Anarchy Tour supporting the Sex Pistols and in the home town the Buzzcocks.
- updated 20 December 2014 - added graphics
- updated 17 January 2017 - tidied up page
Please leave any comments, articles, scans here. Thanks.
1976/77 Julian Temple's early footage 18hrs
Known to contain several concerts including The Roxy 1 Jan 1977 and Harlesden plus Rehearsals footageJulian Temples 1976 footage 18 hours - included Roxy/Anarchy Tour/Harlesden/Rainbow - only the footage that was used in the film eventually got digitised because it was shot on an obscure format that does exist anymore and so it cost a fortune to put onto tape. 
Audio from CD
Sound 3.5 - 24min - Low gen - Tracks 10
Cheat
This 2 cdr also includes The Buzzcocks and Sex Pistols sets
Visit these websites for a comprehensive catalogue of unofficially released CD's and Vinyl (forever changing) or If Music Could Talk for all audio recordings
Discogs 
Punky Gibbon Jeff Dove Ace Bootlegs
For all recordings go to If Music Could Talk / Sound of Sinners
Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk - By Peter Smith
[more] ... "Pete Shelley remembers the gig fondly: “I thought we played really well. It was the last time we ever played with the Pistols and the last time I saw them play. The Electric Circus had previously been a heavy metal club, but the Anarchy gig turned it round and started punk in Manchester” (Black 1996). Among the audience were members of the Stiff Kittens, soon to become Joy Division, and then New Order. Steven Morrissey, soon to be of The Smiths, was also there, largely to see the Heartbreakers, as he had been a big fan of the New York Dolls and used to run their UK fan club. He wrote a letter about the concert to Melody Maker (December 11, 1976): “The likes of the Sex Pistols have yet to prove that they are only worthy of a mention in a publication dealing solely with fashion; and if the music they deliver live is anything to go by, I think that their audacious lyrics and discordant music will not hold their heads above water when their followers tire of torn jumpers and safety pins.”
“It was easily the most terrifying concert I’ve ever been to,” remem- bers Frank Brunger (Black 1996). “There was a violent element in the crowd and the glasses and bottles soon started flying.” This was becom- ing more and more frequent at punk gigs, as local gangs used the con- cert as an excuse for violence. Peter Hook remembers the second night at the Electric Circus as “just a riot. There were so many football [soc- cer] fans and lunatics throwing bottles from the top of the flats. It was really heavy, a horrible night. Punk had been completely underground until Grundy. After that, it was completely over the top. There were so many of the punks getting battered” (Lloyd 2016)."
Images of England Through Popular Music:
Class, Youth and Rock 'n' Roll ...
By K. Gildart
(more..) [extract] "Pistols had already played two shows at the city’s Free Trade Hall on 4 June and 20 July. The Palace Theatre and the Free Trade Hall unsurprisingly declined the invitation of further concerts in light of the adverse publicity. The manger of the latter, Ron O’ Neil claimed that during the group’s previous appearance ‘they started arguments with the audience and the language was a bit strong’. Paul Galsworthy of the Palace told the paper that he had ‘heard that they were very rough and the lowest type of group’. The request to perform was duly rejected.
The Electric Circus was a privately owned former cinema in Collyhurst, north Manchester. The location perfectly suited the ‘rough music’ and performance of the Sex Pistols. By the mid- 1970s, Collyhurst was becoming a ‘problem area’ with dilapidated housing stock, petty crime, unemployment and youth delinquency. The promoters had used the rejection from other venues to publicise the show; ‘Banned from the Palace, Banned from the Free Trade Hall’. The group had already been asked to leave the city’s prestigious Midland Hotel the day before the show. The manager, Harry Berry, changed his mind on the booking once he realised who they were.°* They were then refused accommodation at the Belgrade Hotel in Stockport, eventually securing rooms at the Arosa in Fallowfield. They were also ejected from these premises when the manager, Mohammed Anwar, claimed that they ‘started using the filthiest language, ran riot and upset other guests’. The show went ahead with the press reporting that the 500 people in attendance faced an immediate slew of obscenities. In preparation for any kind of violence, the press claimed that ‘local detectives had been dispatched in ‘pop gear’ to mix with crowd while senior uniformed officers kept vigil from the back of the hall’.
