48 Thrills, No. 1, 1977, 2 pages.
48 Thrills
— Review of a Clash concert at The Lacy Lady in Ilford on November 11th, plus Subway Sect, Joe Strummer— is quoted yelling his disdain for the disco environment mid-set.
48 Thrills | 1977 Issue #1 | Cover, Original page, reconstructed page
Review of The Clash at Ilford
Special note to readers: I’ve got bored with typing on the typewriter (unreadable)
+ Subway Sect
The Lacy Lady, Ilford is one of those trendy soul discos where they are now starting to dress in the new trendy punk fashion. On Thursday the 11th of November they got their first taste of the real thing when The Clash played there, supported by Subway Sect.
It was one of those gigs with no end of problems with the PA and mikes etc. with Subway Sect suffering most.
So The Clash had to play quietly, but they were still great. The disco audience — there were a few faithful Clash followers — didn’t know how to react. Would it be cool to dance? Sit down? Beat each other up? The Clash themselves didn’t have the real full power of some of their other recent gigs, but their songs are just so great that it is always worthwhile.
And it’s not only the well known songs that do it, “White Riot”, “Janie Jones”, “London’s Burning”, etc. but the others like “Deny”, “Flies”, “What’s My Name”, and “Got A Crush On You”. Even the very fast song in the set, “Short Walk” is a classic with a good chunky guitar bit from Mick Jones.
Nothing can take away The Clash’s energy. Even at the sound check, with the faulty PA, when they brought “Protex Blue” without the vocals, it was great. (They are probably the only group on our scene that could get away with instrumentals!).
The set continued as Joe Strummer yells “I don’t dig this disco shit …”, well, the audience hadn’t really been that responsive.
Subway Sect: up real for The Clash who followed them. Subway Sect play very loosely, but I still always enjoy their gigs.
48 Thrills | 1977 Issue #1 | Cover, Original page, reconstructed page