Before he started Factory Records or the Hacienda nightclub, as the host of And So It Goes on Granada Television, the late Tony Wilson was personally responsible for some of the most iconic punk bands getting preserved on film and videotape. The Sex Pistols, Magazine, The Buzzcocks, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, The Banshees, The Fall, The Jam and many other performers found a TV outlet on And So It Goes that they wouldn’t have had elsewhere.  It ran for two years until a foul-mouthed moment by Iggy (wearing a horse’s tail, I might add) got it canceled.

This And So It Goes footage of The Clash playing at the Elizabethan Ballroom in Manchester on November 15th, 1977 is probably the best footage of the Clash that there is. It’s certainly the best I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a helluva lot of it. The camera placement is perfect for showing what utter havoc and mayhem the band could cause. You can practically feel the gob in the air that night. According to The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town by Marcus Gray (highly recommended, btw) fans queuing up for the show got rowdy and pushed the door in causing quite a bit of damage.

Richard Hell and the Voidoids were not in fact the opening act. The were replaced at the last minute by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Note ticket price!

During “What’s My Name?” Strummer sings “Here we are on TV. What does it mean to me? What does it mean to you? FUCK ALL!”: