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Underpass on edge of the Town Centre
Newcastle Exhibition Park Subway
the 'shows' generated some excitement
BUSKING TOUR...Joe and Paul took the boys on an impromptu busking tour - playing publicly and outside venues acoustically... the 'shows' generated some excitement about the forthcoming album... They all hitched from London by the M1 and agreed to meet up in the pub near Nottingham Railway Station. The Last Days of the Clash - Vince White pg 226
From Passion Is a Fashion
The Real Story of The Clash by Pat Gilbert (2004), p 352-3:
In May 1985, [Clash manager] Bernie Rhodes, [manager] Kosmo [Vinyl] and Joe [Strummer] devised the Clash’s last hurrah—a busking tour of Britain. The idea was that the group would assemble at [guitarist] Vince’s flat, leave their wallets on the table and hitch to Nottingham with a few acoustic guitars. They’d then see where the wind would take them. Over the next two-and-a-half weeks, Britain’s provincial towns and cities were thus treated to the extraordinary sight of The Clash popping up under railway bridges and in subways to entertain them with Monkees, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran and Cramps songs.
The group kipped on fans’ floors and in cheap B&Bs. They survived on the money thrown into their hats. It was a genuinely exiting and unpredictable experience. Joe described it as ‘the best tour we ever did.’
Paul [Simonon] agrees. ‘It was like starting out fresh again,’ he says. ‘It was great. “We’ll meet you in Glasgow in a week’s time,” and the idea was to leave everything behind other than the guitars. You couldn’t take any money with you. We survived by our wits. It was as exciting as the Anarchy tour, you never knew where you were going next. I remember we were in Leeds, it was 2 a.m., and it was outside this black club, and people were coming out and really digging us. There were two white guys and they were shocked it was us. They said, “Where you staying?” And we said, “We’re not staying anywhere,” so they invited us to stay at their mum’s. The money we made from busking meant we could go further, we didn’t have a plan of where to go next. There was no rules. You didn’t have to be on the so-and-so plane at twelve o’clock.’
The Bunker Group 35
Saturday 11th May 1985, the Clash busking... - The Bunker Group 35 | Facebook
Saturday 11th May 1985, the Clash busking tour played Newcastle, then went on to play the Station in Gateshead.
It was good to see the Clash play both Musicians Collective's venues that weekend. The band came back to Sunderland and played Gollums club, downstairs in the old Mowbray Hotel.
A version of Patrick supported on the night. The fantastic black and white photos of the Clash at the Station by Carol Lynn Colour ones at Gollems by Alf Dryden
Photos
Open photos full size in new window
Blackmarketclash | Facebook
Fanzine, Clash busking in Newcastle and Sunderland
Clash City Collectors | Facebook - Read the full article
Thanks to Conrad Milne
The Station pub, Gateshead
The Station, Swinburne Street, Gateshead.
Bootleg mis-identifies venue
"This gig took place in Gateshead, Newcastle. The venue was actually a pub called 'The Station' and not the [as in the train] station. (the taper edited and bootlegged the LP)
Sunderland is 40 miles south on the Wear. The organiser of the Sunderland bash in the evening confirmed the band had been in Newcastle in the afternoon."
seperate source confirms:
"the gig was actually at The Station (not Station Pub), which was a building used by the gateshead music collective for gigs, rehearsals etc. it was actually gatesheads old police station and was situated on swinburne street as opposed to the station pub which is situated on hills street. these two buildings would have been within 5 minutes walk of each other had the old police station not have been demolished since.
100 people in an old Punk venue who attended via word of mouth
I was standing next to the guy who recorded, and released, this. I have a set of photos taken from the gig. (we would like to see them!) Only one of them has ever been printed/seen.
It was 100 people in an old Punk venue who attended via word of mouth, as Joe only asked if there was somewhere they could play a few hours earlier. They had acoustic guitars/ bass and the drummer used a plastic chair and the floor as drums. There were no mic’s, no PA just people singing along to Joe and the band.
