updated 30 Dec 2008 - new master tape
updated May 2021 added adverts and extra ticket
9 Feb 2022 added new colour photos
updated June 2022 - more info about video
udpated xmas 2023 added ticket adverts
updated April 2024 added HQ flyer
Audio 1 - master
Clear/ok - Sound 3.5 - Time 37mins - 10 Tracks
Safe European Home
A restored version can be found on Youtube > Bazarboy
Sound quality
Clear but distant.
Taper wasn't sitting that close to the stage and probably didn't have amazing tape equipment. But low-gen or master-ish because the instruments and vox are surprisingly clear once you get acclimated. I'm liking the sound more the more I hear it. I would say better quality than nearly all '78 AUD recordings, par or better for Pearl Harbour tour audience tapes. A good audio edit might make it stand out a bit better into bona fide B range.
Typically scorching hot show for that tour. Pinnacle-era Topper drumming and Mick gee-tar.
"Last night I attended the Target Video show at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN17017). There was a lot of great footage from the '70s & early '80s (Dead Kennedys, Flipper, Black Flag, X, The Nuns, Avengers, The Mutants, Bush Tetras, Siouxsie & The Banshees, etc.), most of which I had never seen before. Target was selling t-shirts (I bought one) in the lobby, and on the back of the t-shirt are logos of bands Target filmed, including The Clash.
I asked Target Video's Joe Rees when and where he filmed The Clash. He replied: a couple of shows, including Geary Temple in San Francisco '79 and at the Target studio on Van Ness. I asked him if the Geary Temple footage was ever released on video in the early '80s, and he said "yes," but I've never heard of that release. One would think it would've showed up on bootleg videos/DVDs, on YouTube, etc., and also Graham doesn't mention the existence of the footage on BMC. It must've been available for a very limited time in '84 when Target Video started releasing videos. Anyway, I told Joe that I hope that Target Video's footage of The Clash will be released on DVD.
The last time I saw Joe was in 2015. I recall him saying that he shot the footage while on the balcony, which was shaking a lot. The floor boards below were bouncing. As a result, the footage looks very shaky. He mentioned something about trying to fix the shaky footage. He and I are friends on FB. Maybe I should ask again."
Sandy Pearlman mixed the first half dozen shows
James Chen - This wasn't the first date of the tour which happened in Vancouver, BC, Canada. But it was their first show ever in the USA.
They had been in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier working on GEER with Sandy Pearlman. Sandy Pearlman was a dear friend of mine and had some great stories about his time with The Clash.
He mixed the beginning of the tour and brought along some of his studio gear.
He mixed the first half dozen shows and when he left, Mick Jones said "Well, there goes my guitar sound!"
The Clash were students in the recording studio and learned a lot from Sandy which led them to create London Calling.
When The Clash hit the stage two things struck me. First, was the international flags as the backdrop. And second was the fury and sheer volume of the sound. The band was very tight and it was like a jet engine taking off.
The CLASH in San Francisco
The Clash played their first show in the US on February 7, 1979 at the Berkeley Community Theater. Bo Diddley opened for The Clash that night. On the following night, February 8th, The Clash played a benefit gig at for New Yooth in the Fillmore.
I have an original flyer from that show and will make copies of it for anyone that has other Clash flyers to trade. You can send me an email to mailto:jchensf@yahoo.com.
I was working for the sound company at UC Berkeley and was given a stack of flyers to post around campus. I just found them after almost 30 years. The Clash also did an album signing at the Tower Records on Durant. I got my album and record sleeve signed by both Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon. Years later, I also got Sandy Pearlman (who produced the album) to sign the record for me. I also found my ticket from the show ($5.50), three reviews from the newspapers, a listing of shows from Bill Graham Presents (The Clash, Elvis Costello, and The Police all within a month) and a newspaper clipping of Joe's death. The flyer is a very RARE document from The Clash's original assault on the United States.
We turned up the following night and Mick was delighted to find we were playing at the old Filmore West, a fine, ramshackle wooden building. The people running it were ramshackle as well. I warned the band about the Acid Test. Who better for a spiker than a star catch? The stage would not have passed our London health and safety man. Who cared? The joint was jumping as Coon muttered darkly about the ‘ramifications'. The lack of organization was made up for by enthusiasm. It was a astorming gig from the second the band ran on to the disintegrating stage. The Clash rocked out and the crowd was with them. Joe's delirium showed. He climbed from the stage into an opera box, waving and twitching.
Wheeling down the freeway later, we agreed we had done it right, happily discussing our free show."
They toured in Dolly Parton's bus
James Chen - This was the first ever show by The Clash in the USA ever! Bo Diddley and Pearl Harbor and The Explosions opened the show and they toured in Dolly Parton's bus. The next day they played a benefit concert in San Francisco. I went to both shows!
In defiance of promoter Bill Graham, ...
Gorm Gullo - "Newspaper and music magazine reviews of the show were largely positive. Some acknowledged that the U.S. audiences were more subdued than British punk fans, and the Clash appreciated that no one tried to spit on them as they performed.
Even though Strummer would acknowledge that the university crowd loved the Clash’s first U.S. show (they were “tapping their biology textbooks in time with the tunes” he snarked in his diary), he hadn’t come to America to connect solely with the student population.
And so, in defiance of promoter Bill Graham, the Clash hastily organized a second show in the San Francisco area for the next evening. This one would take place at Geary Temple (which had once been Graham’s old Fillmore West), cost half as much as the first show and benefit a youth organization and the homeless.
The band’s second concert in America was a charity benefit – a fact the Clash wore proudly. “The show is really great, the hall is really great, the audience is really great,” Strummer wrote."
The Only Band that Matters as they touched down in Berkeley, California! This wasn't the first date of the tour which happened in Vancouver, BC, Canada. But it was their first show ever in the USA.
They had been in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier working on GEER with Sandy Pearlman. Sandy Pearlman was a dear friend of mine and had some great stories about his time with The Clash.
He mixed the beginning of the tour and brought along some of his studio gear. He mixed the first half dozen shows and when he left, Mick Jones said "Well, there goes my guitar sound!"
The Clash were students in the recording studio and learned a lot from Sandy which led them to create London Calling. When The Clash hit the stage two things struck me. First, was the international flags as the backdrop. And second was the fury and sheer volume of the sound. The band was very tight and it was like a jet engine taking off.
The Clash on their First US Tour.
How the Clash Conquered the USA
YouTube - 16 This Month In Punk Rock History...The Clash on their First US Tour. How the Clash Conquered the USA
Pearl Harbour Tour
In Feb 1979 The Clash toured the US for the first time
In Feb 1979 The Clash toured the US for the first time, taking along Bo Diddley as support, one of the greatest pioneers of American rhythm & blues and a Clash hero.
Diddley would recall an interview decades later that he found the volume and size of the band’s amp set up so loud that it left his ears ringing for days, ‘every generation has its own little bag of tricks’.
