White Riot Tour with the Buzzcocks, Slits and Subway Sect.

updated 30 Dec 2008 - added 3 BW photos

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All sources: (BBC Broadcast)
Cardiff 77 LP
Cardiff 77 CD (the best - reissue of LP master)
Daddy is a Punkrocker LP (reissue from CD)
Super Golden Radio Shows CD (poorer source)
White Riot 7 (reissue from CD)
new ones released weekly!

Visit the Clash on Stage website for a comprehensive catalogue of unofficially released CD's and Vinyl.

Released multiple times on various boots, this is the LP version of the gig. Missing from all boots are the the usual first two tracks the Clash had been playing, Londons Burning and 1977, 1977 figuring at the end of the set again though.

It is not from Cardiff, as Leicester gets a namecheck not once but thrice and from the songs played it is from the White Riot tour. Joe name checks the De Montfort Hall during Police and Thieves, a larger venue than Leicester Polytechnic. The NME lists the Leicester gig as the 28th May.

BBC Archives?

Does the full gig exist within the BBC. Worth adding is the whereabouts of the John Peel sessions which were never broadcast?

Alternate theory!

The 'Cardiff 77 LP' first appeared in 1977 however ...
 
"In 198I, I was living in West Hampstead with my mate, who worked for "Fifth Column" t-shirt shop in Portobello road. They produced all the official clash t-shirts of that time, having agreed some kind of franchise deal with the band. Johnny Green also worked at the shop at that time, having stopped touring with the clash the previous year.My mate became good pals with JG, who sometimes popped over on a sunday afternoon for chat. He invited us over to his flat in Hampstead for his birthday party that year.
 
Anyway, one evening my mate came back from work:"oh, look what Johnny gave me today! A cassette of the clash playing in Cardiff on the white riot tour!" That tape was identical, both in terms of sound quality and set list, to the Leicester boot I recently downloaded from satch's.
 
Johnny had recently helped Mick Jones to move flat, and "borrowed(!!!)"a tape at random from Mick's private collection! It was soon sold by my mate to a guy in Camden who was in the vinyl pressing business, for a very handsome price. However, the earliest this would have gone into public circulation would be spring 81........
 
I wonder if the first Cardiff 77 LPs (I've never seen or heard these) were home cassette recordings made from the radio broadcast, and the later stuff came from our mixing desk tape, via JG, via MJ? I've no way of checking the different sound quality of them against each other.
 
I always fancied that the Cardiff misunderstanding came about because JG told my mate that that's what it was, and my mate sold it on as such (it was never labelled),and the next guy never bothered to listen to it in minute detail before he rushed it out, after all, Leicester is mentioned 2/3 times during the gig!
 
P:S: would you know the date of this BBC broadcast, and if it was regional or national?Maybe I could find out from the Beeb?
 
Keep up the good work, this site is much appreciated. Badger"

Cardiff 77 CD

the best sounding recording of the early Clash

Cardiff 77 CD is probably the best sounding recording of the early Clash and is the best sounding boot as well. It was broadcast by BBC Radio though BBC Radio 1 did not have an FM stereo frequency back them [though they had AM mono broadcasts though until the mid eighties] This is probably then from the master source given its quality. It’s a hifi professional quality recording but with limited stereo separation.

The sound is very clear with excellent range and clarity and no distortion. Any rough edges are more likely to be poor Clash equipment than BBC equipment. The vocals are up a bit in the mix.

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This recording provides the best live versions of the rarer 1st album songs, particularly Cheat, 48 Hours, Protex Blue, Deny and Remote Control.

Joe intros 48 Hours with “Its Saturday night you’ve just got paid, Monday’s coming don’t be afraid” and Deny “Lets kiss to the latest Clash love song”. Police & Thieves is a highlight with Joe stating he’s not Diana Ross.

Great site, I am amazed at how much information you have compared to any other site I've seen for any band.
 
I thought the some recollections and ticket stubs copies might be of interest to you:

 A legendary concert in all ways - I had just started work in April and spent my first weeks wages on the Clash Album, I am surprised to see that they played the Poly - I have no recollection of missing it, as far as my memory stands, as soon as the tour was announced I checked the dates and got the tickets. (But I also remember it as costing less than £1.50 so my memory is obviously less than perfect.)
 
