The true facts about this night are still pretty ambiguous, but according to myths, this less than successful Manchester gig was the trigger to the Indie Culture that we know today.
7 months after the Sex Pistols formed, with their look, their sound and their attitude already in place, two Manchurians Howard DeVoto and Pete Shelley arranged a gig for them at the venue on Peter Street. The news was spread low key and on the night a mere 40 people showed up to the hall that could hold hundreds.
What looked to be a futile gig for a band desperate to make a name for themselves is now looked at as "The gig that changed the world”. Why? Because in that small crowd were some of the people who went on to become the most important names in what became Indie Culture.
Howard DeVoto and Pete Shelley, the organisers of the gig went on to form The Buzzcocks. Peter Hook, who was there with Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner, went out on the very next day to buy his first guitar then formed the band we know as Joy Division. Steven Patrick Morrissey (The Smiths), proceeded to become arguably the most influential musician of the 1980’s Indie scene…
