The Electric Circus was a music venue in the Collyhurst district of Manchester, housed in the former Palladium Variety Club. It opened as a heavy rock venue in October 1976, but became synonymous with punk during 1977. It held a regular punk night on Sundays, with local bands including Buzzcocks and Slaughter and the Dogs on the bill. The Sex Pistols performed twice at the venue in December 1976, as part of their Anarchy in the UK tour.

Regional broadcaster Tony Wilson featured The Electric Circus regularly on his late night music programme “So It Goes”. Post-punk band Joy Division, who would eventually release records through Wilson’s Factory Records label, performed their first gig at The Electric Circus. Flyers for the gig billed them as Stiff Kittens, but they performed as Warsaw.

The venue closed in October 1977. Joy Division, as Warsaw, also played at one of the final two nights. Both of the final gigs were recorded for posterity and tracks from the performances released as the album ‘Short Circuit’ in 1978.