Conran, Michon, and Strummer

Joe Strummer lived in the top floor room of this large terraced house in 1976, as a guest of world-famous designer Sebastian Conran, a student at the time, who – as the union treasurer at St Martin’s College – had booked the Sex Pistols for their first gig on the 5th of November 1975.

Electric Ballroom

At the glorious Electric Ballroom in 1978, was held the Sid Sods Off party to bid farewell to Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, who were about to leave for New York to never return.

The Roxy

The Roxy was started by Andrew Czezowski, Susan Carrington and Barry Jones in December 1976. The first show, on the 14th of December, was Generation X, a band Czezowski managed. The second on the following night was The Heartbreakers. The third, on 21 December, featured Siouxsie and the Banshees and Generation X. However, it was The Clash and The Heartbreakers that headlined the official gala opening on the 1st of January 1977 – which was filmed by Julien Temple and finally screened on BBC Four on 1 January 2015 as The Clash: New Year’s Day ’77.

101 Walterton Road

Here on 101 Walterton Road once stood the famous squat that gave birth and name to Joe Strummer’s pub rock band The 101’ers in 1974 (although it was for a time rumoured that they were named after “Room 101”, the infamous torture room in George Orwell’s novel 1984).

The 100 Club

In September 1976, the 100 Club (which had operated since 1942 as Feldman Swing Club) played host to the first international punk festival, which helped push the new punk movement into the mainstream. The Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Stranglers, and The Damned all played at this event.

Paddington Kitchen

Here, in the basement of the restaurant Paddington Kitchen (now Peking – Seoul), Mick Jones (later in The Clash) and Tony James (later in Generation X) worked on their London SS project in late 1975.

Among the respondents to an ad placed by them in Melody Maker, looking for people who were “into The Dolls, Stooges, and MC5” who wanted to start a band, was the young Steven Morrissey (later just Morrissey, singer of The Smiths) from Manchester.

Joe Strummer’s Squat

For a few years, Strummer helped make a strip of West London an unlikely punk hotspot. His like-minded neighbours included The Slits, who hung out a few doors down at number 43, two of the Sex Pistols and Malcolm McLaren, who lived round the corner on Bell Street, and The Damned who practised nearby.

Lyceum Theatre

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Lyceum Theatre hosted the likes of The Grateful Dead, The Clash, Bob Marley and The Wailers (their Live! album was recorded here on 18–19 July 1975), Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Police, The Who, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Deep Purple, Sex Pistols, Joy Division, The Smiths, U2, and Culture Club.

Wessex Sound Studios

Many renowned popular music artists recorded at the former Wessex Sound Studios, including Sex Pistols (Never Mind the Bollocks), King Crimson, The Clash (London Calling), Theatre of Hate, XTC, Queen (We Will Rock You), Talk Talk, The Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend, and The Damned. Here’s where Johnny Rotten threw up into the piano…

The Fridge/Electric Brixton

The Fridge was at the heart of the New Romantic movement, and booked such acts as Eurythmics and Pet Shop Boys before they were well known, later becoming particularly famous for its Africa Centre nights, playing hip hop and funk, hosted by legendary group Soul II Soul (in the late 80s).