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 .
The NME carries an news item by Paul Morley which signals the end of the Electric Circus in Manchester. Read it here

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.
Adam and the Ants and the Models play Crayford Town Hall. Pirroni of the Models was later to team up with Adam Ant for the reinvented Ants in 1980. The Models headline as they have recently released a single'Freeze/Man of the Year' on Mark Perry's Step Forward records.

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 . Gaye Advert celebrates her 21st birthday just as the Adverts prepare to go on tour again

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'

September 01st Buzzcocks supported by the Prefects play Rafters on Oxford Rd, Manchester. This venue in the basement of Fagins nightclub was to host many punk and post-punk gigs in the years to come- partly due to the influence of local promoter Alan Wise. Alan had been quick to catch on to punks potential and was responsible for many local gigs and produced some of the first Clash bootlegs available. The Take it or Leave it album was recorded at the Electric Circus on the White Riot tour in May 1977 and put out by Alan Wise shortly after.
Sex Pistols finish their undercover tour at the Winter Gardens in Penzance playing as'A Mystery Band of International Repute'. As talk in the Pistols camp has now turned to making a film this is the last live outing the band make until December. The plans include soft porn director Russ Meyer who is asked to work on a script which eventually becomes the Great Rock and Roll Swindle.

September 03rd Buzzcocks play Erics in Liverpool.