And The Clash go to jail
TWO MEMBERS of The Clash, Joe Strummer and Nicky Headon, spent the weekend in police cells at Newcastle. They were picked up in London on Saturday morning and taken to Newcastle because they'd failed to appear in court there the previous day to answer petty theft charges. They were unable to do so because, at that same time, Strummer was facing another charge at Kentish Town Court in London. The confusion stemmed from May 21 when, after a gig in St Albans, the band were taken to the local nick where they were stripped and searched. Police found nothing incriminating so they looked in the band's coach and found pillow-cases and a room key from the Holiday Inn in Newcastle, where The Clash had gigged the previous night.

They were charged with stealing these and remanded on bail to appear in Newcastle on June 10. But in the meantime, Strummer had been charged in London with spraying the word "Clash" on a wall (as reported in Thrills last week), and was ordered to appear in court also on June 10.

Clash manager Bernard Rhodes phoned Newcastle Court to explain the situation, but was told there was no way the theft charges could be postponed. He said this week: "If we'd gone to Newcastle, we'd have been in trouble with Kentish Town. There was no way we could win."

After being fined £5 on the graffiti charge, Strummer and Headon were picked up on Saturday morning. Following a weekend in police cells, they were fined £60 and £40 respectively on the petty theft charges.

Hoteliers say no to Punk Rock

There is no room at the inn for punk rock groups at most of the North’s major hotels. Only a handful of managers are prepared to accept bookings from groups like The Clash.

After a meeting of hotel managers in Gateshead it was revealed that seven of the area’s ten major hotels have taken a no punk decision.

The manager of the Five Bridges Hotel, Gateshead, Mr Roger Newton, said: “We held an informal meeting here and it was clear that only a quarter of us were prepared to take groups on trust.”

“My hotel will still accept bookings from punk rock groups until they show themselves to be anti-social. If they do they will not be allowed to return under any circumstances.”

Mr Louis Slatcher, of the Avon and Northumbria Hotel, Newcastle, one of the managers backing the no punk ban, said: “They are bad for a hotel’s image.”

Punk rockers' £100 clash with the law

A clash with the law cost two leading punk rock musicians £100 after they admitted stealing from an exclusive North East hotel. Joe Strummer and Nick Headon, the drummer in the punk rock band, were involved.

Their brush with the law started when a hotel key disappeared from the Commonwealth Holiday Inn at Seaton Burn on May 21. The band were staying there after their concert at Newcastle University. Police investigation took detectives down to Hertfordshire where the group were interviewed.

Two group members were put on police bail but failed to appear at Morpeth on June 3 because they could not afford to miss part of their nationwide concert tour. But when Strummer was arrested for criminal damage in London, Headon gave himself up and they returned to Morpeth under police escort.

Morpeth magistrates fined Strummer (24), of Forest Hill, London, £60 for taking the pillows and towels, worth £26. Headon (22), who admitted theft of a hotel key and keyring, was fined £40.

Strummer told police the pillows were taken to make the group’s return comfortable. And four other offences involving hotel keys were to be considered.

Two members of rock group fined for theft

Two members of the punk rock group, The Clash, were fined by magistrates at Morpeth, Northumberland, yesterday, after spending the weekend in cells. Nicholas Headon, aged 22, drummer, and John Mellor, aged 24, singer, whose stage name is Joseph Strummer, were to have appeared before the magistrates on June 3 on theft charges, but they failed to answer bail. They were taken to Morpeth at the weekend from London and held in custody.

Yesterday Mr Mellor, of Forest Hill, London, admitted stealing pillows and towels, valued at £26 from a hotel and was fined £60. Mr Headon, of Finsbury Park, London, admitted stealing a door key and a key ring from the same hotel and was fined £40.

Punk rock stars fined

Two members of the punk rock group The Clash were fined a total of £100 after spending the weekend in cells. Drummer Nicholas Headon and singer John Mellor should have appeared before magistrates at Morpeth, Northumberland, on June 3 on theft charges, but they failed to answer bail.

They were taken to the north-east from London at the weekend and spent Saturday night and Sunday night in custody.

Mellor, whose stage name is Joseph Strummer, admitted stealing pillows and towels worth £26 from a hotel. The 24-year-old singer, of Forest Hill, London, was fined £60.

Headon, of Finsbury Park, admitted stealing a door key and a keyring from the same hotel. He was fined £40.