Joe Strummer remarked, “I couldn’t even look at him without my mouth falling open”.
By then, the band’s first album had reportedly sold 100,000 copies on import.
The six shows were billed as the ‘Pearl Harbour’ tour, and the group pulled no punches by opening their sets with the song “I’m So Bored With The USA”. The American audiences fell in love with them
An original Ticket & great Back Stage Pass kindly shared by Johnny Kardash
Eddie Valentine
Yvette Kay
Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley CA
It was designed in 1938 and construction began in 1941, but was not completed until 1950 due to delays from World War II. 1
The Art Deco-style theater has 3,491 seats, including a balcony section, and a large stage extended by an orchestra pit. 13
It is listed as a Berkeley Landmark (no. 179) since 1992 and is part of the Berkeley High School Campus Historic District and the Berkeley Historic Civic Center District. 13
The theater is known for hosting many notable musical acts over the decades, including Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, and Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony. 14
It also has a large Wurlitzer pipe organ, one of the largest and finest in existence, maintained by the Nor-Cal Theatre Organ Society. 14
The theater underwent renovations in the 2000s and 2020s to upgrade its aging systems and facilities.
From "A Riot of Our Own, Night and Day with The Clash"
By Johnny Green and Garry Barker
A Riot of Our Own pg132 & 136+
Our first gig in the USA was at the Berkeley Community Centre, with an audience of toe-tapping, hand-clapping, smiling, scrubbed faces, which reminded us that in California being laid-back is a virtue. The energy went one-way, with Strummer striving to push it into their faces and Jones and Simonon working up into sprints across the huge stage.
Mick asked me, ‘How was that, then?’
‘You should know. It was a good show.’
Joe said, ‘Nice. But nice ain’t good enough. Who put us here with this bunch of dozeys?’ I pointed at the backstage pass. ‘Bill Graham Presents’.
Joe said, ‘How come we’re with Bill Graham, Caroline?’
Stern-chinned, she stuttered: ‘If you’re not with him you don’t play the Bay. You don’t play San Francisco. You don’t play California.’
‘Who says?’ Joe turned to Mo. ‘Is that right, Mo?’
He shrugged. ‘He’s not a man to mess with.’
I knew what he meant. I’d read Hammer of the Gods, where Zeppelin’s minders did over Graham’s dearest with baseball bats over a money matter. They didn’t do California for a while after that.
‘Well, it’s just as well he’s out of town,’ Joe said.
Outside the door was a mixed bag of people in tie-dyed sarongs and saris, pestering me to get them in.
‘No. Bill Graham,’ I said, using his clout, but they were pleading with me.
‘We’ll give you our hats if you let us in,’ they said. They were wearing coloured baseball hats with animals and propellers on top. They were so weird they were straight out of a Paul Simonon tall story. So they were in, straight into the dressing room. I walked ahead of them, wearing a hat with a propeller-carrying crocodile. The band saw me.
‘Give us that hat!’ Hands flashed out to snatch my new headgear.
I was sent out to get Sandy Pearlman, in the audience in baseball cap and capped teeth to see his protégés in America. The Clash lined up to shake hands, roaring with laughter, in their new hats.
Joe asked, ‘What does a band have to do round here to get an audience going?’
‘Play to the right audience,’ said the now hatless visitors, who then told us about a benefit gig the following night for a bunch trying to break the stranglehold of big business.
‘Can we do it, Johnny?’ said Joe.
The American crew was consulted. ‘We’ve got to be in Los Angeles in forty-eight hours,’ they muttered miserably. Joe and Mick pleaded with them. I’d heard a story about Abba’s roadies, who had been offered the choice of a cash bonus or a snog with Agnetha and Anni-Frid. To a man they chose the snog. But it didn’t work here. They were given a bung. I was all for doing the gig, even without any extra pay.
"The Clash. Photographs by Bob Gruen"
Joe: This is Frisco, right? That wild show we did for that new youth movement… a charity show for this youth organization. It was kind of like a squatters' beatnik neighbourhood scenario, this.
Bob: In San Francisco the group played a benefit gig for the homeless. There was a lot of trouble with Bill Graham over that - Graham was promoting the official San Francisco concert, but they had this alternative gig going on as well. It's interesting that the first show The Clash played in the USA was a benefit.
Caroline: Part of the policy in every town to which we went - and to persuade the record company of this was a nightmare - was to play a benefit gig for whichever youth group in the town needed a benefit, and then do the commercial gig. We tried to do it as often as possible, and get the local bands to play as well.
Mick: We played a benefit at the Temp, next door to Jim Jones's temple - the guy who went out to take Kool Aid with his followers in Guyana. There was lots of trouble with that, because Bill Graham didn't want us to do it. It was great that night.
When we first went to San Francisco, Joe and I, we went to that place where we played the benefit, and it was like the last vestiges of a real hippie night: with a little imagination you could see what it must have been like.
Do you know anything about this gig?
Did you go? Comments, info welcome...
All help appreciated. Info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome. Please email blackmarketclash
@stevie754 - I was at this show. Can't tell from the picture whether it's from the Berkeley Community Theatre or not. Don't know about other 1st songs on that tour, but the first the played that night, from my memory, was "I fought the law" B. Holly.
The backdrop was flags from lots of nations and a somewhat diminutive sign reading "unprovoked retaliations" on one. Quite ironic in the light of future US policy.
The show was produced by Bill Graham, who for some bizarre reason booked the show in a fixed seat venue. Bill had his muscle-security men link arms to keep us Row W folks from moving forward, but we busted through!
There was "dancin' on the seats" and many, many, of those seats collapsed under the weight of two or three people po-go-ing on them.
I've still got Topper's drum stick on my mantel. -Great show... Here's the only actual photo I found from that show: http://www.noamcityrockers.fr/
@boxcarbill5588 - I was at this show, and I don't remember a damn thing.
James Chen - This was the first ever show by The Clash in the USA ever! Bo Diddley and Pearl Harbor and The Explosions opened the show and they toured in Dolly Parton's bus. The next day they played a benefit concert in San Francisco. I went to both shows!
Mark Irving - I was there for both shows, changed my life
Running through the venue to get the best seats!
Jason Baker - I remember lining up really early and running through the venue to get the best seats! Seeing the Clash and other punk/new wave bands in late 70's early 80's was so fun. Small venues and so different from any other bands I'd seen. The power of the music and the intensity of the crowds!
David Rodrigues- TBT: First Punk Show. The Clash, Bo Diddley, Pearl Harbor & The Explosions - Berkeley Community Theatre, February 7th, 1979 [Ticket]
Ron Quintana | Facebook - Forget Stryper at Berkeley Community Theater tonight - it's 1979 Fucking BO FUCKING DIDDLEY & THE CLASH & PEARL HARBOUR There Tonight subverting Tha Kids!!!!!
