Jimmy Jazz.
I'm so bored with the USA
Complete Control
London Calling
Pressure Drop?**
Clampdown
White Man in Hammersmith
Koka Kola
I fought the Law
Jail Guitar Doors
Guns of Brixton?**
English Civil War?**
Police and Thieves
Stay Free
Clash City Rockers
Safe European Home
Capital Radio
Janie Jones
Garageland
Armagideon Time
Career Opportunities
White Riot
** thought to be played
Found a flyer and ticket stub , thought you might like em. I was there. They played Pressure Drop, NOT the Prisoner. Not a chance.
Extensive archive of articles, magazines and other from the Take the Fifth Tour of the US, late 1979
Brixton Academy 8 March 1984
ST. PAUL, MN - MAY 15
Other 1984 photos
Sacramento Oct 22 1982
Oct 13 1982 Shea
Oct 12 1982 Shea
San Francisco, Jun 22 1982
Hamburg, Germany May 12 1981
San Francisco, Mar 02 1980
Los Angeles, April 27 1980
Notre Dame Hall Jul 06 1979
New York Sep 20 1979
Southall Jul 14 1979
San Francisco, Feb 09 1979
San FranciscoFeb 08 1979
Berkeley, Feb 02 1979
Toronto, Feb 20 1979
RAR Apr 30 1978
Roxy Oct 25 1978
Rainbow May 9 1977
Us May 28 1983
Sep 11, 2013: THE CLASH (REUNION) - Paris France 2 IMAGES
Mar 16, 1984: THE CLASH - Out of Control UK Tour - Academy Brixton London 19 IMAGES
Jul 10, 1982: THE CLASH - Casbah Club UK Tour - Brixton Fair Deal London 16 IMAGES
1982: THE CLASH - Photosession in San Francisco CA USA 2 IMAGES
Jul 25, 1981: JOE STRUMMER - At an event at the Wimpy Bar Piccadilly Circus London 33 IMAGES
Jun 16, 1980: THE CLASH - Hammersmith Palais London 13 IMAGES
Feb 17, 1980: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 8 IMAGES
Jul 06, 1979: THE CLASH - Notre Dame Hall London 54 IMAGES
Jan 03, 1979: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 19 IMAGES
Dec 1978: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 34 IMAGES
Jul 24, 1978: THE CLASH - Music Machine London 48 IMAGES Aug 05, 1977: THE CLASH - Mont-de-Marsan Punk Rock Festival France 33 IMAGES
1977: THE CLASH - London 18 IMAGES
Joe Strummer And there are two Joe Strummer sites, official and unnoffical here
Clash City Collectors - excellent
Facebook Page - for Clash Collectors to share unusual & interesting items like..Vinyl. Badges, Posters, etc anything by the Clash. Search Clash City Collectors & enter search in search box. Place, venue, etc
Clash on Parole- excellent Facebook page - The only page that matters Search Clash on Parole & enter search in the search box. Place, venue, etc
Clash City Snappers Anything to do with The Clash. Photos inspired by lyrics, song titles, music, artwork, members, attitude, rhetoric,haunts,locations etc, of the greatest and coolest rock 'n' roll band ever.Tributes to Joe especially wanted. Pictures of graffitti, murals, music collections, memorabilia all welcome. No limit to postings. Don't wait to be invited, just join and upload. Search Flickr / Clash City Snappers Search Flickr / 'The Clash'
Search Flickr / 'The Clash' ticket
I saw The Clash at Bonds - excellent Facebook page - The Clash played a series of 17 concerts at Bond's Casino in New York City in May and June of 1981 in support of their album Sandinista!. Due to their wide publicity, the concerts became an important moment in the history of the Clash. Search I Saw The Clash at Bonds & enter search in red box. Place, venue, etc
Loving the Clash Facebook page - The only Clash page that is totally dedicated to the last gang in town. Search Loving The Clash & enter search in the search box. Place, venue, etc
Blackmarketclash.co.uk Facebook page - Our very own Facebook page. Search Blackmarketclash.co.uk & enter search in red box. Place, venue, etc
Search all of Twitter Search Enter as below - Twitter All of these words eg Bonds and in this exact phrase, enter 'The Clash'
The Clash Take the Fifth Tour
Supported by Bo Diddley & The Undertones
updated 7 July 2008 - added punters view (SmokeM)
updated 30 Dec 2008 - added flyer/ticket stub
updated 30 Dec 2008 - added review of Chicago FM Rebroadcast
updated 22 January 2022 - added pass/tic
5 decent copies.
Over the time I have received 5 decent copies. There is not much between them. Some include the first minute of the radio annnoucer from the re-broadcast, some (from previous broadcasts?) don't. The FM Rebroadcast was broadcast in the Ccigao area only on January 18th 2003. I have excluded poorer copies such as the 'Home of the Blues cdr'
Audio 1 - Live in Chicago CD
Sound 4 - 64mins - low - 19 tracks
An older recording, slightly flater and probbaly copied more. Misses the intro
Audio 2 -
Sound 4.5 - 64mins - low - 19 tracks
From the WXRT re-broadcast & includes the announcer. As good as it gets. A bit higher pitch.
Audio 3 - WXRT Chicago FM (This is Live Clash...)
Sound 4 - 63mins - low - 19 track
From teh FM Broadcast and for some at amore pleasing balanced pitch. Misses the intro
Audio 4 - radio broadcast master but at 128k
Sound 4.5 - 65min - master - 19 tracks
Probably the best. Sounds like 3 and includes the announcer.
Audio 5 - radio broadcast master but at 260k
Sound 4.5 - 63min - master - 19 tracks
Sounds no different to the 128k (4) and excludes the radio announcer.
Koka Kola, I Fought the Law
Newer FM Rebroadcast Jan 2003
This supercedes all others just thought the older copies came from the previous FM broadcast back in the day. Very clear, not the quality of a soundboard but hugely enjoyable. There is some static at the begnning on Jimmy Jazz.
The radio announcer identifies the station and broadcast following Jail Guitar Doors where two tracks are cut from the broadcast.
There is a duller more muffled version. If downloaded it will be 128k whereas the better version above is 270 VBR.
The Older Releases
Several recordings circulate on this one and one has been booted, This is Live Clash: Chicago 1979. All emanate from a radio broadcast at the time or a re-broadcast in 1995 on WXRT.
