The Clash Live - Toronto - Rex Danforth Theatre - Tuesday 20th February 1979

Joe is very talkative throughout, apologising for the poor sound early on and at the start of the encore says "We wanna kinda apologise, we arrived in Canada about 2 weeks ago feeling full of beans, now we've had it if you know what I'm trying to say". But if The Clash were worn out at the end of the tour there is no sign of it here: its highly charged and intense throughout.

Joe wins the audience over after Bored with The USA, the storming set opener, "Turn on the house lights, listen who's the promoter? Calling Mike Cole, listen you big guys, you're never gonna stop them dancing, they just wanna stand there and dance". He then tells the bouncers "you've gotta watch for anyone going down" How many Toronto audiences had heard a band say that to the security before?

The PA sound problems improve during Tommy Gun, which Joe introduces with " This is Topper, Britain's answer to Bruce Lee!" To requests for White Riot Joe jokes, "that's an old song, so Bing Crosby still has fans even in Toronto! There's a tape change before Stay Free, which loses some of Mick's introduction.

Capital Radio is preceded by "This is what (Toronto Radio) Q107 sounds like, just a farting noise all day, so this song is now entitled thank you Radio Q107, we are your mindless robots".

The encore cranks up the intensity even higher and White Riot breaks down halfway through after a stage invasion. Fans shout out the chorus, and then someone grabs the microphone and screams "God Save The Queen!" The taper or someone nearby says "unbelievable" as the crowd shout for me.

The house lights come on and the recording ends with the first bars of a song that would inspire The Clash to record one of the best cuts on London Calling; Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac.

We were going to drive to Toronto from New York, but we were snowed in and except for the back-line vehicle, the rest of us flew direct to Cananda. Scratchy

Just a minor correction to Neil Vanhinsberg's comment on the September 1979 Clash show in Toronto. Neil writes:

"I also seem to recall at one point Joe mentioned a radio station, could have been the OK station that sponsored the show CFNY or the awful classic rock station Q-107. He said he listened to it and it sounded like farting noises. Maybe that is on the tape too."

That actually happened at the Clash's previous Toronto appearance, in February 1979, at the Rex Theatre. That show was promoted by Q-107, and they were the target of Joe's ire. (I actually even mentioned the comment in a review of the February show I wrote for issue no. 2 of the Surfin' Bird fanzine. Good luck ever finding a copy of that!)

The reason I'm sure about this is that I was at the February show in Toronto, but not the September show. I was living in the US by then, and saw them on the September tour at the Palladium in NYC, with the Undertones and Sam and Dave on the bill.

This is the best show we never played. We got the call from The Garys to go down to The Rex theatre on the Danforth to open for the Clash but at the last minute we got pulled in favour of the Curse! Yes - we got to stay for the show and to hang out. Link

I went to see this show, probably one of the best that I have seen in my lifetime

@douglasboyd2952 - Before the concert, I remember Q107 (on the air) promoting The Clash as early Who and Rolling Stones; although I had never heard of the band, I went to see this show, probably one of the best that I have seen in my lifetime. YouTube

Nick White - a great gig and made a huge impact on the Toronto music scene. The energy from the band was incredible. a bit out of tune to start with but with Strummer as a front man, you didn't notice! here's a pic my brother Simon took. Joe always wanted to be close to the audience, notice no monitors at the front of the stage. The audience was hesitant at first but half through the first number, 'USA' that front bit was a mass of pogoing fools! Joe had to fish the crushed bouncers out of the pit! I think my life changed that night. Cheers for sharing this great memory from the night with us at CCC Nick. Clash City Collectors

The energy from the band was incredible. a bit out of tune to start with but with Strummer as a front man, you didn't notice! here's a pic my brother Simon took. Joe always wanted to be close to the audience, notice no monitors at the front of the stage. The audience was hesitant at first but half through the first number, 'USA' that front bit was a mass of pogoing fools! Joe had to fish the crushed bouncers out of the pit! I think my life changed that night. Clash City Collectors

Nick Smash - The Clash did 2 gigs in Toronto in 1979 - 40 years ago now. If you are around Saturday 21 December (1-4 PM), come down to The Rivoli as there will be some good dub on the decks, some chit chat, large photos to ogle and books to buy and fondle. All for a good cause! Nick Smash | Facebook

Kristen Raymer - I wanted to go to this show so badly...but I was only 13 and wasn't allowed...

