Harvard Square Theatre

24 Eliot St Cambridge MA 02138

The Harvard Square Theatre, originally the University Theatre, opened in 1926, with an original entrance on Mass. Ave. The theater could seat 1640 people, and had wicker chairs and a velvet curtain displaying George Washington commanding the continental army on Cambridge common.

While it was always a movie theatre, it also held live performances, including magic shows, vaudeville, and rock concerts. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Hall and Oats, the Clash, and Bruce Springsteen all played at the University Theatre.

In fact, Bruce Springsteen got his start at the theatre. After opening for Bonnie Rait in 1974, music critic John Landau wrote, "I saw rock and rollís future and its name is Bruce Springsteen."

In 1981 Harvard Square Theatre was converted into a multiplex cinema; and became part of the Loews Cineplex Entertainment chain. The entrance was moved to Church St in 1986, and the theater became a 5 screen multiplex. The balcony became 2 auditoriums and the refreshment stand was placed in part of where the original auditorium had been.

The theatre closed down in July of 2012.
https://historycambridge.org/performance-spaces/harvard-theatre.html

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We're gonna try a bit of funk a bit of blue beat

Guns On The Roof is now the second song, brought forward in the set list at Washington the night before, as the song was getting the bulk of limited airplay The Clash were getting on US radio.

The Clash are fired up throughout, delivering great intense performances. Joe has a few digs at the elitism of the nearby University "We want to move the town to the Clash City Rockers…fat chance!" and " we're gonna try a bit of funk a bit of blue beat, entitled White Man in Harvard University". Police & Thieves and Capital Radio are the usual highlights; the drama before Police & Thieves gets a new twist with mountains of echo filling the theatre and Joe includes "revolution rock, it is the brand new rock" demonstrating the popularity of this song in the Clash camp months before the London Calling sessions.

Capital Radio is introduced as Neil Diamond's latest and Joe ad libs at length at the end of the song about "trains, tracks and dead heroes". Joe Strummer very rarely repeated his ad-libs throughout The Clash, just going with whatever inspiration came to him. There was none of the pre-planned show biz of other acts producing supposedly off the cuff moments night after night.

Clash drives home their point with anger

Clash, Diddley rock out square

The Tufts Observer, Tufts University -
Medford, Massachusetts

23 February 1979

The New York Rocker magazine

March 1979 - Page 6

Boston

Diamondz Fanzine

Harvard Square Cambridge
Review by Brian Goslaw

I was all ready to jump into the 80's and while going through the archives I found these. One is a review of The Clash by Brian Goslow, the other is just a regular cut and paste job. I don't think either was ever published, for whatever reason. It was 29 years ago, and sometimes I don't remember what I did 29 minutes ago.
But thanks, Brian, sorry if it never got to press.

Give ‘Em Enough Hope: Joe Strummer at 70

Celebrating the life of the man called the "backbone" of punk

August 21, 2022
Jim Sullivan

... "I was fortunate enough to catch The Clash … it's February 1979 and a soldout crowed is packed into the Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Mass" … Link

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I HAVE SEEN THE TOP OF ROCK MOUNTAIN THE CLASH LIVE IN BOSTON, SEPT. 1979

Reel and Rock

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I HAVE SEEN THE TOP OF ROCK MOUNTAIN: THE CLASH LIVE IN BOSTON, SEPT. 1979

One of the great action shots in rock history, ace photographer Bob Gruen took this snap of the Clash at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge, Mass., at the Feb. 1979 show mentioned below.

If I was backed into a corner for an answer as to what was my favorite concert ever, I’d have to say the Clash at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, 42 years ago tonight, in September of 1979. Opening acts were the Undertones fresh out of Derry, N. Ireland and R&B legends Sam & Dave (both great). The Clash had made their area debut about seven months earlier at the old Harvard Square Theater, a legendary gig ‘round these parts. However, the band’s stand-offish attitude kinda dampened their appeal at that show.