It was my first punk concert and my first impression was that at eighteen and 6' 3", I was 4 years older and two foot taller than the rest of the hall.
 
Subway Sect - I have little recollection other than competent but not inspiring.
 
Slits - technically the worst band I have ever seen (and I've seen thousands) - rarely managed to get all 4 to start the same song at the same time, usually ended with drums or bass continuing after the rest finished and they seemed unable to learn that running around each other in circles meant that the leads got tangled up, cutting out guitars & ripping microphones from hand at inappropriate moments. 
However there were unique with a certain magic about them and I was certainly not put off enough to stop me buying Cut or seeing them live a few years later.
 
Buzzcocks - superb - I remember them as a lot more aggressive and harder than the poppy band I saw in later years. Spent the next couple of months touring the local record shops of Leicester trying to find someone who could get me a copy of Spiral Scratch. 
 
Clash - amazing - everything I hoped and expected (You've heard the recording and so can image). De Montfort Hall was one of the best venues in Britain with amazing acoustics, easy to enter or leave and had a decent bar the whole length of one side.

Nigel

PS I was also at Watchfield Aug 1975 and saw the 101ers - I saw three or four days of bands and they were one of only a couple of bands who stood out (and the only one of those who I had not heard of). Good enough for me to have caught most of two sets.  However I was convinced that they were called the Fabulous 101ers - I checked out a Watchfield site and although not listed someone has commented "on the first Friday night a riproaring set from the fabulas 101ers" suggests I was not the only one who might have thought this.    (http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/watchfieldfestival-menu.html)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12	I’m So Bored With the USA Hate and War 48 Hours Deny Police and Thieves Cheat Capital Radio What’s My Name Protex Blue Remote Control Garageland 1977

Police & Thieves

Chris Knowles
The Essential Clash Bootleg Bible
includes this gig

any info / reviews appreciated

May 1		Civic Hall, Guilford
May 2		Rascals, Chester
May 3		Barbarella, Birmingham
May 4		Affair, Swindon
May 5		Erics, Liverpool
May 6		University, Aberdeen
May 7		Playhouse, Edinburgh
May 8		Electric Circus, Manchester
May 9		Rainbow, London
		infamous riot gig - often mis-cited as the 7th. See 7th gig at Edinburgh with Edinburgh Ticket
May 10		Town Hall, Kidderminster
		Following an injury to his hand, Mick Jones of the Clash is forced to cancel the gig booked for Kidderminster Town Hall.
May 12		Palais, Nottingham
May 13		Polytechnic, Leicester
May 14		Brakke Grond Amsterdam
May 15		Fiesta, Plymouth
May 16		University, Swansea
May 17		Polytechnic, Leeds
May 19		Rock Garden, Middlesborough
May 20		University, Newcastle
May 21		City Hall, St. Albans
May 22		Skindles, Maidenhead cancelled
May 22		Wolverhampton Civic Hall
		The Clash played a replacement gig at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall on May 22 1977. This gig was played literally days after The Jam departed the tour. Rumour had it there was a dispute about the use of lighting on the tour. Buzzcocks, Slits and Subway Sect supported. The ticket stub did not have the bands name printed on, but had a "complimentary" stamp across it and the price written on. It was however an official Civic Hall ticket.
May 23		Top Of The World, Stafford
May 24		Top Rank, Cardiff, Wales
		White Riot 1977 was Clash at their superlative best – from Cardiff’s Top Rank balcony the front of stage appeared a pogoing and spitting frenzy. Against the Notting Hill Riot backdrop, Joe’s eye’s burning and neck pulsing, his lyrics spat out with such white heat intensity - I wondered if he could survive another year! Dave Smitham
May 25		University of Sussex, Brighton
		Video exists
May 26		Colston, Bristol
May 27		Pavilion, West Runton
May 28		Odeon, Canterbury
		probably didn't happen...
May 28		De Montfort Hall, Leicester
		date listed in NME...
May 29		Chancellor Hall, Chelmsford
May 30		California Ballroom, Dunstable