Inspector Dennis Harriman, prosecuting, said the group had been playing at Newcastle University last month and after they left their hotel at Seaton Burn, the items were found to be missing. Police discovered the stolen goods in the group’s coach.

Clash singer Joe Strummer and drummer Nicky Headon spent last weekend in police custody at Morpeth police station after failing to answer their bail to appear at Morpeth Magistrates Court on June 3.

The story goes back to May 21 when the group appeared at St Albans Civic Hall the day after a Newcastle concert. After the gig they were detained by police and taken to the police station where they were stripped and searched. Nothing was found and the police then searched the band’s coach where they found pillow cases, towels and keys from the Seaton Burn Holiday Inn near Newcastle. Strummer and Headon were charged with theft and released on £20 bail each.

The following week Strummer was again arrested after he was found spraying the band’s name on a wall near Dingwalls in London’s Camden Town.

Both court cases were fixed for June 3 and although Clash manager Bernard Rhodes tried to get the date of the Morpeth hearing changed he was unable to do so. Strummer appeared at Kentish Town Magistrates Court on June 3 and was fined £5. On June 10, after the Jubilee holidays, Strummer and Headon were arrested in London and taken to Morpeth police station where they spent the weekend.

Strummer, who was charged in his real name John Mellor, admitted stealing eight pillow cases and a towel worth £60 from the hotel and was fined £60. Headon admitted stealing a door key and key ring and was fined £40.

The court was told that hotel security staff noticed the property was missing and the police stopped the group’s coach on their return to London.

A spokesperson for CBS, the Clash’s record label, said the group had been on an extensive national tour and had difficulty meeting the bail. “They were on the road solidly with only one night off,” said the spokesperson, who added that the charges were “pretty ludicrous.”

The cost of the arrest and prosecution of Strummer and Headon was estimated by an independent observer at more than £300.

The Jam

The Jam were prevented from appearing at Chelsea football ground on Sunday after the Greater London Council (GLC) insisted on a series of additional safety requirements.

The Jam and The Boys had been due to appear at the ground as part of an outdoor event organised by the Fulham Jubilee Committee. However, last Friday the committee dropped The Jam from the gig after the GLC had refused to grant a music licence unless a number of safety measures were taken. These included a six-foot-high wire fence around the pitch, additional exits and additional security.

Quite why the GLC insisted on these measures for an event which drew around 4,000 people and do not insist on them for football matches at the ground (which has a notorious history of crowd violence) with regular attendances of 30,000-plus is not clear.

However, Polydor Records, who have signed The Jam, claimed this week that the GLC was keeping a dossier on The Jam and all new wave acts. And in the light of last weekend’s events and the fruitless efforts of the Sex Pistols to hold a London concert, it appears that the GLC is actively trying to prevent new wave bands from playing in London.

In place of The Jam a band called Scruff, who will shortly be signing a recording deal with Track, were booked to play and the band spent considerable effort and money arranging for equipment. However, at 6 pm on Sunday the band’s manager was informed that Scruff could not appear “unless they play a country and western set,” according to the group’s manager.

When the audience learned that The Jam would not be appearing and that no other group would be appearing either, a large number of people then demanded their money back. About one hundred were given a refund before the turnstiles were closed and police had to be brought in to disperse an angry but peaceful crowd.

In a statement issued on Monday, Paul Weller of The Jam apologised to all the fans who had turned up at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

June 18, 1977, Sounds, page 3

77 Clash 77

This was not the easiest of gigs for people to get into. Understatement! If you hustled, paid over the odds for tickets, sold your body, etc. I'm sure you'll agree it was worth all the effort.

You could've danced to the fine rhythm & sound of The Lous, four very competent young girls from France, if you weren't too lazy to come out of the bar. You could've joined over half of the crowd in their bemused interest in Richard Hell, or joined the other half in hailing one of the greatest talents to come out of the Max's/C.B.G.B's scene in a long time. This guy had the nerve to do I wanna be your dog before we'd got Iggy doing it at the City Hall, and an admirable performance he made of it, too!

I would have paid to see Richard and his band without a support act, but with The Clash to follow, I wasn't complaining. When they took the stage, the drama and tension was there as usual. This band project the image they've created so well, that the adrenalin seems to rush before they've played a note. They're spaced across the stage like an army, ready to do battle (and that's pretty close to the truth).