Not so on 9/19/79. By that time their first LP had been finally released in America (re-configured to include a fistful of their classic singles) broadening their fanbase while their collective surly demeanor had been replaced by more of a band-of-the-people image. That become clear three songs into the set during (appropriately enough) “Complete Control.” (My memory has since been aided by a bootleg cassette of the show that I purchased in the 90s). Near the end of the song, Joe Strummer’s ad-libbing to the “C-O-N Control” chant abruptly ends and there is a sudden roar from the crowd (at 9:55 of the above-mentioned recording, seen below). The brutish security guards employed in those days by monopolistic rock promoter Don Law were manhandling fans streaming down the aisles for a closer look. The guards were not used to being challenged, least of all by a relatively scrawny lead singer from England, who had just come ten rows deep (with his Fender in tow) to confront them.

After the commotion, Strummer went back to the stage and went all Popeye Doyle, demanding to know who’s-running-this-operation? When the name Don Law was called out it was a bit of a laugh: the Clash’s version of “I Fought the Law” was released as a single two months earlier. “Where’s Don Law?” Joe repeatedly bellowed. When the man didn’t show, he declared the area in front a stage open to all and the crowd went nuts. The goonish guards were obliged to stand down.

The Clash were spectacular that night, playing every song as if their lives depended on it, with a passion and ferocity seldom equaled. Guitarist Mick Jones further endeared the band to the fans by allowing, “This is a good crowd for us, don’t think we don’t appreciate it.” Mick got off another good one later, while introducing his song “Stay Free,” saying it was about a couple of friends who were sent to the nick. “That’s the penitentiary to you lot.”

The cassette ran out before the end of the show, but I do remember the first encore, a new reggae number where Strummer came out from the wings swinging a train-signal lantern. This was “Armagideon Time” which would soon be released as a b-side to the title track of the album that would break them in the U.S. From that same month (Dec. 1979) that “London Calling” was released, here’s them doing “Armagideon” at the benefit concerts for Kampuchea. RIP Joe, there will never be another.

Brett Peruzzi

April 23, 2023 at 6:38 pm

I was at that Clash show at the Orpheum in Boston as well, and it still stands as the best concert I’ve ever seen. Thanks for the memories.

The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: No. 9

The Clash | Harvard Square Theatre | February 16, 1979
By PHOENIX STAFF  |  October 25, 2006

The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: No.9

The English press had declared punk rock all but dead and gone by 1979. But parts of America were warming up to the Clash, our appetites having been whetted since their first import singles started filtering across the Atlantic in 1977.

So when Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon took the stage at the Harvard Square Theatre (no, it wasn’t a multiplex back then) and began their set with a well aimed “I’m So Bored With the USA,” they more than hit their mark.

Talk about an audience ready to be preached to! We, too, were bored — not by the surfeit of killers on TV that bugged Strummer, but by a country mired in musical mediocrity.

Give us those angry, harsh chords! We were up on our feet and on the seats immediately. When they invited us into “Janie Jones World” — a “getting-stoned world” — we followed happily.

When they brought us to Jamaica for the class clash that was Junior Murvin’s “Police & Thieves,” we were glad to suck in the riddims and witness the imagined strife.

When Topper hit the cannon-like drums and flashing lights for “Tommy Gun,” the place simply exploded.

The Clash’s statement of purpose: “We’re a garage band/We come from garageland.” They made that garage the most happening of havens. Punk rock had truly arrived in Boston.

THE GREATEST CONCERT OF MY LIFE

Peter Rustin - I was at this show in Cambridge, Massachusetts in February 1979, on their first USA tour.  THE GREATEST CONCERT OF MY LIFE. Awesome. WE LOVE THE CLASH | facebook.com

It was an AWAKENING

The Clash Harvard Square Theater Cambridge MA Friday 16, 2, 1979 - YouTube

@TheBuddyShowWorldwide - I was there too. Bo Diddley and The Rentals.

