First night of two 'Secret Gigs', Thursday and
Friday 5th & 6th July.
Phone rings, whispered messages. Ligging and gigging. Get taken aside. Taken into confidences. Dont tell no-one I told you, but. . . Slowly but steadily we got the word. Word that `our I group, the group we both put so much faith and love in were playing London again and at last.
Secrecy. The Clash were playing two secret gigs at the Notre Dame hall at Leicester Square. Benefits for deprived children as a warm up for the laudable Southall do at the Rainbow this Saturday. With one stiputulation. No press photographers. No publicity.
A con perhaps? Someone pulling our legs But no, the phone didnt stop with tip-offs. Eeee, aint it grand to have mates
Thursday evening. 7.30. Leicester Place. Tonights the night, gonna be alright A couple of hundred punks queue up outside the church hall. Words got out. But not too much. Just enough. 600 punks rule. Bet its murder tomorrow. Hey ho and lets gooooo.
Woops. Tightish security. No cameras, Virge looses her box brownie. Bollox. Down in the cellar hall, the different gangs assemble in their rendezvous for the night. Tipping each other the wink Yknew then? Course.
Getting excited. Always do for the Clash. Ever since Harlesden firmly established them as the BUSINESS so long ago.
Wait. Chit-chat, Cans of lager. Support groups. . .The Low Numbers are up first. Camden Town mods with impressively pogoable sound. Music as burly and stocky as guitarist/vocalist Phil. Hefty chunks of fast, Jammy rock. `Ard and andsome. And Ten Pole Tudor up for a silly `Respectable finale. See them.
Wait some more. Modettes next. About as Mod as Alan Lewis (How unkind. Hurt Ed.) They- kick off with `Sound Of Music fave `My Favourite Things and plummet thence forth like a beheaded budgerigar. Ho hum.
Drinks some more full scale saga. Pick ya nose. Clash next. GOT TO BE. 10 pm. Theyre on. Watch `em run down the front. Watch us run down the front
`Clash City Rockers kicks things off, Jonesys mighty chords blasting out as your whole body tingles with excitement, Floods with adrenalin. Then `White Man In Hammersmith Palais rocks you gently, swaying and singing. Its been soo long. KARRASHHHH and light unit stage front explode into `Safe European Homes . Punk apocalypse. Feels so good. Ho. A new one. Look at each other. Yeah. Well, all right. Not too earth- shattering. Hum, another newie. Bit harder, this. Yeah better. Then Topper rolls out the drum red carpet for `I Fought The Law. Thats more like it.
Another newy. This ones ones good. Punchy. Like it. And yet another new song - reggaefied. But that bloody chorus is a direct retread of `White Man. Buddy Holly fights the law in `Ammersmith Palais'. Whats going on?
`City Of The Dead rings out. Pogo again. Nice one. Oh no not another new song. . .guinea pigs are we? Hold up, this ones better. Slow but catchy. And another one. Nice fast start, but. But. .it dont seem right. Dont sound like they mean it.. Jonesy grabs the mike and its away on `Stay Free, moving and spot on. Excellent. Yet another new one. Reggae. Dull reggae. Joes eyes bleeding somehow Some kid in the audience shouts out `Bring back the Clash, Hes got a point.
Maybe the boys agree cos they take off into a succession of unabashed clash dynamite `Capital Radio, a slow crapola version of `Janie Jones, `Hate And War .Were down the front. Pogoing like the rest. Trying to will ourselves into enjoying the best band in the world. `English Civil War. `Londons Burning . Well I oughta bee. Come on dont walk off. MORE. COME ON MOORRRE! Yeah. `Complete Control T-shirts soaked in sweat and we dont care. `Whats My Na-a-a-a-a-a- ammmme Come on. The end. Finito.
Hang around. Wait outside the dressing room. Say the words we never wanted to hear. The new songs are naff. The Clash have run out of ideas? Kiss punk goodbye?? Jesus. You know WE wouldnt say it if we didnt feel it. But its cos the Clash meant/mean so much to us that we gotta sort if out. Talk to `em. Hey Joe, whats it all about. . Joes tired. Trains to catch. Wait till tomorrow, Cool down. Think straiqht. Meet vou at Notre Dame at four, right? Be there or be square.