Merrill Moran - I saw this, still have the ticket stub, Joe Strummer was really sweating, put on such a great performance, compared to later years.

Toronto Calling is an exhibit of photos by Torontonians Simon and Nick White, non-professional photographers who shot as fans from the front rows of the punk revolution. One of the featured shots of the exhibit, showing at the Steam Whistle Brewery, is the snarling image of the Clash's Joe Strummer, taken on Feb. 20, 1979, at the Rex Danforth Theatre. Simon White speaks about the era and the photograph:

"Strummer wanted people dancing up in front of the stage, and that's where this photograph was taken. Now we call it the mosh pit, but back then there was no cute name for it. The show was tacked onto a six-city North American tour - the record company wanted to gauge North America's audience to this thing called punk music.

"One thing that really struck me about the Clash that night was that they were slightly surly up on stage - they were fed up with the record labels and promoters who were trying to hijack their agenda. They were angry, and the crowd fed off of that. We all gave it right back to them, in terms of the attitude and the noise. At the end of the set, people came up on stage and started dancing with the band. They were fine with that - in fact they encouraged it. I think, to them, it was a perfectly flamboyant way of ending the show, having the crowd break down the barrier between the band and the kids. They really wanted to reduce that difference.

"I remember seeing the Clash at the CNE Grandstand later, where it was like they couldn't deal with the size of the audience. They broke up soon thereafter. It was such a shame, because their music and their message and their agenda had such a humanist point to it. It seemed only to translate to them when they could meet and talk to and touch their audience. And they did touch so many of us, in the front row."

Steve Pecar - When the Clash played Toronto for the first time, Feb. 20, 1979, there wasn't a lot of promotion for the show. Apparently all that was circulated was this flyer that went mostly to record shops. The rest posted below is a review from the Pig Paper, one of, if not the first Canadian fanzines. I've posted in sections to make it easy to read...and it is quite interesting. Also posted some info about the Pig Paper

Mark Corner - 'Records on Wheels' onetime great Record Shop Chain that was in many Canadian cities.

It's been four decades since The Clash, known for their unique fusion of punk and reggae, played Toronto for the first time. The event was caught on 35 mm black and white film by two brothers.

Ex-Torontonian, photographer Nick Smash, also known as Nick White, along with his brother Simon White, were part of the Toronto post-punk scene at the time and were there to capture history.

Nick will give a talk on opening night and he and Simon will be exhibiting photos. It's part of an event called The Clash on the Danforth in celebration of the 40th anniversary of two memorable concerts played by Mick Jones, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, The Clash, at the Rex Danforth Theatre in 1979.

Punk's thrashing guitars, off-tone harmonics bred in underground bars and backrooms was beginning to take hold. The Clash had sold over 100,000 imported copies of their first album and set off on the Pearl Harbour tour to the US and Canada in 1979.

They started off at the Lyceum Theatre in London, UK with the Slits on Jan. 3 before crossing the ocean. Their second stop and first North American show was at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Jan. 31. Their first US show was not until Feb. 8 at the Temple, San Francisco Bay Area. Following that show, they enlisted legendary musician and rhythm & blues pioneer Bo Diddley for the larger venues.

Punk bands were able to fill the larger-size music halls by the end of the 70s. On Feb. 20 when The Clash opened up with I'm So Bored With The USA at The Rex, Nick and Simon were ready. The Clash would return to Toronto to play the O'Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts only months later on September 26.

"My brother Simon and I took photos of all the bands that played in Toronto from 1979 - 1983," Nick tells me by text.

"Many of the photos we took are in a book I wrote called, Alone And Gone." They published it themselves in 2015.

"We were VERY independent. All the photos are ours and we own the copyright," says Nick - "independent and self published - NO BARCODES!" he added.

1979 was a good year for fans of The Clash living in Toronto as they played 2 gigs here while at the peak of their career.

