Pearl Harbour Tour - Larry McIntyre Fund Benefit
Supported by Bo Diddley & Alex Bevan

updated 8 March 2007
updated 7 July 2008 - added 10 track soundboard
updated 25 December - possible video source?
updated Dec 2014 better audio review
Updated June 2022 -added Pulse magazine link
updated xmas 2023 added (TNEW45) ARTICLE CLEVELAND

Various sources

We have have been bombarded over the years with various Agora recordings. All you need is source 9 which has he best 20 track FM and includes the best 4 KBFH recordings on the end.

The King Biscuit Flower Hour FM is the best (4 tracks) and matched by Wolfgangs Vault 10 track version, 4 of which were the KBFH broadcast. On better versions Joe announces Safe European Home before the radio annoucer speaks. Most copies miss the first few seconds.

The full 20 track FM version is slightly infereior but by a risla paper's width better than the bootleg LP Police and Fireman. Unlike KBH and Wolfgangs Vault, on the full 20 track FM version "s***" on Stay Free is not edited out.

Wolfang's Vault soundboard provides the best 10 tracks and the full FM version providing in good quality the remaining 10

Here's the list!

Audio 1 King Biscuit Flower Hour FM

Tracks 4 - 16mins - sound 3.0 - unknown source

Audio 2 King Biscuit Flower Hour FM

Tracks 4 - 16mins - sound 3.5 - unknown source

Audio 3 King Biscuit Flower Hour FM

Tracks 4 - 16mins - sound 3.5 - unknown source
Joe announces Safe European Home before the radio annoucer speaks. Most copies miss first few seconds

Safe European Home (audio 3)

Audio 4 - Police and Fireman LP

(Scratched/Heavy)
Sound 3.5 - 49min - LP - 15 tracks [1-15]

Audio 5 - Police and Fireman LP

Sound 4 - 49min - lp/master - 15 tracks [1-15]
Includes Janie Jones (trk 16) from lesser source

Audio 6 - Police and Fireman LP

Sound 4 - 49min - lp/master - 15 tracks [1-15]
Includes Janie Jones (trk 16) from lesser source

Audio 7 - Full FM source & KBFH

1hr 5mins (FM) + 15mins (KBFH - Sound 4.5 - 20 tracks + 4 tracks

Safe European Home (audio 7)

Audio 8 - Full FM

Sound 4.5 - 1hr 1min - 20 tracks
Alternatively spliced FM version

Audio 9 - Wolfgangs Official soundboard

35mins - sound 4.0 - master - Tracks 10

rom www.concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/
Much of a muchness like KBFH, slightly better than FM version

Safe European Home (audio 9)

Audio - Pulse Magazines live tracks/article

Online or PDF version here

Full breakdown

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	I'm so bored with the USA Drug Stabbing Time Jail Guitar Doors Tommy Gun City of the Dead Hate and War White Man Safe European Home Stay Free English Civil War Guns on The Roof Police and Thieves Capital Radio Janie Jones Garageland Julies Been Working/ds Londons Burning White Riot Complete Control Whats My Name Full 20 track = above K = KBFH W = Wolfgang'sV soundboard L = Police and Fireman LP FM	KB KB KB KB	LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP LP	WV WV WV WV WV WV WV WV WV WV	FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM FM

possible video?

See below...

Visit the Clash on Stage website for a comprehensive catalogue of unofficially released CD's and Vinyl.

Agora 1979 footage

I just got an email from a guy and this is what he said

"Would you know if any video footage is circulating of the clash at the Cleveland Agora from 1979? I remember that WUAB local news tv station filmed all or at least some of the set as part of a story on the guy that the bennefit concert was for.  I didnt have a VCR back then to record it and the tv station no longer exists that aired the report,all of their stock news umatic video footage was taken to the dump years ago.

So maybe someone has it but with it being a news report it would be a slim chance someone taped and kept it.

An email arrived at BMC asking;"Would you know if any video footage is circulating of the clash at the Cleveland Agora from 1979? I remember that WUAB local news tv station filmed all or at least some of the set as part of a story on the guy that the bennefit concert was for.  I didnt have a VCR back then to record it and the tv station no longer exists that aired the report,all of their stock news umatic video footage was taken to the dump years ago.

Sound Quality: Classic clash gig

From Here To Eternity' has great sound quality and professional performances but fails to capture the excitement, the mania, the atmosphere, the "controlled explosion on stage" that The Clash, like no other band before or since, could conjure.

There are 3 known variants of this gig circulating with varying lengths and sound quality, all seemingly from the same source.

Recorded professionally for local FM radio, the sound mix is particularly good in capturing the Clash sound, with Mick's lead in one stereo channel and Joe's rhythm in the other. Bass, drums are also all excellent, the only fault with the mix being the vocals which are not as "in your face" as they could be.

Police and Firemen LP

The gig was released as the Police (and Firemen) On My Back bootleg LP on Klashin Records in Canada in 81.

A lot of poor copies from circulate. Old tapes lifted from the vinyl

The LP has no edits between songs (see below) and therefore captures the atmosphere best, and includes all Joe's between song comments and attempts to stop the crushing at the front.

It excludes though the 5 songs in the 2 encores [tracks 16-20]. Sound is excellent stereo but the LP suffers from surface noise from scratches. The LP was subsequently re-released with different artwork.

FM versions

An FM version also exist. With the exception of I'm So Bored which lacks the same quality at the start as the rest with great professional clarity and range. The twin guitar attack of The Clash is captured superbly.

King Biscuit Flower Hour Broadcast

Four tracks were also broadcast in very good stereo FM quality on the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio programme; Safe European Home, Stay Free, Police and Thieves & Julies been working for the Drug Squad. Oddly the mix on these tracks is different losing the 2 guitar split into the channels but has clearer vocals!

Pearl Harbour Tour

The Clash thrilled to be in the US for their first tour were in terrific form. Joe was suffering from chronic toothache for this benefit gig but jokes and berates the journalists. He would write a diary for the UK NME,

‘This guy called Larry McIntyre lost both his legs in Vietnam and when he went for a swim one day in the pool near his flat all the other residents banned him from the pool on the grounds that it was too disgusting…so we agree to play a show for him, helping his legal costs but we don't get to meet him, I think because having forgot his name, I referred to him over the P.A. as "the guy with no legs". Joe surely used him later though as the inspiration for the Car Jamming lyrics, "..boots blown off in a 60's war..".

Caroline Coon remembers this as a particularly intense show. Kids were fainting in the crush at the front. Most bands didn't provoke that kind of intense response so the local security didn't know what to do.

In an article that first appeared in the Melody Maker (24/2/79) and was reprinted in Uncut November 97 Allan Jones wrote of meeting up with The Clash in freezing cold Cleveland and witnessed this gig and the next one in Washington. Never a Clash fan Jones wrote the band were great but shambolic at times, trying to cope with an audience, going wild and gobbing. White Man was interrupted as bodies were dragged over the footlights and passed backstage. The crush at the front was now murderous and Mick's face was white with anxiety.

The Agora Show is a benefit

Cleveland Scene around 6 Feb. See notes from Ray Sfferra / Ohio

Enlarge (1) - Enlarge (2) below

Proud Punks rock the Agora preview

Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8 February

Enlarge image

Clash ad from the February 8th 1979, Cleveland Scene Magazine

Kelsey Grillot | Facebook

Advert

Including the radio station

Passes, tickets

An essential recording

This recordings [in various forms] captures the sweaty, manic atmosphere of The Clash magnificently and therefore is an essential recording. A very, very popular gig amongst collectors...

All the song performances are superb with an extended Police & Thieves being the highlight (of a gig full of highlights), with Joe making fun of US consumerism, salads, tv channels and at one point shouting "I don't want 56 pairs of trousers, 3 cadillacs!..".

The 20 tracks

FL = FULL

1. I'm So Bored With The USA (15 seconds of start of song edited from FL)
2. Drug Stabbing Time
3. Jail Guitar Doors (30 seconds of intro cut on FL "Thank you to whoever sent information backstage, stuck in envelopes, and I mean paper"
4. Tommy Gun
5. City of the Dead (100 seconds cut on intro on FL "I'm glad to see you're so free with your money, for this guys got no legs, I assume you know what I'm talking about. And those of you at the back with the American/English dictionary, forget it man, they don't give a fuck for the words.
This is a Japanese number, released by Hank Williams in 1965.. [which Strummer was to repeat at several other venues as well]")
6. Hate and War
7. White Man in Hammersmith Palais (40 seconds cut on intro on FL, Joe tries to stop the crushing)
8. Safe European Home
9. Stay Free (40 seconds cut on intro on FL, Mick intro)
10. English Civil War (30 seconds intro cut on FL)
11. Guns On The Roof (30 seconds intro cut on FL)
12. Police and Thieves (45 seconds cut on FL . "We have to talk to a lot of journalists and they always ask, excuse me sir, but does your music have a message? If you say yeah, you let yourself in for, oh yeah well what is the message, so for all you trainee journalists in the audience this is the message…can we have the lights down please …Oooh! ,Oooh!, Oooh!, Oooh, Oooh, Oooh!)
13. Capital Radio
14. Janie Jones
15. Garageland
16. Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad
17. London's Burning
18. White Riot
19. Complete Control
20. What's My Name

