August 4th Buzzcocks supported by Wire play the Marquee club in London . The gig attracts the highest attendance in the club's history.
Mark Perry of Sniffin Glue fame is now involved with Miles Copeland in the record business running two labels, Deptford Fun City and his own Step Forward. Step Forward open with two releases, one by Bristol's Cortinas and the other, Man of the Year and the Freeze by the Models. Marco Pirroni of the Models had been involved with the Banshees at the end of 1976 before going on to do his own thing in 1977. The Freeze contained lyrics which some journalists had interpreted as fascist but Pirroni insisted that they were intended ironically. Step Forward go on to sign Sham 69 and the Fall amongst others while Deptford Fun City handle Squeeze and Perry's own group Alternative TV.

August 5th Whilst crossing Piccadilly Gardens after a night at the Ranch club Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks is attacked with a friend of his. As all the late buses in Manchester left town from this point it remained a scene of skirmishes between punks and other nightclub goers for many years.
Most of the London scene had decamped to Mont Marsan in France for the Second European Punk Festival. The bill featured The Clash, the Damned, the Jam , the Boys , Dr Feelgood and Eddie and the HotRods. The strained relations between the Clash and the Damned were patched up although the Jam still harboured grudges from the White Riot tour earlier in the year.

August 16th Buzzcocks play a free night at the Electric Circus in Collyhurst Manchester. News of the death of Elvis Presley meets with mixed reactions. Richard Boon who had been managing Buzzcocks since their beginning over 12 months before had been in discussion with several major labels about signing the band. Despite their success releasing the Spiral Scratch EP on the self-funded New Hormones label, the band sign to United Artists. the New Hormones label continues however releasing local talent from the Manchester area such as Ludus and Pete Shelley's side project , the Tiller Boys. Andrew Lauder from the label signs the band at the bar of the Electric Circus after the gig for £75,000 over 2 years. Granada TV film the bands performance for future use on Tony Wilson's 'So It Goes' programme.
In another deal , Slaughter and the Dogs signed to Decca almost straight after releasing Cranked Up Really High /The Bitch on hometown small label Rabid records.

August 19th After the success of the Swedish tour and the associated coverage in the UK music press the Sex Pistols were in the unheard of position of being in huge demand but unable to get a gig anywhere. Despite the Top of the Pops appearance for Pretty Vacant, the Pistols were still banned from playing in most areas of the UK. In order to get round this the band booked six gigs at venues they had previously played under assumed names. Tonight the secret tour opened at the Lafayette Club in Wolverhampton under the name 'the Spots' ( allegedly short for Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly) . The secret was not well kept and purely to beat the coucil bans so a huge turn out arrived to see the band. Read the NME review of the gig here

August 23rd Buzzcocks record 4 tracks for Manchester's independent Piccadilly Radio.(What Ever Happened To?, Orgasm Addict, What Do I Get? and Oh Shit). In so doing they preview the two tracks which will be their first release on UA at the end of October.
In London the Slits play a gig at Clouds in Brixton with Steel Pulse billed as a night of Funky Punk Reggae. Already they are attracting a different audience to the more 'mainstream' punk bands. Headed by Don Letts the crowd is multi-racial and although punky in appearance lots of reggae references such as the two sevens clash motive appear on leather jackets.

August 24th The Sex Pistols take to the stage of the Outlook Club in Doncaster as ' the Tax Exiles'.
The eleventh issue of Sniffin Glue comes out , edited by Danny Baker it is made up of 'guest' contributions and lacks the immediacy and news distributing status of previous issues. A lot of space is given to introspective debate about the direction of punk and 'where it all went wrong and what should we do ' polemic.

August 25th Buzzcocks cross the Pennines to play Leeds Polytechnic. Unthinkingly Shelley wears a Manchester United shirt which causes a near riot amongst the Leeds United followers in the audience. Bass player Garth Davies had been drinking and is immortalised on the Razor Cuts bootleg offering the audience out for a fight and taunting them to 'come and have a go'. Deciding enough was enough the band make a run it and only just escape as the back window of their car is smashed. This is the last night Shelley plays his wrecked Starway guitar which had become his trademark from the bands early days. In Scarborough the Penthouse is host to the Sex Pistols under the name of Special Guest .

August 26th The Sex Pistols play Middlesborough Rock Garden as Acne Rebble. It was over a year since the Pistols had first played in the North East and things had changed. Pauline Murray who had been inspired to form Penetration by the first Sex Pistols gigs in mid 1976 remembers " A long time had passed, you didn't feel so close. We went to see the SexPistols at the Middlesborough Rock Garden, which is a small club renowned there for its violence. It wasn't the same: it had gone back down again. it was lacking in the original fire: it had a different sort of energy, more violent. They weren't making a message, it was more a barrage. it seemed disconnected somehow. It was still great, but odd, like they didn't know where they were going."
The Adverts release 'Gary Gilmoores Eyes' the second single of their 9 month career. The record comes out on Anchor records and leaps into the top twenty as September gets under way. Slaughter and the Dogs play Middleton Civic Hall ,another venue which has started booking punk bands in the Manchester area. This is the second date on their 'Slaughter on the Streets' tour which features the Drones as support plus a different local band each night.

August 27th A busy day for Warsaw (soon to become Joy Division), supporting X-Ray Spex in an afternoon matinee gig at Eric's in Liverpool before returning to Manchester to support Scottish punk pioneers the Rezillos at the Electric Circus. Meanwhile Slaughter and the Dogs play Wigan Casino and Adam and the Ants and the Models play Crayford Town Hall.

August 28th The Adverts headline at the Electric Circus supported by 999 and London. Adam and the Ants play an unlikely double bill with the Tom Robinson Band at Jacksons Lane Community Centre in London. TRB had just been signed to EMI in a deal reckoned to be worth £100,000 which EMI were hoping would bring them back some of the credibility they had lost over the handling of the Sex Pistols.

August 29th Glen Matlock's new band , the Rich Kids plays at the Vortex on Wardour Street. as the line up is not complete, Mick Jones of the Clash plays guitar. Support is from Chelsea and New York band Neo.

August 30th United Artists book Buzzcocks into Indigo Studios with Martin Rushent at the controls for a couple of days. They demo Orgasm Addict, What Do I Get, No Reply and What Ever Happened To?

August 31st The Woods Centre in Plymouth, one of the few venues to stick by the Pistols during their ill-fated 'Anarchy in the UK' tour hosts another secret gig by them . Tonight they take to the stage as 'the Hamsters'