The first was at The Rex Danforth Cinema at Pape and Danforth on the 20th of February during their 'Pearl Harbour' tour, and the second was at The O'Keefe Centre on the 26th of September during their 'Take The Fifth' tour.

The Rex at the time was a place to go for the local Greek community to see films imported from the old country.

It was run by a Greek family who not only booked Greek films and musicians, but also The Clash, Devo and the Jam. I wonder what the conversations were like around the family dinner table after these shows.

Originally built as a thirteen hundred capacity seat cinema in 1948, The Odeon Danforth boasted a seating area with extra leg room and showed all the hottest Hollywood films such as ‘Jassy’ with Margaret Lockwood in ‘flaming technicolour’.

A staff member at The Goodlife Fitness club at 635 Danforth is convinced that the building is haunted. I don’t doubt it, as The Clash played their last gig of their first North American tour there and helped to shape the future of many who were in the audience that night.

An auditorium of pogoing punks would be enough to haunt any building for the rest of eternity!

In his review the next day, Paul McGrath of the Globe and Mail mentioned the Greek family who ran The Rex as looking on bemused at the crowd of preening punks arriving for the gig.

Local band True Confessions opened. In keeping with the way The Clash did business they always tried to get at least one local band to support them in each city they played in.

To an idealistic youth or a youth not seeing much of a future, there were graspable options presented in songs like, 'Blitzkrieg Bop', 'No Future' and 'White Riot'. The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and Clash were the soundtrack to a shared sense of identity and it spanned the ocean linking North America to London.

Toronto had its own punk scene as heard on a couple of 7" singles and in a few clubs either made from scratch or in established venues on Queen West and on Yonge. It was very underground and word of mouth.

By 1978, of the 3 established punk rock bands, only The Ramones had played in Toronto . The Pistols decided to terrorize the southern states of America and broke up in San Francisco in January of that year.

The Clash had their first album released in Canada in 1977, but not in the US. Their debut North American tour started in Vancouver in 1979, a full year after the Pistols broke up and then they swept through America calling it 'The Pearl Harbour Tour'.

The tour was a sneak attack and promoted quickly. They crept into Toronto just as their much talked about second album, 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' was released. The Toronto gig was added at the last minute - 2 weeks before it was due to take place. The venue was around the corner from here. Now, it's a place to get fit. In February 1979 it was a place to pogo.

The Clash were at a fragile juncture of their career. Still smarting from being called 'sell-outs' by the punk cognoscenti for signing to the major label, CBS - they had actually released what to many is the defining punk rock album from this time.

While their eponymous debut album nailed their colours to the mast, the band were always ambitious, as was hinted on a series of 7" singles released during 1978. The first indication of this ambition was heard on 'Clash City Rockers' - a stirring single about the warring tribes of Britain which we could relate to in our own unique Toronto way..."HEY PUNK ROCK FAGGOT" was the usual taunt if you dared travel on the subway on your own late at night.

The next single on the release schedule was the merging of two sounds; punk and reggae. 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' (released in June just as the hot summer started), had finesse and a sense of originality perhaps missing on their cover of Junior Murvin's 'Police And Thieves'. Strummer's acute and spot on lyrical observations not only addressed life in the UK it also spoke volumes to us in the far away Colonial lands.

The inspirational message of these songs and tracks like Bob Marley's 'Punky Reggae Party' inspired local bands like L'Etranger to get involved with a newly formed organisation based around the British 'Rock Against Racism' movement.

The band's sound was maturing and they were becoming more aware and confident of the tools they could use to bring their message across to a wider audience. They were also suffering from intense pressure from their paymasters, CBS to 'break America'. In fact, Epic (their American label), didn't even release their first album due to 'technical difficulties' they had with the production because it was recorded in six days by their live soundman, Mickey Foot.

Sandy Pearlman was hired to produce the second album, 'Give 'Em Enough Rope'. Pearlman, famous for producing Blue Oyster Cult, further divided Clash fan loyalties as the rumour at the time was that he was trying to make the band sound like B.O.C.

In a magazine article Sandy Pearlman said: "I did it for the art of it, to get this amazing revolutionary consciousness, which I really believe it has, onto vinyl, and make it sound good enough that American radio would play it and that American audiences would listen to it."

