16 Tons Tour Europe/cancelled dates due to Toppers injury. Festival dell’Unita - Supported by Whirlwind

This Concert was organized at the last minute and was free

last updated 18 June 2004
last updated 18 May 2010 - added full audience recording
last updated 12 April 2011 - added master and alternate master
updated June 2022 - added link to Youtube video

Audio 3 - master

sound 3 - 1 hr 26mins - 26 tracks

Brand New Cadilac

Audio 5 - alternate master

Sound 3 / 1 hr 26mins / 25 tracks
Misses opening song Clash City Rockers. A bit bass heavy.

Brand New Cadilac

Audio 6 - master

Sound 4 / 1hr26mins / 26 tracks

This Concert Had Been Organized To The Last Moment And It Was Free.

Full Audience. Type: Audience. Source: A Hitachi Stereo Portable With Two Microphones Incorporated. Metadata and name by XRCF.

Source: TDK D Master Cassette>Playback With Aiwa F620>Nero Wave Editor>. Equalized With Magix 2007>Wave>Flac8>Dime. Recorded With A Hitachi Stereo Portable With Two Microphones Incorporated.

Brand New Cadilac

Audio 7 - Stereovision audio

Sound 3 / 29mins / 9 tracks

01 - London Calling
02 - The Guns Of Brixton
03 - Train In Vain
04 - White Man In Hammersmith Palais
05 - Spanish Bombs
06 - Jail Guitar Doors
07 - I'm So Bored With The U.S.A.
08 - Complete Control
09 - Tommy Gun

Tommy Gun

Soundboard Recording

The mono soundboard recording in circulation is complete (or not depending on whether White Riot was played or not). It suffers from being several generations off the master, which has meant a loss in clarity, width and detail.

Being a soundboard source though all the instrumentation and vocals are there, it’s just that being several copies off the master there is a somewhat muffled, dull sound with hiss. It’s still enjoyable to listen to especially as the performance is so good.

The Torino recording is better mixed with guitars not dominating the sound as much as the Bologna recording. But this is a matter of choice anyway and overall Bologna has the clearer, more exciting sound. Can anyone provide a lower generation copy?



Stereovision video

Sound 4.5 - 8 songs - 26 mins

Previously only low quality resolution from VHS tapes existed until it was rebroadcast on Canadian TV. More info can be found here at Satch's (If Music Could Talk messageboard). Various videos can be found on Youtube. Many have been taken down.

’Stereovision’ video recording

Canadian TV rock music programme ‘Stereovision’ broadcast a 26 minute programme of live footage from this concert in 1983, possibly licenced from Italian RAI television. Despite the title of the programme the sound is in mono!

Videos of the programme in circulation vary considerably in quality. A 2nd generation copy has very good sound just suffering from some flatness and hiss. The sound mix is excellent putting Mick’s effects heavy lead guitar to the fore and overall the sound is very enjoyable, an improvement on the full soundboard recording.

Picture quality is good, in colour and with only a few drop outs. It is at times very dark though but this largely reflects the atmospheric stage lighting used by the band with spotlights behind Topper at times the only illumination to create mood. At other points all spotlights light up the stage dramatically on musical climaxes and choruses.

There is some annoying freeze frames but generally there is plenty of varying camera angles and close ups. It is a fascinating and invaluable video document of The Clash at this stage in their history and particularly on the last 3 songs thrilling to watch. Essential.

v3.0 The Clash Torino stereovision

540x360 / time 2542 / Youtube

v.5.0 The Clash Torino stereovision

720x480 / time 28:37 / Youtube / or Open video in new window

Superchannel Cable TV Broadcast to 1st Gen Beta to avt-8710 to sa (XP) to dvdr to DVDLab Pro 2.5 to dvdr to MakeMKV to Avidemux (Tommy Gun Added) to Youtube
Shouts to hothcanada - BONG - Bandit999

London Calling
The Guns Of Brixton
Train In Vain
White Man In Hammersmith Palais
Spanish Bombs
Jail Guitar Doors
Complete Control
Tommy Gun (VHS Source, guessing)

Fashion Channel Exclusive - Vivienne Westwood

640x480 / time 2:05mins / Youtube / or Open video in new window

Quality Clash footage starts at 35secs and has snippets of Clash City Rockers footage with longer audio.

