"Looking through your site yesterday i noticed a mention of a 'secret' gig somewhere, but no mention of the show at (I think) The Manticore Theatre in Fulham sometime in late 1978. It was the same night as a 'secret' show by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers at the Marquee ( I went to The Clash, the girlfriend went to Tom Petty). This show was inevitably broken up by the police after 30/40 mins but no real problem"

Friars, Aylesbury

Coventry Specials - did not spot them then as what became one of my favourite bands of the next decade.
 
Suicide - loved by the older, art school types at the back (I went out and bought the album) but hated by the skinheads and younger fans at the front. Half the front were lighting boxes of matches and throwing them onto the stage to set fire to the band, fortunately(?) the other half were pissing into the plastic glasses and throwing them at the band thereby putting out the fires. Joe Strummer had to come on to ask the crowd to let them play as he wanted to see them.
 
Clash - the improved PA was lost on the appalling sound quality of the hall, at the front it was all fuzz and at the back as tinny as hell. Nigel

Alternatively... Just looking at your Clash tourography, pretty sure they never played Deeside Leisure Centre in July ‘78, I can remember it being advertised but they never actually played.

.. after the gig we started towards Three Bridges Rail station, we'd heard we could get a train back to London from there. After ten minutes walk we encountered a group of punks walking back towards Crawley; a large group of skinheads had collected at Three Bridges station waiting for *us*. We walked back with them and hung around near the gig - after awhile the sounds of trouble and sure enough the skins had gotten tired of waiting and were now back in Crawley causing problems. My mate and I managed to get to the venue where the crew were loading out. We expalined what was happening and asked them for a lift back to London [with Johnney Green & Co]; we were dropped off on Streatham High Rd and walked home to Balham." Steve

Confirm story re skinheads (from Croydon). Me and my friends ran across railway sidings at 3 Bridges to escape. Specilas were then known as the Coventry Specials. This is the gig where the skin jumped on stage and lamped Alan Vega from Suicide. Colin

Bristol followed Crawley not Southampton. I have door stub.
Set list: Complete Control, T Gun, Cheapskates, Jail Guitar Doors, Drug Stabbing Times, Clash CR, Riot, Stay Free, Capital Radio, Police and Thieves segueing into Blitzkrieg Bop, English Civil War, Safe European, What's My Nmae, London Buring, Garageland encores Bored USA, Janine Jones, White Riot. Colin

check Swansea 16 May 1977 - punters comments

Steve Jones came on for an encore of 'Pretty Vacant'

I was just re-reading Johnny Green’s “Riot of our Own” and when I got to the bit about the Bury St Edmunds gig (July 14 1978) my mind wandered back almost 30 years, to when I was 16.

I had taken two extra things to Bury St Edmunds that day - a “White Man in Hammersmith Palais” single sleeve (to be autographed) and one of those piano-style tape recorders (for bootlegging purposes). Positioning myself at the front, right-hand side, I thought life would be easier if I just placed the tape recorder on the stage; that way I could forget about it and enjoy the band. Paul Simonon was over on that side & when he made his darting runs forward he kept kicking the tape-recorder. At first I thought it was accidental, but he kept on doing it. I could see he was getting annoyed, because he couldn’t manage to knock it off the stage. Whenever it went close to the edge I simply stopped bouncing around for a second and moved it back.

Half-way through the gig this typical Camden Town rockabilly type came over and grabbed the tape-recorder. I obviously looked crest-fallen.
“You can come and get it after the show,” he said, not at all unpleasantly. It was Johnny Green of course. But I was still a bit concerned that I would never see it again, and tape recorders (in those days) were expensive items.

After the encores I said to the people I had come with that I was going to try and get my belongings back. I think they wished me good luck. In those days I didn’t really drink, so my only courage was righteous indignation at the loss of my tape-recording equipment. I soon found the backstage area and also the Camden Town rockabilly. True to his word he gave me the tape recorder back, minus the tape. We chatted amiably about the possibility of recording the band live, the reprehensibility of amateur bootleggers and (his words, not mine) the fact that the Clash never really sounded as good as they should when these live recordings surfaced. And then he invited me in for a drink.

What a scene of utter debauchery ! Half pint cans of Heineken and bowls full of peanuts. Mick Jones sitting in a chair looking pleased with himself, Paul Simonon glowering away at nobody in particular (surely not me). I helped myself to a can of lager and some peanuts. Then Mr Rockabilly decided to introduce me to Mick Jones as the person who was trying to bootleg the show. Well, he couldn’t have been more good humoured about it.

“Who’s a naughty bootlegger then ?” he said. “Hold your hand out.”

I held my hand out. He tried to whack it, and I pulled it away just in time. Backstage with the Clash was just like being at school, but with free beer and peanuts. I was probably on my third can of Heineken, sitting on the floor, when somebody said,
“Hey, what are you doing here ?”

“Oh, it’s alright,” I said, “he said it was okay.”

By this time I considered the Camden Town rockabilly as my friend and passport to beer & nuts. He really was a good guy.
The Clash, now I know, had finished their tour. They were in no rush to do anything. They lingered around in the empty Corn Exchange chatting to the fans. They all signed the “White Man” sleeve, even Paul, bless him. And afterwards, if the Camden Town rockabilly’s account is true, the roadies got paid & had a whale of a time.

So, there does exist a tape of that Bury St Edmunds gig. It was confiscated by Johnny Green & was probably recorded over or thrown in a bin, or strewn around the streets of Bury St Edmunds by the road crew. Tim Joyce