original film was sold at an auction for £15,000.[39][40]
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Personnel
Sex Pistols
- Johnny Rotten – lead vocals
- Steve Jones – backing vocals, rhythm and lead guitar
- Glen Matlock – backing vocals, bass guitar
- Paul Cook – drums
Solstice
(Supporting act on 4 June 1976).
Buzzcocks
(Supporting act on 20 July 1976).
- Howard Devoto – lead vocals
- Pete Shelley – backing vocals, rhythm and lead guitar
- Steve Diggle – backing vocals, bass guitar
- John Maher – drums
Slaughter & the Dogs
(Supporting act on 20 July 1976).
- Wayne Barrett – lead vocals
- Mick Rossi – rhythm guitar
- Howard Bates – bass guitar
- Mike Day – lead guitar
- Brian Grantham – drums
Additional personnel
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See also
References
Book sources
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