Wednesday 22 December 1976
Plymouth Woods Centre
Anarchy Tour supporting the Sex Pistols and in the home town the Buzzcocks.
page started 19 January 2017
updated November 2024
INDEX
Recordings in circulation
Background
Tickets, Posters
Other
Venue
Gig Review
News Reports
Books
Magazines
Comments
Social Media
Photos
Recordings in circulation
No known audio or video
If you know of any recording, please email blackmarketclash
The Sex Pistols performance was recorded performance was recorded by Dave Goodman has some problems mixing the sound and the sound is bad.
1976/77 Julian Temple's early footage 50hrs
Known to contain several concerts including The Roxy 1 Jan 1977 and Harlesden plus Rehearsals footageJulian Temples 1976 footage 18 hours - included Roxy/Anarchy Tour/Harlesden/Rainbow - only the footage that was used in the film eventually got digitised because it was shot on an obscure format that does exist anymore and so it cost a fortune to put onto tape.
Book: Return of the Last Gang in Town
Julian Temple's early footage
[Extract] ... Malcolm’s (Mclaren) band had a promo film, so Bernie’s (Rhodes) band had to have one too.
Julien’s (Temple) black and white footage of the Clash at Rehearsals, on the Anarchy Tour, at the Harlesden Coliseum and in the Beaconsfield studio had been shot prior to the Clash’s latest image change and so was outmoded.
In 1999, Julien would contribute clips of the various bands on the Anarchy Tour, the Clash rehearsing ‘What’s My Name?’ with Rob Harper, the band overdubbing vocals to ‘I’m So Bored With The USA’ at Beaconsfield, and the band posing on the balcony outside 111 Wilmcote House, to Don Letts’s Clash documentary Westway To The World.
His own Sex Pistols documentary, The Filth And The Fury, was finally released the following year.
Julien claims to have over 50 hours of Clash footage from the 1976-77 period, most of which has never been seen.
Background
Plymouth Woods Centre – Two Nights of Anarchy
Against the tide of cancellations elsewhere, Plymouth welcomed the Anarchy Tour twice.
As Plymouth Live later recalled, “This fearsome foursome were banned from just about every venue in the country when the punk rock Anarchy Tour got active in December 1976 – but Plymouth, a city famous for its love of freedom, let them play TWICE.” (William Telford, Plymouth Live, 24 March 2018).
The Woods Centre, later demolished under the Drake Circus mall, hosted the Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and the Heartbreakers, with DJ Andy Howard spinning records between sets. Howard remembered sharing coffee with Johnny Rotten: “He was such an intelligent guy… we talked about everything: the state of music, the adverse reaction to their gigs. He was very good at reading people’s personalities.”
Author Peter Smith noted that the first Plymouth night was well attended, while the second drew barely twenty punters, “including six members of the local chapter of the Hell’s Angels.” (Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk, p.58).
Glen Matlock later reflected: “The last gig was the best of the whole tour, probably because we were all so happy that it was finally over. We didn’t even bother to change into our stage clothes, just played for each other.” (quoted in Lloyd, 2016). With the bus heading back to London on Christmas Eve, Plymouth marked both a reprieve from the tour’s chaos and its weary end.
By the time Christmas 1976 arrived, the so-called Anarchy Tour had collapsed into legend — fourteen shows announced, barely seven performed, and the rest lost to civic bans, moral outrage and promoter withdrawals.
The Sex Pistols emerged notorious, vilified and exhausted, hounded from hotels and vilified in the press.
The Clash, less infamous but sharper for the experience, and had shown flashes of brilliance that convinced reviewers like Jonh Ingham they were “the band that stormed it” (SOUNDS, 25 Dec 1976).
What was left was not a successful tour but a cultural fault line: from Manchester to Plymouth, and from cancelled halls across the UK, punk had broken into Britain’s headlines, shaking the establishment even where the music was never played.
Tickets, Posters
Posters
Tickets
Other
Venue
Woods Centre, Plymouth
It was a biker-turned-punk club in Old Town Street, located above the old Burtons clothes shop, where Adam Ant famously bashed his head on the low ceiling and ended up in Derriford Hospital. The venue also hosted one of the few Anarchy Tour Sex Pistols and Clash shows in 1976. Sadly it's long gone now and there are no bars or clubs on Old Town Street anymore.
Woods Nightclub is listed as being on Old Town Street, Plymouth but the listing shows the venue to be on Drake Street.
The Gig
No recording...