@dianehanson2830 - I was there 10th row, it was not a mosh pit...It was an AWAKENING. I love the Real Kids, DMZ, Nervous Eaters, The Ramones, Willy DeVIlle The Rat, Cantone's The Club, CBGS, My Father's Place, Max's. The late '70s were unbelievable music changing times. Elvis Costello, Blondie, The Jam and U2 here all the time but...The Clash were EXPLOSIVE

@allenrothman3317 - I was there as well in the balcony watching the mayhem below. Loved the opening number-I’m So Bored With The USA-FU America! Too bad there is no video because they really knew how to put on a show. For a 1979 bootleg sound is pretty good.

@jdkobrick - Me too right up front in the mosh pit.  Life changing event

@jonathans.1448 - I was there. Crap sound quality, but a truly memorable show that got better as they played on.

@dangerfellini - 1st row, left side !!!

The best I ever attended

@allenrothman3317 - I was at this show. One of the best I ever attended. Bo Diddley opened.
The Clash Go To Harvard (Full Live Album) - YouTube

Mike Baker - We were there and the next night at the NYC Palladium as well! #gamechanger

Charlie Lenk - I was there!

Gary Peters - Adam Peters  - this is what I remember

Al Quint - I was there!

Blew my mind, second to none .. best live show ever

Larry Gutkin - I was in the first row, blew my mind!

Edward Rutledge - That was the first time I saw the Clash. Unforgettable experience, with Bo Diddly opening.

Ronald Kozaryn - They were second to none..best live show ever !

Rik Van Horn - I was there. The Rentals were too. And Bo Diddley. That's the show at Harvard Sq. Theater though. The Orpheum show was 1982 I believe. I saw them three times, this one, The Orpheum and at Bond's Casino in 1981.

Michael Duran - I was there, awesome..

John Dufresne - I was there,

14 years old! Remains one of the most amazing shows I've EVER seen

Jane Gilmartin - I was in the front row - 14 years old! remains one of the most amazing shows I've EVER seen.

Patrick T McMahon - I was at that show! It was awesome!

Mark Jenkins - I was there!

Jim Gober - I was at that show. To this day, it was the best rock show I have ever attended!

Jackie Gashun - I was there

Rik Van Horn - I remember that show.

Terry Brenner - present

I left my seat and crouched down front to shoot pictures

Sydney Jean - Amazing show! Ludes and stairs at Harvard sq 

Tom Hauck - I was there... a great night!

Carmen Wiseman - What an amazing show that was!

Kathei Logue - I left my seat and crouched down front to shoot pictures. Absolutely amazing show.

The cops lined up in front of the stage ready for a riot

James Wisdom - I was at this show also it is in the top 5 of shows I have seen out of hundreds. I enjoy your writing it brings me back to that night and many others in the greatest Rock &Roll era. Thanks for the memories Alan Carter (below), I look forward to your next work in print.

Jay Dobis - I remember that Harvard Square Theater show very well. At the end of the concert, a beautiful blonde sitting in the row in front of me, turned around, threw her arms around me and gave me a great big kiss. More concerts should end that way...

Pete Richards - Steve Pokernicki went with Paul, myself and Caroline Altmann. The cops lined up in front of the stage ready for a riot.

Rentals, Bo Diddley and the Hudsons opened

Rob Latulippe - Went there to see Cactus Come to find out they walked out because they didn’t like the sound system We were told that a Boston band was replacing Cactus We decided to stay The opening band was Chere from Louisiana The next band was a new band that was about to release their first album Aerosmith

Marc Miller - It was also the night that BCN went on strike.

Sal Cincotta - I had front row center balcony tickets for this show. They moved us to make room for the spotlights. We were relocated to a side box overhanging stage left. The Rentals, Bo Diddley, Clash bloody wonderful!

Daved Hild - The Rentals with Pseudo Carol opened!

Bryan Swirsky - the Hudsons opened for the clash???

