Fact #181041
When:
Short story:
During their On Parole tour, The Clash play the first of four nights at The Music Machine, Camden Town, London, England, UK, Europe, supported by Suicide and The Specials.Full article:
Johnny Black : I attended this gig while I was a press officer at CBS Records. Officially I was there to see The Clash, when were signed to CBS, but my real interest was Suicide, a New York-based electronic punk duo who I'd become fascinated by. I have no memory of seeing The Specials but, when Suicide took the stage they were bottled by the punky London crowd who were really only interested in seeing The Clash. The duo ploughed on nevertheless, and delivered as rousing set, despite the hatred and derision heaped on them by the audience.
I remember being very angry with the crowd at The Music Machine that night, and my mood wasn't enhanced by the fact that I thought The Clash were shambolic. Unfortunately, I could not express those sentiments to my CBS colleagues, who would have considered me disloyal. Company loyalty was a very powerful force at CBS, and it was one of the things that made me none to happy to be working there - despite making several friends there.
Johnny Black : I have to admit that, with only a couple of exceptions who, in retrospect, turned out not really to have been punks at all, I was never very enamoured of British punk. What this gig confirmed in my mind was that British punk was a retrogressive and intolerant music. Its fans hated anything that wasn't three chord thrashy punk. New York's punk (or more accurately New Wave) scene was much more open-minded, with innovative acts who were all distinctively different from each other - Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Mink DeVille - all ploughing their own individual musical grooves. In England, though, The Sex Pistols, The Damned and the rest all sounded to me like gormless variations of The Ramones theme.
Tweet this Fact
I remember being very angry with the crowd at The Music Machine that night, and my mood wasn't enhanced by the fact that I thought The Clash were shambolic. Unfortunately, I could not express those sentiments to my CBS colleagues, who would have considered me disloyal. Company loyalty was a very powerful force at CBS, and it was one of the things that made me none to happy to be working there - despite making several friends there.
Johnny Black : I have to admit that, with only a couple of exceptions who, in retrospect, turned out not really to have been punks at all, I was never very enamoured of British punk. What this gig confirmed in my mind was that British punk was a retrogressive and intolerant music. Its fans hated anything that wasn't three chord thrashy punk. New York's punk (or more accurately New Wave) scene was much more open-minded, with innovative acts who were all distinctively different from each other - Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Mink DeVille - all ploughing their own individual musical grooves. In England, though, The Sex Pistols, The Damned and the rest all sounded to me like gormless variations of The Ramones theme.