16 Tons Tour
Toots and the Maytels (pulled out at last minute)
Supported by Ian Dury & The Blockheads & The Vice Creems
see also www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk
updated 3 April 2003
updated 8 Nov 2006
updated 13 April 2011 - corrected support acts
updated 22 January 2022 added flyer with text on reverse
Photo courtesy of Alyn Currie @ www.punkrockposters.net
Audio 3 -
unknown gen - sound 2 - 60.47mins - 18 tracks / edited
Whiet Man in Hammersmith Palais
Video - Punk & Its After Shocks - sound 5 -
7mins - 4 tracks -
London Calling
Dangerous Minds | "Previously only available in battered VHS versions and shitty looking DVD transfers, Wolfgang Buld’s Punk In England (originally titled Punk and Its Aftershocks) has been remastered and made available for viewing thanks to the generous folks at See Of Sound.
Filmed in 1980 as punk was fading, Punk In England captures the scene at a point of transition from a revolution to the pop mainstream. With dynamite performances by The Jam, Ian Dury, The Clash, The Specials, Madness, The Pretenders and many more. Enjoy."
DVD - Punk in England - sound 5 - 7mins - 3 tracks
London Calling, Police & Thieves, Janie Jones snippet & Complete Control
Lacking decent clarity or range
The first UK leg of the 16 Tons Tour is poorly served by circulating recordings. Apart from the Lewisham Odeon official tracks and the Punk and Its After Shocks video the remaining recordings are all poor (Southampton is just OK).
The Aylesbury tape in circulation is one of those, lacking decent clarity or range.
It’s been copied too many times and suffers from an annoying static that sounds like something repeatedly knocking the microphone.
It’s interesting though for the harp playing by Lew Lewis on a number of the songs, also for the inclusion of the rare Death or Glory and some experimental intro’s. There are some tape speed problems as well throughout. The sound is very distant and a touch flat. Listenable if poor, Joe’s vocals are muffled and Mick’s guitar dominates, though Toppers drums can be heard as well as well as Paul’s bass.
The tape cuts off some of the end of the main set probably Clampdown, I fought the Law, London’s Burning I and definitely London Calling included in the video.
Prior to the gig the band had appeared on TISWAS SHOW (UK-ITV) on 5th January 1980, promoting London Calling. An early morning kids programme that was both serious and silly.
First night of the lengthy 16 Tons Tour
First night of the lengthy 16 Tons Tour, which would have been even longer but for Topper getting his hand stabbed with scissors during an altercation about drugs, resulting in the last 6 dates being postponed until June.
The Clash had not toured the UK since the end of 78 (partly because of CBS debt) and they were at the height of their popularity in Britain. London Calling, single and album were high in the charts and venues sold out fast. Punk had taken off in a big way with spikey haired punk rockers contrasting with The Clash’s new slicker retro rocker, greased back look.
The Tour, the support acts, a new album
Clash favourites, the great Toots & The Maytals sadly cancelled at the last minute resulting in a last minute search for replacements. Ian Dury & The Blockheads stepped in to repay the favour paid to them by The Clash supporting them at the Kampuchea Benefit. Prince Hammer and Lew Lewis also stepped in, the latter providing harmonica at Aylesbury and elsewhere in 1980. Mikey Dread, of Dread At The Controls fame would appear later and have a huge influence on the sound Bankrobber and Sandinista. Mikey has said recently that he is angry that he has not received the royalties since that his imput merited.
The Clash touring party was still swelled by the likes of Robin Crocker and Kris Needs (whose band played support at Aylesbury) and Mo Armstrong (over from San Francisco with FSLN bandanas and first news of the Sandinista’s. Baker and Johnny were still there but now there was catering and merchandising, organised by Blackhill who were still the management. Barry “Scratchy” Myers still DJ’ed and Tennessee Ernie Ford’s classic, 16Tons became the first Clash stage “fanfare”, the song’s lyric of obvious appeal to The Clash, not least because of their huge debt to CBS. Dreadlocked (at least via his hat) Ray Jordan became a new fixture in the Clash camp, able to defuse any potentially violent situation before it blew up.
Aylesbury
The sound and set was now slick and professional. Shows were paced unlike the 100mph whirlwind from the start of the punk years. But the final run through of early classics still sent the audiences wild. Also see A Riot of Our Own p219 for this gig.
Aylesbury crowds were always enthusiastic; tickets for The Clash were the fastest ever to sell out. The Friars was sadly closed in 1984.
The recording starts with an urgent sounding Joe shouting “Testing microphones, 1-2” then Mick plays the opening chords of Clash City Rockers.
There is some chat near the taper and then memorably Joe shouts, “you won’t succeed, you GOTTA try”. Straight into Brand New Cadillac a short gap before Mick shouts out “1-2-3-4” and they slam into Safe European Home. “We’d like to bring on a couple of friends” Mickey is introduced on organ “We also have some harmonica”. Lew Lewis’s playing adds another dimension to Jimmy Jazz making this one of the highlights. There’s an edit which loses probably loses at least London Calling. It restarts with Guns of Brixton followed by a lengthy drum intro to Train In Vain. The harmonica can be heard to good effect here.
An excellent White Man also benefits from the harp playing and from Joe ad-libbing over the ending. Koka Kola this time does not segue into I Fought The Law. Wrong Em Boyo is followed by another edit and then an interesting Bankrobber with some experimental touches, still played as a ska/r’n’b number.
Joe’s cries of “woahh,woahh!” herald the start of Police & Thieves, filmed thankfully by Wolfgang Buld in its entirety.
