A lost venue where gig-goers 'run the gauntlet' both getting there and once inside is said to have been the birthplace of punk in Manchester.
A mile or so outside the city centre, the Electric Circus was a live music venue in Collyhurst on the corner of Teignmough Street and Collyhurst Street. Described as a "seminal venue for punk rock in the 1970s", the building was originally the Palace Cinema and the Top Hat Club run by Bernard Manning, then later a bingo hall.
In the earlier part of the 1970s, the venue became renowned as a heavy metal club, that was until punk arrived at its doors in 1976. During these years, the building was in a poor state of repair, with Manchester photographer Kevin Cummins describing the place as a "khazi" adding: "everything was painted black so you couldn't see how s****y it was."
