Pearl Harbour Tour supported by Bo Diddley

updated 5 Sept 2008 - added photo

The Clash at the Rex Danforth

cdr - from 2nd gen - Sound 3 - 73min - 2gen - 19 tracks

video - Canadian TV; City Limits - Tommy Gun [with dubbed audio]

* the clip is followed by an after gig interview with Pennie Smith about torn out seating which is from O'Keefe gig in Sep 1979

Tommy Gun footage is mistakingly identified as the O'Keefe Centre however Tommy Gun was dropped from the Take the Fifth Tour Set List and furthermore the flags in background of the Tommy Gun video are from this earlier Pearl Harbour Tour. Probably pulled from Canadian TV archives as the City Limits programme went out a few years later it was subsequently misidentified with the Pennie Smith O'Keefe footage.

Last night of the Pearl Harbour

Last night of the Pearl Harbour tour; a highly successful tour both artistically and in terms of establishing a growing reputation and following in the USA.

Pearl Harbour produced some of the best Clash concerts ever, and this was another triumph.

... and onto the Take the 5th tour

On The Take the 5th tour in September/October The Clash would be playing large auditoriums, but this was a converted cinema with the toilet doubling as a dressing room! Strummer recalls, “ The PA sounded like it was filled with hamsters on coke! Even though it sounded rough we really enjoyed it and the crowd stormed the stage at the end. There were just 2 bouncers trying to hold the crowd back”

A very enjoyable recording.

A good audience recording exists of the concert; good width and clarity of sound, though not pro levels, making this one of the better tapes of the tour.

The great atmosphere of this charged gig is captured well. It’s a 2nd generation with a good deal of clarity and range. The vocals, percussion, guitars, including an excellent bass, all play off each other, though there is some slight echo/distance. Vocals are a touch distant but the guitars come through powerfully. A very enjoyable recording.

Joe is very talkative throughout, apologising for the poor sound early on and at the start of the encore says “We wanna kinda apologise, we arrived in Canada about 2 weeks ago feeling full of beans, now we’ve had it if you know what I’m trying to say”. But if The Clash were worn out at the end of the tour there is no sign of it here: its highly charged and intense throughout.

Joe wins the audience over after Bored with The USA, the storming set opener, “Turn on the house lights, listen who’s the promoter? Calling Mike Cole, listen you big guys, you’re never gonna stop them dancing, they just wanna stand there and dance”. He then tells the bouncers “you’ve gotta watch for anyone going down” How many Toronto audiences had heard a band say that to the security before?

The PA sound problems improve during Tommy Gun, which Joe introduces with “ This is Topper, Britain’s answer to Bruce Lee!” To requests for White Riot Joe jokes, “that’s an old song, so Bing Crosby still has fans even in Toronto! There’s a tape change before Stay Free, which loses some of Mick’s introduction.

Capital Radio is preceded by “This is what (Toronto Radio) Q107 sounds like, just a farting noise all day, so this song is now entitled thank you Radio Q107, we are your mindless robots”.

The encore cranks up the intensity even higher and White Riot breaks down halfway through after a stage invasion. Fans shout out the chorus, and then someone grabs the microphone and screams “God Save The Queen!” The taper or someone nearby says “unbelievable” as the crowd shout for me.

The house lights come on and the recording ends with the first bars of a song that would inspire The Clash to record one of the best cuts on London Calling; Vince Taylor’s Brand New Cadillac.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19	I’m so bored with the USA Guns on the Roof Jail Guitar Doors Drug Stabbing Time Tommy Gun City of the Dead Career Opportunities Clash City Rockers White Man English Civil War Stay Free Police and Thieves Capital Radio Janie Jones Garageland Julies been Working for /DS Complete Control Londons Burning White Riot bold indicates on video

White Man

Gig Reviews

A Riot of Our Own pg

A3 ad (from poster) placed on page 105 of Billboard 3 March 1979

Jan 31		Commodore Ballroom, Vancover, Canada
Feb 7		Berkely Community Centre California
Feb 8		Geary Temple (Fillmore), San Francisco CA
Feb 9		Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA
Feb 13		Agora, Cleveland OH
Feb 15		Ontario Theatre, Washington DC
Feb 16		Harvard Square Theater, Cambridge MA
Feb 17		Palladium, New York NY
Feb 20		The Rex Danforth Theatre, Toronto, Canada
		We were going to drive to Toronto from New York, but we were snowed in and except for the back-line vehicle, the rest of us flew direct to Cananda. Scratchy