JUNE 4, 1976
The Sex Pistols play Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner, and Terry Mason decide to form a band.
JULY 20, 1976
The Sex Pistols play their second gig at Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester, with support from the Buzzcocks and Slaughter & the Dogs.
SEPTEMBER 4, 1976
The Sex Pistols make an infamous appearance on Tony Wilson’s So It Goes for Granada TV. Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner, and Terry Mason make contact with Ian Curtis, who joins the band.
One of our first practice rooms was above the Swan pub on Eccles New Road in Salford. Much later, around the time the Haçienda was taking off, Twinny started drinking in the Swan, so I ended up going back—back to our old rehearsal rooms. It did my head in, really freaked me out. It was exactly the same, apart from the fact that the pictures were missing from the wall and you could see where the wallpaper around them had faded. I was bawling like a baby that night, I’m telling you. It brought everything back. Ian. Joy Division. We never used to talk about it. The years that followed Ian’s death were for getting on with New Order and the Haçienda, not for mourning and wallowing, but every now and then something like that would catch you unawares. You’d walk into a room you associated with Ian and suddenly you were poleaxed.
DECEMBER 1, 1976
The Sex Pistols make their notorious appearance on the Today program with Bill Grundy.
After this they embarked on their Anarchy tour. Public outrage in the wake of the Bill Grundy interview saw to it that most of the dates were canceled. However, they did manage to play Manchester twice, at the Electric Circus on Collyhurst Street.
JANUARY 29, 1977
The Buzzcocks’ Spiral Scratch EP released. Produced by Martin Hannett, it becomes the third-ever UK punk single (after “New Rose” by the Damned and “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols).
APRIL 1977
The Electric Circus begins to host regular punk nights on Sundays.
MAY 29, 1977
Billed as Stiff Kittens, Warsaw (later Joy Division) play their first-ever gig, the Electric Circus, Manchester, supporting the Buzzcocks and Penetration. Admission: £1.
Stiff Kittens aka Warsaw aka whatever-they’re-called-next-week rate zero even on my Mary Whitehouse odometer. The guitarist must be some refugee from a public school, the neatest thing about the bassist is his headgear and the singer has no impact whatsoever. By the fifth number or so they can just about put together a coherent riff, but I don’t think even the most demented headbanger could get off to this. Someone tells me it’s their first gig. So let’s pass over the rest. Next, please.
Probably the band’s first-ever review: from an unidentified source, reprinted in Joy Division and New Order—A History in Cuttings 1977–1983
Tony Wilson was in the audience. I can never remember anything if I’m nervous, and I must have been shitting myself about that gig because I can’t remember a thing!
MAY 31, 1977
Warsaw plays Rafters, Manchester, supporting the Heartbreakers. Admission: £1 at the door or 75p in advance from Fagins’ reception.
JUNE 1977
Slaughter & the Dogs’ “Cranked Up Really High” released on Rabid Records. Produced by Hannett and partly financed by Rob Gretton, who produced the Slaughter & the Dogs fanzine.
JUNE 3, 1977
Warsaw plays the Squat, Manchester. Part of the Stuff the Jubilee festival; the bill also includes the Fall, the Drones, the Worst, and the Negatives, plus a new wave/punk disco. Warsaw are joined by John the Postman singing “Louie Louie.” Admission: 50p.
JUNE 6, 1977
Warsaw plays the Guild Hall, Newcastle, supporting the Adverts, Penetration, and Harry Hack & the Big G. Admission: 75p.
This was the first appearance of Barney’s sleeping bag. Having piles was a feature of being in Joy Division. Ian got them from sitting on the heater at TJ Davidson’s and both Twinny and I got them from the van during the European tour in 1980. Terry Mason’s would explode regularly. But you know what? As far as I know, Bernard never had piles, just a sore arse.
JUNE 16, 1977
Warsaw plays the Squat, Manchester, featuring last on the bill after Harpoon Gags, Bicycle Thieves, and Split Beans. The event is billed as “Time’s Up” (in homage to the Buzzcocks bootleg) and held in aid of the “Windscale Festival,” according to the flyers. Admission: 50p.
JUNE 25, 1977
Warsaw plays the Squat, Manchester.
This was Tony Tabac’s last gig. We’d been introduced to the Squat by Pete Shelley. He said, “Oh, there’s a place in Manchester where you can just turn up and play,” which sounded great because it was really difficult to get gigs; the normal clubs just weren’t into punk gigs at all. At the Squat there would be more people from bands than there was audience. It was very dingy. There were no lights and it was freezing. Everyone who went there remembers it though.
JUNE 30, 1977
Warsaw plays Rafters, Manchester.
This was Steve Brotherdale’s first gig. A running-order squabble-fest with Fast Breeder led to us meeting a pre-Factory Alan Erasmus for the first time, as well as speaking to Martin Hannett by telephone.
JULY 1977
Warsaw enters “A Talent Contest,” the Stocks, Walkden.