THE SCENE on Friday sets us up for a direct confrontation with the band. We sit watching the soundcheck and the new songs are rolled out again; they sound better. Tighter. Fiercer. Were worried. The intro to this feature has already gone to print. Could we have been wrong? Nah, everyone agreed the new material was duff last night, and if honesty is to be our downfall, well, were the first to admit it. But those chopping, skanking new songs DQ sound good. Fate has it that Bushell must leave even before the soundcheck ends, so its D.McC whos left facing the band once the run4hroughs over. They agree that all four should do the interview. They seem serious about the prospect, and even agree to go out later for photos.
The dressing-room is (literally) a toilet. Mick and Topper sit waiting for the other two. Topper is stoney silent while Jonesy, a more effete character than youd perhaps imagine, chats amiably in clipped, clearly-vowelled tones: Perhaps this isnt the right place to do what we want to do. Perhaps people (the audience) are a bit cool here or something. l wasnt surprised. I mean, nobody knows the songs. Its like the beginning for us this place. The last time we were here was at the beginning, when for some unknown reason we did this stupid photo session with the Pistols and Buzzcocks in `77. The feeling in the group is the same as it was then. Its like starting out again.
He talks about America: I think we stirred people there. ..emotionally. Maybe theyd go home and do something with themselves, I dont know. You see, I still believe in all that rubbish. Its ages until we get out of the place. They ask me where I want to do the interview. I say a pub. Joe says he fancies a pint. We have to escape through a black room that is dotted with invisibte, painful chairs.
Topper goes for something to eat after some photos An Iranian tourist recognises `Loe Flummer and gets an autograph. We reach the pub safely Its different nowadays, `Joe reflects, ` `more people dont just come up to you to say hello, now you get guys wanting to have a go at you. Round the table the band look grave and uneasy. Simonon jokes uneasily in whispers to Jones. Mick is quiet. Joe seems aggressively buoyant. It did feel like the old days last night, yeah. Its better than doin Wembley, know what I mean? Wed play football at Wembley not music.
So how did the gig come together? Is it the first of a series of `unofficial gigs? Weve got a few shows lined up, but theyre in different parts of the world - if someone rings us up and we fancy the gig, well do it. Were doin a show with The Undertones maybe in Derry, and theres one in the Mediterranean and another one in Canada. (A serious plan it seems personally given substance rather eerily later on when I saw Undertones manager Andy Ferguson slip furtively backstage and sign what looked like a contract with Joe.)
What about records for the near future? Weve got a few things up our sleeves for that, but were not sure whether theyre gonna work or not. Were gonna and try and turn a trick on some people.
I SAY that I thought the last single was disappointing. Simonon sneers. Joe gets angry: I was pleased with it. Look, if were just gonna sell solely Clash records to solely Clash fans, therere groups like The Ruts and UK Subs wholl cover us. They can do it. Its better than us re-recording `White Riot 900 times. But dont you resent that type of band just cashing in on something thats two years too late? Yes, I resent it, Mick admits, because my head is too big for my boots, and I have a huge ego an I cant stand people copying us. Joe: Yeah, but its also two years too late and its wasting everybodys time two years after. Personally, I cant stand it. Fair dues.
However lots, including myself, were no impressed by the band last night. Yeah, but that again I the `good ole Clash at Wembley attitude. If were gonna do that wed charge £8 a ticket to let you hear 40 versions of `Londons Burning. On the other hand, we can build up our sound and play our new tunes the way we wanna play them. I say I thought the band should in that case have played an entire new set. Besides, one of the new songs was a dead-ringer for `White Man. Hes thinking of `Rudie, Simonon suggests. Joe goes on, It starts gettin avant garde if you play a completely new set of songs. You got the new stuff: so what, maybe its a bit jittery? Sure, well play our greatest hits, but were not gonna re-write `White Riot. At the moment weve got a lot of rock `n roll power. Were in between the lands of reggae and disco with pick-axes, chopping up the borders. Were really chopping hard `cos weve got that rnr power to chop with, you know? Were really throwing reggae and disco over our shoulders: theyve both had .. Thats the most succinct assessment of where the Clash are at musically in the summer of `79 as youll find.
The new songs, `Lovers Rock, `Im Not Down, `Hateful, `Death Or Glory, `Rudie Cant Fail, `The Police Walked In For Jazz and best of the lot the Ominous, pounding, almost first album sounding `London Calling are more subtle rock formats than anything the band have ever done. The Clash play muscular tunes now. Whereas the older material sounds simply either based upon reggae or straight rock foundations, these songs are much more a complete assimilated entity of the separate influences. They still explode, its just that its more thoughtful, perhaps more mature form of explosion these days. But what about the old ideals? Playing `Hate And War as you did last night seemed an absolute chore. Listen man, there isnt one song Ive written that I wouldnt get up on that chair and shout the lyrics of in a loud voice, and I would do it with the same gusto that I ever had. You dont slow down, you know. We got our own ways of working, I just :1ont wanna brag about it. Were kind of under the record-companys thumb at the moment; see, we got no dough.
