Clash on Parole Tour
Supported by The Specials & Suicide

page updated - April 2020
updated October 2020 - added two photos
updated Dec 2023 added advert
updatd April 2024 added venue info including Clash/venue ban, article from 83

No known audio or video

If you know of any recording, please email blackmarketclash

Bury Free Press - Clash visit the town 'on Parole'

Friday 14 July 1978

A late addition to the tour and the last night according to johnny Greens A Riot of our Own pg99

Johnny Green took my tape recorder

I was just re-reading Johnny Green's "Riot of our Own" and when I got to the bit about the Bury St Edmunds gig (July 14 1978) my mind wandered back almost 30 years, to when I was 16.

I had taken two extra things to Bury St Edmunds that day - a "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" single sleeve (to be autographed) and one of those piano-style tape recorders (for bootlegging purposes). Positioning myself at the front, right-hand side, I thought life would be easier if I just placed the tape recorder on the stage; that way I could forget about it and enjoy the band. Paul Simonon was over on that side & when he made his darting runs forward he kept kicking the tape-recorder. At first I thought it was accidental, but he kept on doing it. I could see he was getting annoyed, because he couldn't manage to knock it off the stage. Whenever it went close to the edge I simply stopped bouncing around for a second and moved it back.

Half-way through the gig this typical Camden Town rockabilly type came over and grabbed the tape-recorder. I obviously looked crest-fallen. "You can come and get it after the show," he said, not at all unpleasantly. It was Johnny Green of course. But I was still a bit concerned that I would never see it again, and tape recorders (in those days) were expensive items.

After the encores I said to the people I had come with that I was going to try and get my belongings back. I think they wished me good luck. In those days I didn't really drink, so my only courage was righteous indignation at the loss of my tape-recording equipment. I soon found the backstage area and also the Camden Town rockabilly. True to his word he gave me the tape recorder back, minus the tape. We chatted amiably about the possibility of recording the band live, the reprehensibility of amateur bootleggers and (his words, not mine) the fact that the Clash never really sounded as good as they should when these live recordings surfaced. And then he invited me in for a drink.

What a scene of utter debauchery ! Half pint cans of Heineken and bowls full of peanuts. Mick Jones sitting in a chair looking pleased with himself, Paul Simonon glowering away at nobody in particular (surely not me). I helped myself to a can of lager and some peanuts. Then Mr Rockabilly decided to introduce me to Mick Jones as the person who was trying to bootleg the show. Well, he couldn't have been more good humoured about it.

"Who's a naughty bootlegger then ?" he said. "Hold your hand out."

I held my hand out. He tried to whack it, and I pulled it away just in time. Backstage with the Clash was just like being at school, but with free beer and peanuts. I was probably on my third can of Heineken, sitting on the floor, when somebody said,
"Hey, what are you doing here ?"

"Oh, it's alright," I said, "he said it was okay."

By this time I considered the Camden Town rockabilly as my friend and passport to beer & nuts. He really was a good guy.

The Clash, now I know, had finished their tour. They were in no rush to do anything. They lingered around in the empty Corn Exchange chatting to the fans. They all signed the "White Man" sleeve, even Paul, bless him. And afterwards, if the Camden Town rockabilly's account is true, the roadies got paid & had a whale of a time.

So, there does exist a tape of that Bury St Edmunds gig. It was confiscated by Johnny Green & was probably recorded over or thrown in a bin, or strewn around the streets of Bury St Edmunds by the road crew. Tim Joyce

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I helped promote the gig at Bury St Edmunds Corn Exchange

The Clash in Suffolk
The Clash played Bury St Edmunds Corn Exchange in 1978 supported by The Coventry Specials (who later dropped the 'Coventry').

The promoter for the Bury gig was John Hessenthaler:

"The punk thing was a bit of a no-go area, because on the Sex Pistols' Anarchy tour, which The Clash were on, many of the advertised gigs had been cancelled because of local council policy, swearing etc. "It was a July gig and the local council tried to stop it, but because I had a contract with them I insisted it went ahead.

"There were rumours that there was going to be trouble, but that didn't happen.

"There was also a rumour that Bob Dylan was going to come to the gig, because he was a labelmate and in the country for the Blackbushe Aerodrome festival, but that didn't happen."

The promoter estimates that tickets cost around £2.50 and the capacity of the Corn Exchange was around 900 - around double what it is in 2010.

"It was a great night and quite interesting from a business point of view," said John.

"I'd agreed a fee of £250 with The Clash's management and they were so convinced that it was going to be rammed, that they rang me up a few days before the gig wanting to change it so that they'd get a percentage of the door.

"However, I didn't feel it was going to be quite as big as they thought, so I agreed and they ended up going away with less that the original agreed fee!