It was small, dark, loud and full of energy
Chris Davis - The night after their first US concert at the Berkeley Community Theater, The Clash performed at a benefit concert at the Temple Beautiful on Geary St. on Feb8 1979. They were so well known in punk music that the posters didn’t include their name. The only band that matters was sufficient.
It was 44 years ago and what I remember the most was that a friend bought the tickets and said it was at the People’s Temple. It was less then two months after Jonestown. I was hesitant. I can see how it would be easy to confuse the two since they were neighbors. I also remember that the venue was small, dark, loud and full of energy. San Francisco Music | Facebook
The walls were sweating
Steven Spigolon - I was at that show. The crowd was having such a good time that the walls were sweating.
John Cantwell - You’re right the walls were sweating, there were so many people Jammed into the Temple Beautiful. I worked the show and it’s definitely one of my top 10 of all time. The Buzzcocks was another amazing show at the Temple.
Ron Jacobs - The Clash at The Berkeley Community Theatre, the first time I saw the Clash
Michael Chisom - I was at that show... It ran late, and we had to leave during Clash set to get on BART by midnight. I was pissed...
Awesome band!
Jeff Risdon - I was at that show and the next night they played temple beautiful in SF and was there as well! Awesome band!
Eddie Valentine - Facebook - ONE DAY LATE!! (1 dollah short?!) 42 years ago. The Clash. Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley. 1979. I was 20 years old.
Steve Ussery - I was at that show. Great seats, Bo Didley was awesome. The sound mix for the Clash was brutal, everything sounded like mud, so disappointing. Should have gone the next night in SF, that was supposed to be an awesome show!
@loudenkliehr3633 - Saw them the night before in Berkeley. Joe complained about the fans but it was nuts. I guess used to playing in the UK he thought that we weren't wild enough but security gave up on trying to keep people where they were ticketed to be. Unlike nights later when Elvis Costello & the Attractions played the same jernt and they made us sit "or you're out!" The Clash - Burning The Flowers (Full Live Album) - YouTube
Paul was asleep in his hotel room at showtime
David Point - I was there for their first US show in Berkeley (& four more CLASH concerts in SF. Worth being elderly now to have been there then) Bo was of course great & The CLASH was in fact loud. Also exciting was Pearl Gates
Peter Dunne - The Berkeley Community Theater show was the Clash’s first US show. We opened the show. So the time they played Santa Monica Civic must have been their 2nd tour. They did play Kezar Pavilion in’79. Mickey Gallagher on keys. They were late cos Paul was asleep in his hotel room at showtime. Kosmo was freaking a bit, as you might expect.
Rob Geller - I was also there, and Joe and Paul signed my record at their appearance at Tower Records on Durant [Berkeley] earlier that day [SF]!
Dave Gonet - I saw the Clash and Bo on this tour. It was unbelievable.
Paul Nielsen - Bo Diddley was the 1st concert I ever went too took my girlfriend at the time we must have been the youngest people there 16 year olds he was brilliant.
Bill Brown - David Point - You are right about the Only Band That Matters. I was at both the shows and forgot about the flyer. Pretty good way to pass it on.
Nicola Padovani - if I remember correctly, Rolling Stone magazine dedicated an article in which it stated that they had the front rows of seats removed because they wanted the Fans to be able to go wild dancing during the concert
"Let's do a tour of America" thought The Clash one day. "We'll headline with American blues legend Bo Diddley in support and a live deejay between sets." The record company said it would be a bad idea. They only had one album in the US (despite two in UK) and the demands would cost too much and only put them deeper in debt. In addition, their friends the Sex Pistols had just crumbled under the weight of their US tour. All signs point to this being a bad idea. So what would be an appropriate name for this kamikaze tour of the USA? The Pearl Harbour Tour.
Berkeley
After a warm-up gig in Vancouver, the band stopped to rest one night in Seattle before continuing on to their next gig in Berkley. In Seattle, the band received an unexpected wake-up call from photographer Bob Gruen who informed them of the death of Sid Vicious. As they mourned the loss of their friend, the tour bus kept rolling and on Feb. 7, 1979 The Clash made their debut in the USA, performing at the Berkeley California Community Theatre. While in Vancouver, the band was chased off stage after the third encore by a barrage of beer bottles, the Berkley crowd was disappointingly tepid. Frontman Joe Strummer was incensed and demanded to know how The Clash could have been booked in such a subdued gig. Strummer was informed that Bill Graham was the promoter who controlled San Francisco and by extension California. No music was heard at that time in California without Graham's nod.
Fillmore
Someone heard Strummer's complaints and tipped him off to a benefit event the next day being held at the Geary Street Temple (formerly of Jim Jones fame). The promoters were a punk collective known as The New Youth and the gig was being held in protest of Graham's monopoly on the California Music scene. On the bill that night were local favorites Negative Trend and The Zeros. Despite American road crew objections, The Clash accepted the offer to play. Since this stop was not in the contract for the American tour, however, 'The Clash' could not play. Instead, a cover band called 'White Riot' which consisted of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon played what road manager Johnny Green called "a storming gig from the second the band ran on to the disintegrating stage". Due in Los Angeles the following day, the band had no time to bask in their act of protest and immediately embarked on the almost 400 mile journey south.
Roger Ressmeyer, J Neo Marvin
Corrections, insights, information welcome.
Feb 7, 1979, the The Clash made their American debut.
Jenny Lens - Feb 7, 1979, the The Clash made their American debut. I was there. Crappy horrid Berkeley Community Theatre that everyone hated. THE next night #TheClash headlined the New Youth Benefit at Temple Beautiful.
It was also Chinese New Year. My pal Barbie Shore and I hopped off the bus to view the Parade for Year of the Goat. Barbie saw footage of us on the news! No way to tape anything then.
Sadly, The San Francisco lab effed up my photos. I adjusted these in Photoshop.
AND I've dug up photos from their first press conference. I'll be posted vids I'm making from the Clash's first USA Tour, starting in the Bay Area. For my Punk Pioneers Club.
SIGN up on my Punk Pioneers Club Newsletter page to get the earliest info when I finally re-launch it. I'm inching closer. Working on it every day. https://punkpioneers.club/newsletter-signup/
Kathleen Hiraga - Jenny, was that you off to the left of the stage at the Clash Motor City Roller Rink show? See my photo to of this feed...
Melody Maker review
San Francisco: Joel Selvin
NEITHER the Clash nor Elvis Costello created a favour- able impression in their separate Berkeley Community Theater concerts only two days apart. Costello left the stage after per- forming less than 40 minutes. The house lights snapped on the second he stepped from the stage and he never returned, despite a clamorous demand for encores by the sold-out crowd.
To make matters worse, he sang only one song from either of his first two albums - songs the audience came to hear instead, sticking exclusively to material from his recent LP, "Armed Forces."