Several cdrs exist as well as the boot CD [source 1]. The Boot CD has a poorer sound to source 3 and 4 below.
One cdr [not listed here] falsely goes under the name of Live Clash Chicago, the boot CD title, but its a poor copy.
Another two go under the name House of the Blues [1 not listed its awful], the name Joe identifies before the first number, but these last two are from different radio sources. Of the two going by the name of the Home of the Blues, one can be dismissed as it suffers interference and distortion though good. The one listed above is only average.
Source 3 has a much better sound, and sounds like a clearer version of the This is Live Clash: Chicago. This, the second Home of the Blues/I'm so Bored with Chicago (II)is much much better.
Source 4, called WXRT Chicago circulating is identified as Live Clash Chicago, however it is not as this one carries the broadcast information for the radio station identifying the station and the rebroadcast that was to follow. An extra track at the beginning.
The WXRT 1995 re-broadcast has the best sound; more dynamic and detailed than any of the others, however it had 2 second track gaps and there is some slight noise. The sound and stereo mix is excellent on all the instrumentation particularly though on Mick's guitar which is right up in the mix.
Arguably the best of the tour
The second night of the tour and a marked contrast on the first at St. Paul. Here a combination of a receptive very lively audience, and resolved inter-band conflict result in a superb charged and intense performance, arguably the best of the tour.
Where as at St Paul the audience were muted, Joe and Mick were falling out and Joe bit Paul in frustration, here in Chicago 2 days later Joe warmly introduces Mick as "This here's my partner" and the shared purpose of the band is evident throughout.
A purpose that is evident in a fanstastic Clash gig, Joe recently saying that there were some highly memorable nights where everything came together and the band caught fire. This was one of those nights. Captured by the local FM radio broadcast, the concert exists in stereo pro sound.
Paul Morley for the NME (NME Ray Lowry 5th Tour Notes published on the 29th September, 6th of October and the 13th October) wrote that Chicago was a Clash city and went where Clash wanted to take them. The band patted each other on back at end, and the Clash thought the Chicago audience was great. There was a downside when Paul ricked his back and hurt his hip requiring medical attention.
Top right Clash City Collectors | facebook.com - believe is an original Take the 5th Tour T-shirt. Mario Irrek - Really nice one. I had the chance to get one in NYC but they want 650$, that was way way to much, it also was an XL
Aragon Ballroom, Chicago
The Aragon Ballroom, an iconic Chicago landmark, opened its doors on July 15, 1926, in the heart of the city's booming Uptown district. Built by brothers Andrew and William Karzas at a cost of $2 million, it was designed to be the most beautiful and elaborate ballroom of its time 1.
The Karzas brothers, who had previously found success with the Trianon Ballroom on Chicago's South Side, aimed to create a venue that would silence critics who viewed dance halls as immoral and unhealthy1. With its extravagant interior designed to replicate a Spanish palace courtyard, complete with crystal chandeliers, mosaic tiles, and terra-cotta ceilings, the Aragon quickly earned the moniker "the most beautiful ballroom in the world" 35.
During its heyday in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, the Aragon Ballroom attracted massive crowds, with weekly attendance regularly exceeding 18,000 1. The ballroom's popularity was bolstered by its strict policies, which included dress codes and prohibitions on close dancing, as well as its prime location near public transportation. The Aragon also gained national recognition through nightly radio broadcasts on WGN, which allowed listeners across the country to enjoy the music of top jazz bands performing at the venue 1. However, the ballroom's success began to wane in the 1950s and '60s, facing competition from television and changing social dynamics.
The Aragon's history took several turns after regular dance schedules ended on February 9, 196419. Over the following decades, the venue served various purposes, including as a roller skating rink, boxing venue, and discothèque. In the 1970s, it became a popular spot for rock concerts, hosting marathon "monster rock" shows 7. The ballroom changed hands multiple times, with each new owner attempting to revive its former glory. Today, the Aragon Ballroom continues to operate primarily as a concert venue, preserving its architectural splendor while adapting to modern entertainment needs 19.
The famous Aragon Ballroom is still open today. Built in 1926 it looks like the courtyard of a Spanish castle . Ray Lowry described the scene (see link): ‘The Aragon is the result of mating the Ponderosa ranch with the Albert Hall, setting it down in Blackpool in Scots week and calling in the Mongol hordes. And the Mongol hordes love The Clash. By time The Clash had finished their set the audience had melted down into a heap of steaming insides and twitching nerve ends slithering around the floor of the theatre.'
The Aragon construction was completed in 1926. The Aragon was designed in he Moorish architectural style, with the interior resembling a Spanish village. Named for a region of Spain, the Aragon was an immediate success and remained a popular Chicago attraction throughout the 1940s. The Aragon's proximity to the Chicago 'L' (elevated railway) train provided patrons with easy access, and often crowds in excess of 18,000 would attend during each six-day business week. Each night, powerhouse radio station WGN broadcast an hour-long program from the hall to audiences throughout the Midwestern United States and Canada.— at Aragon Ballroom.
According to legend, the secret tunnels under the nearby Green Mill bar, a Prohibition-era hangout of Al Capone, lead to the Aragon's basement.— at Aragon Ballroom.
Crank up the volume
Thankfully Mick's use of some guitar effects which spoils the enjoyment somewhat of many of the Take The 5th shows is a problem here only on London Calling where the songs intro especially loses its edge and impact. Mick was really wired for this show and his playing is a delight with lots of invention and ‘punk rock electric guitar'.
Joe's rhythm guitar is lost in the mix somewhat until Police & Thieves onward when it is clear as a bell in the left channel, the two guitars sounding superb. The only criticism of the mix is the vocals, which are not as in your face as you would expect from a pro-recording. Overall though it's a hugely enjoyable sound (crank up the volume) arguably capturing the power of the performance better than the New York FM broadcast. Certainly the performance here is more intense and together.
Following the short introduction to the rebroadcast, Mick starts the set with "This is the home of the blues, right" and an excellent Jimmy Jazz, blues Clash style. As Jimmy Jazz ends there's a short gap, the orange stage lights blaze on and Mick's guitar blasts out the intro of I'm So Bored With The USA. The audience go wild and there's no break before an intense Complete Control.
London Calling is still fairly ragged, spoilt somewhat by Mick's guitar effects and still containing the "time to be tough, midnight shutdown" lyrics although "phoney Beatlemania" gets its debut. The London Calling lyric and musical differences evident on this tour surely mean it was recorded or over dubbed after the tour contrary to accounts of the band playing the acetates in the tour bus flown over by Bill Price later in the tour?
