McNeill, Phil and Phillips, Kate (eds.). "Clash Visit Belfast For Picture Session." New Musical Express, no. 29 Oct. 1977, pp. 9-10. Photographs uncredited.
Clash visit Belfast for picture session
— Chaos erupts as The Clash's Belfast show at Ulster Hall collapses last-minute due to withdrawn insurance, sparking punk riots and five arrests.
— Fans march to the band's Europa Hotel base (dubbed "world's most-bombed"), met by police cordons while Joe Strummer blames insurers for cancellation.
— Failed attempts to relocate gig to Queen's University see hysterical crowds chanting as authorities block performance despite band offering damage guarantees.
— Drummer Nicky Headon fumes: "All these bands refuse to play Belfast... then when one comes, the place is closed down."
— Incident casts doubt on upcoming Belfast shows by The Runaways and The Stranglers, though latter's promoters remain "99% confident."
— (better PDF) David Bowie comments on Punk, Clash dates changed, Pistols with copyright problems and Punk overview by Tony Parsons
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NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS
October 29th, 1977
CLASH
CONSUMERS' GUIDE TO THE'70s— PUNK
October 29, 1977 U.S. $1.10c/Canada 60c 18p
New Musical Express | October 29th, 1977 | Page 9 & Page 10
Clash visit Belfast for picture session
Edited by Phil McNeill and Kate Phillips
Five arrests, three broken windows and a couple of hundred angry fans are all that's left to show The Clash ever visited Belfast.
The group were due to play Belfast's Ulster Hall, the only main rock venue left standing in the bomb-battered city centre, on Thursday (20th). As it turned out, they never got to perform.
Poly Ents, the music side of Northern Ireland's Polytechnic at Jordanstown, were staging the show as part of a two-concert winter programme that will hopefully also see The Runaways in the same venue this Thursday (27th). The Stranglers, under a different promoter, are due on November 8th.
The Clash's fans, resplendent in torn leathers and twisted polythene, began to gather outside the Ulster Hall at tea-time. It was the first punk rally Belfast had ever seen.
A few minutes later the first rumours spread that the gig had been cancelled. The ragged and by this time angry crowd, a couple of hundred strong, promptly marched to where the group was rumoured to be in residence — the Belfast Europa, the world's most-bombed hotel.
A surprised security guard, seeing the punk hoard advance out of the shadows, immediately called the police. Meanwhile the fans grouped, howling around the eight-foot high perimeter wire fence. Inside cocktail-sipping guests sprang to the windows in alarm. It was a bit like a scene from Omega Man.
The Clash (R —L): Paul Simonon, Nicky Headon, Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, and shy new member Terror Torial, nicknamed Terry.
The Clash arrived out front at the same time as the police, who screamed onto the street with lights flashing and sirens blaring.
Pandemonium followed. The Clash tried to talk down the angry crowd as the police advanced warily, not quite knowing how to treat a crowd of punks on the warpath. They finally settled for a cordon outside the hotel’s security gate, and a bit of gentle shooing.
Strummer told the fans that the concert was cancelled because the insurance cover was withdrawn at the last minute, but that an alternative was now being arranged a few miles up the road, at Queens University. The crowd dispersed immediately in the direction of the campus, followed by an apprehensive convoy of police Land Rovers.
In the Europa bar a despondent Nicky Headon, with two local fans in tow (“We just hung onto his shirt and they had to let us in”), said: “I’m really pissed off. All these bands refuse to play in Belfast and then when one comes across the place is closed down. We want to play — it’s not our fault. I dunno what’s going on.”
Meanwhile outside the Ulster Hall, five punks had been arrested for lying down in the road, whilst the hall itself had had three windows broken.
At Queens University, Social Secretary Eamonn McCann made a valiant attempt to stage the show, but he was overruled by University authorities — and the crowd, by now almost hysterical, stood outside chanting in the darkness, watched carefully by police.
Ulster Hall Poly Ents organiser Austen Smith told Thrills: “We did have insurance, but our brokers told us this morning that the companies were withdrawing. They say that The Clash have a lot of claims in England outstanding against them. We had no alternative but to close the concert.”
“That’s not true about the claims,” says Nicky. “I don’t know where they heard that.” Later CBS said that as the insurance had fallen through the university insisted The Clash should underwrite any damages to people or property. They refused.
And a spokesman for Queens Students’ Union says: “We did try to put The Clash show on, but we were overruled from above. The band offered to pay for any damage caused, as did the Poly organisers, but the authorities just didn’t want to know.”
A question mark now hangs over The Runaways concert, but the promoters of The Stranglers double bill on November 8th and 9th, “Live And Kicking”, say that they are ninety-nine per cent certain that the show will go ahead.
Colin McClelland
NME Thrills
Lowry: “As the latest defence cuts coincided with the rise of the punk bands we figured this would be a viable alternative to a new range of tanks.”
October 29th, 1977
