The Clash - "The O'Keefe Centre"
(9-26-79),Toronto,Ontario, The O'Keefe Centre (Renamed "The Hummingbird Centre", now called "The Sony Centre")
Audience Recording
Lineage: Trader CD-R > EAC, Secure Mode, Accurate Stream, No Disable Cache > WAV > Flac Frontend, Encoding Options, Level.8, Align On Sector Boundaries > Flac
Label: N/A
Original Taper: N/A

Cheers and thanks to the person who hooked me up with this, I apologize for forgetting your name, it is not intentional.

1) Safe European Home
2) I'm So Bored With The U.S.A
3) London Calling
4) Jail Guitar Doors
5) Brand New Cadillac
6) White Man In Hammersmith Palais
7) Capital Radio
8) English Civil War
9) Koka Kola
10) I Fought The Law
11) Clampdown
12) Wrong 'Em Boyo
13) The Guns Of Brixton
14) Stay Free
15) Clash City Rockers
16) Police And Thieves
17) Complete Control
18) Janie Jones
19) Garageland
20) Armagideon Time
21) Career Opportunities
22) White Riot

Enjoy!

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Reviews From Black Market Clash:

Arguably the best performance of the tour; The Clash blast frenetically through the set 77 style, little or no breaks between songs. The Clash’s charged performance was a response to the audience who went berserk, smashing seats, gobbing, pogoing, invading the stage at the end in a reflection of 1977. Both Canada gigs similarly resulted in stage invasions, in marked contrast to the majority of US audiences who were restrained in their response, baffled by the new material.


Here at O’Keefe, Joe was in a foul mood, telling the audience mid set as much, ironically boosting the energy of his performance. Joe vents about hating this identikit punk reaction, a little unfair having actively encouraged other audiences to give back the same levels of energy the band were working hard to generate on stage. Lowry’s Canadian tour notes (see link) quote 30 seats as being ripped up by fans and that Joe made a “touching request to stop” spitting, although there’s no evidence of that here, so presumably that was Montreal.


The O’Keefe Centre

The O’Keefe Centre is the prestigious venue in Toronto; its feted modern architecture has hosted all the top names in the performing arts since it’s opening in 1960 (see pics). Indeed the web site of the 3,600 seater venue, now known as the Hummingbird Centre, gives a short potted history, identifying this particular Clash concert as one of its main highlights still, some 2 decades on, marking it out as a landmark event in Toronto music. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported the audience this night as a crowd of “exuberantly surly drunks”.


An excellent first generation audience recording

An excellent first generation audience recording known as ‘No Leafs or Thieves’ circulates and Clash fans owe a debt of thanks to its amateur taper for the quality of the recording. It is an audience recording but it suffers few of the problems normal to such recordings; vocals are unusually clear, bass is good too. Best of all are the drums, which are crystal clear; it’s a great recording for appreciating the talents of Topper’s drum work, which is powerful and inventive throughout.

The guitar’s come through OK too, including unusually Joe’s, but Mick’s lead work is back somewhat in the mix; a mixed blessing as all though it loses some of the guitar power of the songs, it reduces the effects of his loaded guitar work on this tour.

Overall it does have some echo/distance and a lack of pro sound quality. There is also little stereo separation but it remains one of the best Clash bootlegs certainly for performance but also for sound.

Other poorer tapes of a higher generation circulate with inferior sound and copying problems. The non-commercial cdr ‘No Leafs, No Thieves’ is certainly the one to check out.



The recording starts with DJ ‘Scratchy ‘ Myers fading out The Temptations classic ‘Papa was a rolling stone’, before a fired up Joe runs to the mike,”1-2-3-4 test test microphones”, followed by a banshee wail and its into a great Safe European Home.

I'm So Bored with the USA follows, with the bass line rumbling along brilliantly, the band tight and together, the only negative is the lead guitar is too far back in the mix. An excellent London Calling has some different lyrics in addition to the “midnight shutdown” ones; “in the grip of a play(?), the money is worthless and not getting paid”. Without a pause its straight into Jail Guitar Doors, with Topper’s drumming outstanding. Mick shouts “true story” before singing the Wayne Kramer MC5 verse.

Brand New Cadillac gets its probably live and certainly bootleg debut, a further example of The Clash making a cover sound like an original. The shouts for White Riot grow in frequency as Joe introduces White Man In Hammersmith Palais his first real address to the audience; “First of all did anyone come to see us in Toronto in February, (plenty of affirmative shouts), I was born in the Hammersmith Palais”

Capital Radio now early in the set has Joe talking over Mick’s gentle guitar intro; “like to turn on the radio, so no one listening to as this guy says capitalist radio, this is your hardest rock station, against the nation”. Its mayhem as The Clash, blast into a tight, fast, brilliant version with Joe announcing as the song drops down to just drum and bass “I am the only DJ & there are records I will not play and that is any record with a beat, and I ain’t talking about such Little Feat, any record dangerous to some, any record that won’t get on…”


Before English Civil War a clearly annoyed Joe says “its too easy to get into that kind of thing” but its not clear what exactly is getting to him, presumedly the spitting and aggro. Mick’s acoustic guitar work on this particular song is best heard on this recording, as it’s up front in the mix and really clear. Its played faster than in New York. Much faster still is Koka Kola, lasting a mere 90 seconds before segueing into I Fought The Law.

