Poster
The Drones, Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds, China Street
Wigan Casino
3rd September 1977

It's early September, 1977 in Wigan. Hundreds of young people mostly recruited from outside dole offices are marching from Liverpool to the TUC Conference in Blackpool on a Right To Work March and Manchester RAR are organising the nightly entertainment. Tonight it's at the famous Mecca of Northern Soul, the Wigan Casino. The Sex Pistols are banned from performing in most council areas and are doing gigs under fake names like SPOTS (Sex Pistols On Tour). Somebody has spread a rumour that the Pistols will be playing in Wigan and the town is awash with Punks from all over the country. No matter how many times we tell them that the Pistols won't be playing, they just don't believe us. The final band start playing just as the Northern Soul crowd are coming in for their all-nighter. The travelling Punks realise that Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds aren't quite what they'd hitchhiked up the M6 for and suddenly everything kicks off with Punks scrapping with Northern Soul kids and Ed Banger getting his head banged with cans of lager. It's not a great evening for the Manchester RAR gang. We were hoping to unite the youth and they'd ended up punching each other's lights out.