They went onto play in Sunderland at the Mayfair, you couldn’t hear a thing. If you think this is bad, you should hear that one. This is history.
Afterwards we got the train back home and went for a drink with them in the Salem
The Bunker, Sunderland. I never made it to this one, but did get to the Gateshead Station gig the day after. Afterwards we got the train back home and went for a drink with them in the Salem.
The Gollumns gig was originally booked for local band 'Patrick'...who eventually 'supported' The Clash that evening. That was a mental gig in a tiny basement room!!
Then it was onto The Drum Club for the final show of the day....... i was 16 at the time, i saw the clash 3 times in one day.....life somehow was never the same again!! Cheers Dave
the plastic chair, I thought it was pure genius
Donna Van Senior - 5 February 2009
That`s the thing I remember most about the Clash busking at The Station...the plastic chair, I thought it was pure genius (& obvioulsy the fact I got to see them for a measley 50p hoyed in a collection hat or something was canny alright as well!). I had to go to work after - washing dishes at the Scotsman, so I never went to Sunderland that night. Stupid dishwashing fool that I was!
Recordings in circulation
Audio 1 - Acoustic Daze CD
Sound 4 - 48min - tracks 14
Spanish Bombs (Acoustic Daze)
Audio 2 - Back to Basics LP
Sound 4 - 48min - tracks 14
Spanish Bombs (Back to Basics LP)
Audio 4
Sound 4 - 48min - tracks 14
Spanish Bombs (audio tape)
Notes from Audio 4:
Courtesy of the Stonecutter Archives is this glimmer of light from the final sad days of the Clash. It comes from their brief busking tour with Strummer leading the band as they armed themselves with acoustic guitars and popped up throughout England playing for whatever money was given to them.
misidentified lcoation
This show has been misidentified as having taken place in Sunderland probably because they played there the day before and later in the evening on this date. The venue has also been wrongly attributed to busking at a Gateshead tube station, but the Station refers to a former police station at the old Town Hall, where a music collective had set up shop. At some point the boys were trailing the Alarm and busking outside their shows, and not because they were paying respect to the group, but because they felt they were a watered down carbon of the Clash. And then of course, there were probably the Topper and Mick loyalists who pondered whether this final lineup of the band under the dictatorial sway of Bernie Rhodes had any right to even call themselves the Clash.
mis-attributed multiple times
This set has been on dime several times before (2006, 2010, 2012, and 2016 to be exact), so it won't be new to most of you. However, most if not all of those were sourced from boot CD releases like "Acoustic Daze" (3D Reality 3D-CL-064; 1995) which incorrectly attributed this to Sunderland, "Friday Night Saturday Morning" (Redline RL8923; Italy, 2003), and "Unplugged At 'The Station' Pub" (Back To Zero BTZCD-012; Japan, March 2005).
This pre-dates those discs and comes off a 2nd gen tape of the vinyl boot which was the source of the subsequent CDs and it's a clean one at that. In contrast, the 2006 upload required some speed-correction work, the 2012 upload had a corrupt track, etc.
It has a low-fi quality
That doesn't mean this is a masterful recording by any means, but it's still a precious look at that odd moment in Clash history when they almost sounded like David Peel and the Lower East Side. Like the Jeff Buckley mini phantom tour, one wonders how anyone was in the know to be at the ready to record these, and also be enough of a Clash fan to sing along to the lyrics of "Straight to Hell." The conjecture here would be that the Clash had already been busking around in the days before and started out elsewhere in Newcastle earlier in the day before they arrived at the Station. So it's possible word of mouth got around, someone grabbed a recorder, and then searched high and low around Sunderland and Newcastle until they spotted the band busking.