Jim Sullivan - Yep, Rentals and Bo Diddley. - @Jeff Hudson Jane Hudson

Set my 14 year old brother straight!

Rob Falk - Brought my 14 year old brother to that show. It seemed like what had to be done with a “Dreamweaver,” “Jet Airliner” loving kid. Set him straight.

John Goetchius - My first rock concert. My older brother charlie had 2 extra tix. My friend Brock and i went. 12 years old. Game changer.life changer.

My recording is still being listen to!

George Ripley - My recording is still being listen to I see, which is great as I wanted to document their performance for whom ever cared to hear it.

Paul Dionne - thank you, never thought I'd be able to get a recording of this, I was there

Daniel J Wilson - We were there too!

Sue Safton - I was there! I still have boxes of of old rock mags, 'zines and clippings from my punk rocker days. Congrats on the new book Alan Carter.

Smoked a spliff with Topper and a Paul in the dressing room

Jeff Hudson - Smoked a spliff with Topper and a Paul in the dressing room. Nice fellows.

Katherine Desmond - I was at this show!

Fred Giannelli - Front row, left side.

One of the truly great nights in Boston rock history

Frank Dehler - One of the truly great nights in Boston rock history

Steve Morse - I remember they opened with "I'm So Bored with the USA." Ballsy!!!!

Rick Harte - Yes. That night the Clash played at the Harvard Square Theater was the coldest night I can ever remember in 40 years of living here. So this photo may have been taken elsewhere. Facebook

Mike Baker - We were there at Cambridge MA and the next night at the NYC Palladium as well! #gamechanger

Thrown out of concert because of my girlfriend!

Jeffrey Conolly - thrown out of concert because girlfriend made it possible...

Rob Patterson - I heard the show through the wall between the theater and Passim, where the artist I was road managing, Tony Bird, was playing a far quieter gig. Then later shared an elevator at the hotel with some of The Clash and their entourage where we were all staying. Then not only heard but saw The Clash not long after in NYC.

Rob Falk - Yeah, the Clash were entertaining, but my now favorite recollection of that show was how thoroughly impressed my friends and I were that an absolutely ancient relic like Bo Diddley could still play rock and roll. Yeah, he sat on a stool, but still…

I carried that thought in my head until the day I read his obituary in June 2008, a month short of my 51st birthday, when I did the math and realized that the "ancient relic" was 49 when I saw him play. Perspective. Too bloody much perspective.

I opened for their Harvard Sq theater show 1979

Jeff Hudson - I opened for their Harvard Sq theater show 1979

jimpossible - Absolutely one of the best musical events of my life, as close as someone of my age and circumstances (I was a six year-old boy living in suburban Boston in 1964) could have been to seeing something like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones in their first appearances in the United States. But February 1979, 15 years after The Beatles debuted in New York, was the second "British Invasion," when The Clash played only seven U.S. cites in seven days on their first US tour, billed as the "Pearl Harbor Tour."

Although my political perspective has evolved and changed dramatically from what it was in 1979, I still have respect for the energy The Clash and some other punk rock bands infused into what had become a complacent popular music scene (disco and bland arena rock) by the mid-1970s. Authentic British punk rock, plus the CBGB's and Boston garage and punk bands, in 1976-79, brought rock & roll back to the exciting music it had been in 1956 and 1964-66, the previous rock & roll revolutions.

Opening acts: Bo Diddley, and Boston-based band The Rentals. I reviewed this concert for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the student newspaper of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. --Jim Moran setlist.fm

The Rentals and Bo Diddley

Michael Puchall - Saw this show Harvard Square Theater also with The Undertones on the Take 5th tour.

Greg Osgood - I saw that tour @ Harvard Square Theater. The Clash were great but Bo blew them away.

Paul Glavin - I saw this tour at the Harvard Square Theater! Bo was incredible and so were the Clash. There was a local band (The Rentals) who opened the show and no doubt still retain bragging rights with their pals!

