The Gig That Changed The World

And put the Pistols on the map.

When about 40 people saw the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on 4 June 1976, they came away inspired. But they were inspired in a very Mancunian kind of way. Many people in the audience that night didn’t look at the Pistols and so much think: “I want to do that…” but instead, they looked at the young Londoners and thought “Come on, I could do way better than that!”

The creativity that sprang from the Lesser Free Trade Hall would loom large over the Manchester scene for decades. Without that 4 June gig – and the Pistols return visit six weeks later – there would be no Buzzcocks, Magazine, Joy Division, New Order, Factory Records, no ‘indie’ scene, no The Fall, The Smiths, Hacienda, Madchester, Happy Mondays or Oasis.

Think then about the ripples of inspiration that came as a result of the bands and situations that sprang from those gigs. Maybe there would be no Nirvana or Green Day, no Suede, no Killers, no Arctic Monkeys, no Interpol or Savages, no Blur, no Pavement, no Radiohead, Prodigy, no Arcade Fire.

Full article here.

Live at the Lesser Free Trade Hall

Part 1
1) Did You No Wrong
2) (Don’t Give Me) No Lip
3) Seventeen
4) (I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone

Part 2
5) New York
6) Whatcha Gonna Do About It?
7) Submission
8) Satellite

Part 3
9) No Feelings
10) No Fun
11) Substitute

Part 4
12) Pretty Vacant
13) Problems

8 Replies to “The Gig That Changed The World”

  1. It’s fun to play Butterfly Effect, but I bet a lot of those attendees would have done something interesting if not exactly the same.

    The real question, of course, is which failed artist would have become Hitler had he not succeeded in music?
    [takes a long gaze at Mr. Lydon]

  2. He’s always been a prick. It’s just easier to forgive a young prick in an important band than an old prick who’s nothing more than a professional old prick.

    1. I just re-read Steve Jones’s autobiography. He talks at length about how much he hated touring with Lydon for the reunion shows, primarily because Jones never knew when he was gonna blow a gasket. Lydon essentially ruined it when they should have been enjoying their victory lap.

    1. He did! Mrs. Makerbot and I saw them at Mud Island on August 4, 1996. (Yes, I looked that up.) Lydon had someone thrown out for spitting on him.

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