Clampdown follows, a song also still in live development but here sounding magnificent especially at the start with Mick screaming "hey, hey, hey, hey". The song gets into a great groove and then stops without a proper ending, yet to be worked up. Mick introduced a similarly magnificent White Man with "this is for Rock Against Racism in Chicago".
All the performances are intense and powerful with Mick and Joe evidently really fired up. An edit after Jail Guitar Doors loses Guns of Brixton (Morley confirms Paul singing at this gig) and English Civil War (eye witness account). Mick's playing on Police & Thieves is superb and inventive, only a lack of an inspired rant (you know what I mean!) from Joe stops it matching the magnificence of the Cleveland Pearl Harbour performance. Stay Free here though arguably is the best live performance with Mick doing some Clash translation for US ears;" this the appendix right, Butlin's means the nick, the nick means the penitentiary". Clash City Rockers is another highlight amongst a set full of them.
An edit after Safe European Home on WXRT loses Joe's introduction and Mick's guitar intro to Capital Radio which is on Home of The Blues/Bored With Chicago; " I was listening to the radio in Hawaii, just lying on the beach, not a thought in my head, not a care in the world, the radio never plays no song..". It's another great performance with Joe singing "passive audience reaction that's the way we gotta be today, don't play your records, no chance, won't play your record, no dance, no hit record, no chance, never mind, never mind.." It's an inspired charge then through Janie Jones and Garageland to the encore.
With lights out drum and bass punch out repeatedly the rhythm to Armagideon Time before Mick's guitar comes in playing his reggae chops and then Joe with his candelabra now adding more improvisation to this song as it develops and gets extended during this tour. The lull in intensity is short lived as Career Opportunities is blasted out followed by a wild White Riot, which comes to an end only for Topper to keep the drums beating, and then the guitar blasts out another chorus.
Superb performance and sound, an absolute must have bootleg. Essential.
Bobby Skafish. For Christmas in 2018, I received the book "We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters" by Bobby Skafish. Bobby worked in Chicago radio from 1976 to 2015, and each chapter of the book is the name of the band/musician he interviewed during that time.
Bobby interviewed Joe Strummer and Mick Jones on Sept. 14, 1979, for 93XRT. Later that day, The Clash played their first Chicago concert at the Aragon Ballroom.
Below is a photo of Bobby with Joe and Mick, and the link to the audio of the concert is in the comments below.
I've seen tons of shows and it was the best ever.
"All of a sudden they let us in and we ran for the chairs. There was a 10 foot pit area, then tons of chairs. I was on a chair dead center about 25 feet away. Barry somebody (big DJ) was spinning tunes I remember. They brought him from London [Barry "Scratchy" Myers]..Bo Diddley opened the show and I remember seeing the Clash up on the balcony getting into it.
Then the Undertones took the stage. Then The Clash. Right when they got on stage I'll never forget a giant backdrop came down (different nation's flags sewn together) and it brought them even closer.
Started a slow jam and I remember Joe Strummer kinda slowly moving (later on I realized it was Jimmy Jazz). Also remember Mick Jones starting with something like"This is Chicago, home of the Blues, right?"
Then the tune wound down, all of a sudden these big yellow lights hit and they went into "USA" and it was intense! They were all over the place. I was a big Who fan before them and at that time I had only seen pictures of The Clash. Didn't know what to expect. I remember Joe having the coolest stage presence. Just right there. Real herky-jerky. Paul was real cool looking. And Jonesy was all over the place. He was having an incredible night. Ending songs with wicked leaps.
I've seen tons of shows and it was the best ever. At one point I remember Joe climbing all over this net that was on the speakers. It was just wicked...Also remember on "Jail Guitar Doors" that I was disappointed that Mick didn't say "Fuck em" after the Stones verse...I remember Pressure Drop [the prisoner or maybe police & thieves?] clearly 'cause it was an incredible cover and I remember Joe during "ECW" just shaking and looking over his head when he was supposed to sing "marching right up the stairs."
When the show let out, we were all standing in the street, still in semi-shock as to what a great gig it was.
When the show let out, we were all standing in the street, still in semi-shock as to what a great gig it was. I happened to look up at the Aragon . . if you look at the picture of the venue, there's these little windows up high. Leaning out were Joe and Mick, looking at the crowd and Chicago with huge grins on their faces, like a couple of kids at Christmas. Joe turns and looks at me across the street, we exchange grins and waves and thumbs up and off he goes. Man, I miss that guy. Thanks for the memory. Paul from Chicago
My Mom helped me sneek in without a ticket
I first saw THe CLASH 26 years ago at The Aragon Ballroom 1979 I was 12 years old. My Mom helped me sneek in without a ticket got me past the door by saying I just wanted to buy a t-shirt..........once in I was gone up the stairs never to be seen until the end of the show while my parents waited for 2 hours in the car........... then again in 1982 same venue I was a sophomore in high school. The greatest band ever!! SmokeM
Me and some friends drove up from St. Louis. About 5 hours.
It was just a wicked show. Friday night, I'm pretty sure. Me and some friends drove up from St. Louis. About 5 hours. I remember waiting in an alley for hours. The show was at the Aragon Ballroom on Lawrence Street. One guy was just getting wasted and I remember he was passed out for the show!
All of a sudden they let us in and we ran for the chairs. There was a 10 foot pit area, then tons of chairs. I was on a chair dead center about 25 feet away. Barry somebody (big DJ) was spinning tunes I remember. They brought him from London (Myers???)..Bo Diddley (!) opened the show and I remember seeing the Clash up on the balcony getting into it. Then the Undertones took the stage. Then The Clash. Right when they got on stage I'll never forget a giant backdrop came down (different nation's flags sewn together) and it brought them even closer. It was perfect...
Started a slow jam and I remember Joe Strummer kinda slowly moving (later on I realized it was Jimmy Jazz). Also remember Mick Jones starting with something like "This is Chicago, home of the Blues, right?" Then the tune wound down, all of a sudden these big yellow lights hit and they went into "USA" and it was intense! They were all over the place. I was a big Who fan before them and at that time I had only seen pictures of The Clash. Didn't know what to expect. But it was just wicked. I remember Joe having the coolest stage presence. Just right there. Real herky-jerky. Paul was real cool looking. And Jonesy was all over the place. He was having an incredible night. Ending songs with wicked leaps. I've seen tons of shows and it was the best ever. At one point I remember Joe climbing all over this net that was on the speakers. It was just wicked...Also remember on "Jail Guitar Doors" that I was disappointed that Mick didn't say "Fuck em" after the Stones verse...