Paul Glavin - I saw this tour at the Harvard Square Theater! Bo was incredible and so were the Clash. There was a local band (The Rentals) who opened the show and no doubt still retain bragging rights with their pals!

Don Mackay - The rentals, Bo Diddley openers at the Havard sq. Theater was the first clash concert and puppet show I saw.

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Alan Carter: The only band that mattered

Carter Alan | Facebook

Carter Alan - Feb. 16, 1979 The Clash played their first show in the Boston area.  At the time we called them the only band that mattered.  A narrow view, certainly, but it does illustrate the magnitude of the band's influence and impact during that opening assault on America. The Clash's profile would only grow and grow after that.

Here's the chapter I wrote about that nighty - taken from my 2017 book "The Decibel Diaries." 

"I’m So Bored with the U.S.A."      

The Clash 

Harvard Square Theater, Cambridge, MA February 16, 1979

Suppose we borrowed Dr. Who’s Tardis and traveled back to 1979 to look around; maybe buy some ridiculously inexpensive concert tickets to a historic show or two, then bring back a couple 8-tracks just to prove to the kids that the bulky things really existed.  

Somehow in our haste to leave, though, an IPod bounced out of the contraption just as we shimmered out of that existence and flashed back to the future (oh, yeah, a power cord fell out too or else my scenario wouldn’t last more than a couple days).  Within moments, a leather-jacketed punk with spiked orange hair rounded the corner and discovered the great-great-great-great-grandson of his Walkman lying on the sidewalk.  If it was possible for him to take the IPod home and input the data from a record, cassette or that format on the endangered list – an 8-track tape, into the device, what sort of playlist do you think he’d come up with?  

Well, it would depend a lot on where this transfer took place, because in 1979, the sweeping universality of the internet hadn’t been dreamed of yet.  Even MTV stood two years away from spreading the leading-edge culture growing in America’s cities to the vast wildernesses surrounding them.  New music bands that arrived from England or worked their way up in Boston, Los Angeles or New York might have swaggered about the city streets basking in the glow of another sellout or local smash hit, but go completely unrecognized just a hundred miles away.  But some bands did manage to climb above provincial barriers, reaching ears across the nation and also overseas.  Which of these would our young punk ‘download?’

  Guaranteed he’d have at least a few Ramones songs in that list; after all, that band had provoked so much of the initial fuss as far back as 1975 with its machine-gun bursts of two-minute songs.  Blondie, Television, the Dead Boys, DMZ and Patti Smith would add some domestic muscle and even mainstream crossover groups like the Cars and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers should make the grade.  

As far as international selections, the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” and “Pretty Vacant” would be required listening for any self-respecting punk.  Even though that seminal bunch of rock and roll losers had broken up two years earlier, the group had dynamited open the door to England’s charts with its caustic and perfectly offensive Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.  If the kid was like me at the time, he’d also have added some Adverts, Buzzcocks, Undertones, Damned and Stiff Little Fingers to the mix, plus the most important of them all, the Clash.  

While U.S. groups exerted punk rock as more of a cultural statement, breaking with a recent past of music that had grown ponderous and declaring an independence of style and process, in England the stakes ran higher with the punks openly castigating the political system and advertising discontent.  With the Pistols losing their shelf life within a year, the members of the Clash soon inherited the hill because of their unbridled commitment to the power of the songs, jamming pointed social messages into intense three-minute anthems.  

That energy, sparked by outrage at the English government, violence in the streets of London and European economic disaster, resulted in a bevy of the best singles from this period: “White Riot,” “Remote Control,” “Complete Control” and “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais.”  Such was the devotion of the band to its ideals that many considered it to be the best damn group on the planet or even rock and roll’s last hope.  CBS Records failed to grasp any of that; when the first Clash album came out in England in ’77, the label didn’t even release it in the States.  Nevertheless, New England fans kept marching down to enlightened record emporiums, snapping up every overseas copy of the album that came into town.  Eventually, enormous import sales of the U.K. record would prompt a domestic release (with some track changes), but it didn’t happen until two years later.  

