On Christmas Day, 1977, the Pistols quietly organized a benefit gig for the Fire Brigade Union. This was done as surreptitiously as possible, for if the council discovered the Pistols were playing (especially on the Lord’s birthday), the venue would be closed immediately.
Two shows were arranged at Ivanhoe’s club: the first was a matinee for the children, at which cake, food, presents were distributed by the band, as John Lydon later said:
“Huddersfield I remember very fondly. Two concerts, a matinee with children throwing pies at me, and later on that night, striking union members. It was heaven. There was a lot of love in the house. It was great that day, everything about it. Just wonderful.”
Even if you don’t care for the music, this BBC 4 documentary about the concert is really entertaining and goes into granular detail about what “life” was like in England at the time, down to showing clips of the miserable weather report for Huddersfield that day.
Particularly interesting is Steve Jones’ reflections near the end of the film. I think he’s been clean and sober since the late 1980s, but in any event, he talks about how people must have envied him and figured he was having the time of his life, being a 21 year old guy in a notorious band. But Jones says he was deeply depressed. Playing that gig temporarily pulled him out of himself.
Anyway, the band broke up three weeks later. This was their last concert in England.
A lot of thought, archival digging and imagination went into this one-hour film:
