attended a Sex Pistols show

On 4 June 1976, childhood friends Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook separately attended a Sex Pistols show at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall . Afterwards, both felt inspired by the Pistols’ performance. Sumner said that he felt the Pistols had “destroyed the myth of being a pop star, of a musician being some kind of god that you had to worship”. The following day Hook borrowed £35 from his mother to buy a bass guitar. They formed a band with Terry Mason, who had also attended the gig; Sumner bought a guitar, and Mason a drum kit. After their schoolfriend Martin Gresty declined an invitation to join as vocalist after getting a job at a factory, the band placed an advertisement for a vocalist in the Manchester Virgin Records shop. Ian Curtis , who knew them from earlier gigs, responded and was hired without audition. Sumner said that he “knew he was all right to get on with and that’s what we based the whole group on. If we liked someone, they were in.”