It was the sound of splintering glass; of half-bricks crashing onto the pavement; of angry shouts and ferocious taunts.
It was an average Sunday evening in Collyhurst, two miles north of Manchester city centre. A bizarre and disorderly queue had formed outside a crumbling former picture house, latterly to gain infamy as The Electric Circus – a wholly inadequate, curiously vibrant downbeat rock house that was being etched into the heart of Manchester’s growing punk legacy.
