US Tour 1984 April May

Here is a list of known articles around the time of the tour. If you know of anything that is missing please do let us know.

Snippets – Press-Releases - US Articles - UK Articles - International Articles - Books, Social Media, 84/85 - Posters - Passes - Memorabilia

Snippets

Clash Trouble, Mick teams up with Topper

The Courier News
Sat May 5 1984

Ex-Clash members may form new group TRAC

The Salina Journal, Sun May 27 1984

Official Press releases

Press release: New tracks the band are playing at forthcoming dates

Clash communique with new tracks - Clash Communique

The crazy European Kasbah-Klub with Complete Control. A press release listing all the new tracks the band are playing ahead of their forthcoming European and UK dates.

February Press Release

RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT CLASH
Watch out, America, and all ships at sea. THE CLASH are back!

Lineup Makes Live Debut On West Coast
Additional U.S. Concerts Planned For Spring

Following a turbulent year characterised by internal upheaval and external silence, the Epic band that rocked the world with albums like Sandinista! and Combat Rock has returned to the front lines -- with new personnel, new material, and new power. Joining CLASH stalwarts Joe Strummer (guitar, vocals) and Paul Simonon (bass) are Nick Sheppard (guitar), Vince White (guitar) and Pete Howard (drums), all 23 years old.

The new CLASH made their American performing debut in January with, a nine-date California tour, playing venues including the Long Beach Arena, the San Francisco Civic Auditorium, and the Fox Theater in San Diego (where all seats sold out In box-office-record time). "Joe Strummer went overboard to entertain," wrote Larry Kelp In the Oakland Tribune. "He played guitar, shouted, preached, ran around the stage, encouraged the crowd, smashed against the stagefront barricades, leaped off the drum riser and sang while rolling around the floor!" Other critics Joined in with.praise for the several as-yet-unrecorded songs and the vigorous performances of the new CLASH recruits. Los AngeL Times critic Robert Hilburn flew to London for an advance interview
his Times Calender piece.

THE CLASH ARE BACK, WITH THE ROCK THAT JUST WON'T STOP.

April Press Release

Spring Tour Takes U.S By Storm - New Songs Previewed, Ready For Summer Recording

THE CLASH are alive and well -- and blazing a trail of incandescent live performances across North America.

The internationally renowned English rock band is presently on an extensive trans-continental tour, bringing their legend to life with an energy, excitement, and daring far beyond the boundaries of rock and roll convention.

The new CLASH lineup has undergone its trial by fire -- five, six, seven nights per week -- and come through with flying colors! Singer Joe Strummer, bassist Paul Simonon, and new members Nick Sheppard, Vince White (guitars) and Pete Howard (drums) have been warmly welcomed by CLASH converts everywhere.

A typical night's set includes such CLASH classics as "Rock The Casbah," "London Calling," "Safe European Home," and "Spanish Bombs". There are also a half-dozen new songs like "Sex Mad War," "This Is England," and "We Are The Clash".

"(Strummer's) new songs are among his most stirring anthems," wrote one reviewer, "and if the band keeps up this pace, its next album could be among its best'" Time will tell: This summer, THE CLASH will travel to Paris to beoln recording their first new album since 1982's million-selling Combat Rock.

Morale within the band's ranks is running at an all-time high. "The main reaction I've had is that it's much better this time 'round," Joe Strummier told one reporter. "We're all saying it's more exciting, It's more lively, it's more -all the things I like most about music!"