"THE CLASH" Live in Italy 1980 (Exclusive) & "VIVIENNE WESTWOOD" by Fashion Channel.

"The Clash inspired many musicians who were only loosely associated, if at all, with punk. The band's embrace of ska, reggae and England's Jamaican subculture helped provide the impetus for the 2 Tone movement that emerged amid the fallout of the punk explosion.

They attracted a growing following by hitting a similar nerve, with songs like Clash City Rockers and White Man in Hammersmith Palais, railing against unemployment and social inequality. During the firsts exibitions in Italy, in Bologna and in Torino ( March 6th 1980 ) were we recorded this video, the members of the group were: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon.

Vivienne Westwood was deeply interested in the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, saying "I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way".

The "punk style" included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for jewellery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair."

Festival dell'Unitá

This is the second of the two concerts The Clash were contracted to play in Italy, as part of the Festival dell'Unitá, sponsored by the PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano) as part of their campaign for the elections being held a few weeks later. The concert had been organised at the last moment and was free.

As at Bologna, a raw soundboard recording circulates and TV cameras were present to film the Clash’s performance. The difference being that part of the Turin show circulates in varying qualities and the Bologna footage remains unseen except for those who saw the original broadcast on Italian Television. The recordings reveal another terrific Clash performance in Torino although not quite as wild and intense as at Bologna.

The Parco Ruffini

The Parco Ruffini, is a very large public park with 2 sports buildings :an indoor sport palace and an old-fashioned athletic stadium. The Festival dell'Unitá was held here. The concert had to be held in the Stadio Ruffini, an old stadium, with a 5.000 people capacity, with athletic lanes, that was used for the junior football championship and athletics meetings. It is a very typical stadium because it is built like a Greek amphitheatre.

“Captured live in Italy, Stereovision presents The Clash”

“Hallo don’t know about you but we like to be here… Mr Jones” is Joe’s introduction and instruction to kick off a strong Clash City Rockers. Brand New Cadillac and Safe European Home maintain the high octane start. Joe and particularly Mick are clearly pumped up tonight with Mick adding impassioned vocals and adlibs as well as great lead guitar throughout.

“We wanna play some jazz now although we get a lot of criticism” adding with conviction, “I don’t know anything but the heart and the soul”. Jimmy Jazz, is strong with Joe adding adlibs about police cells and Torino but the sound quality is not good enough to hear what Joe is saying on many of his song adlibs tonight.

The TV programme starts dramatically now with the announcer saying “captured live in Italy, Stereovision presents The Clash” and cuts to a close up of Joe thrashing out the opening chords to London Calling. With the 16 Tons backdrop behind them, Joe and Mick are in their Alex Michon tour white/black shirts and Paul in red shirt and braces. Paul and Joe’s April ultra-short cropped haircuts have not grown out yet and even Mick’s locks are fairly short and swept back. His Poodle days long behind him!

Guitars are swopped as Paul steps up to sing Guns Of Brixton. There is some chanting heard in the audience and Joe steps forward to shake the outstretched hands. Joe’ is static with head bobbing up and down in time with the music concentrating on the bass lines. Mick’s effects laden guitar dominates a strong performance. Mick sings Train In Vain next but it’s the least exciting part of the programme.

A great White Man In Hammersmith Palais next with Mick sharing vocals with Joe. The audience look very lively at least at the front of the stage, the rest being in darkness. More guitar swops before a brilliant Spanish Bombs with Mick’s playing delightfully inventive and very clear in the mix.

With Jail Guitar Doors the TV programme really gets exciting both musically and visually with lots of movement and Joe leaping off and on the drum riser. An intense brilliant performance with a usual adlibbed verse from Joe.

The TV footage cuts here. “This one is a new one for us” precedes Somebody Got Murdered. Usually its Joe who launches into adlibbed lyrics but at the end here it’s Mick shouting about “hammers, sledgehammers , beaten to death and electrodes to the genitals!” Joe tries to cut in himself and is told to shut up!