Do you know anything about this gig?
Did you go? Comments, info welcome...
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Best show of my life
Jeff Frelich - facebook.com - 1st Clash gig I ever saw. Drove to Chicago from StL. Best show of my life, with the Undertones and Bo Diddley on the bill. Sept. 14, 1979. Life changer.
I was 18 and just got into the Clash 6 months earlier. We had no idea what was going on back then! We had heard "punk" rock sucked, for years. Couldn't play their instruments, etc. We were into The Who and Stones and Zeppelin.
I remember hearing about The Clash and in March of '79 finally decided to take a chance and go buy their record. Luckily the guy at the store was a big Clash fan and I went home with their debut (import) and GEER. It was like woah! Like nothing I had ever heard before. The power and passion - who is this lead singer???
Saw a few pictures and that was it back then. Heard they were 300 miles away on that September night so we hopped in a van and drove to Chicago. Most exciting and incredible live band I had ever seen in my life! It was mesmerizing. Went on to see them 15X over the next three years!
And get into all kinds of bands because of them, and especially reggae music, which I'm still totally immersed in. Like I said, life changer.
10 of us piled in my buddy's Chevy impala
@brianhill3850 - YouTube - 10 of us piled in my buddy's Chevy impala tripping balls and made it in time for the last 3 songs by the Undertones...we were totally mesmerized by the Clash and left gob smacked..life changing gig!
@JuanMartinez-jq1rp - YouTube - I was there. Right up front. Bo Didley and the Undertones opened. Waited in line in the alley all day long. Top show for me.
@thirdcoast5755 - YouTube - This was before London Calling was released, so nobody knew what Jimmy Jazz was about, then they kicked into Bored With The USA and the place went crazy.
@vicbondi6514 - YouTube - I am standing directly in front of Paul Simonon. Unforgettable night.
hamsco - Mixcloud - 40 years ago, my 21 year old self was at this show. I am astounded that I am able to hear it again.
When they kicked into Bored with the USA, the energy level really went up
@thirdcoast5755 - YouTube - I was there. This was before London Calling came out, at least in the US, so Jimmy Jazz was kind of confusing. Then, when they kicked into Bored with the USA, the energy level really went up in the place. Undertones and Bo Diddley opened. Fun times.
@barryrahn5957 - YouTube - I was there too - and boy did the sound suck! Most of the time I wasn't even aware of what song it was until halfway through. But that bad sound didn't stop me from becoming a total Clash maniac.
Daniel Kubinski - I was there, changed my life!!! I am forever grateful to my dad for surprising me with the tix.
talk2brad - r/theclash - 1979 Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Mosh pit was like nothing I ever experienced.
The best concert I‘ve ever attended
Conradf - setlist.fm - I was at this show. I consider it not only the best concert I‘ve ever attended, but a concert that completely changed my outlook on what rock music and concerts could achieve. My recollection is they took the stage like storming a beach head. An acoustic number like Jimmy Jazz doesn’t fit that picture. I’m So Bored or Complete Control fit better with my recollections. But I know memories can be tricky andf unreliable. Was the person who put this set list together actually in attendance at this concert?
maxnix - Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, 1979. Hard for me to remember a better show by anyone.
'79 Aragon Ballroom was awesome
steveharris - 1979 Aragon ballroom was awesome! I was 17 and I wanted to be joe strummer!!! I can remember their stage presence!! They owned it!!! Great memories stumbling onto this thread!
Bicisigma - r/ClassicRock - Saw ‘em at the Aragon in Chicago-remember when this huge flag dropped from the ceiling to start “I’m So Bored with the USA”
Blackmarketclash | Leave a comment
A Riot of our Own pg 192
In Chicago we found the shop underneath the loop railway. We had been told Wax Trax specialized in unusual records. The most unusual thing we found was a big stack of bootleg Capital Radio EPs. It reminded me of Bernie’s flat. I finally got a copy.
‘We’ll have them, thank you very much. This stuff is illegal,’ said Mick, picking up a great wodge of them. Not that we minded the shop having them – they had been freebies in the first place. The EP had never been released in the States, and we handed copies out to all and sundry, like we had done with Bernie’s free badges.
When I picked up the driver from his room to take us to the show he was strapping on a shoulder holster. ‘What you doing?’
‘Well, this is Chicago.’
‘Oh, right …’
He didn’t need to use it, but we could have done with him around after the show. Joe, Lowry and a bunch of us wanted to see some blues. Our cabbie had drawn a blank at a couple of clubs when I had a better idea. Guns were still on my mind.
‘Do you know the Biograph Cinema?’ Blank look. ‘The place where John Dillinger got shot? Public Enemy Number One?’
He dumped us outside the renamed theatre, but I wasn’t looking to see what was playing. It was the alley down the side, where Melvin Purvis of the FBI had gunned down our man forty-odd years before, that I wanted to see. Bullet holes were still in the wall. Strummer fingered them, thinking of the bank robber. On to another club and we struck gold, with a Big Mama Thornton lookalike belting out blues standing on a table. We sat on a long trestle table as the audience burst into ‘Happy Birthday’ to Sunnyland Slim. We couldn’t have been in a better place. We had inadvertently crashed a blues birthday party. We tried to get Joe on-stage, but it wasn’t his style to do so.
I went in search of more action with Lowry. Staggering across a busy intersection in central Chicago, Ray announced he needed a piss. The most obvious place for him to do it was down the leg of the jackbooted traffic cop on the central plinth. Before the cop could reach for his gun I smiled weakly. ‘He’s English. He’s a cartoonist. He’s mad and I’m taking him straight home.’
TUESDAY LUNCHTIME: Cleveland Airport. With a couple of hours to kill before my one-stop-only flight to Minneapolis and the first date on the Clash’s second American tour (bewilderingly named ‘The clash Take The Fifth’), I dragged out the Corona Calypso, balanced it sloppily on a tubular chrome ashtray (everything’s bigger and shinier at Cleveland Airport) and started attacking the keys. Unfortunately, this attracted the attention of a perambulating mahogany tree.
