the voices in your head are calling
stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
only a fool would think someone could save you
Bassist Paul Simonon demonstrates why he wasn't The Clash's frontman with a rather uninspired rendition of "The Guns of Brixton," not to mention his, uh, dental work; musical (and dental, sort of) equilibrium is restored when he and Joe Strummer swap instruments and launch into "Clampdown."
This was from an 80s TV show called Fridays, a comedy-sketch/musical guest sort of thing, with a cast including Larry David and Michael Richards, later of Seinfeld fame.
I saw The Clash in the summer of '82, on their North American "Combat Rock" tour, shortly before the band broke up.
An amazing show, probably the best I've ever seen. They tore the joint up for 90 minutes, and then returned for a 3-hour encore that was still blazing along past midnight, when I had to leave due to work in the morning.
Also the LOUDEST thing I've ever heard, though that might have been due to the brutal acoustics of the site, a hot cement box of a convention centre filled with 5,000 sweaty people. I didn't check, but I'm pretty sure that most of the paint was peeled off the walls that were still standing.
I still have the ticket stub. $11.50 for general admission (you could get as close to the stage as your elbows would carry you).
Now that's what I call value for money.
Comments (2)
Wow, the Clash. I would have really wanted to see them at one time, but there wasn't much chance of them visiting Winnipeg.
My best show was probably Iggy Pop during his metal phase, at a small show at the University of Manitoba. He's really something to see on stage, a great showman. He's got a reputation as a target for abuse, so some yahoo climging to the stage had to toss a full beer at him. He immediately kicked this guy in the head (hard too) and didn't miss a word he was singing.
This was in the days when shows didn't have lines of burly guys keeping the fans from the stage. It was a stage-diving spectacular.
That must of been over twenty years ago. I feel so old.
Posted by Bruce Gottfred | June 15, 2006 4:41 PM
Posted on June 15, 2006 16:41
As I recall, they did play a number of cities in Western Canada (I saw them in Edmonton), so they probably did stop in Winnipeg.
The crush at the front of the stage was unbelievable. Strummer twice threatened to stop the show if people didn't stop pushing. (He was especially worried that some of the crowd were being forced into a pile of leftover construction material stacked up at the side of the stage.)
Posted by gnotalex | June 15, 2006 7:53 PM
Posted on June 15, 2006 19:53