Clash on Parole Tour
Supported by The Specials & Suicide & The Skids

Last updated March 2007
updated Dec 14 - added ticket
updated April 2020
updated Feb 2024

Rude Boy Promo cass

Sound 5 - 3min - 1gen - 1 track
complete song audio only - more info

Rude Boy DVD

Quality 5 - 6min - 2 tracks

Recent DVD Release

The recent DVD release includes the track White Riot as a bonus, probably excluded as White Riot was included from Glasgow and Victoria Park already.

With a mass stage invasion the band are no longer able to continue and the gig comes to an end.

Punk Riot...

The Dunfermaline Kinema White Riot footage was originally shown in edited form on Scottish TV (as a ‘punk riot’ story) as the gig erupted to a premature end. This song doesn't feature on the films promo cassette, possibly with White Riot on to many times and the Prisoner was used solely for the Glasgow mayhem follow up?

Richard Jobson waxes lyrical about this gig

Johnney Green also refers to this as a venue on p89. End of White Riot appeared on Scottish TV the day after...

Skids lead singer Richard Jobson waxes lyrical about this gig whenever he talks about it.

Skids - Interview by Andrew Twambley

Skids - Interview published: 29 / 7 / 2021

PB: I remember that from the fortieth anniversary tour a couple of years ago.

Richard Jobson (lead singer): Yeah, we have always done it. I don’t live in Scotland anymore, but I have been going back to Dunfermline a lot because the other guys I work with all live there and there is the place that really made us, the Kinema Ballroom, which was this legendary venue in the east of Scotland – it was like the Barrowlands of the East and everybody played there. David Bowie played there, Roxy Music played there, I think even Led Zeppelin played there. Because that was our nest and that was our epicentre, we encouraged all the cool bands to come. We managed to convince The Clash to come and play, Richard Hell and the Voidoids and the Banshees. I mean it was pretty cool, we persuaded loads and loads of bands to come. I mean obviously the deal was that we would be opening act, so we got to play with them all. My memory of Punk was always like it was never a competition between the bands; it was much more of camaraderie.

PB: A kind of Co-operative, yes.

RJ: We were local so were, in a sense. Kind of the headline act. The Clash were always very cool about that kind of thing, but Buzzcocks were sometimes a bit sniffy. I don’t know what that was about.

Big bands, wee ( or just odd) gigs…and Fife, Kingdom of Rock! | Tom Morton's Beatcroft

Brian Johnstone mentioned that

I can vividly remember seeing The Clash and Richard Hell and the Voidoids at the Kinema in Dunfermline back in the 70s – I can still feel the globules of spit seeping down my neck!

Mike Baillie was a Skids fan from the start, and as a drummer with fellow Fife outfit Insect Bites, he proved the perfect candidate to join the band when the opportunity arose in 1979.

They formed two years earlier in their hometown, Dunfermline, lead singer Richard Jobson and guitarist Stuart Adamson joined by Bill Simpson (bass) and Tom Kellichan (drums), with their debut independent Charles EP picked up by influential BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, soon landing a prestigious support with The Clash at the Kinema Ballroom in town, their stock continuing to rise, a deal with Virgin Records following.

If the Skids are United – the Mike Baillie interview | writewyattuk

And what do you remember as a fan about that momentous Clash/Skids bill at the Kinema Ballroom?

“It was amazing, and I just remember the whole chaos and this rush of energy, the whole place going absolutely crazy. Richard still talks about it to this day, and how important it was to be accepted by your idols. And it was completely surreal that this could happen in your little town … your grubby little grey town. It was an amazing experience.”

Flyer

The Clash - White Riot - Live at Dunfermline Kinema

06-07-1978 (From "Rude Boy") Video | Facebook

The Clash playing the Kinema Ballroom July 6, 1978

Visit Dunfermline | Facebook

'Kingdom Come' Fanzine

Report on Scottish dates 1978

Link

Kingdom Come fanzine (issue #11)

August 1978. Includes review of White Man in Hammersmith Palais single, Dunfermaline and Glasgow gigs.

Link to PDF

See also here and here

Nigel Welch - Yep. Was at the Kinema in Dunfermline. One of the best gigs I’ve seen. Mad Mad night.

Colin Martin - I was there

Boab - Seen the Clash in 78', at their peak and again in 79'. Great gigs and the music was and still is terrific.

A wee bit wild

N Lincs Jambo - My first ever gig, July 78, Kinema Ballroom Dunfermline, the Clash supported by Suicide and the Coventry Specials, ie Special AKA. Not a bad 1st gig, just a wee bit wild. The clash - The Shed - Jambos Kickback

Worthing Jambo - Saw The Clash 5 times, The Jam 9 times. those gigs were something else. As time has passed I can still listen to The Clash but The Jam not so much. I now think The Clash gigs were the best I ever went to. Sandinista is a seriously underrated album and stands the test of time.

Lenny Helsing - Yeah still got my ticket from this monumental night!

Graham Macindoe - The Clash, Dunfermline 78. Facebook

Looked like he'd had a bath in saliva, phlegm and half chewed Mars bars.

Malcolm Ross - Suicide's performance that night was incredible- gig open to under 18s downstairs. A confectionery kiosk; by the time he came off stage Alan V . looked like he'd had a bath in saliva, phlegm and half chewed Mars bars.