"Hey, you man, whaddya doin’, man? I was goin’ buy myself a fuckin’ Remington, man. That’s the best fuckin’ typewriter in the world, man. And it only a cost a hundred bucks."
The giant interloper paused to fiddle with his oversize shoulder bag before adding somewhat perplexingly: "But I never did get it ‘cos my apartment got burgled...Hey man, what are you?"
"A journalist."
He wandered off to allow this piece of information time to find his brain and then eased his three hundred and fifty pounds on to the blue vinyl upholstery right slap next to my right ear.
"You’re a German, huh?" I chose to ignore this Pinteresque reply.
"Which part of Germany?"
Remembering what my mother told me about talking to strange black men in airport lounges I kept my lips tightly clamped on my Kent.
‘Hey man, you some kind of fuckin’ communist?" This last word was spat from his gullet like he thought he was just about to choke on his gum. "I fuckin’ hate communists, man". (This from a man who looks like he drew a five, a seven and a three in the Great American poker game.)
"I fuckin’ wish I could fuckin’ kill you, you motherfucker. If I had a gun on me right now, I’d blow your fuckin’ head away, you goddam motherfucker." He drifted away.
America is a foreign country. They do things differently there.
TUESDAY TEATIME: A Minneapolis hotel room. Having just left Paul Simonon in the nineteenth floor bar with a brace of double Brandy Alexanders and his girlfriend Debbie who he introduced to me with the words "This is Debbie, she takes photographs", I’m sitting in Room 511.
Kosmo Vinyl and his yellow blond with black roots hair is sitting at the coffee table. I’m perched by the window. One of Ian Dury’s managers, Andrew King, is lounging on a bed talking into the phone.
Both Kosmo and I remain conspicuously silent. Although we can only hear one end of the conversation, it’s obviously one of those phone calls that are awarded the respect normally reserved for the dead. With half the information trapped in the confines of a long distance line, little of it makes much sense. I do, however, pick up on a couple of phrases — "Get out in the market place" and "shift some units".
The Clash turn pro in the depths of the American heartland, indeed.
Being a naturally inquisitive sort, I wonder exactly why Ian Dury’s PR and manager are sitting in an American hotel room, dealing with Clash business. It’s explained to me that this is one of those most modern of relationships, a trial marriage.
The Clash, although still connected to Bernard Rhodes by law and contract, are technically without management. At home in England, they’d taken turns — one week Mike would carry the attaché case, next week Joe would get in the honour. But, on the road in America, they desperately needed someone to take care of the business.
And, after all, Andrew King did have the necessary experience of American backwaters — he’d seen ‘em all handling Ian Dury’s failed attempt to interest the Yanks by supporting Lou Reed.
And so the Clash, Kosmo Vinyl, Andrew King and his partner, Peter Jenner, are all currently huddled together under the church porch trying to make up their minds and waiting for the priest to arrive.
By the time this is all clear, Kosmo is beginning to enjoy himself. So I asked him if he’d got a copy of the new album (the new album, for the purposes of this article, refers to The Clash, You Ess of Eh style) an’ ‘e said ‘e’ and’t ….oooh, is there gonna be some fun at Epic tomorrow. I’ll get right on the blower and they’ll get a bloody vice president down there."
Relations with Epic, their American record label, are, I quickly discover, far from conjugal. (Not that the Clash ever bitched to me about Epic. They learned that lesson long ago. Blabbing off to the press about what is essentially a family affair can make you look like the silly, whining children of the relationship. They didn’t even moan in public about CBS England insisting on a £1.49 cover price for the Cost Of Living EP when they wanted to keep it down to a quid.)
I don’t know for certain why they’re not exactly cuddling up under a nuptial blanket with Epic but I’d hazard a guess that it’s not because Epic don’t think they’re worth it, can’t see their effort being returned in hard currency but precisely because Epic figure (ha, ha) they stand a more than fair chance of using the Clash to buoy up their books as their profits slide nearer and nearer the red column and the total of Indians they’ve sacked starts pushing past treble figures.
Figure it this way. Having originally decided not to release the debut album, Epic were taken aback by the relative success of Give ‘Em Enough Rope (which they did put out), the following tour of North America and, perhaps most tellingly, the overwhelming critical acclaim for the band, writ largest in Rolling Stone and the Village Voice, respectively the Bible and the Koran of the American music consumer press as it’s viewed by the American record industry. (Being suggested as an escape valve for the fear and frustration engendered by China invading Vietnam might seem a touch hyperbolic to English ears; to an American record company it quite likely seems understand.)
So, after putting out the debut album (which has already set a record by selling 100,000 on import) to keep the band and the potential audience sweet, Epic reckon that the third album (which only needs to be mixed at the end of this tour) could maybe "be the big one for these boys elephant dollar time". But, if that’s to work out to Epic’s advantage, they need a degree of control over the band they’ve so far been unable to gain …even without management the Clash have retain their independence (of sorts — they still needed tour support for this swing through North America).
Accordingly, the label put the bite on the band, saying not to this, maybe (if you do this) to that and generally making life not easy for a band on the road. That way, if Epic play a careful game, by third album time, they hope the Clash’ll be doing it their way.
Add Kosmo Vinyl and Andrew King to this mess of divergent ambitions and you have the perfect recipe for tension between a band and their record company.
This, you understand, is all supposition, but I was told by one of the Clash’s two American tour managers, that if Billy Gaff (Rod Stewart’s manager who was once rumoured to be talking over the Clash) was in charge, he would be getting everything they wanted out of Epic with ease.
Also, I couldn’t help but overhear someone saying that, if they didn’t get the extra money out of Epic, the tour wouldn’t even get as far as New York on September 19/20. Maybe I heard the figure of twenty thousand dollars mentioned. Maybe I didn’t it.
TUESDAY EVENING: St Paul Civic Centre. We’d been told to be ready to leave for the rehearsal around six thirty — the following day’s show was to be first gig of the tour proper; the only previous date had been an open-air show in Monterey — we finally left around ten.
The journey from the safe Minneapolis home of the Sheraton hotel along a dark and drizzly freeway and across the fledgling Mississippi took a good half hour. As we arrived, we were greeted by an illuminated sign outside the St. Paul Civic Centre promising the Clash tomorrow and Abba next week and the four Clashers bouncing around the stage in mufti.
