Asian / Australasian Tour

updated 22 Jun 2007
updated 10 July 2008 - Mysterex article
updated 7 Sept 2008 - Added comments
updated 5 Jan 2010 - added 1st gen tape & full review & Christchure Star Gig Review
updated 14 Feb 2012 - added Christchurch protest magazine article

Audio 1

Sound 2 – 1st gen – poor - 1hr 40mins – 28 tracks -

Safe European Home

Sources

Many thanks to Simon Kay for circulating in 2009 his recording, which was taken direct from the taper’s master tape onto a Convenience Disc. Whether quality was lost in the transfer is not clear but the circulating recording is sadly of poor sound quality.  The taper also made the artwork of the petition (link) and shown in the e intro of Let's Rock Again.

There is some clarity but it suffers from distance, lack of range and quality. Joe’s

addresses to the audience and adlibs in songs are largely unclear. Instrumentation can be heard but Topper sounds like he is hitting bin lids. For collectors only.

An extra show is added after a successful petition

An extra show is added after a successful petition to get the Clash to play Christchurch (organised by Mary Rose Wilkinson). The group appear on stage to a soundtrack of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly; opening with a great extended instrumental from Headon and Jones.

The didn't have Christchurch scheduled on their tour itinerary, so a bunch of locals got together & put out a petition in the record shops to get them to play Christchurch, & they sent it to the promoter, consequently The Clash found out & decided to squeeze a gig in there. The Christchurch guy who recorded the gig made the petition into the artwork. The actual petition is shown in the intro of Let's Rock Again.

A gig was not scheduled in the South Island city of Christchurch. But a group of  locals led by Mary Rose Wilkinson got together and put out a petition in the record shops to get The Clash to play Christchurch and sent it to the promoter, Stuart Mackintosh (links).

Consequently The Clash found out and decided to squeeze a gig in there. The 2008 Mysterex article New Zealand Music and Culture (see link opposite)
includes recollections of the gig including an anonymous contribution

I hitched over from the West Coast to see this. I kinda knew Mary Rose and Mary who organised the extra gig in Christchurch. The most amusing thing I heard about that was from Maryrose who said Jim Wilson, local promoter and disliked because he seemed to be the only person making money out of music in Christchurch in the 80's, came over and sneered "I can't believe TWO GIRLS got the Clash!" Oh and the gig was absolutely bloody marvellous.

Petition

Radio U Petition for the Clash to play the South Island

Members of Christchurch's student radio station, Radio U...

Stuff

When punk rocked up to her door, Hynde opened it knuckles barred. She partied with Sid and Johnny and shared rehearsal space with Mick Jones before he formed The Clash.

Even The Clash had an infamous moment at the Christchurch Town Hall.

Members of Christchurch's student radio station, Radio U - Mary Richardson and Maryrose Crook (artist and member of The Renderers) and station manager Michael Higgins - drafted a petition that brought The Clash to play at the venue on Monday, February 8, 1982.

The promoter who brought The Clash to Christchurch, Stewart Macpherson, now describes it as "a blur" and doesn't remember the notorious incident where, two songs into their set, audience members spat on members of the punk band.

The dripping shower of spit lobbed by some boot boys at the front of the stage caused Clash frontman Joe Strummer to stop playing mid-song.

He retaliated with an angry tirade at the thought of catching hepatitis from a well aimed spit gob to the mouth.

"I must admit my memory from back then is rather vague," says Macpherson. "I do recall Joe Strummer being quite an engaging character when he wasn't on stage. Certainly they were passionate, as a band, about their music and what it represented politically."

While someone was spitting on the Clash, across the foyer in the James Hay theatre, TVNZ was recording an episode of That's Country, fronted by the late Ray Columbus.

"I do remember that night," Columbus told me in 2011. "Quite often when those shows like The Clash came through, we were in the middle of rehearsal and it did clash with us, so to speak. I couldn't get away to see them, I would have in a heartbeat. There are many great memories of that venue."

The Christchurch Town Hall has played host to some memorable concerts by New Zealand favourites like Crowded House, Shihad and Bic Runga, among others.

Columbus often described Christchurch as the "spiritual home" of That's Country.

Poor sound quality

Due to the poor sound quality the most interesting performances is the rare  Corner Soul performance and the extended adlibs on Jimmy Jazz etc.

After the intro music Joe addresses the very lively sounding audience “Sorry to keep you waiting but it’s a long way from Wellington by camel! And the first tune is called”.  It sounds like a similar audience to Auckland and during One More Time Joe stops the band and launches into an angry rant at those gobbing at him, “You think it’s a joke” rest is unclear but evidently Joe said he could die from hepatitis still believing (almost certainly wrongly) that his 1978 bout of hepatitis was caused by ingesting someone’s spat phlegm.

Performances again sound fine, tight and pumped up. Joe evidently adlibbed about New Romantics again in White Man.

Joe again intones the intro to Clampdown but although mostly unleat they are different from the Auckland words which in turn were very different from the studio London Calling version.

Edits lose the last third of Jimmy Jazz and the first half of Tommy Gun. Unusually it appears the gig ended with Career Opportunities and certainly the recording stops there.

Did you go? What do you remember?

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

The Christchurch Star review

9 Feb 1982

Christchurch Magazine

Review of protest

NZ Herald: History made The Clash

8 Feb 2012

Archived PDF

History made: The Clash, Christchurch Town Hall - NZ Herald

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 27 28

London Calling One More Time Safe European Home The Guns Of Brixton Train In Vain Janie Jones Magnificent 7 Ivan Meets GI Joe White Man in Ham Palais Wrong Em Boyo Junco Partner Police & Thieves Stay Free Brand New Cadillac Corner Soul Koka Kola I Fought the Law Somebody Got Murdered Clampdown Clash City Rockers The Leader Armagideon Time Complete Control Jimmy Jazz Bankrobber Garageland Police on My back Career Oportunities