Tracks 16 -20 are on the FL version only.

The crowd was so wild

Ova Dey: When the Clash started their set with "I'm so bored with U-S-A! , well, the place erupted. WMMS was'nt playing The Clash or much of any other punk, but strangely, they sponsored this show. They knew it was "new", this punk rock, but they never really figured out how to "sell" it.

This show remains in my top 3 of all time. The crowd was so wild, I was actually scared at a concert for the first time ever in my life.

WMMS taped the concert as they usually did at the Agora, but they refused to play it on the air, as they normally did. I called WMMS honk, "Matt the Cat" that week and he said, "we did'nt tape it". He lied. I knew then that WMMS was stuck in the past, they did everything right from 1968 to 1978 basically, but again, the punks just mystified them. They were afraid of losing their built in album oriented rock audience.

A lot of WMMS's fans would call in and rip them for playing punk, unfortunately, a gutless John Gorman gave in. WMMS, which had opened many new doors for Roxy Music, T-Rex, David Bowie, Bruce, Artful Dodger, Todd Rundgren, Mott The Hoople, The New York Dolls, and many, many others, was slayed by punk rock and new wave.They became a Dinosaur themselves.

The Clash knew it, and by selecting "I'm So Bored with the U-S-A!" as their opening number on their first American tour, they were like Paul Revere. The Punks are coming! The Punks are here!

more comments on this thread here..

Cleveland t-shirt

Clash City Collectors | Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/
Owned & Kindly shared by Johnny Kardash

Simon Wadsworth - This was the benefit gig for Vietnam vet named Larry McIntyre who had lost both legs in Vietnam and had been banned from his local swimming pool

Michael Krashes - That’s what they call a promoter shirt, made by the local promoter of the show.

Facebook - An original Promoters T-Shirt from the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland Ohio. Owned & Kindly shared by Johnny Kardash

Cleveland shows (notes)

Ray Sfferra / Ohio: While poking around your site in the gigography section I noticed that there was a Clash show listed as Cleveland, Sept. 18, 1979 [we have removed this listing]. Now I was only 18 at the time, but I think I would have remembered if they had come twice in the same year, and I would have gone to that show for sure because I had a car and was 18.

So as I said I would try to find more reviews for you anyway, I decided to go to the Cleveland library for some research.

I looked up microforms for Scene Magazine and The Plain Dealer where necessary. The Plain Dealer is the main Cleveland newspaper. The first date I checked was Sept. 18, 1979. I checked Scene both for the previous week and the week after, looking for an ad/listing and the review. I could find neither. There is no way Scene would have ignored such a show and at the least it would have been listed the week before. So I would say that this show never happened, at least not on that date.

I then checked for the February, 1979 show. This I found as February 13, not 14 as is listed on your site [date now corrected / 2005]. There is a great review of this show and I even found a mention of the benefit in the previous week's Scene.

I then checked for the 1984 Cleveland show. I had to check the Plain Dealer because someone had stolen the reels for late 1982 through mid-1985 or so (which also included the KSU show I wanted to check). I did however find it. It appears to have been Friday, May 11, 1984 at Public Hall in Cleveland. It is a pretty good review written by Jane Scott, who had even covered the Beatles appearance in Cleveland and was considered well-liked and knowledgeable about the music scene despite her age at that time. I saw her at shows often. I believe she just died recently.

Like I said, I tried to get the KSU review. I should be able to find it somewhere along with the Scene review of the '84 show. And incidentally, the Akron '82 show was at the Akron Civic Theatre, not Civic Center. I also have the '96 Cleveland Pistols show review if you or someone is interested.