Paul as always in a peaked cap and black, swinging his bass like he was building a railroad. Mick in trilby, white vest and black pegged pants — Bruce Springsteen’s obviously big in the Jones book this year. Topper’s behind his kit and Joe’s in a green shirt and shouting down at me "Ow long you been ‘ere?"
"Since last Friday."
"Oh, I thought you’d been here for ages. You’ve got fat."
Retreating in shame to the back of the hall that Peter Frampton couldn’t fill the week before, I joined Andrew King, who was dancing along to Paul Simonon’s first song, ‘Guns Of Brixton’, which was him and Joe switching instruments — Paul on the 240 Volts Killer Telecaster and Joe on the Pressure bass. It’s a moody dub-like nonentity, which doesn’t improve with subsequent listenings.
Really, it’s like a sideshow to the main action which is Mick running the show from the centre of the stage. It’s him who’s arguing with the roadies, chivvying the sound guys and deciding which song they’re gonna run through next.
Now they’ve got someone running the road show, Mick’s free to concentrate on the music while Joe messes around with the presentation, getting Johnny Green, the band’s "personal", to shine a torch up into his face as a dramatic addition to their new reggae cover version, 'Armagideon Time'.
A few more runs through new songs like '(The Police Walked In On) Jimmy Jazz’, an R&B number with a heavy debt to ‘Stagger Lee’ and ‘London’s Calling’, which is a bridging link between the histrionics of the past and more measured pacings of the present.
On past midnight when the union crew for the whole hall switches on to treble time and I fall asleep and get woken by a bottle of beer over my head courtesy of Topper.
The band return to the hotel and their girlfriends — only Mick didn’t bring his beloved; she’s on tour with the Slits.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: Dressing Room. "So what I did was put the jacket carefully in the case so when I took it out there wee no creases in it". Topper’s girlfriend, Dee, in multi-coloured spotty suit, is explaining to Gabby, Joe’s blond-haired girlfriend who’s in a more functional olive drab boiler suit and white boots.
"My mum ironed all my shirts before I left," replies Gabby.
Back in the hall the American sound mixer, Shorty, who’s identifying the band by means of the cartoons from the Sounds Christmas Clash game taped to the desk, announces: "The hall union has requested we break for fifteen minutes so they can fly the curtain."
Still puzzled by the rigidity of American unions, the band wander off the stage and watch the union crew go for their tea break. I overhear one of the union men telling another: "Christ, didja ever see such a bunch of pricks?"
WEDNESDAY EVENING: The Clash onstage (finally). And tactfully opening with ‘I’m So Bored With The USA’ as the Stars and Stripes beams benignly down on them from the centre of the backdrop butted right up against the red, white and green of Italy.
All in black apart from Topper’s white shirt and Joe’s red shirt with the collar points aiming for the sky and running around the stage Clash-wise as Mick "testifies about Brixton" on ‘Stay Free’ and starts to take chances with his solo on ‘Complete Control’ — longer, freer, less structured and, for once, not an almost carbon copy of the recorded version.
Joe reaches for the mike and starts blurting: "I come over here and I switch on the radio and all I hear is the Eagles and Steely Dan …so I turn it to a country and western station."
The crowd boo. Country and western is not the coolest thing in the world to a Clash fan who doesn’t know that in Monterey they brought Joe Ely on for the encore to do his ‘I Keep My Fingernails Long so they Click When I Play The Piano’ and ‘White Riot’. Later in the tour, they plan to play a roadhouse with Joe Ely in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.
The gig starts to disintegrate as Joe’s guitar refuses to work, leaving him skanking guitarless in front of the mike, sticking alternate hands in his pockets and wailing through ‘The Prisoner’. As the crowd wildly applaud ‘White Man’, Joe tells them: "It’s no good. It’s a pile of shit." And later: "You gotta say ‘Fuck off, you limeys. Give it some stick, you cunts’."
The crowd is perplexed and next day the Minneapolis Star interprets this as "punk rock’s offensiveness" instead of an honest admission to being at less than peak form.
Mind you, the monitor mixer didn’t help. Deaf in one ear, he was reading a book throughout the set. (He wasn’t there the next show.) Surmounting such odds, they played a solid rearguard action, making it on guts, charisma and the strength of new songs — ‘Waiting For The Clampdown’ about the Three Mile Island near meltdown and ‘Koke Adds Life’ which they segue into ‘I Fought The Law’.
The crowd didn’t care that it was "hardly transcendental" (Minneapolis Star headline); they wanted their encore. Paul and Topper came on first, then Paul and by the time they were locked into the thudding rhythm of ‘Armagideon Time’, Joe strolled on in the total dark carrying a candelabra, its candles the only light on the stage.
(The candelabra later disappeared which cost the band two hundred and fifty very useful dollars.) The sweet and sour tones of Strummer’s "A lot of people won’t get no supper tonight" wound into the first-album-greatest-hits-sprint-to-the-end-and-off.
Andrew King’s mellow voice told me "I don’t think I’ll go backstage for a few moments. I’ll let them kill the road crew first."
When all’s cooled out, Mick sits in the dressing room, drawing on some herb and chatting to his mum and step-dad. Renee Jones(as was) lives in Armwood, Michigan with her copper-mine engineer husband, George. They’d driven down specially for the show and both had obviously got themselves dressed up for the night out. He’s in a neat, well-cut suit and tie. She’s got a mass of black curly hair topping a copper necklace and a black, translucent shirt covered with what look like white apples.
Both of them are obviously very proud of Mick. George has never been to a rock show before. He keeps mumbling: "My God. It was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it before." When Mick wanders over to the other side of the room, Renee keeps stealing glances at him just like any proud mum.
In the other corner sit the road managers discussing the equipment failures. "Those mikes just aren’t built for Strummer," says Andrew King, "they’re for folk-singers like Roy Harper. What we need is some hydraulic ones. Two of those should last us the whole tour."
THURSDAY: Seven hours on an Arpeggio tour bus. As body after body is squeezed on the tour bus, the size of the entourage becomes inescapable. The band, three girlfriends, the personal roadie, Rory, a mate of Mick’s and one of the America tour managers and great fund of stories about Mick at art school and in the Delinquents, two journalists, two photographers and an artist. Throw in a juggler and they could open a circus.
Minneapolis to Chicago. Seven hours on a bus with one short stop. The tinted windows make it almost impossible to see but the comforts of the bus make it seem more like a vibrating hotel room than a means of transportation.
