A friend sent me this very interesting article. It describes every italian show. Florence 1984 isn’t mentionned so i guess the concert never took place.

Greetings, Julien.

The Clash, the return to Italy in 1984 (translated)

Matteo Picconi

"In England everything is so right-wing ... who knew you have cities ruled by Communists?" It is the beginning of 1984, the literary year of George Orwell, of the first AIDS deaths, of Margaret Thatcher's strong anti-union repression. In Italy, the parliamentary commission on P2 publishes its final report, confirming the authenticity of the lists seized the previous year in the villa of the venerable Licio Gelli; in the capital two million people attend the funeral of Enrico Berlinguer, secretary of the PCI, who died following a cerebral hemorrhage that surprised him during a rally for the European elections in Padua; for the seventh time, the Monster of Florence returns to terrorize the city, killing Claudio Stefanacci and Pia Rontini, aged 21 and 18 respectively. But 1984, for music and rock lovers, is also the year of the return of the Clash, the new Clash, who on the occasion of the "Out of Control" tour return to perform with five concerts in the Peninsula.

THE "NEW" CLASH

The new formation of the Clash in 1984

"The Clash embodied the passionate political consciousness of punk." With these words, in 2003, the entry of the historic London band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was announced. A recognition in some ways belated but undoubtedly legitimate, which came a year after the sudden death of Joe Strummer. Born in the second half of the seventies, in a London in full cultural and musical ferment, for many the Clash have changed the face of rock: one could say that they have opened the eyes of the world to a genre, punk, still little known to world level, to then overcome it, contaminate it, deform it, but without ever questioning it completely. Net of the criticisms of the so-called orthodox, who since 1977 pointed out Strummer and his companions to be the first traitors of punk, it can be said that the passage of maturity implemented by the Clash was first of all cultural, political, as well as musical, thus marking the overcoming that nihilism that characterized the English movement of those years:

«If the Sex Pistols», Ezio Guaitamacchi writes in «The history of Rock», «awaken repressed energies to fuel chaos regardless of political connotations, the Clash use them to fight progressive battles. The latter become the most popular punk group on the planet when the former go out of business ".

A milestone in rock, therefore, the Clash "deserve the legend" in the words of the English music critic Jon Savage. But if you go back over the years, especially in the last troubled two years preceding the definitive dissolution of the group, this judgment was anything but a foregone conclusion. Amid general skepticism, in early 1984 Joe Strummer and manager Bernard Rhodes attempt to revive the band or, at least, what was left of it. A little everywhere, both in the press at the time and in the most recent musical historiography, we read about the new or second Clash when referring to that period.

In the two previous years, in fact, the historical core had lost two important elements: in 1982, shortly after the release of the very successful Combat Rock album, the Welsh drummer Nick Topper Headon was dismissed due to problems related to his drug addiction; the following year it was the turn of guitarist Mick Jones, founder and backbone of the group, sent away by the constant friction, in the artistic field and beyond, with Strummer and Rhodes. It is a hard blow, the prelude to a slow but not quite agonizing end. 1984, in fact, can be considered the last great year for the Clash, with over seventy live performances all over the world. Their end, if anything, is sanctioned by the publication of Cut the Crap (1985), a much criticized album, considered a flop on a commercial level, "reneged" even by Strummer himself in the following years.

Out of almost six hundred concerts made between 1977 and 1985, only eleven occasions did the London band hit an Italian stage. The first time takes place in Bologna, on June 1st 1980 with a free concert in Piazza Maggiore. The Clash are already the Clash, the year before London Calling was released, considered one of the top ten most influential albums in the history of rock. The Bologna exhibition is remembered for the boycott of the Bolognese collectives in open conflict with the municipal council; a mainly political boycott but, in some respects, also musical: "This concert was organized to fuck us", reads a flyer distributed in those days, "to give us the punk they want: the stale Clash, sold to the system ... ".

