It Was 50 Years Ago Today …

… that 1.2 million people turned at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall to witness an early performance by Bolton band.
Later that evening the Sex Pistols (playing their first gig outside London) plugged in and changed the outlook (according to legend) of many audience members.
Buzzcocks (who organised the show) went away and practiced a bit more, Peter Hook went out next day and bought a bass guitar, Morrissey (probably) went out and bought a Penguin paperback, Tony Wilson decided to form Factory (although that might’ve come later), and Paul Morley went away and wrote some impenetrable prose in the form of a manifesto based on little know Russian authors and Chinese philosophy.
The capacity of the Lesser Free Trade Hall was 150, and the actual attendance is reckoned to be no more than 50 people.
6 weeks later, the Pistols returned, Buzzcocks played, and the crowd swelled to about 80 people.
Mark E Smith was at this one, and Ian Curtis first met Barney and Hooky. Alan McGee claims he was at the later show, but I do wonder if he was mistaken for Mick Huchnall.

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