‘I knew it was over for us’: the bands who got left behind when punk exploded

Published 5 June 2026 · entertainment

Fifty years ago this week, the Sex Pistols played their first Manchester gig – and upended pop culture. But what was 1976 really like before

Fifty years ago this week, the Sex Pistols played their first Manchester gig – and upended pop culture. But what was 1976 really like before punk arrived? From swing bands to ‘spaghetti rock’, we discover a lost history In January 1976, the cover of the NME didn’t feature an artist, but a photo of a room damaged by an IRA bomb: there had been a string of terrorist attacks in London the previous year.

The headline: “Is rock’n’roll ready for 1976 … Is 1976 ready for rock’n’roll?” In the accompanying feature, writer Mick Farren was to be found complaining vociferously about the state of music. Audiences are “prepared to tolerate just about anything”. Rock has “lost its guts” and “is on an unalterable course to a neo-Las Vegas”, because artists are “totally insulated from the real world” and thus making music that “seems so damned irrelevant to real life”.

Farren reiterated these points in June in a piece titled The Titanic Sails at Dawn, by which point it was obvious that some new artists

completely agreed with him. Continue reading...

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