Chaos during white riot

Jim Foster - I was there got autographs and drumstick when chaos during white riot

George Eggo - Myself and Joe Strummer shared a bottle of Smirnoff after he asked me to go and get him one out of the off licence. It was during the soundcheck in the afternoon as I was with the Skids boys .

Vodka and Libby’s fresh orange was Joes tipple and he gave me £7 for going for it . That was a lot of money then as it was 24p a bottle of beer in the ballroom then.

Supported by the Skids as well

Ken Barkway - They played supported by the Skids as well. The Skids were already playing when the doors were open. Some great bands played the Ballroom. It was a weird venue really. Look how low the roof was.

Clash were awesome

Audrey Steele - I was there,met Joe strummer

Lesley Miles Nicol - I was there !

Alan Campbell - Was there. Loved the Coventry automatics. Seemed different. Clash were awesome

Brian Grieve - A very fine night indeed. A great KB memory

Blackmarketclash | Leave a comment

The Clash play live in Dunfermline at the Kinema in 1978

15th August 2020, By Ieuan Williams Reporter

It was a performance that culminated in the encore as the stage was invaded by fans during the band's single White Riot.

Drummer Nicky Headon walked off and the incident made national headlines with a clip featured in the film/rockumentary Rude Boy.

The July 6 date was part of their On Parole tour with tickets costing just £2 with support from Suicide and The Coventry Automatics.

The iconic night in Dunfermline was the second time The Clash had played the Kinema after initially crossing the border a year earlier.

On October 24 in 1977, they made the trip to Fife on their Get Out Of Control tour.

Support came from Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Lous, and hometown Skids.

A rare photo from the 1978 gig is now featured in new book ? 16 YEARS Gigs In Scotland: 1974-1990? .

It features 2,000 images spanning 32 locations across Scotland, presenting rare and previously unpublished photographs of the country? s music history and lost venues.

Chris Brickley, who comes from Glasgow and is now resident in Edinburgh, sourced the material over a period of two years.

More than 150 private collectors, from Scotland, the UK and overseas, have contributed to make the book a reality and it was published this week.

Kinema review

Link

the crowd were among the most violent ever witnessed

"The gig was definately played on Thursday, 6th July 1978. Suicide were the support band (and boy did they get it that night, almost got murdered) and the crowd were among the most violent ever witnessed in my long career of gigs throughout the years.

This was due to a large part of the crowd being the "Sham Army" who were out to kick in as many Clash fans as they could. So by the time the Clash took to the stage, fights were breaking out all over the place, and the bouncers had pissed off out of the road as they couldn't control it.

The Clash were continually interupted trying to stop the fighting, but eventually just played through the bedlam as there was nothing much they could do.

As the concert came to it's climax "White Riot" the whole place seemed to go absolutely mental as the crowd, at first one or two getting up on the stage and trying to sing with Strummer, then eventually the rest stormed it, Strummer disappearing under a mass of bodies, the band stopped playing, Simonon swinging his bass at anything near him, Topper buggered off through the backdrop and if I remember rightly Jonesy just walking off the side looking more than a bit peeved.

Needless to say they didn't appear again as the house lights went up, the local Fife Police came in, and it became a free for all.

During the set me and my two friends had stood up on the seats at the side of the dance hall where we had a great view. Two guys, one with a huge camera on his shoulder and another carrying some kind of case attached to it, asked to come up beside us to film the band. Me and one of my mates held this big case up so the cameraman could manovere better and I asked the other one what it was for.

He replied it was for a documentary on the band. Yes, It was "Rude Boy"! After a while a couple of bouncers came up to us (doing nothing but helping out by the way while half the bloody crowd were murdering each other) and told us to get down off the seats. For crying out loud, the place had been trashed!!!!!!!!! Anyway, we all had to get down, the two guys thanked us and moved closer to the stage.

I noticed the film is out now on DVD, and one of the extras is "White Riot". I remember after the show (probably within a week) the local TV showed a clip of the end of the gig when the crowd all started invading the stage but this was not on the original film or video.

The Clash play live in Dunfermline at the Kinema in 1978

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/

It was a performance that culminated in the encore as the stage was invaded by fans during the band’s single White Riot.

Drummer Nicky Headon walked off and the incident made national headlines with a clip featured in the film/rockumentary Rude Boy.

The July 6 date was part of their On Parole tour with tickets costing just £2 with support from Suicide and The Coventry Automatics.

The iconic night in Dunfermline was the second time The Clash had played the Kinema after initially crossing the border a year earlier.

On October 24 in 1977, they made the trip to Fife on their Get Out Of Control tour.

Support came from Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Lous, and hometown Skids.

A rare photo from the 1978 gig is now featured in new book ‘16 YEARS Gigs In Scotland: 1974-1990’.

It features 2,000 images spanning 32 locations across Scotland, presenting rare and previously unpublished photographs of the country’s music history and lost venues.

Chris Brickley, who comes from Glasgow and is now resident in Edinburgh, sourced the material over a period of two years.

More than 150 private collectors, from Scotland, the UK and overseas, have contributed to make the book a reality and it was published this week.

Setlist

1 2	Tommy Gun White Riot

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