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FACTORY were booked to support SASSAFRAS at Westfield College, NW
London on Fri 21.11.1975, but when we arrived there that afternoon, we
were told that we and SASSAFRAS had been pulled out by our management.
They hadn't told us this, but we said that as we were there, couldn't
we perform anyway? This they agreed to, but they did warn us that
another band called The SEX PISTOLS might turn up, but with a name like
that, they didn't think they would. The college understood it was to be
their 1st gig and I think they said that they would be playing for
nothing. The main band, NUBIUS and we had long finished sound-checking
when in walked around 30 punks, dressed in the most peculiar clothes,
with lots of safety pins, came in with the band's equipment. 'We're
using your PA,' they said and Dave Garland, our sound man and roadie
was so taken a-back that he said OK, something that had never been
allowed in the past.
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About
2 songs into their high energy set, their 'sound man' pushed our Dave
out of the way, told him he didn't know how to mix and he pushed all
the sliders up full, so that everything fed back and he said 'That's
how you do it.' Most of the college audience had already left and gone
to the bar, but their loyal fans, who had come with them, were
thoroughly enjoying themselves po-going and spitting at each other and
at the band on stage. Johnny Rotten just stood quite still in front of
the drums, clinging to his mic stand and saying between each song 'Have
fun.' I found them to be very exciting and I commented to Andy the old
cliche that they were so bad that they'd probably be big one day. He
disagreed. The following week, they had the front page of Sounds to
themselves and the rest, as they say, is history.
-Laurie
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