1st September, 1976..anarchy

A long hot summer, selling biscuits in the sleepy South Midlands, was drawing to a close. I returned to London to see my family, and see Charlton early in the new season. Music, well, same old, really. The Who had played at the Valley again, but I didn't go. Nothing much was happening...

My parents went to bed. Idly I checked the TV. There was an interesting looking late show on ITV from Manchester, called  "So it goes". I tuned in. Tony Wilson introduced a new band called the Sex Pistols. The very name was risky. But the next three minutes saw my whole world, as defined by music, turn upside down.

I don't think any other audio-video presentation has ever had such an effect on me. Perhaps the Olympic 2012 opening event; but that was a benign, feel good affair. This wasn't. All sorts of conflicting thoughts went through my head.The first was that I had been away from London, in the sleepy Midlands and the place had gone into ferment. The second was that it was a wind up, it had to be. But they looked serious: by the standards of 1976, that really was anarchy on TV. Then I thought I had lost touch with young people. I was, on that day, 22 years old...

I went to bed, shattered and slightly scared.