In May 1982, Johnny Marr and his friend Steve Pomfret went to the home of Steven Morrissey in Stretford to invite him to form a band. Marr and Morrissey had met at a Patti Smith gig at Manchester’s Apollo Theatre on 31 August 1978, when Marr was 14 and Morrissey…
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The band broke up after a last gig at Eric’s on 26 August 1978. During their time, Big in Japan recorded four songs which were included on the From Y to Z and Never Again EP, released after their split to pay off their debts. The unintentional consequence of the…
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On 25 August 1978 the band released another single, “Urban Kids”, which was co-written by October and Alternative TV and produced by ex- Who manager Kit Lambert .
Along with the Sex Pistols and The Damned , the Automatics regularly played the Marquee Club in London and toured clubs around the U.K. and Europe. Their hit song “When the Tanks Roll Over Poland Again”, (released on Island Records in 1978) was number one on the punk/new wave charts.…
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In July 1978 Ian Gillan had become dissatisfied with the jazz fusion style of his band Ian Gillan Band and dissolved it, retaining only keyboard player Colin Towns , and formed this new band entitled Gillan. He added Steve Byrd on guitar, Liam Genockey on drums and John McCoy on…
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In July 1978, the band returned to the management of Douglas Smith, who secured a one-off singles deal with Gerry Bron ‘s Bronze Records . The resulting ” Louie Louie ” single (a cover version of Richard Berry and The Kingsmen standard) was issued in September peaking at number 68…
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They recorded four sessions for BBC Radio One ‘s John Peel between July 1978 and January 1980.
Joy Division made their recorded debut in June 1978 when the band self-released An Ideal for Living , and two weeks later their track “At a Later Date” was featured on the compilation album Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus (which had been recorded live in October 1977). In…
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Their follow-up album, V2 , narrowly missed the UK top 30. The only single to be taken from that album, “Automatic Lover”, was the only Vibrators’ single to reach the UK top 40 where it reached No. 35. It earned the band a TV appearance on the prime-time TV show…
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The band filmed a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1978, which was later released on DVD as Never Say Die .