June 1978 saw the band return to St. John's for what became known as the first 'Guildhall Massacre'. Mick Foley, in his wisdom, had decided that for this gig the disco should have the stage and the band should perform on the floor, great! By this time the audience had taken on a punky hue and the gig was packed as usual. At the time, the most popular music locally was Northern Soul and a large group of Wigan Casino regulars could often be found at the Guildhall. Unfortunately, local Northern Soul fans had decided that violence was the order of the day, and the gig turned into a mini-riot. The DJ on the night was Rikky Patrick (none other than Rikk Quay), soon after the band had finished and the disco had restarted, his assistant, Steve McDaid, was hit by a chair leg, eventually to be taken to hospital. The night ended, the mess cleared up, but the rumour was that the soul fans were swarming around the town and were going to 'get' all of the punks, they scattered across the town, and nervously made their way home.

The cheeky little Northern Soul fans were caught and arrested and justice was done - praise the Lord!

A temporary split of the band through the summer of '78 occurred after Vince and Sam has a tiff. Vince and the Armchair still keen to perform tried to recruit a new bass player. Advertising in the Tamworth Herald., two people applied - one, a guitarist in a club band took one look at the pair and changed his mind. The other was someone called Glenn. He was auditioned in Vince's garage but didn't really have what was required. Not to be outdone Armchair and Vince decided to perform as The Reliable Duo, and played the Guildhall again, in November of '78. Vince was on guitar and the Armchair singing. The usual Reliants songs were performed along with a cover of The Light Pours Out of Me by Magazine and a very interesting version on Interplay. This didn't go down very well with the Northern Soul fans to whom this was a musical classic. The Armchair accompanying Vince plucking the violin, may have had something to do with it, but two soul fans spent the entire gig standing directly in front of the stage spitting at the Duo - how beastly!

Strangely enough, soon after, the Armchair was approached by one of said soul fans and asked if he wanted to borrow his copy of The Stranglers, Black and White album - how sweet!

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