Koka Kola segues as usual into I Fought the Law and although the performances are still strong the sound is at it’s poorest here. The sound picks up again after an edit before Police and Thieves. “Politizei - we just try to make it sound a little better by tuning up - coming back in an hour and a half!. I don’t know what to say I feel a bit of a fool…, OK I think it’s the carabineri,” A decent if uninspired performance suffering from some distortion and a rather ragged ending.

“That’s all right its just a helicopter, plug into my stack and we’ll do Bankrobber”. Joe sings his lyrics with intensity, then its an OK Clampdown which some distortion problems. Joe’s adlibbed vocals over the ending are unclear. Before Stay Free, Mick gets his own back on earlier digs from Joe about worrying about being in tune; “This is the chord A” Then proceeds to play it. “This is everybody in tune, this song is called Stay Free”.

Beginning with a powerful English Civil War the band now kick up a gear and the intensity levels rise considerably here on in. The TV show restarts here in dramatic fashion with Joe crouched over his guitar and Topper arm raised both in anticipation, then the camera cuts to a close up of Mick’s guitar as he bangs out the opening attack of I’m So Bored With The USA. The stage lighting flashes on and much of the raw and thrilling excitement of the live Clash experience in mid 1980 is captured here and preserved on video. During the song the camera cuts to the sound desk showing the needles peaking into red. The song segues via Topper’s intro into an equally thrilling Complete Control. Mick and Paul move around the stage, swopping sides with Joe static, shouting out the lyrics.

Mick’s guitar packs up near the end, so Joe quickly adds,“This is punk rockers, with no guitars”. A thrilling end to the Stereovision broadcast, pity it was so short!

The encore begins with Armagideon Time, which is not as strong as the awesome Bologna performance. It segues unusually into a great Janie Jones with Mick again really fired up, adlibbing and screaming out his vocals. Tommy Gun follows, tight and intense and then the recording ends (possibly not the show) with a brilliant London’s Burning with “Torino’s Burning”.

Did you go? Comments, info welcome...

Info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome.
Please email blackmarketclash

The communists fought the (few) saluting fascists

@SuperMururoa / Link

I was there! The communists fought the (few) saluting fascists, who flew, a wide crowd movement uplifted and moved me & friends about 3 metres on our right (and I'm not a small guy...), then the space frontstage was all for the juvenile gangs who went fighting each other and  robbing the 'normals' here and there. And THE CLASH played on... All this during the 1st half of the gig, then  all simmered down. I still got one of the very few street-posters, which appeared only that morning. I took it from a wall, lol.

@ivano432 / Link

I was there too and I remember Topper Headon in his red tracksuit and his hair the color of mouse hair, Paul Simonon with his tough face, very skilled at playing the bass, discreet as a singer, Mick Jones' chants to the tune of the legendary Joe Strummer with his scratchy voice. Totally agree about the terrible audio.

@LucianoMina1962 /

17 years old, I was there. If I remember correctly, free concert with free entry

Would they come? Would they play?

Many thanks again to Ezio Fara (Evair) and Ferrucio Martinotti, who were lucky enough to be at the concert, for their recollections;

‘I'll try to recollect my memories, not that I forget, because it was one of the most important and remarkable events of my life, but after 24 years you miss the details...PCI, (Italian communist party) was a very popular Italian party, 2nd largest in Italy. It was a kind of workers and unions party, it was not-aligned with Moscow. Turin and Bologna were the 2 strong cities of the PCI. So these 2 shows were part of the Festival dell'Unitá, a big happening organized in the summer in the park with cultural and political points by the PCI. The shows were free and open to the public.

There was always a strong relationship with the Clash and PCI: they, and Joe later, played several times, for the PCI, because the Clash were the perfect band for the PCI issues, with their social lyrics and with their political position.