"Once you get into the realms of dealing with PA companies and agents, all this 'power to the people' stuff - it doesn't really apply behind the scenes."

Plans for regular pop venue (1983)

83 01 21 Bury Free Press Friday Bury StE venue

Corn Exchange, Bury St Edmunds

The Corn Exchange is a commercial building located in Abbeygate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England.

It was built in 1862 by Ellis and Woodard of Fenchurch Street in London in the neoclassical style, built by Lot Jackaman in ashlar stone at a cost of £7,000 and was officially opened by the then-mayor, Charles Beard, on 16 July 1862 1.

The building was originally used as a corn exchange, but the use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century 1. In 1969, a floor was inserted allowing shops to be established on the ground floor.

This also enabled the first floor to be used as an events venue and subsequent performers included the rock band, Slade, in April 1972 12 and the rock band, The Clash, in July 1978 12.

Following disturbances associated with the latter performance, the council banned live performances in the town for 20 years 1.

Corn Exchange, Bury St Edmunds - Wikipedia 2: 
Corn Exchange, Bury St Edmunds - Wikiwand
Bury Sound - History
Suffolk News - Sixteen Things You'll Only Know If You Grew Up in Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk News - 15 Things You Only Know If You Grew Up in Bury St Edmunds
Bury Concert Club - Bury St Edmunds Concert Club History
My Generation - Ken Pettitt's Recollections of the Music Scene in Mildenhall and Local Districts circa 1960s-80s

Skirmishes all afternoon and the town was brought to a standstill.

Punk In The East - On this day in 1978, The Clash played Bury St Edmunds. Support on the day came from the Coventry Automatics - later to be renamed The Specials.

There were skirmishes all afternoon and the town was brought to a standstill. You don’t see police cars like that any more 

Punk In The East | Facebook

We travelled up from Coventry

I was there, me and Pete Polanik travelled from Coventry. At the time I was sharing a house with Jerry Dammers, we had intended to travel on the next day to Manchester to see the Clash play an anti nazi gig there but were unable to hitch a lift.

Disappointed suicide didn’t play, apparently the night before the singer had self mutilated himself to hospital.

The gig was really good, I ended up seeing the Clash 16 times in various venues, liverpools Eric s was really good.

As we were leaving the Corn Exchange we hooked up with a girl and started walking off around the back oh the venue, as we turned the corner a biker passed us and the girl yelled at him, as we turned the next corner the biker had parked up next to another 10 or so bikes, and we had to walk past a bikers house party, pretty intimidating, but the the biker started up and came after us on his bike  on the pavement, pete and I'm legged it and never saw the girl again.

We ended up at the hotel and managed to get a lift to the motorway from the clash’s AnR guy and art director who had new artwork for the band to approve.

Pete and I spent hours attempting to hitch a ride north, gave up and hitched a ride to London.

Went to the kings road, ended up getting the train back to Coventry and bumped in to one of the Monty python people, terry Jones I think.

Eventful times,

Pete was a fanzine writer, DED YAMPY. Was the fanzine, he now has a site called

https://weedsuptomeknees.uk/

I lost touch with pete until recently, I went to London to become a recording engineer, Chris Dickie 

I didn’t think there was anything notorious about the corn exchange gig especially compared to future specials gigs and a lot of other gigs I went to around that time.

Bury st Edmunds seemed like a pretty sleepy place.

I once saw the clash at Derby where the gig was at the swimming pool! The worst acoustics you are ever going to hear.

Chris Dickie <ceediko7atgmail.com> 16 July 2024

Council bans gigs following the Clash gig

The Apex - The Apex| Facebook

40 years ago, there was a notorious gig in Bury St Edmunds that resulted in the council banning live music from public venues for nearly 20 years!

That gig was The Clash at Bury St Edmunds Corn Exchange on Friday 14 July 1978.

Were you there? If so, we'd love to know if you can spot yourself in this photo and please comment with any memories you have from the night.

The gig will be recreated at The Apex on Thursday 5 July, when London Calling will play the set list performed by The Clash in 1978, with support from The Specials Ltd. 

For more info or to book - http://bit.ly/TheClash2018

The council banning live music from public venues for nearly 20 years

The Apex | Facebook

Town society refuses to honour infamous gig by The Clash nearly 50 years ago with a blue plaque because it caused too much trouble

Daily Mail Online

Mr Taylor, 73, said: 'The Clash did not cover themselves in glory during or after the event.

Mr Taylor, who has been chairman of Bury Society since 2016, said: 'We look to celebrate both people and events - people will say The Clash performing was an event.

'But the behaviour of people at the time, the spitting and destruction, might well mean it couldn't go up even if we wanted to.