Mick’s Stay Free next before a rare live outing for Death Or Glory. The Notre Dame recording is much more interesting though.
Another edit leads into Janie Jones, and then Topper’s drum intro’s lead us into Garageland and the end of the main set.
Armagideon Time begins the encore as usual, played now in the recorded arrangement. The song leads into English Civil War as it would for most of the tour. The recording stops abruptly during Complete Control probably cutting off the likely second encore.
Did you go? What do you remember?
Info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome.
Please email blackmarketclash
Spit The Dog & Punk & Its After Shocks Video
On the morning of the gig The Clash were in Birmingham being interviewed by Sally James for Tiswas and being attacked by Spit The Dog! The band were no doubt delighted to be on Tiswas, which was a hugely popular kids Saturday morning show. Juvenile but enormous fun when recovering from a Friday night hangover. An audio recording exists of the short interview.
Punk & It’s After Shocks video
Wolfgang Buld who also produced the Punk In London DVD for Studio K7 was back in London in December 79/January 80 (according to the video cover) to film a follow up. He was at Aylesbury and a short 8-minute but excellent section appears in his film, released in the early 90’s as Punk & It’s After Shocks video. Mick is also seen playing guest lead on Sweet Gene Vincent at the same gig with Ian Dury and the Blockheads. The sound is a big improvement on his Munich (probably) 77 footage; it’s from the desk and in excellent mono. It’s also lip-synched unlike the earlier film.
The Video
The video starts a third of the way into an excellent London Calling (missing from the audio tape of the gig). There is then a short interview with Joe and Paul dressed in their black crombies and trilby’s, who explain the band’s changes since Wolfgang last filmed them. Joe;” Instead of using the hammer, we’re trying to be more subtle with it, first we’d go to hit to hit you right in the middle of the head with it a 100 times (“now we’re behind you!” Paul adds) Now we’d like to … a few strokes of the hammer here and there is more powerful than .. “ pounding his arm up and down like a hammer.
Police and Thieves crashes in and this time we get the whole song which includes Joe’s improvised lines “You read in the bible, page No.1! that’s Genesis to Revelations, now what generation can you tell me, I did not know, I was not brave..” This ties in with the bootleg audio recording further confirming this as the date, along with the Blockhead’s footage.
Another short interview “Can we do the same thing all the time, this is the question. No then you’re just dead, you do the same thing who wants to know, makes people sick in the head to do that, so we have to always try new things and like everyone’s a load of like sheep going its horrible, its nice, but they don’t fucking know, only we know what we’re doing and obviously we think it’s for the best, anyway we can play, we can handle it better now, so we don’t disguise that, we try to play as good as we can (short clip of Munich 77 - Janie Jones) Obviously we’ve spent 4 year’s playing now non-stop, obviously we must be 4 times better otherwise we’d be pretty much idiots, huh?”
There’s then an all too brief 35-second clip of Complete Control. It would be great if like the earlier video it could be released on DVD with extra footage.
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Clash City Rockers 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
A collection of articles, interviews, reviews, posters, tour dates January, February 1980 covering the period the 16 Tons tour of the UK.
If you know of any articles or references for this particular gig, anything that is missing, please do let us know.
The Laurel and Hardy of Rock n Roll at it again
NME - 12 Jan 1980
Text version
Magazine? with set list +
Justice Tonight
SOUNDS - 12 Jan 1980
`
On the Road with the Clash
Traxmarx - includes this gig
Issue C of Don’t Dictate fanzine
Aylesbury and London Calling
A
Riot of Our Own pg 219/221
If you know any please let us know
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Unknown Interview with Joe followed by John Tobler 'Rock On' interview with Mick and Paul
John Tobler 'Rock On' interview with Mick and Paul
Radio Interview with Duncan-Gibbons
BBC Roundtable
The Clash on TISWAS (UK-ITV) on 5th January 1980, promoting London Calling
THE CLASH - RARE INTERVIEW - LONDON WEEKEND TV - 6 JANUARY 1979 - HD
Archive footage when - the clash - appeared on the saturday morning show on 6 january 1979. The official music video of tommy gun was played - this is now available on vevo - and cannot be uploaded here. Joe strummer - paul simonon - topper headon - were live in the studio and were interviewed by elvis payne. It was tx on lwt in london area only - rest of country watched tiswas.
Saturday morning show was introduced by steve jones and elvis payne. The saturday morning show - tx in london area only - ran for 16 shows eventually replaced by the itv networked show - tiswas - with chris tarrant from atv in the midlands
Punk & Its After Shocks
Aylesbury 5 Jan 1980
BBC Nationwide documentary
- 12.39mins - Sound 3
Dundee 18 Jan 1980
Edinburgh 19 Jan 1980
Edinburgh 20 Jan 1980
The live footage probably comes from the two Edinburgh gigs from Jan 19/20th 1980, and not from the 18th Dundee gig. Last 30 secs Londons Burning in nationwide clip does sound a lot like the Londons burning from 20th. It looks like Joe's wearing the same clothes in the van ( nationwide interview) and the soundcheck pictures from the 20th.
Essential Clash DVD
Lewisham 18 Feb 1980
8 mins - 5 sound -
Clampdown & Train In Vain
Source for various officlal single track video and audio sources - 2 videos plus 4 audio tracks. A good listing of the contents of the The Clash's Sound System box set can be found here.
Paris 27 Feb 1980
Quality /sound 5 - 41mins - 13 tracks - excellent
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