A critical position that, of course, did not concern only the Italian punk movement: not even nine days before, in Hamburg, the English group was harshly contested during a concert (Strummer, on the occasion, smashes his guitar on the head of a skinhead). However, the concerts in Bologna and Turin (1980) and those of the following year in Milan, Sanremo and Florence are still remembered as unrepeatable events. The Clash will not play in Italy for over two years and when the double concert in Milan is announced at the dawn of 1984, thousands of fans respond with enthusiasm. "MILAN CALLING"

The Clash ticket at the Palasport in Milan

Enthusiasm, curiosity and, as already mentioned, a lot of skepticism. When the band opens the "Out of Control" tour there is no new album to promote and relations with major CBS are at a standstill. For many, the decline of the Clash, especially after the departure of Mick Jones, is now imminent: with a heavily reworked line-up, there was a serious risk that the new Clash had become their own "cover band". Despite this, the political soul of the group led by Strummer and Paul Simonon remained at stake and the Italian media do not hesitate to underline this aspect.

"Of punk rock", writes Mario Fegiz in Corriere della Sera on February 25, 1984, "a rough, angry and sad re-edition of rock and roll, the Clash represent the most cultured and politically committed, artistically most significant and lasting moment".

More or less all the Italian press titles in the same way: "rebellious rock", "subversive music", "provocative band", alternating convinced appreciation on a strictly musical level with slightly veiled criticisms of a political nature. There is no shortage of the usual interviews a bit "bigoted" about Strummer, criticized for wearing, during a concert in 1978, a T-shirt with the symbol of the BR and the RAF. This is the response of the Clash front man, reported in La Stampa in the edition of March 5, 1984:

«The gesture of a naive idealist, who had not done his homework, a lack ... but how did I know that by doing so I was doing harm instead of a favor to the left? In England everything is so right-wing, who knew you have cities ruled by Communists? However, I don't believe in an armed revolution. I believe that people, if educated with the truth, would inevitably be socialists. " When the Impresario Roberto Rovelli's Best Event launches the two dates (27 and 28 February) at the Palazzetto dello Sport in Milan, pre-sales are snapped up and, according to estimates on the eve, over 22 thousand spectators are expected for the double event. What is immediately striking is the ticket price, twelve thousand lire, well below the average of the most popular concerts of the time. A choice conditioned by the same London group that, since 1977, had always imposed (both for albums and for live performances) the most popular prices possible. Watch out for the pockets of the fans, spenders in their short stays in hotels and restaurants.

«The Clash», we read in the Corriere della Sera of 28 February 1984, «arrived yesterday morning from Bern, arrived in the early afternoon at the Palasport di San Siro. The waiter who served them a hearty lunch between 5 and 6 pm confessed that it is easier to feed 120 people than the Clash. They consumed about eighty liters of latte with which they washed down an open meal with bread, butter and jam and continued with rigatoni with meat sauce, peas and ham, cold cuts, escalopes with Marsala and lemon, then more coffee ... while for the components of the vegetarian group has noticed a consumption of industrial quantities of celery from Verona, fennel and carrots dipped in mayonnaise for a total of six jars… ».

Organizationally, the prime time of February 27 is not a great success. Despite the grievances of the entrepreneur Rovelli, CONI inexplicably installs thousands of plastic chairs throughout the parterre. Very utopian, some of the organizers imagined being able to welcome thousands of punks and rockers, who came from all over Italy, making them sit on chairs, as if at a very quiet concert of opera music. According to what was reported in the news, the result is catastrophic: hundreds of those chairs are uprooted and thrown towards the stage and many dozen people, including spectators and security officers, end up in hospital. As if that were not enough, what remains of the chairs becomes blunt material used in the numerous fights, ignited almost everywhere among the most agitated fans. In short, for the order service, an eventful evening.

"A singular circumstance", reports the Corriere della Sera correspondent the following day, "the wounding of a member of the order service (a split lip and nose injuries): he was in fact hit by the guitarist of the group who had tried to stop, mistaking him in the darkness of the backstage for a fan who had escaped the control network ».

Injuries, fainting, some arrests and a good performance by the Clash. The encore on February 28 repeats the full house of the previous evening, over eleven thousand people, who become even more at the end of the concert when the "defenses" placed at the gates give way and hundreds of non-paying spectators burst inside. During the second evening there are no chairs and fewer accidents are recorded, but the acoustics and the electrical system leave a lot to be desired. These are the first signs of decadence of the Palazzetto dello Sport, inaugurated in 1976, which a year later, following the great snowfall of 1985, will close its doors due to inaccessibility, only to be demolished in 1986.

