Pete Shelley of Manchester punk legends Buzzcocks in a 1978 gig (in their original line-up), photographed by Kevin Cummins while holding up a 1976 poster for the 2nd Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester.

4 June 1976: The Sex Pistols perform in Manchester, a mythical punk gig, attended by no more than 35-40 people that supposedly inspired a whole music scene, since that crowd of nonentities included Howard Devoto & Pete Shelley, who organised the event and went on to form the Buzzcocks, Morrissey, who later formed The Smiths, Peter Hook & Bernard Sumner, who went out the very next day, bought guitars and then formed a band called Joy Division or Mark E. Smith who formed The Fall.

20 July 1976: the Buzzcocks, along with Slaughter And The Dogs, perform as opening acts in support of The Sex Pistols in their second gig in Manchester, where they premiered a new song, “Anarchy in the U.K.” :

“…Six weeks later, on 20 July, the Pistols returned, stronger, faster, harder, darker, officially notorious. The Lesser Free Trade Hall was now full of more knowing fans (…) There was, relatively speaking, someone already famous at this show, passionate local TV personality Tony Wilson [co-founder of Factory Records & founder of Manchester club The Haçienda]… Mostly, though, it was still a crowd of unknowns, including the reserved out-of-towner Ian Curtis, meeting people he had something in common with and totally ready to let the ordinary but uncanny Rotten inspire him.

Because, as is obvious once time has passed, one surprising thing leads to another. The first Pistols show led to the second Pistols show led to Wilson’s experimental pop TV show So It Goes, to Buzzcocks’ Spiral Scratch, to the endless Fall, to Factory Records, to the Hacienda, to Marr and Morrissey, to Madchester, to the Stone Roses at Spike Island, to Oasis…”