Thursday 16 April 2009

The Sex Pistols - Lesser Free Trade Hall - 4 Jun 1976 - 256kb


"This story begins on July 20th 1976, when the Sex Pistols played at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, supported by local bands Slaughter and the Dogs and the Buzzcocks (making their debut). According to legend, this gig inspired Joy Division to buy guitars and form a band. Although the truth may be less dramatic, there is no doubt the event did stimulate the Manchester music scene in general and the future members of Joy Division in particular."


So this was the concert that started the Manchester revival! The apparently talentless Sex Pistols...well, the guitar riff in "No Lip" is seriously groovy!!

Link: here

2 comments:

  1. Here's a better version (for my ears) of this great concert:

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9YNL4Z80

    Here are the words of the taper:

    "A bit of history on this recording from one of the many thousands of people who attended this gig!!

    This was recorded about 4 rows back on a cheap ITT old type flat mono cassette recorder using the internal mic which had been extracted from the recorder and soldered onto a couple of meters of cable, the mic was then attached to a piece of dowelling with insulation tape to form a handle, so that the recorder could be placed on the floor whilst holding the mic – A real hi-tech setup!!!

    The master tape no longer exists but there was at least one more track played – a second version of ‘No Fun’

    The second gig in July was also recorded by a guy I used to work with on a different machine, (I wanted to enjoy the gig without the hassle of a recorder & the ITT stayed at home) but this time the recording was unlistenable and I’m sure he over taped it, I’d love to be proved wrong on that, but I haven’t seen him now for over 30 years."

    "it may well be that this version has been eq’d to improve the sound, the recording was not great to start with, I’d love to hear the complete tape again

    It is unlikely that anything better than a 4th gen is in circulation, the history of the tape is: Master > approximately four 1st gen copies for people who were at the gig, one of the people who had one of these 1st gens then copied it for someone else and it is the resulting 2nd gen tape which has provided the circulating copies

    Incidentally the references to aggression at this gig are entirely wrong, this was before punk really broke, and the audience was mainly hippies and fans of the 60’s punk bands, if you listen carefully you can hear shouts for bands such as the Standells & Question Mark & the Mysterions in the background. Stories of aggression may well relate to the second gig in July which had an entirely different atmosphere to the June gig."

    "Doesn't it seem likely that the person who recorded a gig such as this had a more than casual interest in music at the time & could still be around today. During New York, Johhny appears to have a go at Patti Smith 'Does anyone like Patti Smith etc... this was actually directed at a girl in the audience sat close to us who had been posing with a copy of Horses all night in a look at me me I'm really hip manner."

    And here's the scan of a ticket!

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mRNSzT7lMPQ/SqT2BgGswwI/AAAAAAAAABc/exxzyW2MAOk/s1600-h/sex_pistols_lfh_june_1976.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I forgot. You can find the taper (peyotero) here: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=310010&page=5#startcomments

    ReplyDelete