By squeezing against a window and squinting, you can see out.
‘Holidrome Holiday Inn 41 Miles. Exit 53 North.’
‘County Line 62 Miles.’
‘Howard Johnson’s Travel Lodge Exit 3 South 26 Miles.’
We pull up by the Chicago Downtown Holiday Inn three hours later than originally scheduled — on this tour, everything except the and going onstage seems to happen three hours late. I’m last off the bus and as I’m about to wander into the hotel, Johnny Green rushes out and grabs me.
"Have you got your credit card? They insist on either full payment in advance or a credit card and we haven’t got either. Just stroll in there looking like you’re the manager — I’ll take that bottle of Jack Daniels off you — and give ‘em the card."
(I oblige. Putting 30 people up at a hotel for three nights is just the kind of thing my bank manager loves me doing. I finally have to drag the other American tour manager, Mark Wissing, out of bed fifteen minutes before I leave for the airport to settle the bill.)
FRIDAY NIGHT: Aragon Ballroom. On this summer’s tour of the States, Rod Stewart played the Uptown Theatre in Chicago. It holds four thousand. The Clash played the Aragon which holds six thousand and drew maybe four thousand to their first gig in the city.
The Aragon looks like the architect couldn’t make up his mind on which style to copy … so he used them all. It’s got a little bit of Mexican, a touch of Inca, some Spanish and an entrance hall that looks like a catacomb.
An old ballroom that once played host to the likes of Glenn Miller and Count Basie, it’s got history, the Lawrence 4800N 1200W E1 running right up its side, level with the stage, a warm feeling and lousy acoustics. Topper sounds like he’s the Scots Guards. And the Coldstream Guards.
Supporting them this night (as well as the Undertones who are on all of the first half of the tour and got two encores in Chicago) was the mighty lumberjack himself. Uncle Bo Diddley, in his element and his hometown. With his computer assisted guitar and primal rhythms, he’s the point where the jungle and the research lab walk and talk it hand in hand and he plays the drone guitar to beat all drone guitars.
Holding ‘USA’ back for the second number, the Clash opened with that R&B song ‘Jimmy Jazz’. Most of the audience stared hard at the stage trying to work out if they’d turned up on the right night but by the end of ‘USA’ you could tell Mick was enjoying it — he did a giant leap in the air for the final chord.
Already by this second date the band are beginning to work out a new choreography — Joe advancing to the front of the stage during the subdued section of ‘Complete Control’ and all of them retreating to the back of the stage in ‘I Fought The Law’ which the audience interpret as drama and I reckon is maybe "We can’t hear the drums".
Joe: "This is an American song. I want you to put your hand son your heart like this and …"
Mick straps on a blond Ovation acoustic guitar.
‘When Johnny comes marching home again Hurrah Tra la He’s coming by bus or underground…’
The acoustic has everyone confused but the crowd still applaud convincingly. Having survived this test and wading through Paul’s song, they push on through to the end of the set on at least five out of the six cylinders. The shouting, screaming, dancing, cheering and lighted matches (lighted matches? Who do they think this is, Bob Dylan?) make it clear that if the Clash want to take America, it’s theirs to take.
Amidst the Epic execs and fans in the dressing room are two bovine women looking very out of place in halter tops, fishnet tights, hot pants, garters, gloves and very heavy eyeshadow. They look like ten-bucks-for-a-blowjob hookers and the least likely people you can imagine in a Clash dressing room. Later I’m told that they were brought by a local dee-jay — a little (refused) present for the band. I realise America is obviously ready to shower its fruits on the Clash.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Air Canada 727 smoking section window seat. I leaf through a copy of People Magazine, the one with the ‘Music Biz Blues’ cover story. A flighty, unthought-out and soft piece on the recession in the American record business, one line caught my eye. "Most of the major record companies have fired at least fifty employees. At CBS Records, where the body count was 172, victims took to wearing t-shirts reading THE CRASH OF ’79."
(Climb every mountain. The Clash get back to nature US style.)
Clash Take The Fifth
W HEN The Clash is in Chicago there's enough people there to suggest America is waking up, even if the band still fall the wrong side of novelty for a lot of them. A lady journalist asks sweáty Joe Strummer what advice he would give Americans to improve themselves, "Eat less" he replies. There's a lot of one line pokes to the gut on this tour.
The Clash's first date, in Minneapolis, was, reported the Minneapolis Star "hardly transcendental"
"What's transcendental mean" wonders Paul Simonon. Mick Jones isn't too sure. They needn't worry. "The Clash Take The Fifth' tour thus far has shown new songs and new energy. New Clash songs, Strummer explains to the lady journalist, are a long way from early Clash songs. "Those old songs are great and we still do them but we have moved on'
Clash in Minneapolis was a split-around-the-edges, breaking-amps, Strummer-biting Simonon-in-frustration, non-stop, a-little-unfit, angry-at-everything-and-nothing show. Clash in Chicago was a harder. louder, Simonon-singing, Jones-with-an-acoustic-guitar.
leaving-the-stage-patting-each-other's-back show.
The Chicago audience was great, the band d decide, and The Undertones, opening on this Clash tour before American revivalists such as Sam and Dave, Bo Diddley, and David Johansen, went down just as well.
Radio, which dictates the country's tedium, is pretty smutty in Chicago. A celebrity DJ who was set to interview Mick Jones on the biggest local station blew it out because he'd had a hard night snorting coke and bedding a girl. Mick Jones couldn't believe it. "To think I shook his hand and was dead nice to him." "You Slut", digs a passing Kosmo Vinyl. Later Mick Jones told the DJ exactly what he thought of him as David Johansen crawled to the guy. Clash crawl only so much.
Chicago's night clubs are many fold. The club cailed Hueys has Minneapolis group The Giris on. Four Walters to Clash's Denis The Menace. At one o'clock they're playing their first set of random weak electronic twisted pop to about 75 enthusiasts. The second set will be about 3 o'clock.
Buzzcocks fell foul of this routine when they played their Chicago gig at Mother's. They went on around midnight, ending their crude and unenjoyable set about 50 minutes later, and had to leave the club ultra swiftly. The Gang Of Four, drunk in seperate corners of the club, just groaned and laughed at the fleeing superstars.
