Cardiff Top Rank cancelled, venue changed

Anarchy Tour supporting the Sex Pistols, The Heartbreakers and The Damned.

update 7 July 2008 - photos and punters view (DaveS)
update 20 December 2014 - added DM front page & Ticket
update 18 January 2017 - tidyed up page and added links
updated Dec 2023 added ticket

No known audio or video

If you know of any recording, please email blackmarketclash

Welsh TV fimed outside and inside this venue. Recent unseen Pistols archive footage was screened on Welsh TV in 2002

From the great website God Save the Sex Pistols (run by Phil), Castle Caerphilly, Wales - online or archived PDF.

"December 14: Castle Cinema, Caerphilly (filmed). Outside the cinema some people from Caerphilly show their discontent at the Sex Pistols coming to play in their town. The band are interviewed before the gig by a local TV crew which also films the demo outside. This can be seen in " The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle" and the " Number One" film. A short part of the concert features in the " Punk And The Pistols" TV documentary and " The Filth & The Fury" movie."

Councillor Ray Davies, the man who tried to ban the Sex Pistols from playing the Castle Cinema

People's Collection Wales, Sex Pistols @ Caerfli Dec 1976 (+ interview)
BLOG RHYS MWYN,

Link or archived PDF

I have just written a piece for my Herald Gymraeg column (January 1st) on the fact the ‘People's Collection' website have just published a piece on Councillor Ray Davies, the man who tried to ban the Sex Pistols from playing the Castle Cinema in Caerli during the Anarchy Tour December 1976.

There is no doubt that for many Welsh people watching ‘The Great Rock'n Roll Swindle' that the Caerli footage is amongst the most interesting thing in that film.

The fact there were more people outside the gig protesting and singing carols than there were inside watching the Pistols. Only in Wales. But fascinating in terms of Social History ..

Punk and Protest

South Wales Echo
15 December 1976

Link

Sex Pistols are sunk by salvo of carols

South Wales Echo
15 December 1976

Link

Cartoon

South Wales Echo
Date unknown

Link

LETTER Punk rock - we don't want it either

South Wales Echo
Date unknown

Link

God Save the Sex Pistols' page

Big thanks to Phil at 'God Save the Sex Pistols' page for lots of info on the Anarchy Tour.

Pistols, Clash etc.:
What Did You Do On The Punk Tour, Daddy?

Peter Silverton, Sounds,
18 December 1976

Link

Book: Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk
THE CASTLE CINEMA, CAERPHILLY

By Peter Smith

Link

In between the two Electric Circus gigs, the tour rolled into Wales. It was originally planned to call at Cardiff Top Rank ballroom, but when that gig was canceled, a local promoter offered up the possibility of playing at the Castle Cinema in Caerphilly. So, on December 14, the three punk bands rolled into Caerphilly, a small market town in the Welsh valleys. The south Wales people were not ready for punk rock and did their very best to prevent the gig from happening. An outraged resident wrote the following letter to the South Wales Echo (1976): "We feel bound to protest against the decision of our local Castle Cinema management to engage a ‘punk rock group' already notorious for its dependence on obscenity, blasphemy and open violence."

The gig went ahead and footage of the scene outside the venue can be seen in The Filth and the Fury film. It was quite a bizarre, almost surreal situation. A small choir was singing Christmas carols outside in the cold, while a preacher was reading a sermon and trying to convince those entering the venue not to do so. A leaflet was handed out reading: "Even though apparently just a passing fad . . . such trends are clearly part of the fulfilment of Jesus' end" (Sex Pistols Official Website 2018).

The concert was not well attended, with around sixty people in the venue, and it all went off without any trouble. In the audience that night was Steve Strange, who would soon pioneer the new romantic movement and front the band Visage, who had a successful chart with single "Fade to Grey."

The most confrontational event during the Anarchy Tour occurred when the Sex Pistols crossed the English border into Wales. The show at a Caerphilly cinema promoted by Andy Walton witnessed a mobilisation that drew on a radical tradition of Welsh protest. The group was initially due to perform at the Top Rank Club in Cardiff on 14 December. The show was cancelled as a result of the decision taken by the Rank Organisation to ban the Sex Pistols from all its premises. An alternative was quickly found. The Castle Cinema in Caerphilly was a private establishment owned by Pauline Uttley. From the outset she took a libertarian view of the Sex Pistols phenomenon and said that she was unwilling to act as a censor: ‘I am not going to force people to see the show. If they want to, that is up to them'."°

The struggle to prevent the show was reported in the national and local press. The Rhymney Valley District Council took a negative view of the Sex Pistols. They initially wanted to take ...

(page missing)

hundred. One observer, Kevin Dicks, later recalled ‘a large police presence of miners' strike proportions'. The protest was given added colour by a ‘fire and brimstone' speech by a religious leader that was boomed-out of a public address system. This was complemented by a choir singing hymns and Christmas carols as the Sex Pistols played on. Worshippers from the local Elm Church handed out leaflets linking punk to prophecy. Does the Sex Pistols' ‘Anarchy in the UK' tour offer the real answer to the needs of youth? What is the meaning of this latest controversial trend in the pop world? Oddly enough, this group's own reported use of the word "antichrist" indicates the answer. This term describes the essence of the spirit of rebellion against all that God stands for. Even though apparently just a passing fad, therefore, such trends are clearly in part fulfilment of Jesus' prophecy that before his return to earth, wickedness would multiply beyond all previous limits. John Birkin, the author of the leaflet, later claimed that his aim was ‘to make a clear stand against this further decline in moral standards'. Despite the protest the concert went ahead with the promoter claiming that ‘Caerphilly will be exactly the same tomorrow morning; nobody will be fallen dead in the street'. The Western Mail's front page declared that ‘Hymns Score Biggest Hit at Punk Show'. Out of ten fans interviewed by the Rhymney Valley Express only one said that they enjoyed the concert. Nonetheless, the group had delivered three encores and ‘30 fans had danced in the aisles'. A week later Wayne Nowaczyk provided a review of the show for the same newspaper: ‘After irate councillors, pub and café closures, and fire and brimstone chastisement from the local clergy ... I did not see anyone who was obviously shocked at or depraved by the goings on'. Members of the local council did not share the pragmatism of Nowaczyk's review. Councillor Davies told the Western Mail that ‘the fact so few people turned up for the concert is a victory for the people ... we hope we have given a lead to the rest of Wales to take positive action against filth in their town'. But political responses to the event were not unanimous. John ..." .. link

(page missing)

Ticket, Castle Cinema

Ticket Cardiff Top Rank

"[Clash] what a rush! … all the early songs delivered at Ramones intensity"

The Clash opened the Caerphilly Anarchy gig - one of the few that actually happened! After a subdued, expectant buzz from the huddled few out of the side gloom, the four band members took to the stage: guitars strapped on / a yelled " One Two Three Four!" / a venomous gob to the right from Simonon / Bright Lights! … and the band launch immediately into an abrasive thrash of noise with lyrics barked like angry dogs.

I never caught a single lyric in their twenty minute set, but what a rush … all the early songs delivered at Ramones intensity / so much faster than recorded on their first album.

Dave Smitham

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If you know of any recording, please email blackmarketclash