This album still packs a wallop not heard on any other Clash record. It's a much more powerful "rock" album as opposed to the thin and tinny, garage sounding, first release.

Having said this, there are demos floating around on the internet of many of the tracks from 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' produced by Mickey Foote. Rough and raw, these versions sound like the first album but have a more accomplished songwriting sense. Now 40 years later it might perhaps be a good idea to re-release 'Rope' with these demos as bonus tracks.

The first single and the first hint of what the new Clash album was going to sound like was delivered to the import record shops like Record Peddlar and Records On Wheels in the form of 'Tommy Gun' in December. The song is bookended by the drummer Topper Headen's gun shot snare drum which gives it a powerful almost rock anthem type dynamic. We would spend endless hours in various states of argument disagreeing with each other about what Strummer was saying and if The Clash had gone too corporate. The Clash didn't include the lyrics on this album, and Strummer's style of singing meant it would be years before all the mystery was resolved and the true meaning was revealed.

Import copies of 'Rope' quickly followed, but by that time the Canadian arm of Epic had released the album with re-jigged artwork making the name of the band and the title more obvious and prominent to your average punk rocker frequenting Mister Sound at Dufferin Mall.

Perhaps the best song on the album is the sentimental 'Stay Free' written by Mick Jones. It's a song about loss and missing friends, and an autobiographical portrait of Jones's youth. This was a new wrinkle to the ever expanding myth of The Clash and shows that the band were exploring personal themes as well as political and societal issues. It seems completley contrary to this seasoned music industry hack, but I wonder why it was never released as a single.

The Rex gig was by far the most eagerly anticipated show in Toronto by any of the punk rock new wave, and represented a more general acceptance by the mainstream. The ripples were felt far and wide as The Clash's positive message was diametrically opposed to the now seemingly cliche punk rock nihilism.

In reality the cliche had changed everything - but that was still to filter down to the cold streets of Toronto as there was a hangover of that stereotype still very much in evidence whenever there was a 'punk rock' gig in the city.

The local Pigpaper fanzine was at The Rex and noticed Mick Jones lurking in the foyer shadows pre-gig: "Look at these kids. They're fuckin' backwards. Dog collars, leather...I feel as if I just stepped back two years in time!"

The band weren't very impressed with the reaction to their debut North American tour: Jones also said; "Things are far too tame and too laid back. The kids, the record companies, the media, the bands...It's a sorry, sorry place."

Strummer even mocked the cliche saying he hoped the sound wasn't too much like, "you know, punk rock".

There was as much of a learning curve going on for The Clash as there was for us fans and the media. As Wilder Penfield wrote in his review in The Sun: "They seemed to be catering to some British impression of North American new wave tastes and seemed to feel they were falling." Then of course he gave the game away and explained that, "The whole experience reminded me a lot of the first Stones shows - people didn't know what to make of them."

All the media we had back then was the daily newspapers and their 'as-old-as-hippies' team of music journalists who brought their codes of conduct and tired old rules to each 'New Wave' release and concert. The initial forays into trying to make sense of the so-called 'punk rock' sound, were a mixture of confusion, aggression and downright rudeness.

I suppose they thought we would go away if they kept calling The B-Girls: "...narcoleptic on stage...showed as much life as the revolving chickens at the corner rotissimat."

It was because The Clash made bold statements and had lofty ambitions, that they had set themselves up as easy targets. Nobody had tried to do this for a generation and the established hippies were scared.

The band were so aware of their audience it was standard during each gig to invite people backstage to meet and hang out. Toronto was no different as Strummer murmered and mumbled the invitation through a sound system that left a lot to be desired, "it sounded like hamsters on coke", Strummer said afterwards.

Just about every gig The Clash did were in seated venues as they were in old cinemas, but the energy of the band was hot wired into a new generation who didn't want to sit about and enjoy the guitar solo. At The Rex there was a small pit at the front at the lip of the stage and we had front row tickets. It was after the first song which was 'I'm So Bored Of The USA', that Strummer had to drag the bouncers out as the audience surged toward the front.

The photos you see in this exhibition were taken while being crushed against the stage with no room to move.

In one of the photos, as Strummer is plugging in his guitar, you can see in his eyes that he's sizing up the audience trying to read what's going on in Toronto.