Nevertheless, Costello and the Attractions sounded much improved in the band's fourth Bay Area ap- pearance in less than 15 months. Not only has the band expanded its role and Costello grown as a songwriter, but the concert production left little to be desired. Too bad he sent the crowd home so dissatisfied with the duration and content of the perform- ance.
The trendy, scene-conscious 3,300- strong audience that showed up for the Wednesday Clash concert at the Berkeley hal! came with a chip-on-the- shoulder, "show me " attitude that would have been difficult for the Clash to transcend, even with a razor- sharp show.
As it was, the 45-minute set by the band zoomed by in a blur, as the frenzied audience filled the aisles looking for release that never came, and the sound boomed 'impotently around the cavernous hall..
The following night, however, the band reportedly redeemed itself in a bright, burning show at the Temple Beautiful, the old synagogue next to the old Fillmore Auditorium, in a benefit for local punk rock bands.
The Clash offers visions of a rock-'n'-roll apocalypse
The Best Gang in Town
Time Magazine - MARCH 5. 1979
A word from a fan in Berkeley. Calif.: "I like the Clash because they're not disco. They're not fat. bald, ageing hippies in hot tubs.
A reflection from the Clash singer Joe Strummer, backstage at Berkeley: "We shouldn't have played here. It's a university town. They're boring snobs."
Standoff. Stalemate.
It is a curious situation, not without a certain undercurrent of irony The Clash. an English band of four tough-strutting musicians who together lay down the fiercest, most challenging sounds in contemporary rock, has just finished up an American mini-blitz on behalf of their new album Give Em Enough Rope ten days, seven cities, stretching from Berkeley to New York, stirring up waters that flow far too free and easy. "American audiences like music to keep you happy." observes Drummer Nicky ("Topper") Headon. "It's music for you to drive home by." "It's the most dreadful thing." Lead Guitarist Mick Jones declares scornfully. "The Aerosmith's, the Foghats, the Bostons-they've kind of signed themselves out."
All around London. the Clash sings straight to and, in a sense, even speaks for-a generation of working-class kids not only cut off from the social main stream but disaffected from the smug. cushy sounds of most contemporary pop. Stateside, the audience is different: students, trendy punks, artists and camp followers who cruise the punk periphery like tourists looking to score a season box for the apocalypse. No wonder that, after only the first American date. Joe Strummer was already sounding a little homesick.
In England, the lashing, defiant sound of the Clash has scored well on the charts. Their songs drive hard and meanness. Just the titles give a taste of the action: Last Gang in Town, Guns on the Roof. Drug-Stabbing Time. In the U.S., air play is scarce. Easy enough to figure that stations programmed for the lulling sounds of California rock or the dull throb of dis co might not take to a Clash tune like, Tommy Gun. There is even some civic concern about violence at the concerts. to which Strummer replies. "There's as much violence at our concerts as any bar" or, he might have added, at your run-of-the-mill Aerosmith concert. Even with this uncertainty and resistance, the new album has sold upwards of 50,000 copies so far, indicating that there is still art audience for the kind of challenging. combustible music that has not been matched since the Stones or the Who.
Or, for hat matter, the Sex Pistols, with whom the Clash is continually compared, although, as Headon says, "we're nothing like the Sex Pistols. We don't set out to shock people through being sick on stage or through self-mutilation." Jones elaborates: "I never was one for sticking a pin in me nose." The Clash, though hardly elegant instrumentalists, makes far better crafted music than the Pistols ever did. The sheets of sound they let loose have the cumulative effect of a mugging, but the songs, full of threat and challenge. never mean to menace. They are, rather about anger and desperation. about violence as a condition more than a prescription. Last Gang in Town, a fleet, bleak vision of the immediate future with London deeply riven by intramural combat between "rockabilly rebels." "skinhead gangs." "soul rebels" and "zydeco kids." is in part a smart parable about musical rivalries. Even more to the point. it is a shrewd reflection on class and generational warfare, as Strummer sings. "The sport of today is exciting/ The In crowd are into infighting/ It's brawn against brain or knife against chain/ But it's all young blood flowing down the drain."
Although the Clash assaults some familiar enemies (cops, nares, soldiers and teachers), the group has no safe targets -not even themselves. Cheapskate is a bit of ironic bemusement about rock stardom, both its perks ("Just because we're in a group you think we're stinking rich/ 'N' we all got model girls shedding every stitch") and its permanence ("I'll get out my money and make a bet/That I'll be seeing you down the launderette"). A fever-blister rocker called Safe European Home concerns the lads' attempts to seek out some brothers in Jamaica, where "every white face is an invitation to robbery" and "Natty Dread drinks at the Sheraton Hotel."
Mick Jones, who writes most of the Clash repertoire with Strummer. hopes that their music can be "an illumination." Such an ambition might seem unsuitably lofty but for the fact that the group comes from a tradition that uses music not only as an outlet but as a force, an effective instrument of social change. "The record company's making out we're politicians, and that's a load of stuff," sneers Strummer, but Jones may cut a little closer when he recalls the title of his school song. Servants of the State to Be. "It was the high hope that you would become a civil servant." he says. "That was the best you could do. But rock 'n' roll changed the way I look at society."
Jones. Headon and Bass Player Paul Simonon are all 23: Strummer is the band's senior citizen at 25. Two come from broken homes (Jones: "I stayed with me gran and a lot of wicked aunts") and have logged long hours doing manual labor and running the streets. Even Headon, whose father was a headmaster and whose mother was a teacher, says. "I used to steal a lot and run with a gang." and figures he would be in stir today if he had not beat out 205 other drummers at a Clash audition. Out of the pieces of a shared precarious existence, the Clash has fashioned music of restless anger and hangman's wit, rediscovered and redirected the danger at the heart of all great rock. Jay Cacks
(Guitarist Mick Jones, Drummer Nicky Headon, Bassist Paul Simonon, Singer Joe Strummer Randy drive and combustible spirit that has not been matched since the Stones or the Who)
Berk Geary North East Bay Independent and Gazette
Friday16th Feb 1979
'Clash' - rock's new revolutionaries
"If you don't like The Clash you don't like rock n' roll." -Sounds Magazine.
The English new wave band, The Clash, heralded by many British papers as "The best rock n' roll band in the world." played their first American date at Berkeley Community Theatre Wednesday night. The next night, instead of heading down to L.A. as planned, they performed at a benefit organized by some local punk bands, at the Geary Theatre.
After making headlines in England, the suspense in this country had built to an incredible pitch. The Clash are thought by many to be the successors of the Sex Pistols; the embodiment of the new wave movement. But though the Clash share many qualities with the Sex Pistols energizing, powerful music with a political slant they will not detonate themselves as did the explosive Pistols.
The Pistols never seemed to take their music very seriously, as Johnny Rotten informed us sarcastically in "No Fun." But the Clash lead singer Joe Strummer, guitarist and vocalist, Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon are deadly serious about their music, its effect on people, and their career. Though they may never get the kind of publicity the Pistols attracted, they will eventually have a much greater, long-term effect on modern music than the Sex Pistols.