London's Burning, power chords every which way, Paul Simonon standing dead still on the right of the stage. At the opposite side Mick and Joe are facing each other, trying to wipe out anything in range of them. Complete Control — you got it, do what you want. There'll be a few casualties tonight, but nobody cares. The old ones are there for the people who need 'em, but gimme the new stuff, something I ain't heard a million times on record.

White Man at Hammersmith Palais, this is a classic already. Clash City Rockers, the next best single, The Prisoner. Jail Guitar Door, a re-working of the old 101'ers song that used to be dedicated to George Davis. Yeah, I like the old stuff but the new songs are even better! (Kevin) This is the punk rockers!

2017-05-19

David Morton

When punk icons The Clash rocked out in Newcastle

When punk icons The Clash rocked out in Newcastle - 40 years ago

When The Clash played at Newcastle University's students' union bar on May 20, 1977 - it was the city's first major punk gig

The Clash in concert at the Students Union, Newcastle University, May 20, 1977

The Clash in concert at the Students Union, Newcastle University, May 20, 1977 (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

If punk rock burned brightly but briefly, one name that is still revered four decades on is The Clash.

Their lyrics were topical and politicised.

And their range of musical styles - ska, rockabilly and dub, as well as punk - would separate them from their contemporaries.

Our classic photograph captures the band in action in Newcastle exactly 40 years ago.

But before that, one gig that might have happened at Newcastle City Hall, but sadly never did, had been due to take place on December 5, 1976.

The Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Clash were all due in Toon on the Anarchy in the UK tour, but most of the shows - including Newcastle - were cancelled due to the furore that followed the Pistols’ infamous TV clash with Bill Grundy.

Five months later, on their White Riot tour, The Clash — Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon — rolled up for a show at Newcastle University’s students’ union bar.

READ MORE: Newcastle City Hall in 1972 - which pop superstar were these teenagers hoping to see?

The gig, which took place exactly 40 years ago on May 20, 1977, was somewhat chaotic, but the band powered through a short set that included London’s Burning, Police and Thieves, and White Riot - their first single.

Punk was a new, raw phenomenon, as was the audience spitting frenzy which left Strummer and co drenched.

Here's what was happening in the North East in 1977

Meanwhile, the ticket-only crowd was made up mainly of students, while punks outside fought running battles with doormen as they tried to get in.

And after the show it was even reported two members of the band were fined - for nicking hotel towels and pillows!

1977 was the start of a momentous journey for The Clash who would finally split in 1986. Joe Strummer passed away in 2002.

Malvico
February 4, 2024

I was 17 and I was at that gig and another four other Clash gigs, but that first gig for the 1,500 people who were actually there (about 10,000 claim to have been there) was one night they will remember forever, unless they had been sniffing glue or downed too much Woodpecker. The bands were great, electrifying, raw, unpolished and very exciting. We went without tickets, not being students, but a few beers with the band and Joe vanishes and comes back with Bernie and he has a bunch of free tickets as he said for the real fans and a couple of backstage passes that gave entry to any gig on that tour.

I can’t remember the exact set but basically it was the first album and the singles’ B-sides — White Riot, 1977, Complete Control, etc. etc. The Slits supported and urged the crowd to wreck the joint, as Ari-Up put it, in an outburst against the venue only letting in students attending the poly. I'd guess students made up 75% of the audience and the other 25% looked like they were all in the band. It was a night of memories and you got the feeling you were witnessing something special, never to be repeated.

The Clash were the centre of it all and Joe took command right from the moment he took to the stage. Paul, the coolest man on the planet at this time in life, stood gazing into the crowd with eyes wide open. Mick orchestrated everything and Topper was like a metronome as he became part of the drum machine that kept it all together. Reggae went hand in hand with punk rock in these early days and The Clash delivered one of the best renditions of Police and Thieves ever heard outside of Trench Town.

The Clash White Riot Tour Newcastle University May 20th 1977

This was the night that punk truly arrived in Newcastle, and the first time I saw The Clash. It was the first really big punk gig in Newcastle, and it sold out well in advance. Most of the tickets had been sold to students through the students’ union; in fact if I remember correctly you had to be a student to buy tickets, which was the source of some agro and trouble on the night of the gig. Luckily I was a student at Sunderland Poly at the time and I used my union card to buy a couple of tickets for Marie and I. When we arrived at the Union building on the night of the gig, the entrance was surrounded by a group of local punks who were trying to get in. There were a few scuffles between the doormen and the punks, who were angry because they couldn’t get in to see their band who (in their eyes) were playing for a group of middle-class students.

