1984 Early US Tour

Here is a list of known articles around the time of the tour. If you know of anything that is missing please do let us know.

Some display images are low res, the link goes to high-resolution version. Some of the links especially PDFs are *big* so please hold on!

‘Impossible Mission’ Tour

When The Clash hit the stage in Barcelona on the first night of the ‘Impossible Mission’ Tour, they had not played live for over 10 months; the longest such gap in the band’s history.

Not that they had been idle during this time far from it. They had been engaged in an exhaustive period of recording, producing and promoting. Marcus Gray’s book has a very good detailed account of this time. Whilst other rock stars would have enjoyed a rest in their tax-free Caribbean hideaways The Clash after 5 years together, 4 albums, critical acclaim and world wide renown were £500,000 in debt to CBS and Joe had been turned down for a mortgage on a modest flat!

No Sandinista Album Tours

Not touring to promote the album release seemed further commercial suicide, however this was not their original intention as they announced an exhaustive UK tour in December. By January though this was amended to selected dates and by February the tour was cancelled altogether. The chief reason being the refusal of CBS to provide tour support. Epic’s same response to a later proposed 60 date US jaunt meant that this tour too did not materialise.

Here is a list of known articles around the time of the tour. If you know of anything that is missing please do let us know.

Some display images are low res, the link goes to high-resolution version. Some of the links especially PDFs are *big* so please hold on!.

Record Mirror archive 1955-1981
Searchable, most editions

Fanzines: Great Collection
Great collection of scanned fanzines from the 1970s and 1980s

Bernie back - Smash Hits (UK)

Village voice poll - January 1981

May 81 joe interview Nick Kent

Record Mirror May 9 1981 - PDF 14mb
Covers the Madris and spanish dates

The Sun 20 May 1981

Musician N33 June 1981 Int w Joe & Mick - great interview - PDF 57mb

RUDE BOYS – An Interview with Joe Strummer and Robert Fripp
by Vic Garbarini
Musician Magazine, June 1981

The basic idea was fairly simple: you get the two foremost proponents of the idea of music as a force for personal and social change, sit 'em down together for a few beers, and see what happens. Now let's look at the potential problems: on the surface, polite, articulate Robert Fripp and acerbic, street-wise Joe Strummer don't appear to be the most compatible duo in rock history. I mean, you wouldn't expect them to bunk together at summer camp, would you? As musicians they seem to follow widely divergent paths, with the classically trained Fripp exploring the oceanic textures and laser-like solos of Frippertronics, or the fractured, geometric etudes of -The league of Gentlemen-, while Strummer the street poet and musical innocent bashes out three chord symphonies, or heads further up the river into the dark, sensual heartland of reggae and dub. more

Summer French Mag unknown - PDF 20mb
(ref 12,00 at Lisbon + Spanish gigs)