Despite some criticism from some national newspapers, the two concerts in Milan are still a success. The Clash are no longer the same, we note the lack of Mick Jones's guitar, replaced by two guitarists, Nick Sheppard and Vince White, who, as Fabio Malagnini wrote in L'Unità on February 29, are "less good than Mick Jones but certainly wilder, ruder, younger and poorer in experience ». Less class, then, but always the same determination, with Strummer the real star of the stage. His crest, never shown in previous years, seems to want to evoke the punk origins of the London band even if, unfortunately, it will not be so.

«Their return», writes the journalist Marinella Venegoni in La Stampa on February 29, 1984, «highlights a reversal of the trend compared to the original trend: while all the famous groups let themselves be tempted by the laws of the market and play" easier ", the Clash have become "harder", their music unravels dry and lacerating, essential and austere, for an hour and a half of concert, and only the sweet temptations of reggae sometimes mark a moment of pause in the spasmodic scratches of the guitars electric and in the scanning of the raw and dry battery, haunting as a war drum ».

Leaving Milan, Strummer and his companions resume their tour around the world: some stops in Europe, then in the USA and Canada, for a total of over fifty concerts. But the "Italian year" of the Clash is not over yet and the appointment has been postponed to the end of the summer. They will go up the Peninsula starting from Cava de 'Tirreni, in the province of Salerno, and then land, for the first and only time, in the capital. "MAKE YOURSELF YOUR LUCK!"

A clipping from the Corriere della Sera of 7 September 1984

When word spreads in Rome that the Clash will play at the National Unity Day, scheduled at the former EUR Velodrome, enthusiasm skyrockets. It is not surprising that the organization of the Communist Party has managed to hook up a band of fame like the British: since the end of the seventies the PCI festivals are important events and the resources to be put in place are not lacking. That of 1984, with the sudden death of Enrico Berlinguer, takes on a special character. It will also be a great success, both in terms of participation and financial: around three million admissions and a collection of over ten billion lire.

The national edition of the festival returns to the capital after twelve years. And it's a comeback in style. There are not only the Clash to enrich the program that from 30 August to 16 September closes the Roman Summer of that 1984: on the musical front the names of Fabrizio De Andrй stand out, who only six months earlier released the album Creuza de mä , Pino Daniele and the Spanish tenor José Carreras; there are special guests in the program dedicated to cinema such as Sergio Leone, Alberto Sordi and Carlo Verdone; no less important is the program dedicated to the theater, with the presence of Vittorio Gassman, Carmelo Bene and Gigi Proietti. In short, a great "parade of big names", as the Corriere della Sera headlines on 23 August, of which the Clash certainly represent the spearhead for the younger audience but not only.

The location chosen for the festival is also that of great occasions. The former Olympic Velodrome of the EUR, built for the 1960 Olympics and then abandoned to itself for almost two decades (it was demolished in 2008), is cleaned and reclaimed by hundreds of PCI volunteers with grueling works, which began in the spring in 1984. The area intended for concerts, "the Arena", can accommodate over twenty thousand people.

To make the news is not only the presence of the Clash but, above all, the price of the ticket, ever lower, more and more "political": ten thousand lire. Strictly speaking, the concert by Ornella Vanoni and Gino Paoli, scheduled three days later, costs twelve thousand lire. The few pre-sales are snapped up within a week and for 7 September, the date of the event, the Arena della Unita is expected to be sold out.

With the concert scheduled at 9pm, around six in the afternoon there are already seven thousand people close to the stage. Joe Strummer, crested and suit strictly red in color, notices them and with his clenched fist raised to the sky he goes towards the crowd; a bodyguard stops him in time and pushes him backstage. It is just the beginning of an explosive evening. When the London band opens the live with the usual London Calling, the arena has reached the maximum capacity, around twenty thousand people. Their performance, once again, did not disappoint. "Under the words" Sex style subversion "", reports the reporter from La Stampa on 9 September, "and against the backdrop of a large billboard covered with black and white photos, the Clash have launched their classic opening call. And the audience replied: raising their fist, sometimes covered with black and white rags, according to punk fashion, dancing, singing, shouting in a full voice certain verses of songs that sound just like slogans (…). Joe Strummer and his group didn't spare themselves. '

