u/TheSenseOfDoubt

Picked this up a while back: "I Swear I Stayed for the Encore E.P.," a bootleg on a fake Chiswick label, of the Sex Pistols' June 4th, 1976 show at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall. Never been able to pin down when or where it was actually pressed. Anyone recognize it or have a lead on dating it?

For context on why the gig matters: it's the show credited with kickstarting Manchester's post-punk scene. Joy Division, Buzzcocks, The Fall, The Smiths and a chunk of Factory Records all trace back to people allegedly in that room. Wrote up more on the gig and the full attendee list here if you want the background: https://www.thesenseofdoubt.com/blogs/archive/the-gig-nobody-agrees-on-sex-pistols-at-the-lesser-free-trade-hall-1976

Mostly posting for the record though. Curious if anyone here can help place this pressing or have a similar version.

Manchester, June 4th, 1976: the Sex Pistols play the Lesser Free Trade Hall to somewhere between thirty and fifty people. Buzzcocks organized it. Devoto and Shelley booked the hall after seeing the Pistols in London, then couldn't get a full lineup together in time to play themselves, so they made their live debut at the second show, July 20th, alongside Slaughter & the Dogs.

The room across both nights allegedly held Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner (not yet in a band together), Morrissey, Mark E. Smith, Tony Wilson, and Martin Hannett: more or less the entire production chain of Manchester post-punk, years before most of it existed. David Nolan's book I Swear I Was There is still the closest thing to a documented account, though even he admits a chunk of the guest list is self-reported decades later by people who wanted to have been there.

I own a bootleg 7" of the gig, "I Swear I Stayed for the Encore E.P.," on a fake Chiswick label, and wrote up the full "alleged" attendee list and more background here, if anyone's interested:

https://www.thesenseofdoubt.com/blogs/archive/the-gig-nobody-agrees-on-sex-pistols-at-the-lesser-free-trade-hall-1976

There are two photographs of Black women with large afros visible in Hallorann's Miami bedroom scene. One is above the TV, one is directly above the bed. Fans have been trying to identify them for decades.

I tracked down the one above the TV. It's Azizi Johari, from a 1973 poster called "Supernatural Dream." She'd formed a singing group called The Marvelles as a teenager in Seattle, was Playboy's Playmate of the Month in June 1975, appeared in Cassavetes's The Killing of a Chinese Bookie the following year, and showed up on Leon Ware's Musical Massage album cover and Sun's Wanna Make Love reissue around the same time.

The photo above the bed is a different woman, similar afro, red background. Some people assume it's Johari again, but I haven't found anything that actually backs that up. As far as I can tell, nobody's ever identified her. If anyone here recognizes her, or knows where that image came from, I'd genuinely like to know. I know there's more knowledgeable people here that may have some information.

I put together everything I found (sources, side-by-sides of the film stills against the original photos) here, if useful:

https://www.thesenseofdoubt.com/blogs/news/azizi-johari-the-shining-and-the-mystery-of-hallorann-s-bedroom

There are two photographs of Black women with large afros visible in Hallorann's Miami bedroom scene. One is above the TV, one is directly above the bed. Fans have been trying to identify them for decades.

I tracked down the one above the TV. It's Azizi Johari, from a 1973 poster called "Supernatural Dream." She'd formed a singing group called The Marvelles as a teenager in Seattle, was Playboy's Playmate of the Month in June 1975, appeared in Cassavetes's The Killing of a Chinese Bookie the following year, and showed up on Leon Ware's Musical Massage album cover and Sun's Wanna Make Love reissue around the same time.

The photo above the bed is a different woman, similar afro, red background. Some people assume it's Johari again, but I haven't found anything that actually backs that up. As far as I can tell, nobody's ever identified her. If anyone here recognizes her, or knows where that image came from, I'd genuinely like to know. I know there's more knowledgeable people here that may have some information.

I put together everything I found (sources, side-by-sides of the film stills against the original photos) here, if useful:

https://www.thesenseofdoubt.com/blogs/news/azizi-johari-the-shining-and-the-mystery-of-hallorann-s-bedroom

I found my ticket to Suicide's last ever show while going through old boxes (Barbican, London, 2015)

Alan Vega died ten years ago this July. Going through some old boxes recently I found my ticket to what turned out, without anyone really knowing it at the time, to be the last time Vega and Rev ever played together as Suicide.

Two days before the Barbican show there was also a small talk with Henry Rollins, Martin Rev, and Alan Vega at the Ace Hotel in London that I got to attend. Bobby Gillespie was there too, and ended up on stage two days later helping Vega through "Dream Baby Dream," alongside Jehnny Beth. Rollins came out for "Ghost Rider."

Wrote up the whole story with a few crappy photos from both nights here (on my website, if anyone's interested): https://www.thesenseofdoubt.com/blogs/news/the-last-time-suicide-ever-played

Wondering if anyone here attended the show?

Back in 2017, I visited Southern Cemetery specifically to find Tony Wilson’s grave.

Wilson chose to be buried there, where Factory Records figures Rob Gretton and Martin Hannett were already buried. Nearby you also find L. S. Lowry and Matt Busby.

Wilson’s headstone itself was designed by Peter Saville and Ben Kelly and given the Factory catalogue number FAC 501.

Today marks 19 years since Tony Wilson died, so I thought it was a good day to share a few photographs from that visit.

Have you ever visited Southern Cemetery?

The owner of the lovely Molly's Café & Deli (93 Middlewood Rd, S6 4GX) sent me this a while back, one of the nicest things I've come across since getting into making prints.

Phil Oakey walked in, spotted the print on the wall, and signed his own section of it.

Grateful.

I originally designed this project a few years ago, but recently rebuilt it from scratch and updated it through PSG's victory in this year's final.

Each circle represents a European Cup or Champions League winner. Alongside each entry are the finalist clubs, result, stadium and host city.

The idea was to create a visual archive of European football history rather than a traditional statistics chart, using colour and form to tell the story of more than seventy years of European football.

Curious to hear which final stands out most to people here, and why.

Been making visual maps/timelines around music scenes and genres, and I’m revisiting Manchester now.

Interested in which records people here feel are absolutely essential to the city’s musical identity, post-punk, indie, Madchester, electronic, anything.

Not necessarily just your favourite album, but records that define the sound and evolution of Manchester music.

Building a visual map of shoegaze, what records belong?

I’ve been making visual genre maps/timelines around British post-punk, independent record labels, Manchester music, and “Britain in the ’90s” that compile essential albums and singles, and I want to do a similar piece for shoegaze, tracing the genre from proto/influential records through the late-80s/early-90s explosion and beyond.

Not just “best albums,” but records that feel structurally important to the genre’s identity: production approaches, guitar textures, atmosphere, melody, songwriting, studio experimentation, etc.

So if you had to define the essential DNA of shoegaze, which records belong in that map?

Anything from The Velvets, Pet Sounds, Revolver, JAMC, Cocteau Twins, A.R. Kane, etc. through MBV, Slowdive, Ride, Lush, Chapterhouse, Curve, and later evolutions.