Punk music had created divisions amongst Manchester’s youth, which was articulated along lines of social class. Howard Paul, a public school boy from Cheshire, was featured in the Manchester Evening News castigating the Sex Pistols.” In response, he had formed a band with ex-grammar and public schools boys with the name Contempt; a reference to what he felt for this new form of music. Paul claimed that the Sex Pistols were taking advantage of a section of gullible youth: ‘They are just playing on the frustrations of young kids who have no jobs and no prospects.’ 8 John Scott said that he was sickened by the whole spectacle of punk rock. He felt the Sex Pistols were deliberately stirring up trouble and violence for publicity purposes. In contrast, Stephen Morrissey, a 17-year-old working-class music fan from Stretford, later to lead another influential group, the Smiths, penned a letter to the Manchester Evening News claiming that the Sex Pistols were ‘speaking for the youth today’. Their manager, Malcolm McLaren, told reporters that the Sex Pistols ‘dress loudly and they are loud mouthed like all young kids in a similar predicament’.”
"Does anyone remember the Electric Circus? Yeah, a right shit hole" Joe Strummer at the Apollo (now Academy) February 1984.
Manchester Electric Circus - Google Search
Protex Blue is completely re-worked into a new song, seemingly called "Big Brother" or "Big Brother Is Watching You"
The music is the same, but the lyrics (sung mostly by Joe) are completely different. He even introduces the song with "and now we'd like to sing about... big brother arrived yesterday"
By the time of the next gig recording (Harlesden March 3 1977) it has reverted back to Protex Blue.
The Clash at Manchesters Electric Circus 9 December 1976
Thanks to Ranking Fred - THE CLASH ON PAROLE - for the pics
12 April at 07:06
Any further info, articles, reviews, commentsor photos welcome. Please email blackmarketclash
Pistols, Clash etc.: What Did You Do On The Punk Tour, Daddy?
Peter Silverton, Sounds, 18 December 1976
The Sex Pistols/The Clash/The Heartbreakers /The Buzzcocks: Electric Circus, Manchester
TO TURN up to a Sex Pistols' show nowadays is to make a statement to the world that you care about rock 'n' roll and don't give a Bill Grundy what the yellow press thinks.
And enough kids in Manchester, God belss 'em, were prepared to do just that, almost filling the Electric Circus. However, once there, they weren't quite sure what to do.
When Johnny, Glen, Steve and Paul sliced through the crowd (no folding lotus stages for them...yet), bounded up the steps and roared straight into 'Anarchy In The U.K.', the kids knew just what to do because they knew the song. They sang along and jumped and bumped me back into the unreceptive arms of the national daily press photographers, one of whom was trying to take his pix with his hands over his ears (try it sometime).
However, with 'Anarchy' searched and destroyed, our heroes (the Pistols and the kids) were on unfamiliar ground. The kids didn't know the songs and weren't quite sure how to react. The band were visibly tired and disorientated by the happenings fo the past week. They'd come, they'd seen, but the conquering had had to be postponed.
Local band, the Buzzcocks, opened the bill in place of the now-off-the-tour Damned. I'd seen them once before (in London) and my second viewing only reinforced my belief that they're a second-rate, provincial Pistols copy. The lead singer was only honestly interested in performing his eyebrow massage tableau. They're the facade of the new wave with none of its substance. Their set was notable only for their mutilation of the Trogg's hoary chestnut, 'I Can't Control Myself', the evening's first outbreak of pogo dancing and the fact that a section of the audience disagreed with my sentiments - the Buzzcocks got an encore.
Then came what was probably the best received band of the evening, The Clash. I'm probably supernaturally thick-skinned but, although ex-public schoolboy turned guitarist and vocalist with the Clash, Joe Strummer, in a fit of childlike pique, had me thrown off the coach back to the hotel (I did get reinstated), I still reckon he's currently the quintessential English rhythm guitarist. As rough as a Surform. As energy-charged as a Ford Cosworth V8.
You remember that Sixties bedsit poster of Che Guevara with his eyes pointing upwards to that great Bolivia in the sky? That's how Joe looked once he'd ploughed into the set. Once, that is, he'd told them to shut down the crummy light show with the advice: "It's a bit psychedelic in here, innit? This ain't Amsterdam, y'know."
