Thursday, January 11, 2018

Stimulating stageshows

A list of "ten gigs that launched a thousand bands" that doesn't feature the Sex Pistols' show at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in June 1976? Only because that particular gig is the whole inspiration for the list.

Fraser McAlpine's selection is potentially contentious, but it's good to see the inclusion of Black Flag's 1981 gig at the Peppermint Lounge in New York, as well as Bikini Kill's 1991 show with Bratmobile in Olympia, which effectively gave birth to riot grrrl. The Stone Roses' Spike Island gig gets the nod over Oasis' Knebworth shows - rightly so (much as I despise the Roses), for what it represented and what it inspired.

Meanwhile, it's fascinating to read about the New York Dolls' Mercer Arts Center residency in 1972, which seems to have energised the US punk scene in the same way that the Sex Pistols' Lesser Free Trade Hall gig did for the UK.

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