Located at the Scarborough Library Community Space, and running from the 2nd to the 20th May, a new exhibition curated by Ian Trowell gathers material and testimony from the Sex Pistols‘ visits to Scarborough.
With a dynamic of change rather than a heroic story in mind, the exhibition is situated alongside the quotidian artefacts that defined Scarborough in 1976 and 1977. The images, artefacts and narrative builds a contrast between the everydayness of Scarborough and the extraordinariness of the Sex Pistols. Shifting to a wider focus, the story then reflects on the intimate and enduring connections between the seaside and subcultures, which extend into the current era with events such as the Scarborough Punk Festival.
In May 1976 the Sex Pistols played their first gigs outside of the London and wider area of art colleges. They left their relative safety net where punk was about to be named, where they had a fanbase of avant-garde expressive dandies and performative cultural reprobates. They went all or nothing and headed to Northallerton, Scarborough, Middlesbrough and Barnsley for a quick-hit series of dates in the ‘north’ where they were all but unknown – visitors from another planet.
The band playing Scarborough in 1976 offers a rare subcultural instance to explore and query. It works as a reflective and critical glimpse of Scarborough as a working seaside resort in the mid-1970s, an insight into the motivations and ambitions of the Sex Pistols early in their timeline and ultimately affords an opportunity to look at how history and memory are constructed through myth.
The trajectory of the Sex Pistols accelerated and exploded in a very short period, and they would schedule a further gig in Scarborough for late summer 1976 (unfulfilled) and a final hurrah as part of the SPOTS (Sex Pistols on Tour Secretly) in summer 1977. Across this approximately 12-month period the band (and the wider scene of punk) would move from an unknown status to be the UK’s latest moral panic and bete noire.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of events, with a panel discussion on the seaside and subcultures, a discussion on punk anti-fashion where we encourage you to bring stories, artefacts and photographs, and an author-led event exploring the writing of punk as we approach the fifty-year anniversary of its first stirrings.
Ian Trowell is an independent writer/researcher in the fields of popular culture, subculture, fashion, fairgrounds and visual culture. He is the author of Throbbing Gristle: An Endless Discontent (2023), Thunderdome (2020) and many academic articles on fairgrounds and music. He recently co-curated the exhibition: Nottingham Subcultural Fashion in the 1980s (2025). After working for 15 years at the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield he moved to Scarborough where he continues to research and write.
~
A Plea From Louder Than War
Louder Than War is run by a small but dedicated independent team, and we rely on the small amount of money we generate to keep the site running smoothly. Any money we do get is not lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to think and write, or hungry shareholders. We know times are tough, and we want to continue bringing you news on the most interesting releases, the latest gigs and anything else that tickles our fancy. We are not driven by profit, just pure enthusiasm for a scene that each and every one of us is passionate about.
To us, music and culture are eveything, without them, our very souls shrivel and die. We do not charge artists for the exposure we give them and to many, what we do is absolutely vital. Subscribing to one of our paid tiers takes just a minute, and each sign-up makes a huge impact, helping to keep the flame of independent music burning! Please click the button below to help.
John Robb – Editor in Chief