{"id":350830,"date":"2026-09-19T02:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T02:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350830\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T02:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T02:49:13","slug":"50-years-ago-today-queen-and-sex-pistols-play-historic-gigs-in-u-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350830\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years Ago Today: Queen and Sex Pistols Play Historic Gigs in U.K."},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn the latter half of 1976, two very different live music scenes were popping at the exact same time across England and America. On one hand, superstar acts like Peter Frampton, Yes,<\/a> Fleetwood Mac,<\/a> the Who,<\/a> and the Rolling Stones<\/a> were selling tickets on such an astronomical level that their shows were moving into football stadiums, outdoor fields, and racetracks. At the exact same time, young, upstart groups like the Ramones<\/a> and the Clash<\/a> were forming in response to the corporatization of rock, the bloated egos of its biggest stars, and the excesses of prog with the back-to-basics minimalism of punk.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe gap between these two divergent worlds was most apparent during a very memorable point in September 1976 when Queen<\/a> played a free concert in London\u2019s Hyde Park to roughly 150,000 fans, just two days before the 100 Club Punk Special crammed 600 fans into the 100 Club for showcase performances by the Damned, the Buzzcocks, the Clash<\/a>, the Sex Pistols<\/a>, and a new band billing itself as Siouxsie and the Banshees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo the U.K. music press of the time, both events seemed to be ushering in a long-awaited new era of rock during a particularly bleak moment when \u201cI Only Want to Be With You\u201d by the Bay City Rollers was one of the top songs in England. \u201cAt last, the Seventies have arrived,\u201d gushed Melody Maker\u2019s Harry Doherty in his review of the Queen concert. \u201cThe reverberations of it will be felt for the rest of this decade, hopefully ridding us once and for all of the apathy that generally emerges from those who experienced the Sixties and are unwilling to accept anything new from this generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMelody Maker\u2018s Caroline Coon felt the same way as she approached the 100 Club two days later. \u201cThe 600-strong line, which last Monday straggled across two blocks outside London\u2019s 100 Club in Oxford Street, waiting for the Punk Rock Festival to start, was indisputable evidence that a new decade in rock is about to begin,\u201d she wrote. \u201cTwo 18-year-olds from Salisbury were at the head of the queue. \u2018I\u2019ve been waiting for something to identify with,\u2019 says Gareth, hopping up and down. \u2018There\u2019s been nothing for years. I just want to be involved.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tJust five years earlier, Queen fans were packing into venues just as tiny as the 100 Club. But their popularity grew exponentially in that time thanks to \u201cSeven Seas of Rhye,\u201d \u201cKiller Queen,\u201d \u201cNow I\u2019m Here,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re My Best Friend,\u201d and, of course, \u201cBohemian Rhapsody,\u201d which topped the U.K. Singles Chart for nine weeks and helped A Night at the Opera go platinum all across the planet.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey didn\u2019t have a new album ready until the end of 1976, but the momentum from \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d was so strong they began looking into the possibility of playing the biggest free concert in Hyde Park since the Rolling Stones in 1969.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s ever been a show like we\u2019re going to do in the park,\u201d Queen guitarist Brian May told Melody Maker days before the concert. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to hold back at all just because it\u2019s a free concert. It\u2019ll be the whole works. I hope it all fits together as a very nice and enjoyable afternoon. It\u2019s a way of saying thank you. It\u2019s an adventure, fighting our way through 15 million miles of red tape. It\u2019s quite hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFinalizing the bill for the show was its own adventure. Less than a week before fans began filling up Hyde Park, John Miles and Be Bop Deluxe were dropped from the show due to machinations by concert promoter and Virgin Records head Richard Branson, who wanted Virgin acts Steve Hillage and Supercharge instead. \u201cThis move weakens the bill considerably and makes a mockery of free festivals,\u201d a spokesperson for Miles told the Evening Standard. \u201cNow it\u2019s beginning to look like a free promotion stunt for Virgin Records.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tKiki Dee, however, remained part of the show, even though she was unable to get her \u201cDon\u2019t Go Breaking My Heart\u201d duet buddy Elton John to stop by and had to resort to singing alongside a cardboard cutout of him. \u201cKiki Dee proved that she can exist quite happily without Elton John,\u201d wrote Melody Maker, \u201calthough she has obviously adopted the same attitude towards stage performances as the esteemed EJ, which is to use as many musicians as is needed to reproduce recorded sound on stage, regardless of financial disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tQueen had yet to flesh out their lineup to include even a keyboardist, presenting them with the difficult task of recreating all the ornate sounds of A Night at the Opera onstage. But thanks to pyrotechnics, dry ice, Brian May\u2019s virtuosity, Freddie Mercury\u2019s charisma, and his many costume changes, the show was stunning.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe music veered from the wild excitement of \u2018Ogre Battle\u2019 and \u2018Brighton Rock\u2019 to soothing pieces in the mould of the moving \u2018You Take My Breath Away\u2019 without ever losing pace,\u201d wrote Doherty. \u201cTwo weeks ago, I queried Queen\u2019s ability to produce the goods at a gig of this magnitude, and it fills me with great pleasure that I state they have the rare ability to create as much atmosphere in open fields as in homely theaters. They are, how you say, a great little band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat \u201cgreat little band\u201d closed out their set with \u201cIn the Lap of the Gods \u2026 Revisited,\u201d but they planned on coming back for an encore of \u201cNow I\u2019m Here,\u201d \u201cBig Spender,\u201d \u201cJailhouse Rock,\u201d and \u201cGod Save the Queen.\u201d The authorities had another idea.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe powers that be wouldn\u2019t let us go on and do the encore, about which we were very upset, having worked up for months and prepared for all that,\u201d May told Capital Radio in 1977. \u201cThey got very frightened because there were 150,000 people in Hyde Park in the dark, and they thought they were going to get out of hand. But in fact, there was no possible danger happening at all. Everyone was peaceful and having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis was mild exaggeration, as evidenced by this headline in The Sunday Mirror the following day: \u201cSeveral Hurt at London Pop Show.\u201d \u201cSeveral arrests made at free concert by the pop group Queen in Hyde Park,\u201d reads the brief article, \u201cafter troublemakers hurled bolts and drink cans into 50,000 crowd. Number of people taken to hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst off, 50,000 is a very low estimate of the crowd size. It\u2019s pegged today at somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000. Secondly, the article doesn\u2019t explain that fans were hurling objects forward since the stage was absurdly low, and many of them couldn\u2019t see a thing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have been requested by the constabulary for you not to throw little things around, tin cans or whatever,\u201d a frustrated Freddie Mercury told the crowd early in the night. \u201cSo make this a peaceful event, OK? Sit on your arses and listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the 100 Club a couple days later, meanwhile, a mere bolt or tin can thrown through the air would barely have been noticed amid all of the chaos and disorder. No act on the bill was even remotely famous outside of the tiny London punk scene, but it\u2019s staggering to look at today. In addition to the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned, the Buzzcocks, and Siouxsie and the Banshees \u2014 the five most iconic U.K. punk bands of their time \u2014 Coon also notes the presence of a group of hardcore Sex Pistols fans known as the \u201cBromley Contingent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis inseparable unit is Steve (21), Bill (22) and Simon (19) \u2014 he sells hot dogs off a mobile stand during the day \u2014 raspberry-haired Debbie and Suzi herself,\u201d she writes. \u201cThey first heard the Pistols at their local tech in January and they\u2019ve been faithful followers ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe doesn\u2019t provide last names, and the age is off by a couple years, but the \u201cBill\u201d she references is almost certainly Bill Broad, who would soon start billing himself as Billy Idol and form the group Generation X.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer description of the Siouxsie and the Banshees performance is fascinating since they weren\u2019t truly a band at this point, membership was very fluid, and they didn\u2019t really have material. \u201cApart from Suzi, it wasn\u2019t decided who would actually end up doing the festival until the day,\u201d Coon writes. \u201cTwo-tone Steve (his hair is black on top, white at the sides) was on the bass he picked up for the first time the night before. Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten\u2019s friend and inventor of the Pogo dance, was on drums. He had one rehearsal. And a mature gent called Marco was the lead guitarist. The prayer begins. It\u2019s a wild improvisation, a public jam, a bizarre stage fantasy acted out for real. The sound is what you\u2019d expect from, er, novices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSid Vicious, six months before his debut as the Sex Pistols\u2019 new bassist, was most assuredly a novice on the drums. (And he wasn\u2019t much better on bass.) But he was very good at creating mayhem and hurting people. The following night, while the Damned played, he threw a glass that shattered and blinded a young woman in one eye. It sent him off to jail for a short stint, and it would be far from his last time behind bars.