Out of Control Tour '84
The opening act was The Neighborhoods

updated 5 Jan 2010 - added punters comments & booking agent
updated May 2020 - everything!
updated August 2022 added articles
updated August 2022 added comments
updated January 2024 - added lots

Audio 1

averge - some tape probs - Sound 3.5 - 1hr 29min - low? - 24 tracks
Some tape problems but a good recording underneath this. Soundboard.

Junco Partner - great version

Three Card Trick

Sound quality

A not bad recording, has many good qualities, vocals, bass and particular drums but suffers some tape wear that causes some very slight movement of sound up and down the scale.

A master of this would be a very nice recording, probably the best from the US leg of the tour. As it is, its not bad, the clarity and mix making up for the tape problems.

Please leave any comments on the facebook page above

From the booking agent

I was the Talent buyer for the New Haven and West Hartford Agora Ballroom.

The show occurred shortly after The Clash had fake ticket problems in N.Y. Our show was great.

I negotiated the deal for this show. I was the talent buyer for the Hartford Agora. The band was as professional and easy to work with as any act during my long tenure with the Agora.

The Agora held 6500 people but we let in around 7000. Every ticket sold in 6 hours and back then you they had to come to the club to buy them. don't remember ticket price but we paID THE cLAH $29,000.00. . This was more than anyone as our capacity was about 6500.

It was the biggest mess I ever went through but it was really fun..

The show was great, The crowd was unreal and the negative stories about the Clash during this time period were pure bullshit. I was backstage after concert.

This was a long time ago but as a Talent coordinator for the largest chain of rock and roll clubs during this era, this was a big deal for me... The Hartford Clash Concent was probably the highlight of my carreer, We booked the concert welll in advence but it happenned to be just after the fiasco they had in NY. FYI we paid them $29,000 plus a % over expenses....

THey were great guys, very courteous and respectful.

I kept them [contracts] for a long time, but I do not have the contracts for all the shows. The Clash were first class, and I was very taken aback by their need to satisfy their fans. I was in dressing room after main show and they wanted to do every song they knew as the encore.

Men at Work, Adam and the Ants and Missing Persons, along with the B52"s, Talking Heads, Culture Club, REM, Psyh Furs, Blackfoot, Joan Jett,  The Motels, and the Plasmatics were all big hits, but the Clash was in a class all their own.

The Clash set to perforn at the Agora

Hartford Courant -
Sat Mar 31 1984

The British are coming

Hartford Courant
Wed Apr 25 1984

Chrissie Hynde announced The Clash would hold their show to allow ppl to watch the Pretenders too

The Clash Setlist - at Agora Ballroom, West Hartford, CT, USA 
19 Apr 2011, 18:25  lsplsp
The Pretenders & the Alarm played the Bushnell in Hartford the same night. Chrissie Hynde announced that the Clash would hold their show to give us time to get over to the Agora. A great night of great music.

Adverts

Auctioned off. VTG THE CLASH OUT OF CONTROL POSTER FROM ORIGINAL AGORA ESTATE LIMITED QUANTITY. Measures 18"x12"

Last of the Clash posters from the Agora Estate. All of these are near mint with little to no imperfections.

Recording

Joe stops Safe European Home as a fight breaks out down the front and a barrier seems to collapse at the front. "We're not going to continue till we got this sorted out". All it all gets very serious. "give me a hand you fu**kin arsehole" "you, you", "whats the problem with you people". "its this lot here, they couldn't give two f**ks about anything"

Banks of TV screens

"I attended this Clash show.  The Pretenders were playing at another theater in town (supported by the Alarm) and anyone at that show could use their ticket stub to get in to the Clash show.  After the Pretenders gig, we rushed across town to the Agora. The Clash were already onstage  when we got there. 

I had seen them a few weeks earlier and at the earlier show they had banks of TV screens on the sides of the stage showing clips from the Road Warrior and shots of Reagan press conferences.

I don't remember now if they had the same set up in West Hartford.  I don't remember much of the setlist.  Paul did Guns of Brixton and one of the new guys sang either Police on my Back or Should I Stay or Should I Go but other than that I am drawing a blank.

The Grateful Dead were coming to town the next night and the Agora was packed with stoned Deadheads trying to groove to the Clash.  They were harmless but completely out of place." Sean

A band from Boston opened for them

I was at that show: Clash, Agora West Hartford in April 1984
 
A band from Boston opened for them. They were looking to get their records out, so I gave them the business card for the record store I worked for at the time. They were nice, but I don't remember the name, I think it was The Neighborhoods.
 
I vaguely remember the fight.
 
I do remember the crowd was weird. And feeling like I had been into the Clash for (at that point) 5 or six years and it was a little late for these people in the crowd to suddenly be big fans.The word "poseur" comes to mind. Stupid resentful stuff like that.
 
Anyway, I don't have anything to trade music wise, but wish I could get a copy of the show. I can get you pix of the way the Agora looks now (it closed years ago) and maybe do some urban splunking to get interior shots.
 
thanks for the info on your site!

Best show I’ve attended

Richard Schafrick The best club show I’ve attended. I remember the setlist was long. There was a fight down front. Lots of draft beer.

Susan Randazzo I was @ that show too. Unreal to see them in such a small venue.

Sean Hagearty If you saw the pretenders you could go the clash show after for like a $5 cover. Had to be a rock high point for hartford

David Houlihan I was there!!!!!!

John Condon I saw at the Clash show, the post Mick Jones line-up, and I remember parts of their set were so loud, it was bordering on painful. And I love loud music!

Paul Nott I was at that one

Peter Rustin I was there

Tony Velez i was there. Joe was sporting a mohawk!

David Houlihan I was there!!!!!!

Scott Bligh Balcony seats !!!!

Leon Blumstein - I worked security for this show, it seems so long ago. West Hartford

Chrissie Hynde turned up

Dink Pinkerman

Redonkulously exciting night in West Hartford at Stage West 37years ago,,Worked up the courage to finally meet Strummer and as I get thru the dressing room door I see my hero before me and "Oh fuck I have to interrupt Joe's very intimate conversation with CHRISSIE HYNDE!!!"

Great show

Christo Wittke I worked at a record store in Manchester that sold tickets to the Agora (although "Angora" sounds more comfortable), in West Hartford and I had to work til 9 that night. Which meant I arrived in time for The Clash, but missed the 'Hoods, who were my favorites. This was the post Mick Jones Clash, too. Still a surprisingly great show.

Xavier Pietri | Facebook

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	London Calling Safe European Home Are You Ready for War? Rock the Casbah Clash City Rockers Sex Mad War Tommy Gun The Guns Of Brixton Three Card Trick Junco Partner Clampdown Ammunition The Magnificent Seven Broadway Police On My Back Janie Jones I Fought the Law This is Radio Clash Career Opportunities I'm So Bored With the USA Armagideon Time Brand New Cadillac Garageland White Riot