Pearl Harbour Tour supported by Bo Diddley
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
updated 5 Sept 2008 - added photo
Audio 1 -
from 2nd gen - Sound 3 - 73min - 2gen - 19 tracks
White Man
Toronto Interview Paul Topper
part 1 - (5mins)
part 2 - (5mins)
Candian Radio Interview (20mins)
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.
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.
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”
BOOK: CULTURE, MUSIC THE FIRST TIME THE CLASH PLAYED TORONTO Core Magazine - 01/02/2019
It’s been four decades since The Clash, known for their unique fusion of punk and reggae, played Toronto for the first time. The event was caught on 35 mm black and white film by two brothers.
Ex-Torontonian, photographer Nick Smash, also known as Nick White, along with his brother Simon White, were part of the Toronto post-punk scene at the time and were there to capture history.
Nick will give a talk on opening night and he and Simon will be exhibiting photos. It’s part of an event called The Clash on the Danforth in celebration of the 40th anniversary of two memorable concerts played by Mick Jones, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, The Clash, at the Rex Danforth Theatre in 1979.
Punk’s thrashing guitars, off-tone harmonics bred in underground bars and backrooms was beginning to take hold. The Clash had sold over 100,000 imported copies of their first album and set off on the Pearl Harbour tour to the US and Canada in 1979.
They started off at the Lyceum Theatre in London, UK with the Slits on Jan. 3 before crossing the ocean. Their second stop and first North American show was at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Jan. 31. Their first US show was not until Feb. 8 at the Temple, San Francisco Bay Area. Following that show, they enlisted legendary musician and rhythm & blues pioneer Bo Diddley for the larger venues.
Punk bands were able to fill the larger-size music halls by the end of the 70s. On Feb. 20 when The Clash opened up with I’m So Bored With The USA at The Rex, Nick and Simon were ready. The Clash would return to Toronto to play the O’Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts only months later on September 26.
“My brother Simon and I took photos of all the bands that played in Toronto from 1979 - 1983,” Nick tells me by text.
“Many of the photos we took are in a book I wrote called, Alone And Gone.” They published it themselves in 2015.
“We were VERY independent. All the photos are ours and we own the copyright,” says Nick - “independent and self published - NO BARCODES!” he added.
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.
Did you go? What do you remember?
Info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome.
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I’m so bored with the USA bold indicates on video |
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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
If you know of any articles or references for this particular gig, anything that is missing, please do let us know.
Sounds - March 10th
Are "Clash" the new messiahs of Punk Rock?
Music Express (Canadian) - April 1979
A Riot of Our Own pg
A collection of articles, interviews, reviews, posters, tour dates from the Clash's first US Tour covering the period of the Pearl Harbour Tour.
Toronto Interview 2-20-79 Paul Topper Canada
part 1 - (5mins)
part 20 - (5mins)
Candian Radio Interview (20mins)
Toronto - 20 February 1979
The Clash 1979 Canadian TV backstage interview
Complete interview segment of the Clash backstage at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto, Canada with the Undertones which was originally broadcast on CITY TV's New Music Program in 1979.
The New Music was hosted by J.D. Roberts (aka CNN's John Roberts) and Jeanne Bekker (later host of Fashion Television). This clip includes the infamous concert aftermath with Cosmo Vinyl counting the ripped out seats at the venue.
This rare interview was shown/re-broadcast during the Joe Strummer death coverage.
Bo Diddley talks about his experiences opening for the Clash on their 1979 US Tour. This interview took place in November 2002 at the Rock Nightclub in Maplewood, Minnesota.
Bo Diddley opening for the Clash At Ontario Theatre, Washington DC
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