There are flaws in the master like the taper messing around with the auto gain at the start of "Guns of Brixton" and "Spanish Bombs" and other things that are the nature of off-the-cuff audience recordings, which either make this more intimate or annoying, depending on your tolerance for such anomalies.
To quote the "Back to Basics" vinyl boot: "This is not a high-fidelity album. The historical importance of this album transends [sic] fidelity of sound."
Enjoy, elegymart
Audio quality
Both the CD and the LP seem originate from an identical source though it has been suggested the CD was mastered from the LP. The CD has less surface noise than the vinyl .
A much talked about busking tour. The sound has been critised for being outside and rudimenatary, but with no distortion and a clear capture of instruments and band, busking on an underground, this is quite good.
The the clarity of the spanish guitars on Spanish Bombs definately marks this out as a decent recording, though some comments refer to it as poor.
Cool Under and Heat and Movers and Shakers are the only live versions known. There is also a version of Stepping Stone.
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Bootleg details can be found here Visit these websites for a comprehensive catalogue of unofficially released CD's and Vinyl (forever changing) or If Music Could Talk for all audio recordings Discogs - PDF - webpage For all recordings go to If Music Could Talk / Sound of Sinners
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Greys Monument, Newcastle
No known audio or video
a large crowd quickly gathered and the police turned up
i saw joe and paul and the other guys playing at greys monument in the centre of newcastle one afternoon...
i guess it was the same day they were in gateshead too...1985....from what i remember joe just kind of appeared and said "we are the clash" and they started playing.....
a large crowd quickly gathered and the police turned up and duly got "on their back" and moved them on - they went about 30 yards off in the direction of the central station they started playing again...by which time i couldn`t see them any more in the melee that quickly developed...
Gary Alikivi
also busked at Greys Monument in Newcastle on the Friday afternoon.
Underpass on edge of the Town Centre
No known audio or video
"They managed to squeeze in another set in the afternoon after moving on from Newcastle's Monument. A small underpass/tunnel on the outskirts of the town centre. Only about a dozen there, including a couple of local kids on BMX's circling the curved wall around Joe."
Exhibition Park Subway
Acoustic Toon 7"
Sound 3+ - 9min - tracks 3
Johnny To Bad (Exhibition Park Subway)
Sound Quality
The Sound is quite good and quite clear and must come from a low source.
This gig took place in the afternoon. It is unclear whether there is a full recording or just three tracks were recorded. There seems no cuts and after Police on My Back Joe annouces the next Busking performance at the Gateshead, Newcastle.
Could this be the gig mentioned above? 3 tracks only
St James Centre
No known audio or video
Acoustic Daze CD and Back to Basics LP; the gig was actually at The Station (not Station Pub), which was a building used by the gateshead music collective for gigs, rehearsals etc.
It was actually Gateshead's old police station and was situated on swinburne street as opposed to the station pub which is situated on hills street. these two buildings would have been within 5 minutes walk of each other had the old police station not have been demolished since.
Me Bottom left (too the left of my friend holding a camera) when The Clash (no Topper or Mick Jones version) visited The Toon on their busking tour May 1985
Unknown Busking Photos
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Newcastle Exhibition Park Subway
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Johnney Too Bad |
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The Station, Gateshead
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Movers and Shakers |
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This gig is mentioned by Chris Knowles
The Essential Clash Bootleg Bible
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Busking Tour1985
ARTICLES, POSTERS, CLIPPINGS ... A collection of and other items the Busking Tour
VIDEO AND AUDIO Video and audio footage
BOOKS
Reagan, Thatcher, and the Last Stand of a Band That Mattered By Mark Andersen, Ralph Heibutzki
by Jacopo Ghilardotti Chapter: Il Ritorono
Features archival footage and new interviews to tell the story of the band's final days. The four primary members of the band - Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonen and Topper Headon tell their sides of the story as do Nick Sheppard and Vince White, both of whom replaced Jones, and original drummer Terry Chimes, who returned to replace Headon in 1982.
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