News Reports
William Telford Plymouth Live , 24 MAR 2018, UPDATED14 APR 2022
The 50 greatest gigs of all time: Plymouth's iconic concerts
No. 2 Sex Pistols, the Clash, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, the Damned
This fearsome foursome were banned from just about every venue in the country when the punk rock Anarchy Tour got active in December 1976 – but Plymouth, a city famous for its love of freedom, let them play TWICE.
The Pistols headlined two nights at Woods Centre, now lost beneath Drake Circus mall.
Famous Plymouth DJ Andy Howard was on the decks that night and even shared a cup of coffee with Johnny Rotten.
“He was such an intelligent guy,” recalled Andy. “We talked about everything: the state of music, the adverse reaction to their gigs.
"He was very good at reading people’s personalities.”
Plymouth was one of just a few cities to host the Anarchy tour in 1976
The Anarchy tour gig has been recreated twice, at the Hub, with tribute bands Sex Pistols Experience and London Calling standing in for the real thing.
The Clash (the other greatest band in the world) would return to the city’s Fiesta Suite, in Mayflower Street, to headline their own White Riot tour in May 1977, playing most of their newly released debut LP with support from Buzzcocks, Subway Sect and the Slits.
PHOTO: The Clash's Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon snapped in the lift of what is now Plymouth's Crowne Plaza, 1976
Books
Book: Peter Smith, Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk Google books, page 58
Book: Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk
"In addition to the concerts in Leeds, Manchester, and Caerphilly, the tour also managed to play concerts at Clecthorpes Winter Gardens on December 20, and ended with two gigs at Plymouth Woods Centre on December 21 and 22.
The first night at Plymouth was well attended; however, the second concert, and the last night of the tour, saw just twenty punters, including six members of the local chapter of the Hell's Angels, turn up to see the bands.
Matlock remembers the last gig as "the best of the whole tour, probably because we were all so happy that it was finally over. We didn't even bother to change into our stage clothes, just played for each other" (Lloyd 2016). The tour bus returned to London on Christmas Eve. The Sex Pistols were tired and broke.
What had started out as the punk package tour of all time almost ended in disaster.
Toward the end of the Anarchy tour, plans were assembled for the Sex Pistols to play in London, and discussions took place about a pos- sible gig at the Roxy Theatre in Harlesden on December 26 and 27 (not to be confused with the punk club The Roxy, which opened in central London around the same period).
Terry Collins, licensee of the Roxy Theatre, told New Musical Express (1976: 2) that the Pistols "booked rehearsal time at the Roxy, so I went along to assess them, and I was horrified by their attitude which was absolutely disgusting." Collins also alleged that the band had caused "considerable backstage damage" and that he finally decided not to allow the band to play because he did not "want to condone their attitude."
The Roxy Theatre was to host a head- line gig by The Clash in 1977."
Magazines
Comments
Blackmarketclash | Leave a comment
Did you see The Clash!
Please leave a comment
Leave your comment here on the Blackmarketclash's FB page (above/below)
Or alternatively leave a comment here
Email:
All help appreciated. Info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome.
Please email blackmarketclash
More comments here I saw the Clash
Social Media
The Clash | Facebook
1. Woods Centre Plymouth Facebook Posts
2. Woods Centre Facebook Profile
Sex Pistols photo archive | Facebook
Photos
Open photos in full in new window
THE CLASH ON PAROLE | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com
December 22nd, in 1976, the Anarchy Tour will not play Torquay 400 Ballroom, fortunately, Plymouth Woods Centre remains open for a second evening.