US Articles

Critics Choice, The Clash

The Rocket 1 March 1984

An interview with Joe Strummer

The Rocket, 1 May 1984

Return of the Clash

84 05 Unicorn Times Interview Joe Strummer

They are the Clash - wanted

Creem magazine, June 1984

Boston Rock, Slash, No Mag, Damage and Dry zines online

Mohawk Revenge: The Clash 1983-1985 | Facebook

In case anyone is interested, you can download the first 50 issues of Boston Rock (1980-1984) as high resolution scans at https://www.circulationzero.com/. Same for Slash, No Mag, Damage and Dry zines

The Clash: They Want To Spoil The Party So They'll Stay

Bill Holdship, Creem, October 1984 - full article
CREEM CONTRIBUTOR Mark Norton and I were talking several days before the Clash "invaded" Detroit, and we began discussing the concept of "armchair activism" and how the Clash probably fit into that category. ....more

Founders help the Clash live up to its name

The Tampa Tribune, Fri Jun 15 1984

New musicians band together Clash

Record Searchlight, Sat Jun 2 1984
PIck up the bands first single on import "We are The Clash"

The Clash: Punk rock band takes a difefrent road with two new musicians

El Paso Herald Post
Fri Jun 1 1984

The Clash's current tour has taken it to smaller venues previously ignored by the band. It's quite a contrast in light of the $500,000 fee the Clash received for playing last summer's US Festival in California.

Strummer described it as a kind of revolution-ary outreach. "I mean I'm talking about towns like Oswego and Canton . . . and Omaha. We haven't done these towns, and we should've done them. Because nobody bothers to come to them except fifth-rate heavy-metal bands (playing) music that is destroying women, insulting your intelli-gence, or ripping people off."

He cited heavy-metal audiences as polar opposites of the Clash. "I think our audience is people who want to believe that there will be a future. That's the way our audience Is different from, say, a Motley Crue audience.

Because our audience is people who sense the world's gone wrong and they wanna feel like they've got time to live their lives out and they're worried about it."

While on the line, Strummer wanted to unveil a philosophical revelation: "On this tour, we've found out really how to live. We've found out the ultimate drug. I'd like to pass that on to you. Uh, it's 'No Drug.' You got it? It's `No Drug.' And best of all, it's free. You don't have to pay for It."

It was suggested that Strummer sounded as if he had found religion, perhaps become a Moonie. "Well, I'll tell ya, I'm damned if I'm going to go to Armageddon stoned. You can forget that."

End of Tour: The Clash head off to Paris to record album

The Sydney Morning Herald, Sun Apr 29 1984

British band battles youth apathy

Fond Du Lac Commonwealth Reporter Fri Mar 30 1984

Revised Clash Returns to Music Front

Citizens Voice Fri Mar 23 1984

The Clash overcomes pitfalls

The Record Thu Mar 8 1984

The Clash rebounds

Daily Press Thu Mar 8 1984

All Punked Out, the Clash Regroup for Concert Tour

The Burlington Free Press Sun Mar 4 1984

Hardy Clash regroups to sing punk anthems

The South Bend Tribune Sat Mar 3 1984

Clash regroups against complacency

Marshfield News Herald - Fri Mar 2 1984

The Clash plans back-to-basics

The Palm Beach Post Fri Mar 2 1984

The Clash concentrates on music while fighting ex-members suit

Fort Lauderdale News Fri Mar 2 1984

The Clash adopts 'back to basics' stand

Indiana Gazette – Fri Apr 13 1984

LOS ANGELES AP- The Clash, hardy survivors of the British punk revolution. are regrouping as they continue their battle against complacency. "Punk is an attitude that kids need,'* said singer-songwriter-guitarist See Strummer, still an angry young man at age 30 ...

PROPHET OF PUNK Strummer has some Clashing views

Daily News
Mon Apr 16 1984

Clash making a comeback

Corvallis Gazette Times
Fri Apr 20 1984

LOS ANGELES -

The Clash, hardy varvilvors of the British punk revolution, are regrouping as they continue their battle against corn phieentvy. "Punk is an attitude- that kids need," said oingero songwritereguitarist Joe Strummer, an angry young man nt age 30, as tak Sip-ped a wine spritzer at a Hollywood heel.

