Festa Del Unita Italian Dates as part of the celebrations by the Italian Communist Party who's leader, Enrico Berlinguer, died june 11 1984.

updated 2 Sept 2016 with better audio information

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Concert cancelled after soundcheck;

Apparently The Clash completed a sound check for the gig. The local council cancelled the concert it at the last minute siting crowd safety. See below.

Vince White in his book, The Last Days of The Clash;

The next show [Turin] which was the last on this tour had been cancelled for some reason. Everyone was just hanging around there waiting to see what was happening. After a while, Joe showed up. A lot of heavy talking was going on and there's that big atmosphere of serious importance as if World War Three has just broken out. And there we were. Just a punk band after all. But we still head out there, to that venue, the football stadium in Torino walking around it with no gig to play. The band and entourage head out for a big meal in some fancy restaurant that's been arranged for everyone seeing as we weren't playing.

The Clash. Radioflash and Arcimedia, organizers of the Clash concert that will take place on Tuesday 11 at 9.30 pm at the Municipal Stadium

Europa -
Sabato 8 Settembre 1984

The Clash. Radioflash and Arcimedia, organizers of the Clash concert that will take place on Tuesday 11 at 9.30 pm at the Municipal Stadium

Presale of tickets has started at: Rock & Folk, Arci, Maschio, Libreria Petrini, Soriz, Poma Dischi, Astori ( Rivoli), Disco Shop (Settimo), Magic Bus (Pinerolo), Alturlst (Alessandria), Muzak (Cuneo), Portar & Cadget (Aosta), Radio Alba.

ADVERT

La Stampa – ADVERT
9 Settembre1984

Clash concerts cancelled

....Ferruccio Martinotti

July 1984.

Still stunned after the February gig in milan, here blast the news of an early-autumn italian tour with a stop in Torino. The clash in italy twice in a year : 20 years later my hands still sweating thinking of it...

September 11 1984.

Concert to be held at the curva maratona (torino football team’s terrace) of stadio comunale,at that time the soccer playground of both torino’s teams : the rotten juventus and the legendary and beloved torino. just before the opening of the doors with a crowd of at least 5,000 people, a statement of local firemen dept. spread by a megaphone updates the gig to the day after because of safety reasons of the stage. the crowd moves away without any kind of tension. myself alongside 3 mates soon planning to comb the whole city looking for the band : we are 101% sure that due to gig’s adjournment the horsemen are in town.

After a couple of hours frantically spent in search of a tour bus with a uk number plate, we bump, just in front of a downtown luxury hotel called “principi di piemonte”, into a small group of guys wearing clash t-shirts. we stop the car and hear from them that the clash stay in the hotel but aren’t still back. with a lot of doubts about the reliability of the information (but without any better ideas in mind...) we decide to wait.

Less than half an hour later, thanks to the holy mercy of the r’n’r gods, a grey tour bus (uk number plate...) disembarks joe vince nick pete and some crew guys.

completely out of mind we jump onto joe submerging him by hugs. he’s wearing a complete red suit, tennis shoes and is sporting a red mohawk .a short speech and joe says “i go upstairs picking up paul and i’ll be back in a while”, then disappears in the hotel.

Nobody believes it’s realistic to see him back, but we’re happy indeed, it doesn’t matter. we met him, we shook his hands and embraced him : nobody dares asking more.

But r’n’r gods are on our side tonight, it is definitely OUR night and 10 minutes later the door-man opens the hotel doors showing to a little bunch of astonished no-hope kids joe,paul,pete,vince and nick alongside ray jordan.

Joe introduces the guys : paul is wearing black leather pants with a white shirt and ray presents himself as “the guru of the band”. one of us asks joe to pick a guitar and he answers “look,what’s the matter? i don’t need a guitar...” and starts beating with his hands on a car’s hood singing something that sounds like an old standard. Can you figure out? AMAZING,UNBELIEVABLE.

We move to a sort of club a couple of blocks far from the hotel, called “centralino”: it’s like floating in the air, i don’t feel the feet touching the sidewalk, i’m a human overcraft with the heart blasting in the chest and the pupils dilated by demented, unbearable excitement.

Along the road i’m chatting with paul and vince. i tell them i need a new record like my lugs need oxygen and i’m dreaming of a record as honest and true as the first eponymous.

Vince answers they’re actually working on a new album and, no doubts about, the purpouse is to issue a “punk record”. (well, i don’t pretend to add something useful in order to clarify the fogs that still today covering the genesis of cut the crap, and honestly speaking i don’t give a flying fuck..., but that is what it has been pointed out about.).

At the centralino.

Paul, nick and pete sitting very quitely watching music videos, vince soon disappears with a blonde girl, ray manages the treasury for the booze (he has in his pocket an xl roll of lira...) and joe...well, joe is the epitome of joe strummer : a nuclear volcano, a genuine, generous mate, willing to answer to every silly question or “original” statement (i mean each one of us told him at least 25 times “you changed my life”...), offering drinks and asking about italy and life in torino.

(in the common opinion he was supposed to be in that period confused and depressed because of artistic and personal reasons. i don’t know what happened elsewhere, but during that night i saw joe happy, funny, smart, turbo-charged : i could haven’t imagined a man and a musician happier and more committed).

We chat and drink till morning comes : anectodes from the glory days (“siouxsie was going to mess around with me one night in amsterdam”); jones (“if he enter the room now, i punch him in the face!”); music (he’s into waits’ swordfishtrombones; he’ll love for the life 1st ramones record and he hates police’s fake white reggae); clash ( side 1 of the eponymous is his favourite and white man the finest hour); beat poets (and the importance of benzedrine...); england under mrs. thatcher; bruce lee; ying and yang; bologna’s gig in 1980 (one of his most lovely remembered) and more more and more.

At 5 o’clock the owner literally kick us out of the club and, with the pain in our souls, we realise we do have to walk back to the hotel.

Time to say goodbye, it’s around 6. someone asking the guys autographs and joe, unlike paul pete and nick, denies, considering it a useless, superstar dumb gesture.

But as the ultimate gift of this unreal night he asks the italian translation and then writes on a sheet of paper : WE WANNA LIVE TONIGHT.

(the gig didn’t take place anymore).

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