Be glad for the pod has no ending! Now in our 20th year and, this week, ruminating fondly on the following …

… the “underhand” selling of Geese

… Morrissey’s absurd whinge about the Salford Lads Club photo

… Jay Leno’s $50 ruse to get comedy gigs

… when bands “didn’t even know what a hotel was”

… radio sessions in Andy Kershaw’s flat

… what’s the point of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

… when has any aspect of the entertainment business EVER been “fair”?

… “Four eyes, one vision!” Elvis Costello busking in Park Lane

… the great Supremes records after Diana Ross

… Focus, 10cc, Devo, Zappa, the Shadows and other musical dead-ends

... Ronnie Wood and … Beverley Knight?

…. “Shove off, Phil Collins! And have you got your Barley Sugars?”

… and birthday guest Stephen Lambe about why Focus are largely forgotten.

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Take your protein pills and put your helmet on as we voyage to the far side this week to take a picture of …

… the Kanye West & Wireless ding-dong

… Springsteen with Tom Morello, Pet Shop Boys with Johnny Marr: the fine art of the ‘special guest’

… when Time Magazine invented Swinging London

… Gregg Allman and the judge’s wife

… Fake Plastic Trees! Pressure Drop by the Clash! Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)! Politicians trying to be hip

… a primal howl from the Troggs written by the son of a golf professional from Westchester County (Chip Taylor RIP)

… why all bands should have ‘membership’ gigs

... Back Home! This Time We’ll Get It Right! Are we still making World Cup anthems?

… never drive a car listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra followed by the Sun Ra Arkestra and Trout Mask Replica

… plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon is listening to every record he owns.

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Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley read a review of the Sex Pistols in February 1976, borrowed a car, drove to London, asked the NME where they’d find the band and were told ‘try a sex shop in the King’s Road’. The events that followed changed both the culture of Manchester and the course of rock history, a story mapped out in David Nolan’s excellent ‘I Swear I Was There’, a book as much about the audience as the band. His theory: “If the Pistols hadn’t played the Lesser Free Trade Hall … no Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Factory Records, ‘indie’ scene, Smiths, Fall, Nirvana, Blur, Oasis, Radiohead or Prodigy.’ As the 50th anniversary looms, he talks to us here about …

… those who claimed to be there and the ones who actually were

… the contrast between myth and reality

… the letter Morrissey sent the NME: “Maybe the Pistols will be able to afford some clothes which don't look as though they've been slept in”

… punk metaphor: Howard Devoto asking a tailor to narrow his trouser legs and being told, “there’s no going back”

… North/South crowd violence: “a battle with a gig breaking out in the middle”

… the three reels of home-movie and the photos that turned up 36 years later

… Sister Rosetta Tharpe, ‘Judas’ at the Free Trade Hall, Stones In The Park and other landmark Manchester moments

... the pioneering impact of Granada TV

… “if you look at Manchester now, its media, its skyscrapers, its cultural prosperity, none of that would have been happened without those Pistols gigs”

… “Sheffield would have admired them, Manchester thought: we can do better!”

… and various bit-part players – Tony Wilson, Peter Hook, Paul Morley, Jordan and Jon the Postman.

Order ‘I Swear I Was There’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swear-Was-There-Pistols-Manchester/dp/1786060159

Book promotions at Walthamstow Rock & Roll Book Club, London - 25 May (link below); Nudie, Manchester – 28 May; Central Library, Manchester - 11July: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/david-nolan-i-swear-i-was-there-tickets-1985356197832?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios&sg=0713ff5cbb20ee739ec0a8803927c4228f74fda0c5bac9785b11548a1e5b7c04ba91c0af5267ba677dfafa61163636f97633016b86ba8be02a78ecdb7f234740f0be4f90136c5fd636905d294b

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