Supporting The Sex Pistols
Updated October 2020 - added Out on the Town
Please leave any comments, articles, scans here. Thanks.
Leeds before the gig
Billy Aitken I think, starting at the front, its photographer Ray Stevenson, Jerry Nolan, Billy Rath, Walter Lure (standing), Joe Strummer (standing) maybe Bernie Rhodes sat beyond Joe at the back. Probably Johnny Thunders walking towards the camera. Great, rare shot link
None known - a Pistols recording exists from this gig but the taper only recorded the Pistols and the support slot, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers.
Leeds alumni online
Everybody hold on tight (see right)
"All the Leeds post-punk musicians were inspired by the frenzied gigs they saw in Leeds. “I remember seeing the Anarchy in the UK tour at the Poly with the Clash and the Sex Pistols, thinking "I can do that. Anyone can do that. Right, let’s get a band together!’” recalls Kevin Lycett, one of the founding members of the Mekons."
Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk - By Peter Smith
"The Sex Pistols finally got to play on December 6, 1976. The concert
was at Leeds Polytechnic, where a sell-out crowd gathered to witness.."
BBC - The boy looked at Johnny
"I remember the noise, every band counted each song in and out. This was my first taste of punk. I, like most other people there, just stood and gazed in total confusion, at what was happening on the stage."
"I saw a guy with green hair, a loud-mouthed Londoner who, was there as much to be seen as to see. I also remember Johnny Rotten, in an oversized red waistcoat and oversized, baggy black trousers, aiming negative remarks towards some local Leeds MP who had tried to ban the show."
"Johnny Thunders of the Heartbreakers (ex-New York Dolls) stood next to me and my two mates, glaring at us while the Pistols were playing. As soon as the two of us bumped eyes he looked away. Aggressively, I asked him 'Who are you f****** looking at?' I was young and full of false bravado."
"When Thunders was interviewed in Sounds magazine a while later, he described the fans in Leeds as 'they look as though if you bump eyes with them, as though they wouldn't hesitate to put a knife in you'. To this day, I hope he didn't mean me!"
"I remember Captain Sensible of the Damned signing an autograph for a girl, when he had done it and left, I asked the girl if I could see it, she obliged. It read, 'I'm not signing my f******* name on this'. The show did one thing for me, introduced me to The Clash, a love affair that has lasted to this very day."
The Sex Pistols - The boy looked at Johnny
Memories by David Whittaker
When the Sex Pistols, Clash, Damned and Heartbreakers played Leeds Polytechnic on December 6 1976 David Whittaker was in the audience. The performance was part of the ill-fated Anarchy in the UK tour.
"I later met Paul Simonon and Mick Jones, although, I never met Joe
Nature
Strummer, even after a Mescaleros gig at the (then) Leeds Town & Country. I stood outside in the rain waiting to meet Joe, but I should have waited a little longer, now I will never meet him. RIP Joe."
"My stand-out concert of all time was the Clash gig, in May 1982 at Leeds University, I've kept the ticket all this time, it cost £3.50. The more you play the Clash's music the more it grows on you, it will stay with me forever. I've grown up with the Clash's music and other classic punk bands - it's a hard act to follow. There are no good bands around anymore, many younger people are into dance music and it just doesn't have the passion of live music."
David Whittaker
Leeds Polytechnic
Any info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome. Please email blackmarketclash
If you know of any recording, please email blackmarketclash
There are several sights that provide setlists but most mirror www.blackmarketclash.co.uk. They are worth checking.
from Setlist FM (cannot be relied on)
from Songkick (cannot be relied on)
... both have lists of people who say they went
& from the newer Concert Database
Also useful: Ultimate Music datbase, All Music, Clash books at DISCOGS
A collection of articles, interviews, reviews, posters, tour dates from the ill feted Anarchy Tour. Articles cover December and the Tour.
If you know of any articles or references for this particular gig, anything that is missing, please do let us know.
Blank Generation out on the Road
NME - Out on the Town
The politics of boredom
The Clash in Leeds
Punk! On Stage! (Melody Maker?)
(click to expand)
BBC The boy looked at Johnny
Memories by David Whittaker
When the Sex Pistols, Clash, Damned and Heartbreakers played Leeds Polytechnic on December 6 1976 David Whittaker was in the audience. The performance was part of the ill-fated Anarchy in the UK tour. My stand-out concert of all time was the Clash gig, in May 1982 at Leeds University, I've kept the ticket all this time, it cost £3.50. (archived PDF)
Yorkshire Evening Post
The fanzine that documented when punk landed in Leeds
Despite tabloid fury, the gig at Leeds Polytechnic ñ where the Pistols were supported by The Clash and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers ñ was given the go-ahead.
At that gig there were a lot of punks there but there was not really any trouble. A lot of people got converted that night. Though there were a lot of sound problems it was an exciting gig. Punk had announced itself.î
The first edition of New Pose [Fanzine], in June 1977, carried interviews with The Ramones and Talking Heads, who had played at Leeds Polytechnic a couple of weeks earlier, along with gig review of The Clash and Subway Sect and reviews of new singles by Blondie, Iggy Pop and The Jam. (archived PDF)
Leeds alumni online
Everybody hold on tight
This story originally appeared in Leeds magazine. Music writer and former punk, Lucy O'Brien recalls Leeds in the punk and post-punk years. PDF version
The Clash Kings Hall Derby 1976 Anarchy Tour - Google Search
The Sex PIstols Kings Hall Derby 1976 Anarchy Tour - Google Search
Blll Grundy Interview
BBC TV Look North look back
Youtube
BBC Look North 30th Anniversary of Punk/Anarchy Tour at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens. Contains interview with Captain Sensible. TX 14th Dec. 2006
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