# No Sex Pistols in Manchester? ‘No Smiths, Nirvana, indie rock.’ Discuss! Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss.md Podcast: [Word In Your Ear](https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240) Published: 2026-04-10T16:48:04+00:00 Episode link: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/69d929c4d3f0dd7747da8b0b/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-4162240/episodes/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss Duration seconds: 2295 ## Resource 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: htt… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-4162240/episodes/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.