Extensive archive
of articles, magazines and other from the Anarchy Tour
INDEX
PAGE 1 - The Anarchy Tour, pre Bill Grundy
Anarchy Tour 'Dates' - pre Bill Grundy show
Articles - before Bill Grundy Show
Posters
PAGE 2 - The Bill Grundy Show, the outrage
LWT (ITV) Bill Grundy Show
Bill Grundy front page newspaper headlines
The 'moral-outrage', moral panic that followed
EMI's response
PAGE 3 - The fallout, Tour collapses
Revised Dates following the Grundy outrage
Anarchy Tour Adverts, before and after
The fallout from Bill Grundy show
Feature Magazines
Books (Anarchy Tour)
PAGE 4 - The Clash, restrospectives, photos
Anarchy Tour Photos
The Clash & The Anarchy Tour
1976 feature magazines
1976 Sundry
www.blackmarketclash.co.uk
email blackmarketclash.co.uk@gmail.com
STRUMMER, BAD, Pogues, films + : THE SOLO YEARS STRUMMER & THE LATINO ROCKABILLY WAR BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS & FEATURE MAGAZINES Sex Pistols / The Jam / The Libertines / Others
|
If you know of any recording, please email blackmarketclash
Extensive archive of articles, magazines and other from the Anarchy Tour
INDEX
PAGE 1
- The Anarchy Tour, pre Bill Grundy
Anarchy Tour 'Dates' - pre Bill Grundy show
Articles - before Bill Grundy Show
Posters
PAGE 2
- The Bill Grundy Show, the outrage
LWT (ITV) Bill Grundy Show
Bill Grundy front page newspaper headlines
The 'moral-outrage', moral panic that followed
EMI's response
PAGE 3
- The fallout, Tour collapses
Revised Dates following the Grundy outrage
Anarchy Tour Adverts, before and after
The fallout from Bill Grundy show
Feature Magazines
Books (Anarchy Tour)
PAGE 4
- The Clash, restrospectives, photos
Anarchy Tour Photos
The Clash & The Anarchy Tour
1976 feature magazines
1976 Sundry
|
ANARCHY TOUR A collection of A collection of articles, interviews, reviews, posters, tour dates from the ill feted Anarchy Tour. Articles cover December and the Tour.
ANARCHY TOUR, Video and audio footage
ANARCHY TOUR, BOOKS
*page numbers relate to print edition Anarchy Tour pg197 ...
Anarchy Tour pg128 ...
Rehearsals, Roxy ...
Anarchy Tour pg60 ...
Anarchy Tour ... |
.gif){kind=small}
There are several sights that provide setlists but most mirror www.blackmarketclash.co.uk. They are worth checking.
from Setlist FM (cannot be relied on)
from Songkick (cannot be relied on)
... both have lists of people who say they went
& from the newer Concert Database and also Concert Archives
Also useful: Ultimate Music database, All Music, Clash books at DISCOGS
Articles, check 'Rocks Back Pages'
Stream, download, subscribe
Stream and download The Clash here:
https://TheClash.lnk.to/BestOfAY
Subscribe to The Clash's YouTube channel:
https://TheClash.lnk.to/YouTube_Subsc...
Blackmarketclash downloads
Requests
Follow The Clash:
Official website - https://www.theclash.com/
Facebook - / theclash
Twitter - / theclash
Instagram - / the_clash
Follow The Clash on :
Twitter: http://bit.ly/I0EsOs
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1eQ196D
Subscribe to our channel to watch more: http://bit.ly/1jY5CFd
Hundreds of fans comments about the gigs they went to...
What do you remember about seeing the Clash? Leave your comment
Wikipedia - band mambers
Wikipedia - The Clash
Search all of facebook
Search all of Twitter
Search for a local library
Search auction site
Search flickr
Search Instagram
Search the internet
Search The Internet Archive
A complete treasure trove of archive of audio (official, unofficial), readable books, magazine
[BMC lists]
The Clash Books
The Clash Magazine Features
The Clash articles, clippings
The Clash Fanzines
The Clash interviewed
The Clash on film
The Clash live
The Clash tribute albums
The Clash official releases
Magazine searches
Trouser Press
all editons digitised
Creem Magazine [US]
Record Mirror [UK]
Rockscene Magazine [US]
Boston Rock [US]
British Library [UK]
Nothing Else On Flickr
Large catalogue of music magazines
Fanzine searches
Slash Fanzine [US]
No Mag Fanzine [US]
Damage Fanzine [US]
Dry zines Fanzine [US]
Auction sites
Great for rare sales such as posters & tickets
Photos.com
includes images
Heritage Auctions
Past - Current
ValueYourMusic
Free Music Items Price Guide
Image search
Getty Images The Clash here
Need to vary search and year
The Clash Art for Sale - Fine Art America
Collection of Clash images, need to vary search and year
WireImages here
Brixton Academy 8 March 1984
ST. PAUL, MN - MAY 15
Other 1984 photos
Sacramento Oct 22 1982
Oct 13 1982 Shea
Oct 12 1982 Shea
San Francisco, Jun 22 1982
Hamburg, Germany May 12 1981
San Francisco, Mar 02 1980
Los Angeles, April 27 1980
Notre Dame Hall Jul 06 1979
New York Sep 20 1979
Southall Jul 14 1979
San Francisco, Feb 09 1979
San FranciscoFeb 08 1979
Berkeley, Feb 02 1979
Toronto, Feb 20 1979
RAR Apr 30 1978
Roxy Oct 25 1978
Rainbow May 9 1977
Us May 28 1983
Photoshelter here
Sep 11, 2013: THE CLASH (REUNION) - Paris France 2 IMAGES
Mar 16, 1984: THE CLASH - Out of Control UK Tour - Academy Brixton London 19 IMAGES
Jul 10, 1982: THE CLASH - Casbah Club UK Tour - Brixton Fair Deal London 16 IMAGES
1982: THE CLASH - Photosession in San Francisco CA USA 2 IMAGES
Jul 25, 1981: JOE STRUMMER - At an event at the Wimpy Bar Piccadilly Circus London 33 IMAGES
Jun 16, 1980: THE CLASH - Hammersmith Palais London 13 IMAGES
Feb 17, 1980: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 8 IMAGES
Jul 06, 1979: THE CLASH - Notre Dame Hall London 54 IMAGES
Jan 03, 1979: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 19 IMAGES
Dec 1978: THE CLASH - Lyceum Ballroom London 34 IMAGES
Jul 24, 1978: THE CLASH - Music Machine London 48 IMAGES
Aug 05, 1977: THE CLASH - Mont-de-Marsan Punk Rock Festival France 33 IMAGES
1977: THE CLASH - London 18 IMAGES
Any further info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome.