Ray from Ohio

Mongolid Fanzine, Cleveland Agora Review

Mongoloid 6 1979 - bacteria.nl
Mongoloid - bacteria.nl
Mongoloid Archives - bacteria.nl—

[3] Mongoloid 6 (?) April/May 1979. Lewis, Larry et al. Larry Lewis, Publishers. Cleveland: 1979. Illustrated wraps. 8 ½ by 11 inches. 20 pp. 

Mongoloid was a Cleveland based fanzine devoted to Cleveland’s modern music, essentially punk and new wave. Created by Larry Lewis, a member of bands such as Faith Academy, Medusa Cranks and others. In this issue, Tony Morgan deals with depression and reviews a Clash show; Larry Lewis reviews the Public Image album; there’s a piece on the Dromones, etc.  $175.00 catalog-23.pdf

Archive PDF

it changed my life

Frank J Conge - i was at that show Facebook

Deb Sprague - this was one of the first half dozen live shows i ever went to. and i was RIGHT at the front, one woman in front of me.i got spoiled early on!

Steve Hayes - I was at this show , an yeah , it changed my life

It was awsome!

Anastasia Pantsios - I was there. Got one of my favorite photos of all time at that show.

Don Mackay - It was awsome!

@barrywooldridge2692 - I was at this show. Pretty fucking amazing, it was a unique moment in time...
The Clash - Live In Cleveland, Ohio, 1979 (Full Concert!) - YouTube

35 legendary Cleveland Agora concerts
cleveland.com

The Clash, (Feb. 13, 1979). The Clash played just nine shows during its first trip to North America in 1979. Thus, the recording of its raucous Agora show is a must for diehards.

Albums That Should Exist:
The Clash - The Agora, Cleveland, OH, 2-13-1979

Here's an account of the concert by Caroline Coon, who saw the whole tour, since she was both a journalist and the girlfriend of the band's bassist Paul Simonon at the time:

"That was a particularly intense show. There were kids fainting in the crush at the front. Most bands didn’t provoke that kind of intense response from the crowd, so the local security guys had never seen this kind of behavior and their instinctive reaction was just to get them off the stage the quickest way possible - by hitting them. We'd seen these goons just punching them back into the audience. The Clash instructed me that this absolutely must not happen, and it was quite a struggle. We had to keep watch constantly for anybody who was in danger. If the band saw gig security getting brutal they would just stop playing and tell the bouncers to cool it.We would bring the kids from the pit carefully up onto the stage and off through the wings."

Great show

Jeff Walker - Saw the tour in Cleveland! [Pearl H]

Alejandro Escovedo | Facebook - The Clash and Bo Diddley, Cleveland, OH 1979...

Lynette Ferenczy - Saw this at the Agora in Cleveland, great show, also saw the Undertones and David Johansson open for them at the Masonic in Detroit, first time Simonon sang Guns of Brixton live, epic concert…Mike Laquatra

Steve Hayes - Seen this show at the Cleveland agora… those were some good times !

Blackmarketclash | Leave a comment

(TNEW45) ARTICLE CLEVELAND, FEBRUARY 1979

February 1979 - Enlarge page

Pulse Magazines live tracks/article

Article

PDF version here

Clash take complete control in Cleveland

Daily ... / 14 Feb - Enlarge image

Live in Concert - The Clash

Cleveland Scene Dealer, 22 Feb - Enlarge Image

Chris Knowles: The Essential Clash Bootleg Bible

includes this gig

A Riot of Our Own pg143

Ace Penna was the American tour liaison officer. He was the better side of even-keeled. He thought and moved quickly, which seemed unusual for an American, but suited us a treat. He knew how to lay his hands on good gear in the most obscure of places, which in his position was a more useful talent than an intimate knowledge of the American freeway system. At the point that he turned on the radio we were travelling up Route 66 from Amarillo – the wrong way. The weather forecast was grim. The worst blizzards for years were already gripping the Midwest. Ace started shouting: ‘Abort, abort. Red lights flashing. We ain’t gonna get there. The crew and the gear won’t get to Cleveland. The roads’ll be blocked. Abort!’ It seemed that his natural reaction to imminent disaster was to give up. But not in our book. Mick said, ‘We’ll surf the snow. We’ll fly in’ We all shouted: ‘Driver! Airport.’

Ace panicked. ‘I can’t just get you all on a plane.’

‘Get the agency to pay. Get them to dip into the bucks they’re making out of us.’

