Fact #187579

Johnny Black (music journalist) : The White Riot tour has gone down in the annals of rock as a triumphant moment in the ascendancy of punk rock in the UK. Having an interest in punk - I was a fan of The Ramones from day one - I attended this show in The Playhouse, Edinburgh, but was not impressed. (See my attached diary entry to get an inkling of how the audience felt about it). The Jam was the only competent band on the night but, frankly, The Jam were never punks. I remember all-girls band The Slits clambering down off the stage to offer autographs to the audience members in the front row, but the kids shrank away from them. The diary comment "Keep them on." reflects the attitude of the unreconstructed sexist males in the audience to The Slits. Normally, they would have shouted "Get them off." in hopes that the band would remove their underwear, but The Slits were so unappealing that "Keep them on" must have seemed more suitable.

The Clash were not, to my mind, very exciting. Part-way through their set, Paul Simonon broke a string on his bass guitar and seemed totally at a loss to know how to proceed. To his credit, frontman Joe Strummer covered up by grabbing a large transistor boom box and pushing it up to the mic so we could hear local radio station Radio Forth blaring out, while Strummer improvised an amusing commentary. The band was only able to continue after Bruce Foxton from The Jam ran onstage and handed Simonon a functioning bass. Even so, their set was shambolic.

All in all, it was a fairly memorable night, but not for the right reasons.