London 1976: the year punk arrived

London punk took shape in 1976. At the start of the year it consisted of one band, the Sex Pistols, a clothes shop on the King’s Road and a few dozen young followers. By Christmas it was front page news across Britain, half a dozen bands had formed, the first records were out and every tabloid in the country had a view on punk. The decisive moments were the 100 Club Punk Special on 20 and 21 September and the Sex Pistols’ television appearance with Bill Grundy on 1 December.

Here is the year in order.

Before 1976: the shop and the band

The centre of the story is a shop at 430 King’s Road in Chelsea, run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. In 1974 it was renamed SEX and sold rubber and leather clothes and provocative T-shirts. McLaren had spent time in New York in 1975 with the New York Dolls and had seen Richard Hell’s ripped look. Back in London he took on a band of regulars from the shop, added a singer, John Lydon, who soon went by the name Johnny Rotten, and the band became the Sex Pistols. They played their first gig at Saint Martin’s School of Art on 6 November 1975.

At the same time London’s pub rock circuit had kept short, fast rock and roll alive. Dr. Feelgood, The 101ers with Joe Strummer and Eddie and the Hot Rods were the bands that many punks had first seen.

January to June: the scene forms

During the first half of 1976 the Sex Pistols played colleges and small clubs. A group of fans from the suburbs, later called the Bromley Contingent, followed them everywhere: Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, Billy Idol and others. The first music paper reviews appeared in February. In the spring the Pistols began playing the 100 Club on Oxford Street. In June they went north to the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, a concert that started the Manchester scene.

July: the Ramones and the first fanzine

On 4 July 1976 the Ramones played the Roundhouse in Camden. Their debut album had arrived from New York that spring, and the concert showed London punks how fast and short songs could be. On the same evening The Clash played their first gig, supporting the Sex Pistols in Sheffield. Two days later The Damned made their debut at the 100 Club.

In July Mark Perry, a bank clerk from Deptford, put out the first issue of Sniffin’ Glue, written in a hurry and copied cheaply. It showed that punk did not need the established music press.

August: heat and riot

The summer of 1976 was one of the hottest and driest on record in Britain. At the end of August the Notting Hill Carnival ended in clashes between young black Londoners and the police. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash were there, and the experience fed into the band’s first single, White Riot, released the following spring.

September: the 100 Club Punk Special

On 20 and 21 September 1976 the 100 Club held a two night punk festival. The first night brought Subway Sect, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash and the Sex Pistols. The second had Stinky Toys from Paris, Chris Spedding with The Vibrators, Buzzcocks from Manchester and The Damned. Siouxsie and the Banshees, with Sid Vicious on drums, improvised a long, chaotic set at their first ever show. During the second night a glass was thrown, a young woman was injured, and Sid Vicious was arrested.

The festival is the point at which punk became a scene rather than a fan club. The music papers covered it, and record companies started to look.

October and November: the first singles

On 22 October Stiff Records released New Rose by The Damned, the first single by a British punk band. EMI signed the Sex Pistols and released Anarchy in the U.K. on 26 November. Rough Trade, which had opened as a record shop in West London in February, began selling the new singles and fanzines from its counter.

December: Bill Grundy and the Anarchy tour

On 1 December 1976 the Sex Pistols appeared on Today, Thames Television’s early evening programme, as a last minute replacement for Queen. The presenter Bill Grundy provoked the band and its friends, and they swore on air. The next morning the Daily Mirror ran the headline The Filth and the Fury. Overnight punk became a national scandal.

The Anarchy tour, which was to take the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and the Heartbreakers from New York around Britain, collapsed as most councils and venues cancelled. Only a handful of concerts took place. At the turn of the year the Roxy opened in Covent Garden, the first club dedicated to punk.

The records of the moment

The year 1976 itself produced only a handful of British punk singles. The records that document the London scene of that year followed within months:

1. The Damned, New Rose (October 1976, Stiff). The first British punk single, two and a half minutes of speed.
2. Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the U.K. (November 1976, EMI). The single that the Grundy interview was supposed to promote.
3. Buzzcocks, Spiral Scratch (January 1977, New Hormones). The Manchester answer, self released.
4. The Damned, Damned Damned Damned (February 1977, Stiff). The first British punk album.
5. The Clash, White Riot (March 1977) and The Clash (April 1977, CBS). The summer of 1976 turned into songs.

What 1976 led to

In January 1977 EMI dropped the Sex Pistols. Buzzcocks released Spiral Scratch themselves, and during 1977 punk spread across the country. The year 1976 had set the pattern: a band, a shop, a fanzine, a few singles and a media scandal. For what came next, read our history of punk rock. The American side of the same story is on our page about New York punk, and how the weekly papers reported all of this is told in our article on the music press of the 1970s. The bands themselves are profiled in our list of punk bands.