We boarded the only flight out to St Louis – not quite the right direction, but as some Zen bloke says, the journey of a thousand miles starts with but a single step. Topper was curled up in his seat in a terrified ball. I shouted to Mick: ‘It was Clear Lake, Iowa, wasn’t it?’

‘What? Oh, yeah, Buddy Holly.’

Paul picked up on wind-ups quickly. ‘No, Reading, weren’t it?’

‘No, that was Glenn Miller.’

‘Big Bopper?’

Joe countered, ‘Patsy Cline.’

I added, ’1958, Busby Babes.’

I said to the stewardess, ‘An extremely large brandy for my friend here,’ pointing at the quivering Topper. The routine became a running joke.

At St Louis we ground to a halt waiting for the Cleveland connection, and we holed up in the airport hotel bar, which was as if we had walked into the bar scene we knew off by heart in Star Wars. Livened by stimulants and the absence of the bus, we noticed a small band playing in a comer. The end of each standard was met by tumultuous applause, whoops and hollers – but from our tables only. The combo were suspicious, but pleased to get some response.

Topper, delighted to have his feet on the ground, said, ‘It’s jamming time,’ and strode across the bar to sit in. He didn’t quite fit in with their lime-green spangled tuxedos, but went straight into a slick version of ‘New York, New York’. To everyone’s astonishment but his own, he slotted spot-on into the combo, sounding like he’d just finished seven days’ rehearsal with the outfit. Joe was still roaring for the Midwest anthem, ‘What Made Milwaukee Famous’, when Topper returned to us in triumph.

Paul said, ‘That’s showbusiness, eh?’

Next day, we beat the fog into Cleveland. Amazingly, the Baker and crew had beaten us there.

‘How’d you manage that, Barry?’ I said.

‘You wouldn’t want to hang around in Salt Lake City. No booze.’

He regaled us with tales of Mormon restaurants, terrifying Rocky passes and dazzling Soul radio channels.

Joe had raging toothache. I was surprised it didn’t strike more often considering the blackened, rotting stumps in his mouth. I asked for the nearest dentist at the hotel reception, and was about to set off when the doorman stopped us in horror.

‘You won’t make it to the end of the block,’ he said. ‘They’re mean streets out there.’

Joe said, ‘Sounds good.’ But we jumped in a cab. The dentist did something – I didn’t ask what; I’m terrified of them – but said the shot would take twenty-four hours to work. His advice was to cancel the gig.

Coon was sympathetic. Joe said, ‘I ain’t No-Show Strummer.’ The show went on to a wildly lively crowd and we sussed that the industrial heartland of America was more Clash than California. It had the familiar hard and desperate edge. And then we had Manhattan in our sights.

Photos: Cleveland Agora

Open photos in full in new window

Clash and Bo Diddley, Cleveland, 1979

The Clash Official | Facebook

Bob Gruen

January 31, 1979 : BO DIDDLEY opens for THE CLASH at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC, at the beginning of THE CLASH'S first US tour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPc5_A9NZhk

The pics were taken 2 weeks later at Agora, Cleveland, OH, U.S.A., February 13, 1979. Photo Credit: Bob Gruen (and possibly others). 

“In 1979, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of the Clash asked that Diddley open for them on the band’s first American tour. “I can’t look at him without my mouth falling open,” Strummer, starstruck, told a journalist during the tour.”

Tex Johan | Facebook - TEX (The Travelin' Man)

THE CLASH ON PAROLE | Facebook

Amanda Clash - mick and joe at cleveland feb 13 1979

San Francisco Music | Facebook

(L-R) Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon of The Clash with Bo Diddley in Cleveland, OH. February 1979. Photographer Bob Gruen

Punk Rock Graveyard | Facebook

Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer of The Clash backstage at the Agora Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio on February 13, 1979,  Janet Macoska.

Janet Macoska

Janet Macoska | Facebook

Mick Jones Cleveland, OH. February 1979

The Legend Joe Strummer | Facebook

Mick Jones, #JoeStrummer, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon of The Clash with #BoDiddley in Cleveland, OH. February 1979 © #BobGruen / thelegendjoestrummer.weebly.com

Setlist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	I'm so bored with the USA Drug Stabbing Time Jail Guitar Doors Tommy Gun City of the Dead Hate and War White Man Safe European Home Stay Free English Civil War Guns on The Roof Police and Thieves Capital Radio Janie Jones Garageland Julies Been Working/ds Londons Burning White Riot Complete Control Whats My Name