In the meantime, the Clash’s second album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope, came out in England and America in November 1978, becoming, technically, the group’s debut in the U.S.  To support that album, the Clash – Joe Strummer on snarling vocals and rhythm guitar, lead guitarist and singer Mick Jones, Paul Simonon on bass and drummer Topper Headon planned to make their first foray across the Atlantic in February. 

The announcement of the band’s brief ‘Pearl Harbor Tour’ sparked near-hysteria in the Boston punk scene as a date at the Harvard Square Theater was announced.  To those who cared, this was as close to the ethos of London street rock as they might ever get, like experiencing John Lee Hooker in person to divine the essence of the blues or John Coltrane to understand bebop.  The Sex Pistols, a designer hand grenade on suicide watch, had quickly exploded, but the Clash stood on active duty as ‘the only band that mattered,’ to quote a phrase construed by their record label.  The Harvard Square Theater’s 1800 tickets sold out in an hour.   

Great efforts were expended to be one of the lucky ones to snag one of those seats and everyone, to a person, buzzed with anticipation while filing into the old movie house that cold night.  I stood excitedly at my seat near the front and could recognize or knew just about everyone in the audience from hanging out at the city’s rock and roll clubs.  It seemed like the entire scene had made it; in fact, if the roof had fallen in, punk rock in Boston might have collapsed with it!  Fascinated by American R & B like many English musicians, the Clash had invited legendary Chicago bluesman Bo Diddley out on the road with them to precede the headliners at each concert.  

But, the group also stipulated that the first band to go on in each city would be a local outfit, hopefully with at least one female in the lineup.  The honor in Cambridge went to the Rentals, who’d scored some notoriety in the area with its single “Gertrude Stein.”  Admittedly, anticipation for the Clash made it hard to concentrate on the opening set from our friends, but everyone remained polite enough.  After the briefest of equipment changes, Bo Diddley’s thumping jams built around a soulful overblow on his trademark box-shaped guitar fared much better.  But clearly, the expectancy of the coming event dampened reaction for the legend.         

The Clash’s backdrop, a huge curtain quilt of international flags with the words ‘Unprovoked Retaliation’ stenciled in one of the squares could be seen at the back.  To the uninitiated, a hint of the band’s political concerns or the power of the music could be construed here; I read both.  The electrical current of excitement sparking through the theater grew exponentially as the minutes dragged on after Diddley’s set. 

This was it – the epicenter!  There was no better place to be and everyone knew it.  Your house might have burnt down and you still would have made excuses to the fire inspector: “I’m sorry.  I’ll be there in an hour and a half.”  This was a moment to confirm all the change that punk promised: a firebomb to level the landscape, but also raise up a new and better structure.  Like the hippies, we were out to change the world, and the Clash would show us how to do it.  Of course, it was wrong to saddle any band with that mantle of responsibility, but that didn’t stop anyone from attempting it.

I wandered from my chair and into the lobby where I was astonished to run right into…Joe Strummer?  Folks were streaming past on their way to cokes, popcorn and a bathroom as he voiced his fears about the sound quality of the theater to a tiny group of fans who had recognized and surrounded the singer.  He’d been all over the theater, even upstairs in the balcony, disturbed that the acoustics sounded like mush up there.  As Strummer returned towards the stage door, I headed to my seat, impressed that the singer cared enough to check things out for himself, and obviously had no qualms about mixing with the local natives.  

Lights down!  No shit.  This was it!  Everybody shot to their feet, and they’d stay that way all night.  The Clash swung into position onstage, Mick Jones bludgeoning the opening chords to “I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.”  Of course they would start with that!  Strummer marched out to the lip of the stage with his guitar gripped in Tommy gun stance, the bass and drums kicked in and the first of twenty songs began racing by in a blur, like a train flashing past a crossing.  This time though, I reached out and grabbed onto a boxcar; flung high in the air, the momentum nearly wrenched my arm from its socket.  

