At Lunchtime on a park bench. The famous photo is from this lunchtime gig and the reason Joe's jacket has orange paint is some protestor threw paint over him from a window in Leeds!

"Pete used his drumsticks banging on the bench (and told me he was pissed that he had no drum so a mate of mine went home to get him one which he used at the evening gig at St Johns College.)

On the photo I'm the kid with the bleached hair directly infront of Joe! This photo was taken by the Yorkshire Evening Press." Neal

Busking in York on the 9th somewhere

The band spent all afternoon at the York Arms pub where joe gave an interview to Radio York (which they passed onto Radio 1 and Joe later said if he saw the interviewer he would kill him as he had asked if he was an independent and only gave the interview because of this). 

Joe was mainly hanging outside talking to the kids while Paul and the other guys were sitting in the 'snug' at the front of the pub struming and singing guitars.

Nels Almond Whilst this gig was happening I was sitting in our local punk friendly pub in York waiting for some mates, when they eventually turned up, they said the reason they were late was they'd been watching The Clash busking down the road! er yeah right lads in your dreams, didn't believe them until I saw it printed in the local press that night! Gutted!!

Former Press employee Kate Neighbour remembers seeing them.

She recalls: "They walked up the street, and there were all these people standing around watching them," she says. "Eventually the police came and moved everybody on." Legend has it that The Clash's impromptu gig in York was part of their 'busking tour' of 1985. They were chasing a band called The Alarm around the north of England, busking wherever The Alarm were playing. Why? Because they didn't like them - so the theory goes!

In a letter to The Press, in 2015, Stuart Heron, of Kyme Street, York, recalls the day vividly.

"I was lucky enough to see The Clash busk outside York Minster and busk in King’s Square the following day. "In the days before social media, I got a call from my friend Andrew Ellis on the evening of May 8 that The Clash were going to be performing outside the Minster in two hours' time. He had found out about this from his fellow students at York Art College. "When we arrived at the front of the Minster there were a couple of hundred people, most of which were students from the art college.

The band arrived 20 minutes later and played a couple of songs before the police arrived and promptly tried to move the band on, whereupon The Clash started singing “I fought the law and the law won” accompanied by the drummer using the Minster door as his drums.

The Clash then moved on and had a few drinks in the nearby pub, The Hole in The Wall, accompanied by me and my friend, among others.

The following day I was working in town and heard The Clash were going to be busking in King's Square. The square was packed and again the band sounded great, this time the police did not try to move them on.

The Famous Radio York Interview that found
it's way on to the BBC

John: A young journalist John Warburton working for Radio York saw the Clash from his office windonw and decided to find out what the fuss was about...

I read with great interest your website. Happy days. Thank you for helping me recall them. You kindly noted that Joe Strummer gave a radio interview during his time in York, and that he'd kill the interviewer if the recording were given to the BBC nationally, which it was.

I was that interviewer. There is a happier ending to the story.

I worked for BBC Radio York at the time as a freelancer. In fact, at the top of my contract, it said "unpaid training contract" although, by that time, I was doing some paid shifts here and there, as well as playing trombone in a local brass band. At the time I saw The Clash from my office window in Bootham Row, there was absolutely nothing I knew about The Clash, other than that they were a punk band, and were terribly famous. If you were present, you might remember that even my appearance, and my first conversation with Joe Strummer may have given the game away.

Yes, I did tell him it was for the local BBC station, and a short interview followed, with Joe Strummer making his condition about the interview being 'independent' clear to me. This, I turned into a package for the following day's breakfast programme, using the one, solitary Clash record we had on station.

Then, all Hell appeared to break loose in York. I'd finished the package late at night, and wonderful things seemed to be happening in the streets. I called a colleague at Radio 1, and they expressed a great interest in the story. So I came out again, with my Uher tape recorder, and found the band once more, heading back to the York Arms. I walked up to Joe Strummer and told him that the BBC as a whole were very interested in the story, and that Newsbeat's night editor had heard the earlier interview. This, of course, wasn't what Joe had wanted but it was necessary to tell him to keep things honest. Once again, all Hell broke loose, this time aimed at me. A convenient shop window behind me very nearly became a weapon of choice.