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Clash hadn\u2019t played in public since their opening slot for pub rock band Kursaal Flyers at the Roundhouse on Sept. 15, <\/a>but they parted ways with guitarist Keith Levene during that time and had written a new song called \u201cWhite Riot\u201d that opened their set at the 100 Club Punk Special. Like at the Roundhouse, they broke out an early version of \u201cI\u2019m So Bored With the U.S.A.\u201d entitled \u201cI\u2019m So Bored With You.\u201d But Joe Strummer periodically yelled out \u201cUSA\u201d this time, showing they had worked on more than \u201cWhite Riot\u201d and fired Levene during the brief interim.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Clash are a fine, visionary rock band with a wild style,\u201d Coon wrote. \u201cI\u2019ve seen them four times now, they\u2019ve never played the same set. Their humour and spontaneity is uncontrived and, now that they\u2019ve settled into their new line-up, they\u2019ll be a cornerstone for the developing punk rock scene.\u201d (Coon would soon shoot the cover photo for the Clash\u2019s \u201cWhite Riot\u201d single and even briefly manage them.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Sex Pistols closed out the first night with a ferocious set that included \u201cAnarchy in the U.K.,\u201d \u201cPretty Vacant,\u201d \u201cNew York,\u201d and covers of \u201cNo Fun\u201d by the Stooges, \u201cSubstitute\u201d by the Who, and \u201cI\u2019m Not Your Stepping Stone\u201d by Monkees songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe atmosphere in the club is feverish and high-pitched,\u201d Coon wrote. \u201cThis band is what everyone\u2019s been waiting for. Not everyone, however, is happy about the Pistols\u2019 growing success and notoriety. The private party is over; the band are public property. It had to happen. But with mixed feelings the band\u2019s nucleus of fans are holding their breath as their champions start their steady climb. Will the businessmen spoil them \u2014 that\u2019s the anxious question?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Sex Pistols certainly would have their problems with \u201cbusinessmen,\u201d but they were truly spoiled by the mismanagement of Malcolm McLaren, personality conflicts that are inevitable when John Lydon is a member of your band, and the preposterously stupid decision to fire bassist Glen Matlock, a crucial component of the songwriting team, in favor of Sid Vicious, who brought nothing but chaos.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut before they broke up in early 1978, they\u2019d make the definitive album of the U.K. punk era, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here\u2019s the Sex Pistols, and inspire countless bands that blossomed all across England and the world in the years that followed. Their show at the 100 Club Punk Special alone was witnessed by Paul Weller of the Jam, Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Colin Newman of Wire, and Kevin Haskins and David J of Bauhaus.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd two months earlier, when the Sex Pistols played at Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, future members of the Smiths, the Fall, Magazine, Simply Red, the Buzzcocks, and Joy Division\/New Order were in the audience. Every single one of them claimed it was a pivotal experience that forever changed their lives.<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking back with the benefit of 50 years of hindsight, Melody Maker\u2019s notion that the Seventies didn\u2019t \u201carrive\u201d until September 1976 doesn\u2019t really hold up. They began with Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Stooges, Elton John, and David Bowie at the tail end of the Sixties, at least in terms of rock. But they were absolutely right that something very new was happening. The evidence just wasn\u2019t there at the Queen concert. It was most definitely present at the 100 Club.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s not to diminish Queen in any way. They were a titanic force in music, bigger than any one era or movement, whose popularity dwarfed most of the punk acts combined. But not many people walked out of that Hyde Park show thinking they could start their own Queen. Freddie Mercury was a singular talent, and no mortal could even dream of creating \u201cBohemian Rhapsody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was much easier to imagine writing \u201cWhite Riot,\u201d \u201cOrgasm Addict\u201d or \u201cAnarchy in the U.K.\u201d after leaving the 100 Club Punk Special. And once people started trying, a new era truly began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the latter half of 1976, two very different live music scenes were popping at the exact same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,666,122,124,123,13105,131071,96698],"class_list":["post-350830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queen","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sex-pistols","tag-siouxsie-and-the-banshees","tag-the-clash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}