Jones, in blue tunic, galloped about and around Strummer, constantly moving and only slowing briefly to spit harmonies into his mic.  Dressed in Johnny Cash black, Simonon with his bass in a death grip rarely rooted himself in one spot for more than a few seconds.  Unfortunately, Strummer’s fears about the challenging acoustics of the place proved to be correct; it was nearly impossible to discern the words to many of the poignant manifestos he spit out.  But his sheer intensity and concentration, plus laser-like glares directly into the faces of those up front or dramatic expressions and poses illustrating moments in the lyrics created a figure I couldn’t rip my eyes from.  

Even if the words were mush, we knew them all from the records, so the power of the performance still reinforced those messages.  Into “Guns on the Roof” and the hard core up front were already sweating bullets.  While punk rock was all about energy and meaning, not necessarily proficiency, this band could play!  The members of the Clash were tight as hell up there, playing the loudest, most aggressive rock on the planet.  A garage band from garage land; they’d spent their rehearsal time well.    

“We didn’t get time for a sound check and the hall sounded horrible,” Headon complained afterward.  “We’d rather play in a smaller place for the few hundred vibrant people who got off.”  The Clash, however, would never be able to fit into a smaller box again; and why should they?  Clearly the members wanted to spread what they saw as truth, so even if fame (and everything that goes with it) seemed to be a career oxymoron for the Clash, the band was heading inexorably in that direction.  The drummer’s assessment, honorable as it was, limited his group, whose star burned so brightly by this point that mere technicalities like a room’s poor acoustics didn’t even register.  

The Clash transported everyone in the theater that night, confirming that the members did, indeed, give a shit about the crap condition of the world and were out there trying to say something about it; certainly a braver aspiration than what most groups offered or even attempted.  The Clash would not live long, only another three years in its present and relevant form, but the groundbreaking and epochal London Calling glimmered only nine months down the road at this point with even more glories to arrive after that.  Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon would eventually collapse into dispute and implode like so many others.  But for a short time, they tried to save the world, and best of all, inspired us to try to change it as well.

Barry Belotti

Carter Alan | Facebook - Barry Belotti

This article brought me back Carter Alan. Thank you.

A show I regret missing but would see them at Bonds Casino in 81 and several times after that. When they were added to The WHO’s 1982 tour that was just great. I was able to see my 2 favorite bands together several times.

I was fortunate to spend a few hours with Joe Strummer in a hotel lounge that year. I remember our conversation and him being genuinely interested in my life and what I wanted to do with it.

I was just 22 years old and had no clue what I wanted to do but listen to Rock music and drink beer.

On his first solo tour at the Paradise for Earthquake Weather the show sold out before a good friend and I could get a ticket. Joe was signing the record at Tower on Newbury. We went and stood in line. Got up to Joe. We mentioned that the show had sold out on us. He took our names. Said “I’m putting you on my list.

When you get to the club make sure to ask for my list”. We thanked him. Went to the show that night and sure enough our names were on “Joe Strummers” list along with passes. One of the nicest guys in Rock music that I ever met. A real shitty day when he died. 

Rich Carmosino - Great post Carter Alan. They were my favorite band, but because I was only 11 in 1979, I didn’t get to see them until 1984 at the Centrum, just months after Mick was out.

I did get to meet Mick at the Middle East years later though, and got a picture with him. The Clash did more in the short time together than most other bands. Punk, rock, reggae, dub, blues, and what I think were early signs of hip hop. They changed rock forever.

Jim Sullivan | Facebook - Thanks to Carter Alan for this. (Reason for thanks explained at the end.)

One of the most galvanizing concerts of my life was Feb. 16, 1979, Harvard Square Theater, Cambridge, Mass.