After The Girls at Hueys a visit to Neo, which will stay open till dawn. They play the sort of records you'd love to hear at a gig or club in Britain but never do. You want to dance to Clash, Undertones, Madness, Specials, M. Magazine, Orchestral Manoeuvres, Joy Division, Sham 69, Sex Pistols, in Chicago? Well you can. You won't hear much new home grown Chicago music.
People will drive 500 miles from Kansas to Chicago to see The Buzzcocks and Clash, There's plenty of people hidden away in America who want to hear what we want to hear. Slowly the balance is tipping over and the current groups. itish groups in the country is doing a hell of a lot to help it flood of British
So what else? Mick Jones had been shaking alot of hands, John Maher has been drinking alot of. Pernod, The Gang Of Four have been doing a lot of driving and forgetting about politics, Topper Headon has been drinking a lot of beer, The Undertones have been taking a lot of pictures, the Blockheads' Mickey Gallagher will be playing keyboards in New York and also on their third LP which just needs mixing, Paul Simonon has had to go to hospital for a check up on his back because he can hardly move. The best tomato juice I ever tasted was in Detroit. Been moaning a lot.
Page 4 > Section 2
Chicago Tribune,
Monday, September 17, 1979
Tempo
Clash has the punk passion, but that's all
By Lynn Van Matre
Rock music critic
'SO WHAT'S THE difference between punk rock and new wave?" asked Dick Tracy, cartoonland's most self-righteous and disgusting detective, of a rock musician's manager recently in the Sunday comies. "Less 'suicidal rebellion'?" Yes, agreed the manager, Tracy had cut to the very core of the question; it does, indeed, all boil down to the degree of suicidal rebellion. That, the manager continued, and the fact that "new wave rockers can play."
So much for punk as a social statement: When it turns up in "Dick Tracy," you know it's passe.
Punk as phenomenon has, of course, been passe for some time, its generally amateurish musical approach long since having become tired and tedious, despite its occasional attendant energy and the rebellious postures looking more than a bit contrived under the bright lights of hoped-for stardom. Still, the spirit lives on chiefly in the Clash, which headlined Friday night at the Aragon Ballroom.
The Clash is, at the moment (and has been since the Sex Pistols' bang-up ending), the premier punk rock band in Britain. Often compared with the Pistols (though the Clash's songs merely envision, rather than espouse, a kind of rock 'n' roll armageddon), the quartet is musi cally superior to the Pistols, but their spirit and stage presence are of the same spitting-mad variety. It's a familiar stance, and the Clash's targets are nothing new, either wars of all kinds, repression, violence as byproduct of modern life, a lyrical list of complaints with no answers offered. In concert, it doesn't matter: the words are impossible to understand, anyway, and the group's appeal is based solely on the drive and passion it brings to the proceedings.
(Clash: Taking a familiar stance and the targets are nothing new, either.)
FRIDAY NIGHT'S Clash concert lurched along at a suitably frenzied pace, with an almost nonstop barrage of uptem po, high-energy rock, stripped of almost everything but raw rock energy. Singer and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, who handles most of the vocals with occasional help from the perpetually lunging and loping lead guitarist Mick Jones, is a pas sionate rather than terribly accomplished performer. Energy over expertise is in the finest tradition of punk protocol, of course, and anyway, Strummer, Jones. and the rest of the Clash are competent enough. Like too many other bands, "punk" and otherwise, whose forte is the musical embodiment of aggression and frustration, theirs is a one-note performance. But while the Clash's range is sharply limited and their lack of musical versatility all too obvious, the passion undeniably is invigorating at least in limited doses.
Sharing the bill with the Clash were the Undertones, an Irish punk-rock band, and Bo Diddley, the veteran American rhythm and blues rocker who doesn't seem to have changed a guitar lick in 20 years. The Undertones were punk in the dictionary definition ("very poor in quality"), a group of fourth-rate Ramones imitators but without the leather jackets). Bo Diddley, meanwhile, gave an excruciatingly one-note performance himself, but one far less compelling than that of the Clash, playing the same tired riffs lethargically and endlessly.
The heir of the Sex Pistols, Clash, is musically superior
THE ARTS - 20-A - Wed., Sept. 19, 1979 - Philadelphia Inquirer
The heir of the Sex Pistols, Clash, is musically superior - By Lynn Van Matre
"So what's the difference between punk rock and new wave?" asked Dick Tracy, cartoonland's most selfrighteous detective, of a rock musician's manager recently in the Sun day comics. "Less 'suicidal rebellion'?" Yes, agreed the manager.
Tracy had cut to the very core of the question; it does, indeed, all boil down to the degree of suicidal rebel lion. That, the manager continued, and the fact that "new-wave rockers can play."
So much for punk as a social statement: When it turns up in "Dick Tracy," you know it's passe.
Punk as phenomenon has, of course, been passe' for some time, its generally amateurish musical approach long since having become tired and tedious, despite its occasional attendant energy, and the rebellious postures looking more than a bit contrived under the bright lights of would-be stardom. Still, the spirit lives on-chiefly in the Clash, which will perform Saturday night at the Walnut.
The Clash is, at the moment (and has been since the Sex Pistols' end ing), the premier punk rock band in Britain. Often compared with the Pistols (although the Clash's songs merely envision, rather than espouse, a rock 'n' roll Armageddon), the quartet is musically superior to the Pistols, but its spirit and stage presence are of the same spitting mad variety. It's a familiar stance, and the Clash's targets are nothing new, either wars of all kinds, repression, violence as byproduct of modern life, a lyrical list of com plaints with no answers offered. In concert, it doesn't matter, the words are impossible to understand, any way, and the group's appeal is based solely on the drive and passion it brings to the proceedings.
In a concert last week in Chicago, Clash lurched along at a suitably frenzied pace, with an almost non stop barrage of up-tempo, high-energy rock, stripped of almost every thing but raw rock energy. Singer and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, who handles most of the vocals with occasional help from the perpetually lunging and loping lead guitarist Mick Jones, is a passionate rather than terribly accomplished performer.
Energy over expertise is in thefinest tradition of punk protocol, course, and anyway, Strummer Jones and the rest of the Clash are competent enough. Like too many other bands, punk and otherwise, whose forte is the musical embodi ment of aggression and frustration, Clash's is a one-not is a one-note performance. But while the Clash's range is sharply limited and its lack of musical versatility versatility all too obvious, the pas sion undeniably is invigorating-at least in limited doses.