Punk is not dead

Indiana Daily Student / Friday 14 December 1984

UK Articles

MOJO FOUND The unheard Clash 1984 tracks

October 2018 / 2 pages

International articles

It took a while but THE CLASH are back on the scene with a new lineup.

RIP IT UP MAGAZINE (New Zealand)
ISSUE 80, 1 MARCH 1984, PAGE 2

Not only that but JOE STRUMMER is promising a whole new lack. No more drugs, says Joe, they're bad for yer brain. The new lineupís 'Out of Controlí tour has covered the USA and UK sporadically but thereís no word yet of any records. Pictured are (L-R) original member Paul Simenon (bass), Pete Howard (drums), Strummer (vocals). Vince White (guitar), Nick Sheppard (guitar).

Books, articles, social media

Mohawk Revenge: The Clash 1983-1985

Mohawk Revenge | Facebook

Documenting and discussing the ill-fated but endlessly fascinating second major lineup of The Clash, 1983-1985.

2005 interview with the great Nick Sheppard

Mohawk Revenge:
The Clash 1983-1985
Chris Knowles

Text version

Nick Sheppard Instagram posts - Gramtower

https://www.gramtower.com/hashtag/NickSheppard

We Are The Clash: The Last Stand of a Band That Mattered

(book) Link and Link

The Clash's bold, tragic last stand, rescued from history's dustbin: at war with Thatcher, Reagan, the Top Ten, & (sometimes) itself...

Mark Andersen & Ralph Heibutzki

The Last Days of the Clash

(book) Vince White describes this gig extensively in his Clash biog, The Last Days of the Clash.

Vince Whites view: additional internet comments from Vince to add to his book

On the Clash late 1984...

"By that point all the good melancholic songs had disappeared and this kind of 'positive thinking' music had appeared which was stuggling against the tide. I dunno though, some of those songs like 'Cool Under Heat','movers and shakers' felt good to play on the busking tour where they seemed to take on a life of their own out on the streets and 'North and South' too. I have mixed feelings because it's hard for me to separate that from what they eventually became in the studio.

But the busking tour had a really good effect on the band and looking at the Roskilde show I can see a kind of camaraderie had begun to develop between us from that."

Most exciting gig

Vince White (on Clash City) said that "Glasgow Barrowlands was the most exciting show I played and Athens ( the last) was the best show I played."

"I vividly remember the Athens show 'cause I walked out on my own and started it with the 'Complete Control' riff in the dark with all the lighted matches. It was an awesome moment I'll never forget. It built slowly from that and was a cool start from the usual 'London Calling' explosion. And a far cry from the mess of my first Clash gig in Santa Barbara. So if it turns up that would be the indicator of an original recording. Also it was the only show I played completely sober!!! I'd love to hear it. I really had my shit together on that one."

Straight To Hell - The Final Days Of The Clash

By Chris Knowles (Classic Rock) April 18, 2005

In 1983, The Clash sacked Mick Jones, hired three new members and tried to return to their punk rock roots. Cue two years of back-stabbing, bullying, busking and blistering rock n roll... PDF

THE CLASH'S FORGOTTEN YEARS, 1984-1986

Link

In its official version, the story of The Clash ends with the firing of lead guitarist Mick Jones in 1983.

Though founding members Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon subsequently led a five-piece version of the group until the first months of 1986, it is not a polite thing to mention at parties. The 384-page coffee-table book The Clash devotes less than a single page to the final two and a half years of the bandís career, and the 1985 album Cut The Crap has been left out of every Clash box set to date.

In the words of Rolling Stone, ìIt doesnít count, and the whole thing has basically been erased from history. The Clash as we know them ended at the 1983 US Festival.

The new Clash met the same fate as the new Coke. PDF

Book: The Last Crusade

This article is courtesy [and copyright] of Chris Knowles, Clash fan and author. Chris's Clash book Clash City Showdown is available from all online retailers.

Fanzines: Great Collection

Great collection of scanned fanzines from the 1970s and 1980s

Posters