The Clash: 3/31/1984

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As you probably know by now, I have seen a lot of concerts, but only a few bands totally blew me away the moment they took the stage. The Clash was one of those few.

I was really into The Clash at this time. In my opinion, they were one of the best punk bands ever. I was really psyched to be seeing them, even without Mick Jones.

They opened with “London Calling,” and like I said, I was blown away from the first note. It was like an explosion of energy shot from the stage and shattered every cell in my body. And I could tell it wasn’t just me. The entire Sunrise Musical Theater erupted. I doubt there was a single person in their seats.

As was to be expected at a punk concert, people were climbing onto the stage and diving into the crowd. I suspect that the security was not prepared for this. Police and Sunrise concert security decided to stop it and seized a kid who had clambered onto the stage. Joe Strummer, ever the anarchist, stopped and got in the faces of the security and began yelling and gesticulating at them. I wish I knew what he said. Regardless, they released the kid who ran and did a swan-dive into the crowd. Everyone cheered, and then Joe stepped up to the microphone and said, “I don’t know what you all are doing, but you have the police really nervous.” At which point they broke into “The Guns of Brixton.” It was pandemonium!

As far as the rest of the show goes, there were no weak spots. It was kick-ass right up to the last note of “White Riot.” For those of you who are interested, here is the full set list from the show.

THE CLASH, LIVE (01/31/84)

by GM Admin

October 6, 2014

“This isn’t white reggae,” Joe Strummer shouted, introducing “Police and Thieves.” “This is punk and reggae. There’s a difference. There’s a difference between a ripoff and bringing some of our culture to another culture. You hear that, Sting?”

[Archive PDF]

I was at the CLASH Fort Lauderdale '84 show. There were a few interesting stories that night! Also, I have a second generation recording of the show. I got it from a fellow named Bootleg Bill who taped many many shows in the Fort Lauderdale area at the time (heck, he may even still be at it). It's a pretty good tape- I give it a 7.5 out of 10 for quality. Please let me know if you'd like a copy or any stories. -mt

Backstage at the Sunrise Musical Theater

There were TV sets (or some kind of video screens) all over the stage

Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The most boring place on Earth.. and the Clash are coming to town! Dude, NOBODY of the Clash's stature play in Florida. Nobody! This is big news! My friends and I (the only punk rockers in our suburban development) get our tickets immediately. True, it's not the 'real' Clash (no Mick Jones), but hey a fake Clash is better than no Clash.

A few weeks before the show, a controversy develops. The Clash are playing the Sunrise Music Theatre, a venue which has hosted its fair share of rock shows, but specializes in a more upscale performer. The interior walls of the lobby are decorated with pictures of Frank, Sammy, Englebert those kind of people. Upscale performers attract an upscale audience- the kind of people who will happily fork over a premium charge for the 'dinner seats'.

The dinner seats are the best seats in the house. Purchase of a dinner seat includes, as you might have guessed, dinner. Probably Chicken McNuggets, but I'm only guessing because I could NEVER afford one of those seats.

As one could guess, this being a Punk Rock show, the punks weren't too happy with this dinner seat jive. A hue and cry was raised and I have a vague memory of a petition going around (don't take my word 100% on that, though).

However it happened, the band heard about our dilemma and intervened with the venue management to make ALL seats available at the same price. I seem to recall that it was a bit of a struggle, but the Sunrise Music Theatre eventually caved in. A victory for the people brought to you by the Clash!

After all that, I thought show was a bit anticlimactic. I'd already made up my mind that the band probably wasn't going to be that good. Certainly not authentic. Also, I'd read that the Clash were one of the loudest bands in the world and I was ready to be pummeled. They opened with 'London Calling' and my immediate impression was of how UNLOUD and distant the band sounded.

The music didn't batter me like I was hoping to be battered. There were TV sets (or some kind of video screens) all over the stage showing clips of battle scenes and whatnot. There was much tough guy posing from the new kids, Paul was just kind of there, and Joe was wearing white pants, a white jacket, and I think a blue Hawaiian shirt. He was sporting his Mohawk and kept holding his head while he sang, as if he had a headache. He grimaced like he had a headache, too. He occasionally played third guitar and my thought at the time was 'Why''. The sound was murky enough to where his playing was inaudible.

Overall, between my own bias and the poor sound and the weird presentation with all the TV sets and the obvious posing and Joe's apparent pain in the head, I was a bit disappointed by the show. Not disappointed enough to miss a chance to meet the band, though. The people I went to the show with wanted to get backstage.