In 1977, Newcastle University ballroom was in a smallish room up a flight of stairs, with the main bar being down on a lower level. The union building was a maze with several bars, a pool room, and several lounges. You could wander around the building and dip in and out of the gig in the main ballroom. There was a great sense of anticipation that night. The North East had missed out on the Sex Pistols Anarchy tour which had been booked to visit Newcastle City Hall, and had been cancelled because of the controversy around the band. So this was the first chance for local punks to see a big punk band. The place was packed, however the audience was largely students with a smattering of local punks who had somehow managed to buy tickets, and were crammed around the stage upstairs. I sensed that these guys didn’t really know much about punk, but had decided that it was right for them. They were probably much more into the image, the concept of anarchy and rebellion, than Clash music. The first Clash album had been released a few weeks before the gig, and the audience were there as much out of curiosity and because of reports that they had read in the NME and Sounds than as a result of the music. Similarly for me, I’d read reports that The Clash was THE new punk rock band to out-punk (and out-rock) The Pistols, so I had to see what these guys were like.

Support came from The Prefects (replacing The Jam, who had just left the tour), Subway Sect, and The Slits. Marie and I made a point of making sure we made our way from the bar up to the ballroom to see each of the bands. The sound wasn’t great for any of the support acts, who all seemed a bit amateur and ramshackle to be honest; but I guess that’s what punk was about in those early heady days. There was lots, and I mean lots, of spitting at the band. This was one of the first times I’d seen the crowd spit at the stage; it’s difficult to imagine how prevalent the practice was in those days.

The Clash were just streets ahead of the support acts. For their set there was lots of pogoing and the spitting was relentless. Poor Joe Strummer was covered in spit. They looked great; just like their pictures on the cover of the first album. I’d heard some of the tracks from the first LP, and knew the single White Riot, and loved Janie Jones and Police and Thieves, which were played a lot at punk gigs at venues like Middlesbrough Rock Garden in 1977 and 1978. The set was short, as were each of the songs, and consisted of tracks from their great first album. The sound was a bit murky, but the atmosphere, the band’s passion, and the power of delivery made up for it.

We’d seen a few punk bands during 1976, including The Sex Pistols at a small gig in a pub in Whitby, but this was the first sold-out and wild punk gig that we had attended, and it was just great. It set me off going to lots of punk gigs over the next few years. Don Letts, who managed The Slits at the time, was wandering around with a massive video camera, filming the event. The music between the bands was very heavy, loud dub and reggae, which was quite new to all of us. There were further scuffles around the entrance area throughout the night, with punks fighting with the guys on the door to get in, and there were a few fights inside the gig. As I had very long hair at the time, I could easily have been a target. I was always careful to avoid trouble, and always managed to do so.

I can’t find any record of the setlist, but based on reports from other gigs on the tour it is likely that it was something like this: London’s Burning; 1977; I’m So Bored With the U.S.A.; Pressure Drop; Hate and War; Cheat; Police and Thieves; 48 Hours; Capital Radio; Deny; Remote Control; Career Opportunities; White Riot; Janie Jones; Garageland; 1977. The day after the gig Joe Strummer and Topper Headon were arrested, in true punk fashion, for stealing pillowcases from a hotel room in Newcastle (!), and spent some time in the cells.

Great memories of an era that now seems so long ago. Where did all the time go?

Had a ticket but couldn't get in initially as i wasn't a student

Posted by tappijoe on September 28, 2012 at 12:45 pm

this brings back memories. i had a ticket but couldn't get in initially as i wasn't a student but Strummer and co. came to the door and we were all let in although we couldn't buy a drink at the bar as you had to show your card so it was a case of grabbing the nearest student. i remember not many people watching the other bands infact i can only remember the Slits (prob in the bar for the others). next time the Clash played i think it was at the Mayfair and the was a cracking night.

The hippy students had lobbed cans at The Damned

Posted by Stuart Forster on September 30, 2012 at 7:42 pm

yes you are bang on there about the students buying the tickets. 2 months earlier there was about a dozen punks at the poly for the stranglers. I'd just turned 16 and still had long hair. the hippy students lobbed cans at the damned and they left the stage. 2 months later, every student was wearing wrapround shades and covered in safety pins.

