Johnny Rotten),[4][5] Billy Bragg,[6][7] Iggy Pop,[3][5] Bad Brains,[8] Black Flag,[8] and Butthole Surfers[9] and visual artists Vaughn Bode,[10] Jean-Michel Basquiat,[3] and Barry McGee.

Ferguson was co-leader of the Union of Students to End the War in Vietnam[11][13] and his activism lead to discussions of disciplinary action, the outcome of which is not clear.

[citation needed] Ferguson had also arranged for Pop Art icon Andy Warhol to speak at the campus in 1968, an event that led to a professional association between the two.

A member of the group wrote about a tactic Ferguson used to sneak the troupe and its outrageous stage behavior by wary club owners: For nearly 20 years, Mr. Bimbo [ Agostino Giuntoli, owner of Bimbo's] had presided over his lavish and busy supper club five nights a week, and he was nervous about renting the place out...In fact, he was so nervous about that prospect that he asked David Ferguson to sign an affidavit of sorts—on the back on an envelope—swearing that he would allow no naked women to perform onstage.

[15] "Ferguson's personal punk legacy includes helping promote concerts in the early 1970s for Iggy Pop and the New York Dolls.

Ferguson's concert promotion career took an important turn when he was asked to produce West Coast shows for Public Image Ltd. during PiL's first two American tours (1980 and 1982).

[4][5] The 1980 show in Southern California proved not only a memorable event in PiL's career: As it did at the Sex Pistols' farewell shoot-out in San Francisco two and a half years ago, history hung in the air the night Public Image Ltd. came to Los Angeles' Olympic Auditorium.

in 1982,[24] featuring a number of the era's most notable punk bands: the Avengers, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag w/Henry Rollins, Circle Jerks, the Subhumans, and D.O.A.

3 also was one of the earliest records of producer/engineer Sylvia Massy (Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Tool's Undertow), who mixed and engineered a number of the tracks.

[29] In 1989, Ferguson founded the Institute for Unpopular Culture (IFUC) as a non-profit organization to support artists outside the mainstream art world.

"[15] IFUC's stated mission is to discover and mentor outsider artists and creative people by assisting with public relations, business, counseling, opportunities, access to equipment, and funding for their projects.

[3] IFUC has sponsored[clarification needed] William Noguera,[3] an artist who, since 1983 has been on death row at California's San Quentin State Prison and now creates photorealistic pointillist paintings with a rapidograph technical pen.