The photograph of the Velodrome is just that: slogans, raised fists, rebellion, yes, but aware. The writer Carlo Lucarelli gives the definition of the Clash in an episode of Dee Giallo, dedicated to Paul Simonon, on Radio Deejay: of the punk genre they are certainly the most "conscious" group, the most committed, the most constructive. And, in 1984, they seem to be even more so. "Today Joe Strummer", write Gianni Cesarini and Federico Vacalebre in Il Mattino the day after the concert in Cava de ’Tirreni," he is a much less romantically revolutionary rocker and much more concretely capable of recording ". The charge of the Clash, in short, also infects the public of the capital, giving a performance that, even today, many remember. But the show does not end after two intense hours of music and continues in an impromptu and unmanageable press conference between the members of the band and the numerous reporters who flocked to the EUR festival. Below is a long report by the journalist Giorgio Melone, published in L'Unità on 9 September 1984:

«Your rights, Joe Strummer, repeated them as in a turn of the century rally, during the press conference after the concert. Standing on the table, with a half-empty bottle of Frascati Superiore in his hand, after having overwhelmed chairs and microphones, he added: “We have the right to live in peace. Here and now. Because this is peace, the possibility of speaking freely, as we are doing now, without the danger of a bomb hanging over our heads ”. But the bomb is there, and it is already suspended. “Listen to me - Strummer shouts in ever greater confusion, provoked by his companions who pass by among the journalists offering wine - it is also against the bomb we are singing. Everyone must do something against the bomb, and there is no need to go to pacifist demonstrations. You just have to pull out your will to live with all your might and hit it in the face of Mrs Thatcher, Reagan or Cernienko. We do it with our music and that's why they say our rock is political and scary. Because the strength of rock and a body that dances rock scares the power ”. The harangue continues, provocative: "We were in Naples, there was so much heat. An hour ago I sang in front of a wonderful audience. Why don't you who are the intellectuals who studied in the universities move? In Italy there are bombs, in Spain, in England. Meanwhile, with Mr. Reagan's dollars they start killing people in South America again. We fight singing in a thousand concerts, even if we could stay at home comfortably making a lot more money by making records: pull out your strength and beat it in the face of all these people. Make your own luck, boys, make your own luck: you make your own luck guys, you make it ”…».

Not even twenty-four hours after the Velodrome concert, the Clash perform at the Festa dell'Unità in Reggio Emilia. On 10 September they play at the Palazzetto dello Sport in Genoa. Even in the Ligurian capital, the office of Joe Strummer is such that the concert risks being interrupted:

"Before attacking the notes of the famous Radio Clash", we read in La Stampa on 11 September 1984, "the singer, full of excitement, in broken but sufficiently understandable Italian, invited the boys to get on stage. The message was clear, or so it seemed. Rejected the isolated assaults of the first enterprising fans, the efficient order service was overwhelmed by a large group of young people who invaded the stage, pushing the group into rearguard positions. For about ten minutes the concert went on like this, with the voice of Joe Strummer who seemed to rise from the chaos of arms, legs and punk hair, under the blue and red spotlights (…). The concert was suspended for about ten minutes, the time to recapult the crowd of young people who had invaded the field in the audience ».

The last leg of the Italian tour is scheduled for 11 September at the Municipal Stadium in Turin. A bitter evening, both for the band and for the thousands of young people who flocked to the Piedmontese capital: the concert was canceled by the Turin supervisory commission as the scaffolding was not assembled up to standard. Already in the late afternoon the anger of the public mounts (almost four thousand presales have already been sold) and riots almost occur at the gates of the stadium. In the front row, to inflame the crowd, there is always him, Joe Strummer:

«An anti-Clash conspiracy, then? They ", writes La Stampa correspondent Laura Schrader on 12 September 1984," have no doubts. They arrive at the stadium largely stocked with beers and bottles of vodka which they distribute to the few present: “Let's sing and dance together, let's have fun”. But nobody feels like it, we prefer to listen to the angry speech of the leader of the group (...): “In these days in Italy I really enjoyed myself - declares Strummer - and yesterday in Genoa, on stage, I really enjoyed it. Only in Turin they don't want us. Platini is welcome in this stadium, but not the Clash ”…».

Compared to the two concerts in Milan, where the new grafts were still in the "running-in" phase, the performances of Cava de 'Tirreni, Rome, Reggio Emilia and Genoa were decidedly more convincing and, for the future of the band, did not promise at all bad. "The Clash were alive and well, in spite of those who had put them on the cross in February," writes Jacopo Ghilardotti in his book "Rebels at the corner". But, as has already been said, 1984 is their last year and the Clash will definitely disband thirteen months later; just in time to make its mark in Italy too.