Talk:Free Trade Hall

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[edit] Sex Pistols concert on June 4, 1976

There is a lot of confusion about people who were actually present at the legendary first concert of the Sex Pistols in Manchester Free Trade Hall, on June 4, 1976. By all accounts, there were only about 40 people present, but it is said that so many people have claimed to have been there, or were claimed by others to have been there, that the gig must have been attended by thousands. There is even a book written about it - "I Swear I Was There" by Dave Nolan.

People who were definitely there include Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle, Morrissey, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Paul Morley, Mark E.Smith, and Tony Wilson (even though Nolan questions Wilson's presence, Howard Devoto and Pistols' Glen Matlock have both mentioned that he was there, which confirms it without any doubt). Strangely, the support band was a prog rock band called Solstice.

Ian Curtis, however, definitely was NOT there. If he had been, certainly it would be mentioned in either Deborad Curtis' book "Touching From the Distance" or the new Mick Middles/Lindsay Reade Curtis biography, "Torn Apart". Instead, both books assert that Curtis missed the first Pistols concert, and that he was with his wife Deborah only at the second Pistols' concert, on July 20.

Mick Hucknall also was NOT at the concert on June 4, but he was among the people present on July 20.

The second Pistols' concert (with Buzzcocks and Slaughter & The Dogs as support) was as important for the Manchester scene as the first one, and it was attended by a far larger number of people. Mick Hucknall WAS indeed present at that one.

But many people confuse those two concerts... and the film "24 Hour Party People" greatly contributed to that confusion, with its inaccurate depiction of this event... and many others. Sadly, the broader audience without much knowledge about the matter views that mess of a movie as a good overview of the Manchester scene.

Nightandday 22:53, 21 October 2006 (UTC)