C.B.S. Records, one of the biggest conglomerates. signed the band after watching them carefully for more than a year. They saw their first LP (which is available here only. as an import) sell out of record stores, read wildly enthusiastic reviews of the band's performances, and felt the tremors. Still, whether they can break the band in America is questionable. As has been proven innumerable times in the past, a band can be gigantic in Europe and sell three records in the States. This all-important American break-through tour is complicated because many radio stations have a preconceived idea of the band as a spitting, dangerous, and destructive punk band. Hence, many radio stations haven't even listened to the record. And everyone knows that without radio airplay a band can never get the exposure it needs. Any band tagged with the punk/new wave label hits a brick wall of prejudice and ignorance in American radio. (Elvis Costelio neatly sidestepped the wall by emphasizing that he was not new wave, though he was originally signed to fill C.B.S.'s quota of new wave bands.)
THE CLASH "energize them" to a certain awareness
Some people, who have listened to the record, take issue with the lyrics (though they are generally difficult to hear.) On "Guns On The Roof (of the world)" The Clash. could mobilize an army. Joe Strummer sings:
"They tortured all the women and children. And then they put the men to the gun, Because across that human frontier. Freedoms always on the run. Guns guns shaking in terror, Guns guns killing in error. Guns guns in guilty hands, Guns guns shatter the land."
Some of the resistance to this group stems from people's fear that the Clash are advocating revolution, and could be a catalyst in a country, like England which is in a dangerous, primed state to begin with.
Their producer Sandy Pearlman (manager/producer of Blue Oyster Cult, the Dictators) whom I interviewed recently. said about the band: "The Clash make fundamentally revolutionary music. It's designed implicitly to energize certain mental states within the consciousness of their audiences. It's the spirit of freedom in a society which is incredibly debased and corrupted, but even so, has infinite opportunities for exaltation.
If there's a me message it's that there is a constant need. no, an absolute requirement for people to "make the most of these opportunities, the opportunity for choices to stay free."
Maybe that's what they mean in their song "Stay Free;" all they're advocating is taking chances, not getting stuck in the rat race, even if you are (as two of them were) born in a London slum.
But labels, lyrics and politics aside, the bottom line is that the Clash makes dynamic, volatile music that is better than a shot of adrenalin. On the new record, Give 'Em Enough Rope, (incidentally, the cover was done by photographer Hugh Brown who lives in Albany) every single song. with the possible exception of "Julie's In The Drug Squad." delivers with an intensity and strength unheard on any past record. Anyone who can sit still through "Tommy Gun" must be in advanced stages of rigor mortis.
At Wednesday's show at the Berkeley Community theatre the hard-core punk fans, some even wearing one or two symbolic safety pins, mingled with people like the conservatively dressed reporter from Time Magazine, When the foursome hit the stage people pushed down the aisles, going right over the guards in some cases. Security wisely gave up trying to stern the tide of fans. Before they'd even struck the first chord the audience up front was on their feet, then standing on their chairs, so that everyone ended up balancing on their seats if they wanted to see. It remained that way for the entire show.
The Clash didn't disappoint. Mick Jones bounced around the stage tossing off great guitar lines (does anyone realize what a great guitarist this. English lad is?). Joe Strummer sang like it was his last night, Paul kicked in a heavy bass line and "Topper" kept the band anchored. Though the sound was poor and the mixing even worse, the drums were mixed way too high the energy and charisma of the band superceded everything. They played almost everything they've recorded, including their anthem "Complete Control," which was a definite high point, plus a dynamite cover of "I Fought The Law.
The following night they seemed much more at home at the Geary Theatre which is just next door to the People's Temple (a fact which delighted the band.) It was the next best thing to seeing them in a them in a small club in England. Their souriftimen said later that it was one of the best shows they've ever seen them do. The audience was free to jump and dance, which contributed to the mood.
Directly after the show the band boarded their bus and headed down to L.A. for their show there the next night, at Santa Monica Civic. (I heard later that they were able to get the promoter to remove all the seats in the Civic.)
One last point. What is being said about the Clash, about their being a dangerous influence, a no-good punk band that just wants to destroy everything sacred etc., etc., was said about the Stones when they started. Basically, the Clash is returning to the fundamental philosophy behind rock n' roll. Rock n' roll always has been and should always be a revolutionary force, not necessarily to incite people to burn down cities, but certainly to "energize them," as their producer says, to a certain awareness. The Stones do it, the Beatles did it, and now it's the Clash's turn.
Clash concert provides both relevance and good music
Oakland Tribune Monday, March 3, 1980 - C-9 - Review By Larry Kelp
References this gig at Berkley
A new record by the Triggers blared through the Warfield Theater pa. system: I don't want to be radioactive I just want to know what's going on.
A packed crowd of 2,200 Clash fans milled, waiting for the most important rock band of the '80s, so far, to take the stage. The music would be fun, but there was something more that the Clash offered: relevance.
Standing in front of an industrial-scene backdrop of factories and nuclear power plant, the English quartet delivered just that 24-song. 90-minute rock show that seemed to explode with more force than all the fireworks in Chinatown a few blocks away: guns on the roof, bombs in the street, executives planning ad campaigns on the 51st floor, musicians getting lost in the supermarket, the Four Horsemen riding, nuclear power plant running amok.
London calling, now don't look us
All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
The audience was much younger this time than at the Clash's American debut in Berkeley a year ago, when the Londoners began by singing. "I'm so bored with the US.A."
(Mick Jones, left, and Joe Strummer of The Clash.)
The youths who came Saturday and to another sold-out show Sunday-would have been intimated and alienated by watching male strippers in Fremont, seeing Jerry Brown on television, being surrounded by drunks in an Irish pub, buying. fancy roller skates.
Clash fans are aware that world problems have reached crises proportions. They are also aware-maybe not consciously so-that at they should be doing something corrective. But what?
The Clash doesn't offer any answers. They can reflect that sense of alienation from a world they didn't create, but are stuck with. And the songs bound along with a sense of urgency and an almost overwhelming positive force missing in nearly every other rock band.
What they say to their fans and how they say it probably makes more sense than anything on the 6 o'clock news.
The Clash was one of the first, and the very spring y best, punk bands up in the wake of to the Sex Pistols three years ago. They mixed punk garage-band tactics with rock and reggae beats. While early recordings and shows were lacking in polish and technique, audiences quickly got the message and responded to it.
After two albums of furious rock, the Clash has moved on, and the recent two disc "London Calling" is a far-reaching mix of nearly every element in rock's history, from rockabilly and early R&B to punchy Memphis Stax sound, New Orleans soul and Jamaican reggae.
More than any other band that sprang up in the late 70s, the Clash seem capable of develop ing beyond its original format and taking its audience with it. The group in not about to knock Barry Manilow out of the charts, but stands good chance of being around long after Manilow has become nostalgia.