Changing a roll of film was out of the question, and trying to manipulate a manual lens was almost impossible. It's due to Simon's diligent patience and his years of photography and digital experience, that has resulted in the rescue of these images you see on the walls here tonight.

Incidentally, the bass Simonon is using at The Rex was the same bass he smashed to pieces in New York in September which was used as the cover image for 'London Calling'.

Life in Toronto during 1979 was changing in not very noticable ways.

The slight underground punk rock scene was leaving the initial protagonists behind. The newcomers were filling the clubs like The Turning Point, The Beverley Tavern, Larry's Hideaway, The Queen City strip club and the Cabana Room - now all gone and all just memories on the internet or in a few books (one of which you can buy over there!).

The Edge, The El Mocambo, The Concert Hall, The Music Hall (also on The Danforth and still busy each night in 2019) and a few larger venues were now attracting New Wave bands like The Police, Blondie and The Boomtown Rats as heard on Q-107 and CFNY.

What of The Rex Danforth? As far as I can make out it continued as a venue for imported Greek films and the occasional live concert as a band called 'Over The Rhine' played there as recently as 1998. The world of healthy eating and regular exercise then took over. The seats were ripped out, the place given a new paint job and a radical nose job. The front of the building has been rendered to look like an architect only used a right angle to design it.

There was another large cinema on the north side of The Danforth just east of Pape called The Palace that closed in 1987 which was bigger than The Rex. As usual in Toronto, the original 1924 building was torn down and what's replaced it is not very inspiring at all.

There was one more release from The Clash in the first half of 1979 and it was as far from the worn out punk tropes as you could get.

Jones wrote and sang, 'Gates Of The West', again another song inspired by the streets he grew up on in Brixton and Notting Hill. 'Gates' was included on a 4 song 7" EP called, 'The Cost Of Living' which came out in May on the day Margaret Thatcher won her landslide general election.

One of the other songs on this EP called, ‘Groovy Times’ still has a resonance today. As we in the UK sleepwalk to Brexit day, the Brexiteers yell “Rejoice!” The politicians dither and argue about what to do as there's a threat of rationing and of miles of traffic jams in and out of the port of Dover. The lyric, “But there’s no need to get excited, As the lorries bring the bacon in, ‘Cos the housewives are all singing, Groovy Times Are here Again,” ...could be the theme tune for 2019.

But I digress…This EP hinted at the broader range of styles the band were now aiming for. 'Cost Of Living' also represented a pause in the busy schedule as the band started to prepare for the writing, recording and mixing of their next album.

The Clash were mapping out what was to become 'London Calling' and started recording in August continuing through September. Final mixes of the album and photos for the artwork were being sent to the band who were now on an extended second North American tour which included a gig in New York on the 20th of September during which Paul Simonon smashed his bass. Six days later the band were scheduled to play Canada's most prestigious concert and cultural venue.

The promoters were asking for trouble.

Strangley, the first venue for the gig was supposed to be in a soulless, no seat hanger out by the airport.

The O'Keefe Centre - apparently - is Canada's largest soft seat venue.

Some of that soft seating you can see on that poster over there.

What we did to the venue that hosted The Nutcracker, The Grateful Dead, The Doors and Led Zeppelin was "shameful" according to one high profile Toronto based blog.

If you don't give us somewhere to jump up and down we will re-arrange the furniture for you free of charge.

The Clash provided the perfect soundtrack to grief, anger and loss, but also inspiration to start again.

There was still a lot of antagonism directed towards Strummer and co. from the local press reviewers sent to The O’Keefe.

Peter Goddard said they were punk’s answer to Sha Na Na.

Paul McGrath from The Globe, while more positive overall in his review, complained that “the audience would not stay seated preferring instead to bunch itself in a hopping mass at the front of the stage”. Actually, we weren't "hopping", we were bouncing - on the soft seats - OK? - and said the band “seemed imprisoned by their instruments and the inevitably close minded patterns they produce.” Whatever that means!

Even the music industry’s measurement of success the mighty CHUM chart spelt ‘Train In Vain’ wrong when it entered their playlist in March 1980.

