First night of two 'Secret Gigs', Thursday and Friday 5th & 6th July.

At the Thursday Notre Dame Hall show in '79 the Mo-dettes and the Low Numbers opened up the show.

updated 30 March 2003
updated 25 Dec 2008 - added support info
updated Dec 2014 added poster

Audio 2 -

Notre Dame 'Secret Gig' - major upgrade -
Sound 2.5 - 59min - very low gen - 18 tracks
previous recordings were missing tracks and of much poorer/inaudible quality

I'm Not Down

Full 18 track low gen upgrade

The recording is probably a very low gen one, this particular tape being from Camden market traders during 79. It contains all the songs from the concert with no edits. As far as I am aware, this is the master copy for all copies in circulation.

A big upgrade on the old version which was dreadful and only had the first 12 tracks and was only 45mins long. This one is the widely circulated one, avoid this one.

Many of the sound deficiencies of that original exist on this one, however much less so.

The biggest improvement is the spiel between tracks which is much clearer and you can hear what is being said, though it is all considerably much better. The vocals are fairly clear too but distant. The lead guitar drums and vocals all have there own definite sound and even the bass is more audible.

Overall it's an average quality audience recording suffering from a lack of clarity with the instrumentation blurring together with some minor distortion. An enjoyable listen nevertheless.

Bootleg tape cover

Two "secret" gigs, "because they had nothing better to do"

This very interesting tape for which a substantial upgrade now exists with all 18 tracks and better sound.

It contains the first public performances for 5 London Calling songs. Two of which Hateful and I'm Not Down were only played the next night and not again, plus Rudi Can't Fail and Death or Glory which reappeared briefly in 1980 and 1983 respectively. London Calling has some lyric changes over its later released version.

This is the first of two "secret" gigs played in the small Notre Dame Hall, off Leicester Square, central London. These were played either to trial new material before the Rainbow Theatre, Southall Defence Fund gig on the 14th July or simply as Joe says in the intro, because they had nothing better to do.

""It's nice to see you here, you know we come from London too"

The whole performance is very upbeat and energetic. Mick plays his guitar at full tilt and Joe gets involved with the audience and in such a small venue it makes great listening. The audience do not react well to the new songs, heckling at some points.

The new songs have a harder edge than their later album versions and are not yet in their fully realised state having some different arrangements.

The article from Sounds (14/7/79) by Dave McCullough raises the same concerns in its review of the gig. However the band in the interview for Sounds defend the new songs and explain with conviction why they must develop out of the musical straight jacket punk was now in.

The recording starts with Joe's greeting to the lucky few "It's nice to see you here, you know we come from London too, it's our home town, you never get to play just down the road…anyway it's never like it is in Manchester, but this looks much better, and the only reason we're here is we can't think of anywhere else to be!"

It's straight into a fine, impassioned Clash City Rockers and then Mick's shouts out "1-2-3-4" and The Clash crash into an excellent White Man. Joe intro's Safe European Home with "The Jamaican Tourist Board gave me and Mick a Fiver for this one!".

I'm Not Down is introduced by Joe saying "everybody's depressed these days, who ain't depressed here? who's contemplated suicide?". Mick sings most of the lyrics, which have some changes from the later recorded version, sharing the I'm Not Down line at the end with Joe, getting increasingly impassioned as the line is repeated. A fine and the only live recording of this song in circulation.

"Another thing we talk about here…." Leads into Death or Glory, same lyrics as the recorded version but harder and faster. I Fought The Law is back on audience familiar territory before London Calling gets it's live debut with some different lyrics and arrangement. An impassioned Joe barks out the words to his new song, with echo on his vocals.

"OK put your hat on, here comes the No.9!" is Joe's intro to Rudie Can't Fail which sounds as fresh and exciting as you'd expect. An edit leads us to City of the Dead "We need a choir on this one, 300 microphones back here, and you can play the saxophone!" [Lovers Rock is edited out we believe]

Another edit [editing out Jimmy Jazz] leads to a definite highlight the only live version of Hateful, harder, faster than its later recorded version. "Now its handcuff time!" is Joe's piss taking intro to Mick's Stay Free. Capital Radio is another highlight with Joe improvising mid song "Alright, I walk the line, He walks the line, She walks the line, They walk the line, the line broke, the monkey got choked and they all went to heaven in a little row boat!"

Then it's a fine run through the audience favourites ending with a driving, fierce London's Burning. Before the encore a touching moment as Joe says "I want you to meet my father Mr Joe Strummer"; his relationship with his father had been a difficult one but no doubt he was proud his father was there. Strong performances of Complete Control and What's My Name end a fascinating concert.

My friend recorded it on a cheap cassette player

I've just come across your site and was intrigued about the bootleg of the 1979 concert at Notre Dame Hall, because it was recorded by a friend of mine on a cheap cassette player. I can't believe its still doing the rounds today !.

It was, as you rightly say, recorded at the Thursday night concert (the next lunch time we played the tape back to listen to it in St. James's Park near where we both worked, until a member of the Royal Parks Police told us to turn it down).

To fit it onto a C60 cassette, my friend edited out at least 2 songs from the set the band played - 1 was definitely a version of ‘Jimmy Jazz' (which we thought was called ‘The Police walked in for Jazz') and I'm pretty sure another was ‘Lovers Rock' - we just thought those were the weakest of the new numbers the band had played. My friend sold the bootleg tape through ads in Sounds and NME, through approaching likely looking punks in the Kings Road, and also on a stall in the Great Gear Market in the Kings Road where my girlfriend worked. We also recorded a whole host of other bands during 1979 and the early part of 1980 and sold bootlegs of concerts by The Jam, Adam and the Ants, Gang of Four to name but a few. Unfortunately, from a sound quality point of view, the Clash concert was the last to be recorded on the cheapo cassette as my friend splashed out on a more sophisticated device which enabled the later concerts we taped to sound much better and would have done wonders for the Clash recording.  

BEST MAGAZINE - IN THE CITY

Review of Notre Dame gigs with photos

Sept 79

Record Mirror? - Clash: gunning for a wider target

14 Jul 79

Sounds review: Phone rings, whispered messages...

Link

A Riot of Our Own p165

Unknown -

At the Notre Dame Hall review

Link

Photos

Open photos in full in new window

Virginia Turbett - from the 6th July

17 photos Virginia Turbett from the the 6th July
- Clash on Parole post
Her photos are on sale at Getty Images here

More of Virginia's photos were published in a book,
DRAW ANOTHER BREATH - THE CLASH 1979-80.
Details can be found here
Published by Hanging Around Books 2019, it is a small collection of
images from their Notre Dame gig on 6th July 1979.

Virginia's post on is also on Clash City Collectors / Facebook

Book images posted by Virginia

Photos by Steve Morley and Justin Thomas from 6th

11 photos by Steve Morley and Justin Thomas from the 6th, the 2nd night
Clash on Parole Post

5th July - photo credit unknown

The Sex Pistols at Notre Dame Hall.

Photos

THE CLASH ON PAROLE | facebook.com

Setlist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Clash City Rockers White Man Safe European Home I'm Not Down Death or Glory I Fought the Law London Calling Rudi Can't fail Lovers Rock * City of the Dead Jimmy Jazz* Hateful Stay Free Capital Radio Janie Jones Hate and War English Civil War Londons Burning Complete Control Whats My Name