Somehow (and this isn't mentioned in your recollection), the landlord of the York Arms (whose name I think was Barry) and I persuaded Joe Strummer that I wasn't a muck-raking interviewer and actually had a genuine interest in music, which was and is true. I'm a classical pianist and, as a producer, I've just helped to put Series 3 of the complete organ works of J S Bach on BBC2 television. Joe Strummer then went upstairs in the York Arms with me, and gave me ninety minutes of precious, unadulterated chat and thought on the state of the country, music, and his approach.

I was twenty-one years old, utterly innocent of real politics (coming from a dyed-blue Conservative family), and ignorant of music outside 'classical' and jazz. My father hated even The Beatles. Punk had passed me by. Joe Strummer was a revelation. He did give me permission to send that longer interview down the line to the BBC in London, and I still have the master tape to this day in my garage.

Meeting Joe Strummer, painful though it may have appeared to some who didn't see the full story, was a turning-point in my musical and political life. Later, when Joe was on the BBC World Service at 4.30am, and I'd have another local radio job starting on air at 5am, I felt strangely proud to be following on-air the musical and songwriting genius who showed me his honest, critical side, and who then gave me the benefit of the doubt.

I'm in Australia, the tapes are in my garage in Cheshire, to which I should return by March. That's not a very swift timeline, but it's the best I can really do unfortunately -- there's no-one else who can get in the garage because the only key is with me (unless they break the door down).

I, for one, would like to hear that long interview again. It was a turning point in my appreciation of music and politics (in the VERY broadest sense) as you might imagine. Since then, all art and music has become political to me.

No wonder he has left so many thoughtful impressions on a generation. Trusting your website provides much benefit to those who love music, yours truly, John

Im a massive fan of the clash and a born and bread Yorkshire man living in York. Ive always been fascinated by the York busking gig and know a couple of people that saw the band in the streets. I also used to drink in York arms on a very regular basis it was always a place were punks would drink and even though i was born in 86 for some reason us young punks gravitated to the pub with out yet knowing the clash and indeed many older punks had drank there many years before.

When i found out about the busking tour some 10 years ago ive been checking for info on the york gigs every few years for updates, your site is the best resource ive found on the entire busking tour. Good work indeed. Years ago i found a bootleg 7inch of the clash busking in the toon but not much luck York wise. There's a few photographs knocking about but not much else. I have since seen a post on a facebook site called memories of york with a comment that a girl that used to work at the roxy club has a recording of the clash gatecrashing a birthday party in york later that night...Do you know of this? Could it be true?

Also what came of the interview done upstairs at the York arms? Did you get a copy? Since hearing that happened in my regular pub as a young punk with my favourite punk band ive wanted to have that recording probably more then any other clash artefact or recording!

Im rambling but any more info on the york busking stuff would be great.†

Thanks very much for the site, its great. Keep it up.

http://www.segregates.co.uk/

About 7pm a gang of people (I would say 100 plus) with the 5 Clash walked through the streets of York with the band Strumming Spanish style songs leading them to Ripon & St Johns College - like pied pipers! 

It was amazing!

Stefania Swiatek That was the highlight of the 5 years I lived in York! [watching The Clash] on the car park of St Johns College!

May 9, 1985

York; College of Ripon and York St John's (busking tour).

We lived in a huge old student house on Lord Mayor's Walk, which backs onto the college, and that day, someone appeared at the door asking if the Clash could use our backyard to play their busking concert that evening. We didn't believe it, but said yes.

At the time, we had a band practicing in the living room, and this guy asked whether they could borrow a drum, as for some reason, the Clash didn't have appear to have one. As it turned out, our drummer's snare drum skin was pretty thin at the time, and he didn't want to risk it breaking, as he had no money for a new one. Thus, he actually declined to let the Clash borrow his snare--quite a claim to fame!

Anyway, we waited, and that evening, as promised, the Clash turned up and played their impromptu live set, sitting on the wall at the end of our back garden. I guess there were around 30 people there; maybe more. It was pretty late when they started, and they played until it got a little too dark, then said "Thank you" and left.