I remember the fighting at the door

Posted by Merv Simkins on October 7, 2013 at 3:46 pm

Good article. I was at this gig, aged 19 with long hair. It was a revelation, these (the bands, all of them) were people who seemed to be living the whole thing intensely, not just turning up and playing tired licks before retiring to some bar to get pissed and recite Monty Python sketches.

It was like they were from another world. I remember the fighting at the door (actually not so much fighting, iirc, as a couple of concerted failed attempts to bust in) but none inside, and don't recall much spitting. I spoke to Mick Jones as he sat on the edge of the stage (you couldn't have done that with Yes or Camel).

Don't remember the Prefects but all the other bands did make a vivid impression - a raw, inner-city edge and intensity that seemed to be part of them, not just some stage act - I'd never seen that in any rock band.

It was if they'd gone beyond caring about the tedious day-today crap the rest of us clung on to, most of all they didn't seem to give a shit if what they did ‘worked' as music or art, they just did it, and because of that it was brilliant.

It wasn't like a gig - though many other punk/new wave events I saw were - it was like being at an event with stuff going on all around you.

I had friends at the tiem who formed bands, moved to London and/or went for the whole new-wave thing big time pretty much as a result of having been at this one gig.

Everyone had been talking about this for weeks & we weren't disappointed

Posted by Ian on January 11, 2015 at 12:09 pm

I remember this gig very well! I was 17 & my band,The M.P's,had all got tickets through our student following.This was the one everyone had been talking about for weeks & we weren't disappointed.

The sound was raw & sharp, cutting through you with it's harshness.The support bands were a great foil for The Clash.The Slits & Subway Sect weren't your run of the mill,by the numbers ‘punk' bands.They both brought a different sound to the night. (I also can't remember seeing The Prefects…)

There was a bit of fighting in the hall itself,mainly the odd punk being picked on when he left the safety of his group of mates. The worst part of the night was the attack by a group of skinheads.

A group of us were making our way to the bar after The Subway Sect set,via the main entrance hall.All of a sudden the doors crashed open & a group of 20 or so skinheads burst in.They were all dressed in white boiler suits a la Clockwork Orange & started beating on whoever was in their way.It seemed to last for ages but probably only minutes.One of them wearing black gloves,pumped a fist in the air,blew a whistle & they all ran out the door & into a waiting van.Talk about a well planned operation.Afterwards we found cards on the floor that said "Congratulations.You've just been visited by Longbenton Skins".

Sadly,because of this incident,this gig has stayed reasonably fresh in my mind.

Got tickets via a Saturday job at HMV, as we weren't old enough to be students

When The Clash performed at Newcastle University's students' union bar in May 1977, there was trouble during and after the show

It's four and a half decades since punk rock arrived kicking and screaming.

The new genre's aggressive brand of back-to-basics rock, snarling attitudes, and radical fashions shook up a complacent music scene and outraged Britain's popular press and its readers at the same time. One of punk's prime exponents were The Clash, a band whose range of musical styles - ska, rockabilly and dub, as well as punk - and topically politicised lyrics would separate them from their contemporaries.

In December 1976, they were on the line-up for a Newcastle show that would have been particularly memorable but in the event ended up being scrubbed. Along with fellow punk icons The Sex Pistols and The Damned, The Clash were due to perform at the City Hall on the Anarchy In The UK tour, but most of the shows - including Newcastle - were cancelled due to the controversy that followed the Pistols' infamous TV clash with Bill Grundy.

Undeterred, five months later, The Clash - Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simenon and Topper Headon - rolled into town for a show at Newcastle University's students' union bar on their White Riot tour. The gig, which took place 45 years ago on May 20, 1977, was somewhat chaotic, but the band managed to power through an explosive set that included London's Burning, Police and Thieves, and their first single White Riot.

Strummer and his bandmates were left drenched thanks to a trademark punk audience spitting frenzy, while punks outside fought running battles with doormen as they tried to get into the ticket-only student event.

Joe Strummer and Topper Headon of The Clash on Tyneside in 1977 (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

And there was more trouble after the show. The Clash, along with support band The Slits, were staying at the 131-bedroom Holiday Inn in Seaton Burn - a favourite resting place for touring acts stopping off in Newcastle. Our sister title The Journal reported how hotel guests complained of "noise and foul language".