Life on the Road

Aha...can't remember how this works...as Johnny Winter once said 'Still Alive and Well'

more of Life on the Road...

Was toying with the idea of recounting what I can remember of the Clash Tour that I was on 40 years ago. I found a gig list on-line which seems fairly accurate, one or 2 anomalies. Anyway the first gig was June the 28th 1978 at The Friers Aylesbury, so, I'm guessing we must have been in rehearsals by now.
During rehearsals I remember dropping a roll of Gaffer Tape from the lighting rig onto Topper...oops, he was ok though and I didn't get fired.
There was a bit of excitement one day when Bernie (Rhodes) wandered in with a guy the band seemed to hate. They were for walking out and not coming back unless the guy left. Turns out he produced one of their records and the Band were very unhappy at whatever he did  with their work ( someone said he speeded it up..who knows) He stayed and the Band didn't leave.
How did I end up on this tour...Well the story goes that a company called Entec (still on the go) got the gig and either they didn't have enough of their own crew available or none of their crew wanted to do it. Anyway I got a call from Dave Black asking if I was available and I was.
 Now I didn't actually know anything about the Clash having been on the road for the last 6 or 7 months you kinda lose touch with whats's happening...anyway in their world I was an old hairy hippie, part of the old established rock scene, but, they needed bods like me to actually do gigs, so, they put up with us being there... I remember a tale one of the sound crew told me, it concerned a Lighting Tech who ended up working with the Pistols. During rehearsals he tried over and over to find out what the hell they wanted in the way of a light show, he eventually collared Mr Rotten and asked him...he said, 'When I walk on stage switch the lights on, and, when I walk off stage switch the lights off .'  Easiest gig ever.
Turns out the Entec crew were concerned about several aspects of the tour. The fact that the Clash were barred/banned from several towns because there tended to be a riot every time they played, the sound crew were a bit worried about the fold back monitors getting wet...The crowd for some reason used to spit at the Band so they covered the monitors in a foam rubber material to protect them...Turns out a combination of the heat off the lights and the crowd running out of Spittle meant we could abandon the protective material.
Strummer hated the spitting. If you see any video of him watch how he keeps turning his head to the side to avoid being hit in the face.
 tbc I'll recount some memories from the gigs on the 40th anniversary