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.
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".
On 21 February 1976,[1] the Sex Pistols first ever print 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."[2] 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.[3] 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."[4][5]
Subsequently, Devoto and Shelley later organised a concert for the Pistols to perform at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in central Manchester.[6][7] 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.[8][9] 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.[10][11][9]
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.[12] Both performances were filmed by Mark Roberts and photographed by Paul Welsh.[23] 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.[19][24]
On 20 July 1976, the Sex Pistols returned to Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall to perform a second gig, they premiered the song, "Anarchy in the U.K." for the very first time and were supported by Slaughter & the Dogs and Buzzcocks.[25][26]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.[27] The group would together form the band Warsaw which later became Joy Division.[28]
[...] 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.[26] Devoto and Shelley would be present at both June and July shows.
Critical reception
On 31 July 1976, music journalist Jonh Ingham reviewed the 20 July concert for Sounds,[31][32] 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:[26]
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:[26] "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".[26]
Live in the U.S.A.: South East Music Hall, Atlanta (January 5th, 1978) (2025)
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".[26]
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:[9]
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",[33] while the BBC labelled it "one of the most influential gigs of all time".[2] The concert has been cited as responsible for setting the punk rock boom in Northern England.[34][35][34] The show inspired Manchester's later alternative music scene,[36][16][37] which contributed to the development of the British independent music scene in the 1980s,[38][39][16] as well as the development of post-punk, DIY music and indie rock.[40][41]
A 17-year-old Morrissey present at the show, later wrote to the NME saying he would "love to see the Pistols make it".[43]
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.[9]
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".[15][9] Nolan later stated:[5]
[...] 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 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.[45] In 2021, the original film was sold at an auction for £15,000.[41][43]
Albiez, Sean (2006). "Print the Truth, Not the Legend. The Sex Pistols: Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 4 June 1976". In Inglis, Ian (ed.). Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time. Ashgate. ISBN0-7546-4057-4.
Morley, Paul (21 May 2006). "A Northern Soul". Observer Music Monthly. London. Archived from the original on 2 October 2006. Retrieved 20 September 2006.
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