Society against bid to mark Bury St Edmunds gig by The Clash

East Anglian Daily Times

Martyn Taylor, chair of the Bury Society, said a set of criteria the group follows when deciding on plaques, based on the English Heritage Commemoration - People and Places document, states "no celebration of infamous persons or deeds will be entered into". 

He said the criteria also states it "needs to be recognisable as worthy of celebration and not put up for the sake of it". 

Mr Taylor said The Clash's 1978 gig caused "mayhem" in the town and added: "No matter what Paul Johnson says, they misbehaved that night. What are you going to do, put a blue plaque up for all of the people who have behaved badly?

"This sort of behaviour should not be commemorated with a plaque."

Clash fan angry as blue plaque proposal dismissed - BBC News

Historians refuse to commemorate 'unruly' punk gig

John Hessenthaler, against all local authority opposition, promoted The Clash at Bury St Edmunds Corn Exchange

The Clash Revisited show at the Apex next month

Suffolk Village Info News

Back in July 1978 John Hessenthaler, against all local authority opposition, promoted The Clash at Bury St Edmunds Corn Exchange.

Support came from The Coventry Automatics, who later became known as The Specials.

Although the expected insurrection was limited to a couple of minor skirmishes, the gig became so notorious that the council banned live music from public venues for nearly 20 years. 

John Hessenthaler explains: “The punk thing was a bit of a no-go area, because on the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy tour, which The Clash supported, many of the advertised gigs had been cancelled due to of local council policy. This local council tried to stop it, but because I had a contract with them I insisted it went ahead. There were rumours that there was going to be trouble, but that didn’t happen.

 “There was also a rumour that Bob Dylan was going to come to the gig, because he was a label-mate and in the country for the Blackbushe Aerodrome festival, but that didn’t happen either.”

The Clash incredible. Such a memorable gig

Gareth Wyn Thomas - Bury St Edmunds - The Coventry Specials were amazing, The Clash incredible. Such a memorable gig.

Skinheads in the toilet spitting their teeth into the sink

Nicholas Whittaker - My memories were of a row of skinheads in the toilet spitting their teeth into the sink. We were ment to have gone on that coach, but missed it and had to get a taxi. We did return on the coach though. Arthur's tours I think it was.

Everyone was peeing in beer bottles

Roddy Byers - I remember this one well. UK’s Smallest Pub across the road. And no Toilets backstage so everyone was peeing in beer bottles. Jerry Dammers later found out the hard way! lol. Roddy Byers | Facebook

Peter Edwards - That venue is a Wetherspoons now

best ever gigs amazing, an absolute classic

Bones Karma Thubten - One of my best ever gigs amazing time good scraps

Jonty Young - Bones Karma Thubten Yes, an absolute classic and an 8 page special in the Bury Times the following day.

Irene Mary Williamson - I was there!!

Liz Schiller - Irene Mary Williamson me too

It got very tasty at the end

Rupert White - I was there … my back to the camera! Specials AKA played. It got very tasty at the end. My first ever gig! Punk in the East | Outside the Clash gig at Bury St Edmunds, Corn Exchange 14th July, 1978.

The Clash signed a few autographs and everyone went home happy

A rant - So when The Clash visited the Corn Exchange during the Out On Parole tour of 1978 (in the face of strong opposition from the Council), popular legend has it that Bury’s punks, teds, mods and rockers were out in force and that the ensuing carnage saw blood on the streets, property destroyed, general indecency and the overall erosion of society.

Whether this was the case or not – by several written accounts, there was no trouble whatsoever, The Clash signed a few autographs and everyone went home happy – so began the start of a Council-imposed 19 year ban on gigs in any public buildings within the town (Conservative towns have a long memory – until 1997, when Councillor Jackie Smith finally broke the embargo with a tentative inaugural BurySound gig, well-meaning promoter after well-meaning promoter found themselves turned away with the mantra, “When The Clash played here in 1978…” ringing in their ears).

First and favourite gig

Michael Coulten - My first ever gig, 14 years old, couldn't believe my mum let me go and my little brother has never forgiven me for refusing to look after him so he wasn't allowed.

So many memories... changed into poor attempt at punk kit in Abbey gardens after mum dropped me off in Sunday best... caught Toppers drumstick, gave half to a scary punkette standing next to me, lost the other half in the hole it made in my pocket.... laughed at my mate for saying "they were good they were, the Clash" just after the Coventry Specials finished their set...felt cheated when the Bury Bummer reported couples copulating in the gig..why didn't I see that!!!

think someone told a policeman that it was different standards for us as we didn't have a tit on our head. My first and favourite gig. Its Spike btw. psst Al Leeder

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