Mick Jones bust strings on his guitar, Paul Simenon flashed off his bass with the notes painted on the frets so he knows where to put his fingers and Rob Harper, drummer for the tour, beat hell out of his kit and had lots of fun. The Clash did the greatest hits of their, so far, short career: 'White Riot' (an anti-racist anthem), 'I'm So Bored (With USA)', 'Janie Jones' and the sparkling new 'Hate And War'. Their weakest, most strained song 'Crush On You' coming as an encore to a splendid set.
Next up, the Heartbreakers, are like the Ramones with songs that have beginnings, middles and ends...in that order. More straight-forward rock 'n' roll than the other bands on the bill, they had the best drummer in former New York Doll, Jerry Nolan, and the craziest looking bassist in Billy Wrath - he could've stepped out of West Side Story.
Walter Lure's on second guitar and the front man (guitar and vocals) is the other ex-Doll, Johnny Thunders. They'll be very good in the future but this night they were still in need of match practice and only cut loose three quarters of the way through their set. They also had a great song about a telephone conversation which ends with one of the parties hanging themselves on the phone flex.
Me, I clapped hard but the Heartbreakers went off to polite applause which is when I noticed...the stony-faced security goon standing in front of the stage. He answered to the name of John "You can write what you like about me 'cos I'm getting paid a tenner" Robinson and offered the opinion on the evening's entertainment: "It's pure noise, and bad noise at that."
Which ain't what the kids thought at all. Nick Lomas and Billy Massacre from Clayton Bridge? "It's great. We've never seen them before. We're forming our own band as soon as our mums give us the money for the amps." The sentiments were echoed by most every kid I spoke to - they were certainly all in the process of forming bands, Stiff Kittens (Hooky, Terry, Wroey and Bernard, who has the final word) being the most grotesque offering.
I BROKE off my enquiries at that point, seeing the Pistols make their move towards the stage, and dived forward to soak up the aforementioned 'Anarchy'.
Now, as Pistols fans go, I'm very much a Johnny come lately - for a long time I thought they were very average. But I'd grown to like them and this night in the beautifully apt locale of a converted flea-pit bounded on one side by wasteland and on the other by one-third bricked off council tenaments, I was finally convinced.
I could see that they were well below maximum power - getting thrown out of two hotels before lunchtime does sap your energy somewhat. But anyone who can, as Johnny Rotten did, rejuvenate the tired lines of 'Substitute' when he's evidently exhausted, has got to be one hell of a rock 'n' roller.
If Johnny was uncharacteristacally quiescent, the others almost made up for it. Glen Matlock seemed to be playing his bass in a blur of knee jumps. Steve Jones practised calisthenics between savaging his guitar - he's beginning to justify the legend 'Guitar Hero' sprayed on his amp. And Paul Cook kept right in there with his solid drumming and torn porno t-shirt.
It wasn't really their night though. The kids were all gobbing at the stage, devoid of menace, obviously believing that was the correct behaviour at a Grundy rock-gig. Mr. Rotten's elegant (honest) belted red jerkin and soft mulberry shirt were covered with saliva by the end. "It's up to you. If you wanna keep gobbin', we won't play".
They stopped and it was into the 'God Save The Queen' intro to the newie, 'No Future'. Difficult to make a judgement on it but it seemed a good set closer: iconaclastic, demonic and rocking.
The lights went down, came back up and 'Problems' blitzed us all one more time. It was apparently the encore but I didn't know until I was told later.
It was the end of a great gig but it was also the mark of the unease in the Pistol's set. They lacked a degree of certainty and concentration just as the crowd were unsure how to pogo.
But, no matter, it's shaping up to be an all-time classic rock 'n' roll tour. The sort that'll have your grandchildren asking you: "Where were you when the Pistols, the Heartbreakers and the Clash doing the rounds?"
© Peter Silverton, 1976
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White Riot |
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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.
Pistols, Clash etc.:
What Did You Do On The Punk Tour, Daddy? (Manchester gig review)
Peter Silverton, Sounds,
18 December 1976
TO TURN up to a Sex Pistols' show nowadays is to make a statement to the world that you care about rock 'n' roll and don't give a Bill Grundy what the yellow press thinks.
Guardian - A northern soul
Thirty years ago, the Manchester music scene was changed for ever. Paul Morley revisits the city of his youth and recalls the sights and eviscerating sounds that transformed the lives of a generation
Anarchy Tour Manchester Electric Circus
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Anarchy Tour The Clash Manchester Electric Circus - 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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