We talk about the film the band have spent the last few months getting ready. We went up to Scotland and, like, everything in it was naff- the vocals were really out of tune, really shit, and Micks been sorting through all the tapes weve got, working really hard trying to get some sort of sound we can release . . . but wed been getting pissed off with everything, the atmosphere, the bands, the music press, so we decided to knock out a few new
HERE IT comes. My comeuppance. I mention that the band have managed to hang on to some sort of ethics unlike the rest of the original punk bands. 1 thought he was gonna hit me: I tell you, well take that word `ethics and ram it down your throat, youll see! All these people poncing around, well crush them with a hammer. You think Im finished, dont you? Well, you better go look in your address-book and see my name there in big letters! Yeah, he suddenly switches, WHAT HAS TO PUNK? I tell you what pisses me off. Punk was about change. How many letters has that got? Six, right? Its not `fuck or `shit `cos theyre all four letter words. Its change. And now weve got a `punk ~ took , just a tradition. We dont want to belong to that shit. It seems that everything has gone right back to the drawing-board for The Clash, then? ` `Thats one of my phrases, yeah. Thats no big sweat for us. Maybe weve got nowhere, but at least we know what were doin . We dont walk around with green hair and bondage trousers any more. We just wanna look sort of . . . flash these days.
;Joe `s great. Hes got at knack for sudden perception, for putting his finger on the pulse of whats happening NOW. He talks about outside the Clash, about outside rock and roll; You can laugh at what Ive written, but I think things are gonna get worse, and I think in two years time what I wrote two years ago is gonna be even more relevant. Im talking about the economy of this country, about butter and eggs, about the basic staples of life. I think were entering a depression; like, telephones will only be on for an hour a day some time in the future, things l;ke that. Theres gonna be no money. Elton John fans will be the only ones buying records, and thats why we dont intend to release any. Mick and I have been thinking about this really hard for the last six months or so. Dont misinterpret what Im saying; Im saying that THERE WILL BE NO SIX QUID CLASH LP EVER. Its a fact. Why dont ya ring up the other bands and get them to say that?
WE LEAVE for the gig. Outside the interview situation Joe is his usual self with me. Considerate, blunt and honest. We walk down Shaftesbury Avenue again and the ideas swim round my brain like baby dolphins. The new Clash? The revitalised, reconsidered Clash? It looks that way. I hate the idea of being in a big band, Joe reflects as we head back in the side entrance again. Perhaps its a band doing the impossible, cutting off their `natural, `inevitable rnr progress into stale oblivion.
Perhaps? The last I saw of Joe that night he was standing at the side of the stage watching the Low Numbers set, grinning at a stunning young performance. The bassist broke a string halfway through one song. Strummer quietly raced backstage and without fuss handed over Simonons long, languid guitar as replacement I remember something hed said earlier about the phrase `Sten-guns in knightsbridge and about how many people still think the sten-guns are in the hands of the Clash, whereas the phrase really means the guns are pointing at them from every direction. Perhaps the sten-guns are about to return
WHERE ARE YOU, ZOOT MONEY?:
A rare mention in Jaws for Mr J. Pursey, a dog handler and part-time vocalist from Hersham. Mr Pursey turned up at The Clashs Friday gig in a rather tired and emotional frame of mind and was making something of an alcoholic nuisance of himself in the dressing room. We hear rumours that The Clash were so worried that he might decide to get up and jam with them that they I considered locking him in a cupboard. However, the man-that-no-walls-can-hold broke out and leapt on the boards for a rather version of less Riot to something ` than general delight. One young lady in the ` crowd was actually heard to I say, `Piss off, you boring old fart. The stage was duly ~ stormed and the gig closed in chaos. You never used to this sort of trouble when ` The Speakeasy was open for business.
CLASH BASH LIGGERS LIST:
Stars present at the Clashs secret Notre Dame gig last Thursday included Stiff Little Fingers, Madness, the Chords, the Cockney Rejects and Tony James. That same night Jimmy Pursey joined the Angelic Upstarts on stage at their Nashville gig for a spirited version of `Borstal Breakout.
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