The Sex Pistols

Christmas 1977 was a pretty good time for me. I was about to finish university - which did, admittedly, involve the disadvantage of having to do some work for my finals the next summer. But I was coming to the end of an academic treadmill, and I was planning to take off to London and sample life in the big city.

Sid and Johnny in action

More immediately - I went to see the Sex Pistols on Christmas Day!

A week or two before Christmas, I went to see the Rich Kids playing somewhere near Leeds (I can't even recall where it was they played). They were Glen Matlock's new band, and he was being hailed as the melodic genius behind the Pistols' early work, a sort of Paul McCartney of the Pistols (bit of a strange concept, that). On the way out, someone was selling tickets for the Pistols in Huddersfield.

My parents weren't too impressed, but what could they do? By now I was a grown-up, or so I thought...

What do I remember about the gig? Well, it took a long time to find Ivanhoe's, because none of us had ever been to Huddersfield before. There'd been a tea party for the young kids, so I seem to remember a bit of mess left around after that. There was a lot of anticipation, because we all knew the Pistols were something special. We'd no idea, of course, what they'd sound like live.

As far as I can remember, they sounded fine. But, in a way, the music didn't matter. It was an event - the important thing was being there!

Anyway, it happened, and I was part of it. In 1978, I took those final exams and headed for London. I remember seeing U2 playing in a pub down there - but that's another story...