We were given exclusive first listens to many of the songs that were to appear on ‘London Calling’ as the band hadn’t even finished mixing the album or sorted out the artwork.

The band’s look had changed as well, as Simonon came onstage looking like a heart throb extra from ‘The Wild Ones’.

The Clash were always about the visual as well as the music. They always started their gigs by running onstage and that energy percolated through the O’Keefe as the first few rows were - right from the first song - a seething mass as we were giving back to them what they were putting out.

It was what punk rock, for me anyway, was about;

Put out, be creative, positive, keep an open mind and ‘IGNORE ALIEN ORDERS’.Nick Smash

It’s been four decades since The Clash, known for their unique fusion of punk and reggae, played Toronto for the first time. The event was caught on 35 mm black and white film by two brothers.

Ex-Torontonian, photographer Nick Smash, also known as Nick White, along with his brother Simon White, were part of the Toronto post-punk scene at the time and were there to capture history.

Nick will give a talk on opening night and he and Simon will be exhibiting photos. It’s part of an event called The Clash on the Danforth in celebration of the 40th anniversary of two memorable concerts played by Mick Jones, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, The Clash, at the Rex Danforth Theatre in 1979.

Punk’s thrashing guitars, off-tone harmonics bred in underground bars and backrooms was beginning to take hold. The Clash had sold over 100,000 imported copies of their first album and set off on the Pearl Harbour tour to the US and Canada in 1979.

Punk bands were able to fill the larger-size music halls by the end of the 70s. On Feb. 20 when The Clash opened up with I’m So Bored With The USA at The Rex, Nick and Simon were ready. The Clash would return to Toronto to play the O’Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts only months later on September 26.

“My brother Simon and I took photos of all the bands that played in Toronto from 1979 – 1983,” Nick tells me by text.

“Many of the photos we took are in a book I wrote called, Alone And Gone.” They published it themselves in 2015.

Nick White has produced this limited edition (100 copies) book of mostly unpublished photographs of Clash concerts in Toronto between 1979 and 1984. The First Time The Clash Played Toronto was in 1979. The show was captured on film (photos) and is on exhibit all through Feb.

“We were VERY independent. All the photos are ours and we own the copyright,” says Nick – “independent and self published – NO BARCODES!” he added.

His aversion to barcodes is fairly ironic, since the exhibition is in a library full of them. But, it does show that the indelible spirit and aesthetics of the time that inspired the music, still lingers.

Nick moved to London, UK with his band Rent Boys Inc, where he’s been living since 1983.

The Clash on the Danforth opens with a talk on Feb. 1 from 7-8 pm at the Toronto Public Library, Pape/Danforth Branch, 701 Pape Ave. It is a free event. The exhibition runs throughout February.

It seems hard to believe but The Clash played their first concert in Toronto at The Rex Danforth Theatre 40 years ago next month.

During the month of February, The Toronto Public Library at Pape and Danforth will be hosting a photographic exhibition celebrating this hugely important event in Toronto's music history. The exhibition will be featuring some of the large format posters as displayed in 'Toronto Calling', the 2010 exhibition curated by Nick and Simon White at Steamwhistle Brewery. 1979 was a good year for fans of The Clash living in Toronto as they played 2 gigs while at the peak of their career. The first was at The Rex on February 20th and the second at The O'Keefe Centre on September 26th.

CLASH ON THE DANFORTH AT THE LIBRARY will be a multi media format exhibition using large format photos, collage type posters, original artifacts, video screen photos and old school cassette tapes. I'll be getting back behind the lectern and pontificating about how great these gigs were and what they meant to their fans as the punk scene was changing. The opening night will be Friday (February 1) at The Public Library (701 Pape Avenue – just south of Danforth) from 7pm to 8pm. Copies of "Alone And Gone" and "What You Don't Want Is What You Get" will be available.

Andrew Strayler - There was a nice gathering yesterday in celebration of the Clash visiting Toronto 4 times between 1979 and 1984. Nick Smash put together a great booklet of pictures and text, #/100, some guest radio station personalities from back in the day were in stage and a long unheard Joe Strummer radio interview from 1987 was played. There was a good turnout and I got to meet Steve Pecar in the flesh. My book is 23/100.