Much of the show was devoted to songs from the new album: the terrifying tit title track "London Calling," "Working for the Clampdown," "Spanish Bombs," all delivered by hoarse-voiced Joe Strummer.
Cynicism and desperation cuts through an abundance of Clash songs, but they also seem to of fer hope that a change can come, not from political or economic leaders, but through the power of the individual. Guitarist Mick Jones sang the two most melodic and most life affirming songs: Stay Free" and "Train in Vain."
Strummer, Jones, drummer Nicky Headon and bassist Paul Simonon bounded about the stage in black outfits. Organist Mickey Gallagher was added for the tour.
A year ago the Clash was a ball of barely-controlled wild energy. In the interim the band has matured and gained full control of the stage. The show Saturday was one of rock's noisiest and finest hours.
(Lee Dorsey)
As in past tours around the states, the band has hired un-knowns and forgotten giants of pop and rock to open their shows. So far the openers have included Bo Diddley. Sam and Dave, Screaming Jay Hawkins At the San Francisco shows this weekend they dredged up Lee Dorsey, best known for his soul pop hit "Ya-Ya" 19 years ago, before many in the audience were born. Dorsey still has a voice and strong stage presence, although be might have been better received in a different setting.
Backed by a hot combo. Dorsey sang to an intent crowd gathered about the stage while at least half the audience, sole Clash fans who weren't about to watch an older black man sing his past hits, wandered about the lobby a and hung out at the upstairs bar.
As with his early hits, Dorsey's most recent album, "Night People." was produced by Allen Toussaint. And, as luck would have it, the record company folded shortly after it came out in 1978. You You can sometimes find it in Eastbay record store cut-out bins.
Unknown Jamaican reggae singer Mickey Dread opened the show, then stayed around to sing on two of the Clash’s six encore numbers. The Clash shows are not for everyone, especially not for those who just want uninvolving entertainment.
The Clash begin their first American tour at the Berkeley Community Theatre in Berkeley, CA. 45 years ago! (February 7, 1979) Bo Diddley & The Dils opened the show at the 3,500-capacity venue on the campus of Berkeley High School.
Dismayed
Joe Strummer originally dismayed that his band’s American debut would be in a college town. “We shouldn’t have played here,” Strummer told Time magazine backstage. “It’s a university town. They’re boring snobs.”
Diddley
Bo Diddley was somewhat bewildered by his role in what the Clash termed the Pearl Harbor ’79 Tour (and didn’t particularly enjoy the volume at which the band played). Strummer was in shock the rock icon agreed to the job.
Diddley and the group soon warmed up to one another, which helped since they all traveled on the same tour bus, which had been leased from another American music icon: Dolly Parton.
Sid's death
After playing the first show of their tour in Toronto, they were on their way from Canada to Northern California when they found out that former Sex Pistol and a member of the same London punk scene that had birthed the Clash – had died in New York. “I wake up and as I’m searching for some breakfast, Ace Penna, our U.S. tour manager, tells me ‘Hey, didja know Sid is dead?’” Strummer wrote in the tour diary he penned for NME. “I grab him by the throat. ‘What do you mean?’ I snarl. Then, as it sinks in, I don’t want no breakfast. Our first morning in America.”
Setlist
The Clash began their set with “I’m So Bored With the U.S.A.” and it would become a tradition throughout the winter tour.
Reviews of the show were largely positive. Strummer would acknowledge that the university crowd loved the Clash’s first U.S. show - they were “tapping their biology textbooks in time with the tunes” he snarked in his diary.
England's newest New Wave band The Clash will headline a concert at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, Grove Street & Allston Way. Also appearing will be Bo Diddley; Pearl Harbor & the Explosions will open the show.
Greil Marcus writes in New West: "The Clash (are) an English punk band who are so good that they are changing the face of rock'n'roll." Their music is rock, smart, tough and dangerous in the way it challenges current assumptions about what constitutes "good" rock. Meeting Joe Strummer (lead singer who along with guitarist Mick Jones writes the group's material), Marcus says, "No band has tried harder to live up to the revolt of punk, to keep its spirit whole than the Clash." Other members of the band are bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon. They have just released their first American album Give 'Em Enough Rope and are proving their metal to new audiences.
Playing with the Clash is Bo Diddley, and his bass player Jerome. His music typified rhythm and blues, and he crossed the color barrier in the early days of music when no one else could. He was the only r&b man to do a surfing album. Many people feel that Elvis stole Bo's music and became a legend with it. Bo's albums include Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley's a Twister (with "Who Do You Love"), Bo Diddley's Beach Party and at least a dozen others.
Pearl Harbor and the Explosions are a local new wave band whose many club appearances have developed their versatile. rocking style. Their repertoire ranges from fifties classics to original material. Their song "Drivin" is now being played on KSAN.
The Clash were about two and a half years into their career before they played a gig on U.S. soil. The band’s first American show wasn’t at a grimy punk club: They were already too popular in the States. Besides, Give ’Em Enough Rope had already shown the Clash was moving beyond the rudimentary constraints of punk.
They played their first U.S. gig on Feb. 7, 1979 at the Berkeley Community Theatre in Berkeley, Calif. The 3,500-capacity venue on the campus of Berkeley High School had a rock pedigree, with past gigs by Bob Dylan, the Who and Jimi Hendrix.
Joe Strummer dismayed
But Joe Strummer was still dismayed that his band’s American debut would be in a college town. “We shouldn’t have played here,” Strummer told Time magazine backstage. “It’s a university town. They’re boring snobs.”
It wasn’t how Strummer pictured this would go. But then, not much in recent months had gone that way for the Clash. The band had been forced by CBS Records to use Blue Oyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman on their sophomore LP, Give ’Em Enough Rope, an album that – for its glossier, more radio-friendly sound – hadn’t broken the Clash in the U.S. the way the record company had hoped. Meanwhile, the band was in debt to CBS, it had just fired manager Bernie Rhodes, and Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones were in the midst of a bout of writer’s block.
Clash had picked a new manager, tour USA?
Things started to get better after the Clash picked a new manager, Caroline Coon. Sure, she was bassist Paul Simonon’s girlfriend, but she also listened to what the band members actually wanted to do.
Do a tour in America? With the Clash in debt, CBS didn’t want to fund an overseas trek, but Coon was able to get the band’s Stateside label, Epic, to pony up the cash. (This was somewhat remarkable, given that Epic had refused to release the Clash’s raw debut album in 1977.) When Simonon and Strummer wanted rock ’n’ roll pioneer Bo Diddley to open the band’s U.S. tour, Coon found the singer-guitarist in Australia and agreed to pay him upfront.