Submit an article here
We are looking for scans - articles - tickets - posters - flyers - handbills - memorabilia - photos - comments / any information - you might have.
Please like and post on our Facebook page or alternatively email blackmarketclash
You can also follow us on Twitter
We also have a Clash Twitter list of other notable Clash Twitter accounts here
Blackmarketclash Links
Extensive links page can be found here with links to web, twitter, Facebook, traders etc..
If Music Could Talk
The best Clash messageboard and which also has links to downloads on its megalists
www.Blackmarketclash.co.uk
Go here for uploads and downloads. It's not a massive space so its on an as and when basis.
Also go to 101 Guitars for downloads
Guitars 101
For the more ambitious, create a DIME account
Remastered audio
https://www.youtube.com/@bazarboy75
Contact your local library here and see if they can help.
If you are searching for articles in the USA - DPLA Find the local US library link here
WorldCat? - find your local library Link
British Newspaper Archive - United Kingdom Link
Newspaper ARCHIVE - USA+ Link
Historical Newspapers - USA & beyond Link
Elephind.com - international Link
New York Times - USA Link
Gallica - France - Not very helpful Link
Explore the British Library Link
Trove - Australia National Library Link
The Official Clash
Search @theclash & enter search in search box. Place, venue, etc
The Official Clash Group
Search @theclashofficialgroup & enter search in search box. Place, venue, etc
Joe Strummer
And there are two Joe Strummer sites, official and unnoffical here
Clash City Collectors - excellent
Facebook Page - for Clash Collectors to share unusual & interesting items like..Vinyl. Badges, Posters, etc anything by the Clash. Search Clash City Collectors & enter search in search box. Place, venue, etc
Clash on Parole - excellent
Facebook page - The only page that matters
Search Clash on Parole & enter search in the search box. Place, venue, etc
Clash City Snappers
Anything to do with The Clash. Photos inspired by lyrics, song titles, music, artwork, members, attitude, rhetoric,haunts,locations etc, of the greatest and coolest rock 'n' roll band ever.Tributes to Joe especially wanted. Pictures of graffitti, murals, music collections, memorabilia all welcome. No limit to postings. Don't wait to be invited, just join and upload.
Search Flickr / Clash City Snappers
Search Flickr / 'The Clash'
Search Flickr / 'The Clash' ticket
I saw The Clash at Bonds - excellent
Facebook page - The Clash played a series of 17 concerts at Bond's Casino in New York City in May and June of 1981 in support of their album Sandinista!. Due to their wide publicity, the concerts became an important moment in the history of the Clash. Search I Saw The Clash at Bonds & enter search in red box. Place, venue, etc
Loving the Clash
Facebook page - The only Clash page that is totally dedicated to the last gang in town. Search Loving The Clash & enter search in the search box. Place, venue, etc
Blackmarketclash.co.uk
Facebook page - Our very own Facebook page. Search Blackmarketclash.co.uk & enter search in red box. Place, venue, etc
Search all of Twitter
Search Enter as below - Twitter All of these words eg Bonds and in this exact phrase, enter 'The Clash'
www.theclash.com/
Images on the offical Clash site. http://www.theclash.com/gallery
www.theclash.com/ (all images via google).
Images on the offical Clash site. site:http://www.theclash.com/