But the Clash shows were always surrounded by uncertainty: Would they come? Would they play? In Bologna, 2 days before Turin, the Clash arrived separately and late for the show. Due to the fact that there wasn't the internet then and the show finished late in the morning, the press had just published two days before news relating to confusion at the Clash show. So in Turin there were many doubts about whether the Clash would appear. The Show was organized at almost the last minute and the usual banners weren't displayed, only the radio was talking about the show. Were The Clash really going to play for free in our city, it seemed almost unbelievable.

The Clash were very popular in the growing punk rock communities and in that year, 1980, Italy had started timidly to receive pop and rock foreign bands: in the middle of the 70's shows of American and English rockstars were reported in newspapers as resulting in hard confrontations with police and political agitators, so Italy wasn't exactly considered a safe place to play.

In the beginning of 1980 the Ramones appeared for a tour in Italy and it was an unbelievable success: venue with 5.000 people capacity was filled with 15/20.000 people. A few weeks later The Police came and had the same success.

Italy at that period was a land of strong political confrontations. The famous anti-capitalist terrorists of Brigade Rosse started to suffer important arrests, but the extreme right and left movements were very strong and show-venues sometimes were hosting confrontation between young gangs, and not only for political reasons.

Although the show was practically unannounced, the stadium filled up very soon. At 21:00 there was no way you could move, it was so packed. 10.000 people were reported to show up. The Clash started the show at the scheduled time and from the first song the crowd went mad. The show was literally incendiary and the Clash showed they liked and felt at ease with Italian audiences.

They played the unreleased Somebody Got Murdered, that I found amazing.

A TV crew filmed the show and I always thought that it was an Italian RAI national television because some days later was broadcast a special of the Clash with excerpts and interviews from the 2 Italian shows, but I discovered recently that it was a Canadian production.

They finished the show with White Riot, it’s not on the circulating recording, but you can trust me. I think they appeared for the third encore to play White Riot, while lights were already turned on and the people were going away thinking the show had ended.

A detail that I've never forget: the local press, LA Stampa, by the pen of the journalist Marinella Venegoni, who wasn't a bad musical journalist and always reviewed the shows, told that the Clash finished the show with No Fun by Iggy Pop!.. she wasn't very fond of punk at that time and confused White Riot with No Fun!

In September 1984 another show of the Clash in Turin was announced, but, I don't remember for which reason, it didn't happen. Some friends met Joe in a hotel in Turin and passed the night with him in a local club called Centralino’.
...thanks to Ezio Fara

‘Time-machine on and let's jump back to a warm early summer evening. The opening act was Whirlwind whose singer, as you know, was later in Havana 3AM with Paul. The atmosphere in the audience (around 3000 people) was extremely nervous, overloaded with tension and aggression due to continuous fighting between communists and neo-fascists.

Despite this it is impossible to forget Joe strapping on the Tele, introducing Mick and then the attack of Clash City Rockers...unfortunately we watched the gig with one eye on the stage and the other on our backs to avoid punches, knives and guns. Still today those who were there regret those fucking political assholes that created a real bloody atmosphere.

I have to admit I enjoyed it more at Vigorelli 1981 or Milano Palasport 1984. For me though Turin was the first time and it seemed unbelievable, amazing, blasting. Years later I met people who attended both Bologna and Torino and said that the energy, the power, and the passion of Piazza Maggiore were much more intense.

I'm almost sure (I've also checked with a friend of mine who was with me) the gig ended with London's Burning. The band for sure felt the furious rioting among the audience and Joe in the Bologna interview (Rockerilla) was aware of the Italian political situation in those years: terrorism, bombs etc. This feeling, believe me, was touchable that night. A group like The Clash playing in the biggest working city in Europe sponsored by the communists: an earthquake.
...thanks to Ferruccio Martinotti

Setlist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Clash City Rockers Brand New Cadillac Safe European Home Jimmy Jazz London Calling The Guns Of Brixton Train In Vain White Man In Ham Palais Spanish Bombs Jail Guitar Doors Somebody Got Murdered Koka Kola I Fought the Law Police and Thieves Bankrobber Clampdown Stay Free English Civil War Bored With the USA Complete Control Armagideon Time Janie Jones Tommy Gun London’s Burning Capital Radio White Riot bold indicates on video