It was the Clash’s first area gig. This was Joe Strummer, to me, post-gig, on what punk rock meant to him: “At least the young people are playing rock’ n’ roll now. In ’76, they weren’t ‘cause they couldn’t see how they could ‘cause all the groups were just too big- how can you be like Yes and have a secret ambition to be a rock ‘n’ roller?

You think ‘Forget it, I’ll go back to my cleaning shop.’ Now people in England realize that anybody can be a star and that goes without exception. And that’s a vital thing in rock ‘n’ roll. The beginners have gotta realize they can be stars; otherwise they ain’t gonna bother with it.” 

Paul Simonon on the band’s politics: "We can effect change only in people's thinking. It's difficult. You can change this person or that person but people have to do it themselves. We're just pointing things out, really."

I did the story for a long defunct but very good Boston rock magazine called Sweet Potato; it was the same month I started freelancing for the Boston Globe.

My stack of Sweet Potatoes are long gone and not online but Carter  - former WBCN/current WZLX DJ - has a new book out, "The Decibel Diaries: A Journey Through Rock in 50 Concerts," and he graciously noted some of his source material in the glossary that included a buncha bits from me and my longtime Globe colleague Steve Morse.

I asked Carter if he had a copy of the story and he did, mailing me the original (yellowed) newsprint – which is what I re-read, bringing me back to this great moment in time. Carter? You can see him at the Verb March 27 at the Verb for a book release party 7-9 p.m. David Beeber 

Review of Harvard Square Theater in Sweet Potato magazine

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[Below] is part of a story I wrote for Sweet Potato magazine in 1979 after seeing The Clash at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge, MA (first local date) and talking with Paul and Joe Strummer later.

The Clash didn’t care that the English press was down on them. Their second album, “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” had been slagged – produced by Sandy Pearlman and been tagged Blue Oyster Clash for it’s hard rock-infused sound.

“We aren’t bothered about our press,” bassist Paul Simonon told me. “Don’t really give a shit. We get bad reviews and good reviews. We don’t mind; it’s good fun reading both of ‘em. It’s quite good actually, reading the bad ones, ‘cause it brings you down to reality a bit. When you have the good ones all the time, I dunno, I sort of tend not to believe it. I don’t like kidding meself.”

I asked Simonon that, if in the midst of their seven-date North American tour, he was still bored. 

“Yeah, it’s definitely worse over here,” he said. “I don’t think that much of it, really. In England, it’s a bit better – people have enough time to be creative. Over ‘ere, it’s too comfortable. Everyone seems to be watching telly all the time. If I watch telly all the time, I go to sleep, I get dozy and don’t do nothin’.”

As to the band’s politics and the effect on the world at large, or maybe, their fans, Simonon said, "We can effect change only in people's thinking. It's difficult. People have to do it themselves. We're just pointing things out, really."

None of the Clash guys talked much between songs, which were delivered loudly, quickly and with utmost freneticism. Drummer Topper Headon added a punch Terry Chimes (aka Tory Crimes) didn’t convey on that first album. Jones and Simonon crisscrossed the stage all night, frequently winding up at the other’s mic stand. When Jones didn’t make it on time to sing harmony, it didn’t matter – he simply joined in on the following line. Simonon was anything but the typical stoic, John Entwistle-esque bassist. He stalked the stage, mugged, twisted his bass up behind his neck. Headon rarely looked up from his kit and made his snares sound like machine gun volleys.

Stewart Bloom - Was there may have even run into Carter Alan that night

David Wilner - Jim Sullivan - you played no small part of making this gig legendary in the annals of Boston gig history referencing it many times in subsequent articles in the Globe and elsewhere. Wish I was there - had to wait a year until we where 16 and had the wheels to get down from NH. Still have the clipping of your review from the Orpheus show with Lee Dorsey and Mickey Dread....but for the historical record - the show at Harvard Square was their 5th US show in that tour.

16th Feb, 1979, The Clash perform at Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, MA

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