Not really my scene, but whatever. There was a whole mob of us outside by the backstage door after the concert. We hung out there for a long time and as the evening wore on, the crowd thinned out quite a bit. Finally, after quite a wait, this Rasta dude opened the door and said in a thick Jamaican accent 'Do you want to meet the Clash'' We of course said 'YEAH' so he said 'Come wit' me' and he led us through the labyrinthine backstage area (where mere mortals are not normally allowed) to the dressing room and there they were!

It was pretty weird for a young kid like myself to suddenly be face to face with the people who I'd just seen on stage in a big theatre- especially Joe and Paul. I'd been reading about them and looking at their faces on album covers for years and there they were. Just like that. All of the band members had girls on their arms.

Joe had one particularly well know Clash groupie as his entertainment for the night (later I found out that it was through her efforts that the whole dinner seat fiasco was put to rest. Still later I learned that she was a bit more than a mere groupie, but that's another story for another time). The new guys especially seemed to be enjoying their female companionship.

I looked over at Nick Sheppard just in time to hear him make a witty remark to one of his chicks. 'Oh, I see they're letting longhairs in tonight', referring to my then (and still) shoulder length hair. I walked over and asked for an autograph, which made him wince a bit. Good!

Then I found myself face to face with Paul Simenon. He was very polite. I felt a need to talk to him. This is how it went:
ME: So, uhhh, do you like playing punk or reggae better'
PS: Both.
ME: (silence)
PS: (silence)
ME: Oh.
PS: Excuse me, I have to go.
ME: O.K.!

I wonder how many 'conversations' like that poor old Paul has had in his life'

My friend (who I had a band with) gave Joe a copy of our record which he graciously accepted. He actually seemed interested in our little 45. I remember his girl looking at me with contempt. I finished getting my autographs and it was time to go home- or so I thought. One of the people I was with found out that the band was staying at a local Holiday Inn and wanted to resume the party there. We drove around for a while trying to find it (against my will) but had no luck, so the night was finally over.

Many years later I finally heard a recording of the gig and it wasn't half bad. The renditions of the oldies were OK but the new songs showed a lot of promise. In fact, this particular tape kindled within me an intense interest in the latter day Clash. I realize now that they were a good band and had a lot to offer- if they had been allowed to. I often ask myself 'What if' What if that band had been allowed into the studio to record Cut The Crap Clash history would have a happier ending and that band would have gotten a fair shake.

I listen to that bootleg of the Clash in Fort Lauderdale quite a bit these days. Now I wish I'd been more open minded about that band's capabilities (I also wish the acoustics had been better at the show). I think I would have enjoyed the gig very much. At least now, more than 20 years later, through the wonder of modern bootlegging, I'm able to.

PS Though the concert technically took place in Sunrise, Sunrise is merely a subdivision (one of too many) of Fort Lauderdale.

You often couldn't take cameras into shows

The clash played the sunrise musical theater in march of 1984. it was the "out of control tour" without Jones, Headon or Chimes, so we called them "we are not the clash" because we were young a-holes. i'm happy that the lighting was fairly bright--there was a lot of jostling in the crowd especially during the older tunes. if it had been dark or there had been a lot of the dreaded red lights, more of these would have been blurry.

I remember having seats in the 4th row and running up to the front when everyone "made their move" as was the habit there in those days. Some lady was mad at this because she had paid like three times as much for front row tix. (It was a dinner theater so you got better seats if you bought their food.)

She took it out on me. I guess because I was the only punker smaller than she was, I was the least menacing. She was maybe 30 at the time, but seemed older than dirt and very uncool--like she was playing hooky from a boring office job. I remember she was wearing a Clash shirt from the previous tour and thinking "geez, at least you've gotten to see them somewhere. how 'bout letting us poor schmucks stuck in Florida have a crack." (This was the first and only appearance of the Clash in South Florida as far as I could remember.) Anyway, she was so bitchy that she reported me to a security guard for taking these pictures, and when he did nothing to stop me, she moved up and shoved her hand in front of my lens. I tried to grab it a couple of times, and I finally had to tell her that I was going to crack her arm on the stage if I managed to get it the next time. Fair warning. Thankfully, she didn't test me and we have these nice pictures.

It has me thinking though. This was such a different era. For some reason, they didn't like you taking pictures of rock bands back then and you often couldn't take cameras into shows. They thought you were going to make money off them or not spend money on the pictures they were selling, I guess. How pointlessly stupid.

And I remember on a couple of occasions having the film taken. OMG, that 16 year old girl is taking pictures---she's probably the head of an Italian poster printing syndicate and will be making tons of money off these pictures she's taking with that beat up old camera. And I remember that people were quick to try to stop you as if it was their duty to protect these people from having a geeky 16 year old girl preserve memories of her existence on this earth. Lame.

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