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Last updated 7 July 2008 - poster added
Updated 22 January 2022 - added hi res poster
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Audio – very very poor
Sound 2.5 – 26min – from unknown source – 8 tracks
Complete Control
The taper for some reason only recorded the first half of the gig.
To prove that some of the best recordings are still only now coming into circulation to match the silver jubilee of 1977, here is a phenomenal performance, and an excellent audience recorded sound. It has sadly only half the concert but the 26 minutes here represent not only the best bootleg of this tour but one of the most exciting, energised and exhilarating Clash recordings ever.
Joe Elliot from Def Leppard
An unlikely witness to the gig was Joe Elliot from Def Leppard who wrote this in a recent condolence message;
"I remember seeing The Clash at Sheffield Top Rank in 1977 & thinking ... Wow!!! ...compared to what was usually on at the Top Rank they couldn’t really play (in the sense of what was the norm back then) but the excitement that came off the stage was phenomenal!!! ...
Martin: "I can remember seeing the Clash in 77,hundreds queuing,the most unbelievable sights you've ever seen in your life.punk girls wearing bin liners and not much more.
Live the Clash were fantastic,they were out of tune,Strummer couldn't sing but it all came together in those tremendous songs.Watching them steam into my favourite Clash song 'Safe European Home' was an experience ill never forget. I saw them 3 times at the Top Rank and once at The Lyceum." Martin
Sheffield Music Archive - Sheffield Top Rank
The Top Rank’s were chosen by the agency for this tour. This time Sheffield.
The recording begins in classic fashion; Mick’s quiet friendly greeting “Alright, how you doing” followed by an angry loud Joe “Alright cut down on the fuckin’ gobbing, listen when I want to gob, I gob on the floor, right!” No audience bullshit here!”
Joe then screams a blood curdling “London’s Burning” and The Clash explode into a magnificent searing performance. With hardly a gap Mick’s plays the intro to Complete Control before Joe spits out the lyrics. The “I don’t trust you etc” lyrics not sung even though the song was released back in September. Mick’s guitar playing is terrific and inventive driving the song throughout.
1977, which like all the 8 songs, is fast, raw punk rock at its best. The energy is amazing throughout. “This is a new one, gonna start by Topper” is Joe’s intro to Jail Guitar Doors, which suffers the worse distortion but like all the other performances is hugely enjoyable.
Clash City Rockers is next “This is our next single for what it’s worth” with Joe screaming out “Rock, Rock, Clash City Rockers repeatedly over the ending”
Next it’s the highlight amongst highlights; “This is a song collected for collectors entitled Capital Radio” The song demonstrates how The Clash by this tour were beginning to extend out songs, using reggae style dropouts to drop the ferocious pace down to drum and bass and then explode again into the climactic ending. As the song drops midway Joe begins a great improv “One night I was alone, I’m feeling bad, feeling sad, all over town, no music going down…got no drugs got no booze, so I turned on the radio you know, I got nothing at all, there was nothing on the radio”. Joe repeats the line over and over getting more and more manic and intense as the guitars roar back and bring it to a breathless end.
Protex Blue, not the greatest Clash song but it sounds excellent here, fast and driven, great raw rock’n’roll. It was though we discover here the first song performed live by The Clash as Mick introduces it “This is the first one we did last time..we were here at the Black Swan”.
The bootleg ends in magnificent style with a stunning Police & Thieves. Joe’s introduction is classic; “Alright, if you don’t mind here’s your joke reggae half hour, OK Mon!” The performance just builds and builds, with the interplay between Mick and Joe’s guitar perfectly captured. Joe adds a line “You buy your ticket, you always pay”.
Then for the first time they drop down the pace and Mick solo’s brilliantly before Joe comes in with screams and cries, veins bulging as he works himself up into a contorted frenzy as the music builds and builds. Suddenly the pace drops back to bass and drums and Joe improvises lyrics as the music builds again “started out on a dirty old road…what am I doing here..look at old Mick Jones and Paul Simonon”
Huge thanks to whoever brought this recording into circulation. It’s a magnificent document and ample evidence if any further were needed that The Clash were the most exciting rock’n’roll experience to hit any stage ever.
Photos courtesy of Ranking Fred at Clash on Parole Facebook page
Did you go? What do you remember?
Any info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome.
Please email blackmarketclash or post below on bmc facebook post.
'77 was with Richard Hell & the Voidoids and the Lous, and was manic, pure 'punk', backstage after the gig Mick was all over the place taking photos, Joe was very ill, white, exhausted, but still gave time to us kids for photos. Mick Jones took my address to send me some prints but apparently they never came out ( no flash or some other such problem).
They really were the friendliest band I met at the time and invited everybody back to their hotel after. I couldn't go (my mum was waiting in the car to take me home - no, really! I didn't tell them that though). I was 15 at the time. Changed my life (that old cliché). The concert was on a par with The Ramones two months later for excitement, energy. (redian2)
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London’s Burning |
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There are several sights that provide setlists but most mirror www.blackmarketclash.co.uk. They are worth checking.
from Setlist FM (cannot be relied on)
from Songkick (cannot be relied on)
... both have lists of people who say they went
& from the newer Concert Database
Also useful: Ultimate Music datbase, All Music, Clash books at DISCOGS
A collection of articles, interviews, reviews, posters, tour dates from the Get Out of Control Tour. Articles cover the month of October through to New Year 1977.
If you know of any articles or references for this particular gig, anything that is missing, please do let us know.
Manchester - Nov 15
Elizabethan Ballroom, Belle Vue
Often circulated as Elizabthan Suite, it is in fact a full gig which was filmed by and for Granada TV and included Souisie and the Banshees as support.Snippets were screened twice on the So It Goes TV show (Dec 77 and Nov 78) (and repeated again in 1990) and circulate on video and audio.Other than the So It Goes source, no other source exists. It is thought Granada don't know where it is either and that the Dec 78 footage may have come from Tony Wilsons own collection.?
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The Official Clash
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Clash City Collectors – excellent
Facebook Page - for Clash Collectors to share unusual & interesting items like..Vinyl. Badges, Posters, etc anything by the Clash. Search Clash City Collectors & enter search in search box. Place, venue, etc
Clash on Parole – excellent
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Clash City Snappers
Anything to do with The Clash. Photos inspired by lyrics, song titles, music, artwork, members, attitude, rhetoric,haunts,locations etc, of the greatest and coolest rock 'n' roll band ever.Tributes to Joe especially wanted. Pictures of graffitti, murals, music collections, memorabilia all welcome. No limit to postings. Don't wait to be invited, just join and upload.
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I saw The Clash at Bonds – excellent
Facebook page - The Clash played a series of 17 concerts at Bond's Casino in New York City in May and June of 1981 in support of their album Sandinista!. Due to their wide publicity, the concerts became an important moment in the history of the Clash. Search I Saw The Clash at Bonds & enter search in red box. Place, venue, etc
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