Free Trade Hall

On May 17, 1966, Bob Dylan performed at the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street in Manchester -- and a member of the audience, frustrated by the electric second half of the concert, shouted 'Judas!' at him from the stalls. Dylan's response -- 'I don't believe you... you're a liar' -- followed by a nod to The Hawks to play 'Like a Rolling Stone' as loud as they could, has become one of the most celebrated moments in rock history. A bootleg recording of the concert circulated for years under the mistaken title 'Royal Albert Hall 1966' before the correct venue was identified. The recording was eventually officially released by Columbia as a live album.

The exchange encapsulated the tension of Dylan's 1966 world tour, on which he played acoustic folk in the first half and plugged in with The Hawks for the second, night after night absorbing the fury of audiences who considered the electric music a betrayal. The Free Trade Hall concert took place two weeks before the tour ended at the Royal Albert Hall. The identity of the man who shouted 'Judas!' was a matter of public mystery for decades before he was eventually identified as Keith Butler, a Keele University student.

The Free Trade Hall was a significant civic building in Manchester, built in 1856 on the site of the Peterloo Massacre. It served as a concert venue, political meeting hall, and civic space for over a century. In 1996 it was converted into the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel, which operates there today. A small plaque acknowledges the Dylan concert. The building is a Grade II* listed structure and its exterior is largely unchanged.