This was run by an agency from Bolton and the Stocks wasn’t far from where I lived. The idea was that you just turned up and played and if you were good the agency would sign you up.
Perfect, we thought. We can’t go wrong.
Things started to go wrong straightaway, though, when the proper old-school compere asked us how we’d like to be introduced. Result: blank faces all round.
After struggling to get anything out of four inarticulate punks, he blurted out, “Do you like Deep Purple?”
And with that he left for his build-up to a coachload of old ladies from the Farnworth Flower Arranging Club, during which he said the immortal lines: “If you like Deep Purple, you’ll love these lads! Put your hands together for Warsaw!”
We trudged on and played but were too loud: our volume kept tripping the DB meter on stage, which then cut the power to our amps. Chaos. The old ladies all had their hands over their ears. We struggled through for a couple of numbers until Ian stormed off in disgust. When we went back into the dressing room to commiserate, he was buzzing.
“The female singer before us was changing when I came in,” he said. “Saw her tits!”
With that we packed up and drove to the Ranch, where Foo Foo let us set up and play. Great gig; went down a storm. Those were the days. The Ranch was our regular haunt for ages, marred only by us getting chased by teddy boys occasionally. But it came to an abrupt end when the cloakroom gave Barney’s leather jacket away one night—he went ballistic and we were barred.
JULY 18, 1977
The Warsaw demo session, Pennine Sound Studios, Oldham. Tracks recorded: “Inside the Line,” “Gutz for Garters,” “At a Later Date,” “The Kill,” “You’re No Good for Me.” These are the only recordings to feature Steve Brotherdale on drums.
JULY 20, 1977
Warsaw plays Tiffany’s, Leicester, supporting Slaughter & the Dogs.
AUGUST 16, 1977
The Buzzcocks sign to United Artists on the bar of the Electric Circus. Elvis Presley dies.
AUGUST 27, 1977
Warsaw plays Eric’s, Liverpool, supporting X-Ray Spex. This is the band’s first gig with Steve Morris, comprising two slots at the legendary Liverpool venue: a matinee in the afternoon for children and then an evening show.
Roger Eagle was a really nice guy. It struck you straightaway, as soon as you met him, that he was different from other people. He was just a really nice bloke who loved music and looked after you.
SEPTEMBER 14, 1977
Warsaw plays the Rock Garden, Middlesbrough. Set list: “Reaction,” “Inside the Line,” “Leaders of Men,” “Novelty,” “At a Later Date,” “Tension,” “The Kill,” “Lost.”
Bob Last, the promoter, came into the dressing room after the gig. “Anyone want a tape?” he said.
No one but me replied, and this was the start of what was to become a collecting obsession. That tape he gave me is the only recording of us live as Warsaw and was the first time I’d ever been able to listen to the group. What a great revelation—we were really good. Warsaw “Live in Middlesboro,” it was called: I treasured that tape for thirty years until it was stolen and bootlegged very recently.
SEPTEMBER 24, 1977
Warsaw plays the Electric Circus, Manchester, supporting the Rezillos.
The Rezillos’ roadie/manager, Bob Last, was an early supporter of Warsaw but would eventually balk at signing them to his influential Fast Product label—legend has it because of the Nazi associations then dogging the band.
OCTOBER 2, 1977
Warsaw plays the Electric Circus, Manchester, on the second night of the club’s final weekend. The gig is recorded by Virgin for the Short Circuit album to be released the following year. The recording includes “At a Later Date” and the release is later relabeled “Featuring Joy Division.”
OCTOBER 7, 1977
Warsaw plays Salford College of Technology, supporting Slaughter & the Dogs, the Drones, Fast Breeder, and V2.
OCTOBER 8, 1977
Warsaw plays Manchester Polytechnic, supporting Slaughter & the Dogs.
OCTOBER 13, 1977
Warsaw plays Rafters, Manchester, supporting Yachts.
OCTOBER 19, 1977
Warsaw plays Pipers, Manchester, with the Distractions, Snyde, and Nervous Breakdown.
NOVEMBER 1977
The Panik’s It Won’t Sell EP released on Rob Gretton’s Rainy Days records—the only release for both band and label.
NOVEMBER 24, 1977
Warsaw plays Rafters, Manchester, supporting the Heat and Accelerator.
DECEMBER 14, 1977
The An Ideal for Living EP sessions, Pennine Sound Studios, Oldham. Tracks recorded: “Warsaw,” “No Love Lost,” “Leaders of Men,” “Failures (of the Modern Man).”
Not long ago I was DJing in Eden in Ibiza with this guy called Dave Booth from Garlands in Liverpool. On the flight home we got talking about places in Manchester and he mentioned that he DJed at Pips.
I went, “Pips? You’re joking! Me and Barney took our first record to Pips for the DJ to play.”
“Yeah,” he said. “That was me. I was the one who put it on—cleared the fucking floor, it did.”
Small world . . .
DECEMBER 31, 1977
Warsaw plays the Swinging Apple, Liverpool. This New Year’s Eve gig is the last the band performs using the name Warsaw.