Vancouver & Bo Diddley
The guys in the Clash met their tourmate in Vancouver, where the string of dates began on Jan. 31, before heading down to the States. Diddley was somewhat bewildered by his role in what the Clash termed the Pearl Harbor ’79 Tour (and didn’t particularly enjoy the volume at which the band played). Strummer was in shock the rock icon agreed to the job.
“In the flesh, he was more awe-inspiring than we could possibly imagine,” Strummer recalled, according to Q. “He dressed like he was ready to fight. He always had his huge sheriff’s hat on and a giant belt buckle, and you were unmistakably in the presence of someone who gave no quarter.”
But Diddley and the group soon warmed up to one another, which helped since they all traveled on the same tour bus, which had been leased from another American music icon: Dolly Parton. Even though Strummer and friends didn’t enjoy sleeping on the bus too much, they took to the on-board TV and videocassette machine, which allowed them (or at least drummer Topper Headon) to watch Star Wars over and over.
On leaving Vancouver news of Sid's death
They were on their way from Canada to Northern California when they heard some awful news: Sid Vicious – former Sex Pistol and a member of the same London punk scene that had birthed the Clash – had died in New York, on the other side of the country the group was so eager to explore.
“I wake up and as I’m searching for some breakfast, Ace Penna, our U.S. tour manager, tells me ‘Hey, didja know Sid is dead?’” Strummer wrote in the tour diary he penned for NME. “I grab him by the throat. ‘What do you mean?’ I snarl. Then, as it sinks in, I don’t want no breakfast. Our first morning in America.”
Watch the Clash Perform 'I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.'
Ultimate Classic Rock: I'm So Bored With The USA - The Clash - Live
“We started the show with ‘I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.’ because we wanted to find out if they had a sense of humor in America,” Strummer said, via Q
It might have been the Clash’s first morning on tour America, but it wasn’t actually their first trip to the country. The previous year, the band spent a little time while recording portions of Give ’Em Enough Rope in San Francisco. But that had given the Clash but a taste of the U.S. and the members were excited to see more.
Berkeley
Humorless fans in the Berkeley audience might not have realized how happy they were to be in America. As a poke in the ribs, the Clash began their set with “I’m So Bored With the U.S.A.” It would become a tradition throughout the winter tour.
“We started the show with ‘I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.’ because we wanted to find out if they had a sense of humor in America,” Strummer said, via Q. “And the answer was that they were double into that number. They loved it, because we were saying we were sick of the cheap rubbish on TV, all the substandard cultural imports that came out of America. The kids were as bored as we were with all that rubbish.”
The rest of the set featured a mix of songs from the Clash’s first album (which had yet to be officially released in the States, though tens of thousands of import copies had been purchased by American fans), second album and recent singles – including “Clash City Rockers,” “White Man (In Hammersmith Palais)” and their ferocious cover of “I Fought the Law.” All three songs would end up on the U.S. version of The Clash. “White Riot” served as a frenetic encore.
Bob Gruen: “The first show was a blast,”
“The first show was a blast,” photographer Bob Gruen recalled in Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer. “The place was full of happy, dancing people. The Clash was more than your average good-time band. You not only had a good time but you also thought about issues that bothered people. Things were serious and there was a lot to be angry about, but there was also a lot to have fun about. The force of the music made it sound like a battlefield, a clash. The lights were always flashing, like explosions.”
Reviews
Newspaper and music magazine reviews of the show were largely positive. Some acknowledged that the U.S. audiences were more subdued than British punk fans, and the Clash appreciated that no one tried to spit on them as they performed. Even though Strummer would acknowledge that the university crowd loved the Clash’s first U.S. show (they were “tapping their biology textbooks in time with the tunes” he snarked in his diary), he hadn’t come to America to connect solely with the student population.
Bill Graham
And so, in defiance of promoter Bill Graham, the Clash hastily organized a second show in the San Francisco area for the next evening. This one would take place at Geary Temple (which had once been Graham’s old Fillmore West), cost half as much as the first show and benefit a youth organization and the homeless. The band’s second concert in America was a charity benefit – a fact the Clash wore proudly.
“The show is really great, the hall is really great, the audience is really great,” Strummer wrote, “but we gotta leave straight after the set to drive the 400 miles to Los Angeles.”
Travelling
Having only toured Britain and Europe, the guys in the Clash were surprised at how spread out the cities in the U.S. could be. Four hundred miles was nothing. After leaving L.A. to drive across the Southwest, the band became shocked by the expanse of empty space. America was more normal, more boring, than Strummer had expected, but it was still the place that had given them so much of the music he loved.
“When you’ve been into American music as long as I have, to go there is a trip,” Strummer said in the 2000 Clash documentary Westway to the World. “To ride across the country, even better, on a bus is another trip. Fantastic. I got endless amounts of inspiration from it.”
Inspired by America
The Clash’s primary songwriters – Strummer and Jones – were creatively rejuvenated not just by experiencing America for themselves but also by the reception they received from fans during the nine-date tour that took them from Vancouver to California, Cleveland to Washington D.C., New York and Toronto.
Later the band would write, record and release London Calling, a magnum opus that featured more than a little American influence with its R&B and rockabilly sounds. They also returned to North America for a second, more extensive tour. And more inspiration.
On this day in 1979, The Clash kicked off their first concert of their first American tour at the Berkeley Community Theatre outside San Francisco. Bo Diddley opened the show.
Diddley
Bo Diddley & the Clash all traveled in the same tour bus, which had been leased from another American music icon: Dolly Parton. Even though Joe Strummer & friends didn't enjoy sleeping on the bus too much, they took to the on-board TV and VCR, which allowed them (or at least the drummer, Topper Headon) to watch Star Wars over and over.
Sid's death
While the band was on their way from Canada to Northern California, they heard some awful news. Sid Vicious, former Sex Pistol and a member of the same London punk scene that had birthed The Clash, had died in New York, on the other side of the country the group was so eager to explore.
“I wake up and as I’m searching for some breakfast, Ace Penna, our U.S. tour manager, tells me ‘Hey, didja know Sid is dead?’” Strummer wrote in the tour diary he penned for NME. “I grab him by the throat. ‘What do you mean?’ I snarl. Then, as it sinks in, I don’t want no breakfast. Our first morning in America.”
NYC
The Clash arrived in New York City for the first time on February 17, 1979, playing the Palladium with support from Bo Diddley and the Cramps.
The Clash were about two and a half years into their career before they played a gig on U.S. soil.
Berkeley
The band’s first American show wasn’t at a grimy punk club: They were already too popular in the States. They played their first U.S. gig on Feb. 7, 1979 at the Berkeley Community Theatre in Berkeley, Calif. The 3,500-capacity venue on the campus of Berkeley High School."
The first night, Berkeley Community Theatre
However, this photo by Roger Ressmeyer is from the 8th at the Geary Temple/Fillmore - The Clash | Facebook
The first night Berkeley Community Theatre
However, this photo by Roger Ressmeyer is from the 8th at the Geary Temple/Fillmore
Sulprizio Nunzio - Topper & Pearl E. Gates - The Clash’s first US gig, Berkeley, CA - February 8, 1979. J. Neo Marvin photographer.
Hi all, I went by the name the photographer used for Pearl of Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. She went by Pearl Harbor/Harbour, too. I am an SF Bay native,doesn’t make me an expert, I remember her going by Pearl E. Gates when I was in school at that time. Attention grabbing names and beautiful lady! Paul S. was a lucky guy!! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/.../Pearl_Harbor_and_the...
Gil Warguez - With “DJ Scratchy” Barry Myers in the bg.
Bob Gruen, San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
The Clash at the Berkeley Community Theater, the band's first show in America, Berkeley, California, February 7, 1979
Paul Simonon playing his '70s P-Bass that met it's doom on the iconic cover of 1979's London Calling. (BMC: it was the other 'Pressure' bass that was smashed 20/09/79. This was used the following night at Toronto)
R. Ressmeyer
We believe this photo is actually from the 7th. Russ's photos are generally form the following night.
The Clash live BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 2: Joe Strummer performs with 'the Clash' at the Berkeley Community Center in Berkeley, California on February 2, 1979. (Photo by Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Other photos
Paul Simonon playing his '70s P-Bass that met it's doom on the iconic cover of 1979's London Calling. C. R. Ressmeyer, R. Ressmeyer
The Clash at the Berkeley Community Theater, the band's first show in America, Berkeley, California, February 7, 1979
Paul Simonon playing his '70s P-Bass that met it's doom on the iconic cover of 1979's London Calling. R. Ressmeyer (this photo in the aove post is from the following night at the Fillmore, shot by Roger Ressmeyer)
Photo 1-3: The Clash at the Berkely Community Centre Photo 3: Topper Headon looking sleepy backstage at the Berkeley Community Theatre, along with Pearl E. Gates and some other characters.[photos 4-7 from the next night at the Geary Temple]
Sunday Pics - 1979.02.07 - Berkeley Community Center
The Clash Live BERKELEY, CA - FEBUARY 2: Joe Strummer performs with 'the Clash' at the Berkeley Community Center in Berkeley, California on February 2, 1979. (Photo by Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The Clash live BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 2: Joe Strummer performs with 'the Clash' at the Berkeley Community Center in Berkeley, California on February 2, 1979. (Photo by Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Omega Music Post (Berkeley)
Omega Music Post (Berkeley)
Setlist
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Complete Control
I Fought the Law
Jail Guitar Doors
Drug Stabbing Time
City of the Dead
Safe European Home
White Man In Hammersmith Palais
Tommy Gun
Clash City Rockers
English Civil War
Extensive archive of articles, magazines and other from the Pearl Harbour Tour of the US, February 1979
by Johnny Green (Author), Garry Barker (Author), Ray Lowry (Illustrator)
Pearl Harbour Tour pg129
Vancover pg131
Seattle pg133
San Francisco pg134
Berkley pg138
Filmore pg139
Santa Monica pg140
Cleveland pg145
New York pg147
Johnny Green first met the Clash in 1977 and was their road manager for three years. Ray Lowry accompanied the band as official "war artist" on the second American tour and designed the ' London Calling' album cover. Together, in words and pictures, Green and Lowry give the definitive, inside story on one of the most magnificent rock 'n' roll bands ever.
Brixton Academy 8 March 1984
ST. PAUL, MN - MAY 15
Other 1984 photos
Sacramento Oct 22 1982
Oct 13 1982 Shea
Oct 12 1982 Shea
San Francisco, Jun 22 1982
Hamburg, Germany May 12 1981
San Francisco, Mar 02 1980
Los Angeles, April 27 1980
Notre Dame Hall Jul 06 1979
New York Sep 20 1979
Southall Jul 14 1979
San Francisco, Feb 09 1979
San FranciscoFeb 08 1979
Berkeley, Feb 02 1979
Toronto, Feb 20 1979
RAR Apr 30 1978
Roxy Oct 25 1978
Rainbow May 9 1977
Us May 28 1983
Sep 11, 2013: THE CLASH (REUNION) - Paris France 2 IMAGES
Mar 16, 1984: THE CLASH - Out of Control UK Tour - Academy Brixton London 19 IMAGES
Jul 10, 1982: THE CLASH - Casbah Club UK Tour - Brixton Fair Deal London 16 IMAGES
1982: THE CLASH - Photosession in San Francisco CA USA 2 IMAGES
Jul 25, 1981: JOE STRUMMER - At an event at the Wimpy Bar Piccadilly Circus London 33 IMAGES
Jun 16, 1980: THE CLASH - Hammersmith Palais London 13 IMAGES
Feb 17, 1980: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 8 IMAGES
Jul 06, 1979: THE CLASH - Notre Dame Hall London 54 IMAGES
Jan 03, 1979: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 19 IMAGES
Dec 1978: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 34 IMAGES
Jul 24, 1978: THE CLASH - Music Machine London 48 IMAGES Aug 05, 1977: THE CLASH - Mont-de-Marsan Punk Rock Festival France 33 IMAGES
1977: THE CLASH - London 18 IMAGES
Joe Strummer And there are two Joe Strummer sites, official and unnoffical here
Clash City Collectors - excellent
Facebook Page - for Clash Collectors to share unusual & interesting items like..Vinyl. Badges, Posters, etc anything by the Clash. Search Clash City Collectors & enter search in search box. Place, venue, etc
Clash on Parole- excellent Facebook page - The only page that matters Search Clash on Parole & enter search in the search box. Place, venue, etc
Clash City Snappers Anything to do with The Clash. Photos inspired by lyrics, song titles, music, artwork, members, attitude, rhetoric,haunts,locations etc, of the greatest and coolest rock 'n' roll band ever.Tributes to Joe especially wanted. Pictures of graffitti, murals, music collections, memorabilia all welcome. No limit to postings. Don't wait to be invited, just join and upload. Search Flickr / Clash City Snappers Search Flickr / 'The Clash'
Search Flickr / 'The Clash' ticket
I saw The Clash at Bonds - excellent Facebook page - The Clash played a series of 17 concerts at Bond's Casino in New York City in May and June of 1981 in support of their album Sandinista!. Due to their wide publicity, the concerts became an important moment in the history of the Clash. Search I Saw The Clash at Bonds & enter search in red box. Place, venue, etc
Loving the Clash Facebook page - The only Clash page that is totally dedicated to the last gang in town. Search Loving The Clash & enter search in the search box. Place, venue, etc
Blackmarketclash.co.uk Facebook page - Our very own Facebook page. Search Blackmarketclash.co.uk & enter search in red box. Place, venue, etc
Search all of Twitter Search Enter as below - Twitter All of these words eg Bonds and in this exact phrase, enter 'The Clash'
Lifetimes 20/20 Video
By Johnny Green and Garry Barker
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The Official Clash 
Clash City Snappers