“Mr Mickey Gallagher from the Blockheads” is introduced before Clampdown, Joe sounding audibly angry, the end ‘jam’ loses the song’s momentum, a song still in need of a better worked out ending. Without a break its straight into Wrong 'Em Boyo, a definite highlight. There’s an edit before Guns Of Brixton [presumedly a tape turnover] and with Mickey in the set, his organ can now be heard to good effect.

Again Mick uses the old hollow bodied guitar as in New York on Stay Free and again as a result it can hardly be heard. Mick unusually makes some lyric changes on this one.

“I’ll tell you something for nothing, I feel pissed off… why? I don’t know, lets try exorcism, Mr Jones please hit me with The Clash City Rocker, lets move the townnnn”, Joe’s anger fuelling a terrific performance with Mick sharing the vocals.


Over feedback and the stage lights off the audience join Joe in screaming ,oooh aaagh, before Toppers drums crash out the intro to Police & Thieves. Its another fine performance but suffers a lack of power from Mick’s guitar due to a combination of his effects and the recordings mix. Joe rants incoherently over the ending though like old times.

Complete Control introduced by “this is an old song we put out in England, it was a miss” suffers again from the lead guitar shortcomings but is still very powerful and Mickey’s organ can be heard wailing superfluously in the background. Janie Jones thunders along straight into Garageland with Mick trading lines with Joe. The Toronto crowd scream for more.

Armagideon Time is getting tighter and more inventive with each live outing. The stage spotlights blind the audience as Career Opportunities raises the tempo back to full tilt Clash.

Finally the crowd get what they’ve been shorting for as Toppers drum solo intro announces White Riot. Voices are soon heard singing along with Joe as the audience invade the stage. Mick’s guitar soon stops, there are more and more voices, Joe continues to sing “are you going backwards and are you taking orders”, then drums and bass stops, then just organ as Joes voice tails off. A voice shouts “a riot!” various voices and shouts, “fucking promoter is shit, CPI sucks”, “wow, that was the best ending, can’t see the guy, fucking buried”, “pretty crazy for the O’Keefe Centre”.

The recording ends with the taper discussing buying a vcr and seeing Martha & The Muffins and then Gary Glitter comes on to clear the auditorium.

A great recording and a great gig.




"I saw that concert in Toronto [1979] -memorable night - however, I do not remember Bo Diddley being there - there were three bands - first up was "The B-Girls" - awful local band, if Bo Diddley was there he was up next -seem to remember The Undertones, but that may have been their next tour (I saw The Clash so many times, is hard to remember every band).. Definitely, definitely, The B-Girls were first band up,they were eventually booed off the stage."

"Best supporting band I ever saw with them was on Rock the Casbah tour when Black Uhuru opened for them at Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto. Terry Chimes had just replaced Topper Headon on drums."





I just found your site last week so I looked up the Clash gig I was fortunate enough to see - Toronto September 29 1979.....

I was the guy in front who was yelling at Joe to sing Capitalist Radio. I was standing on the seats in front leaning on Joe's monitor all night with what felt like 10 people on my back. I remember getting sprayed by Joe's sweat a couple times. He was wearing a sheriff's badge and a row of fake bullets on his shirt pocket. (During White Riot when we stormed the stage my friend Dave walked up to Joe and said " Joe I'm takin your bullets" and popped them off his shirt for a souvenir). Mick was wearing a red shirt and black pants with a safety pin on the left sleeve. Can't remember what Paul and Tops were wearing.

Anyway when Mick started playing the intro to Capitol Radio Two I started yelling "capitalist radio". Joe leaned down and said "Wot?" And I just yelled "Play capitalist radio". I recall he said "this guy wants us to play Capitalist Radio so we will" but the tape may prove me wrong on that.

I also seem to recall at one point Joe mentioned a radio station, could have been the OK station that sponsored the show CFNY or the awful classic rock station Q-107. He said he listened to it and it sounded like farting noises. Maybe that is on the tape too.

There is a picture from the gig on the London Calling LP just under the lyrics to Revolution Rock. My friend Maya is sitting on the stage as she did all night with her back to the camera, Joe has one brothel creeper up on the near monitor and with a little concentration you can see my very white arm supporting me on the other monitor. If the picture was a little bigger you could see the look of pain on my face as I support the crush of people standing on the seats behind me.

Joe didn't seem pissed off to me but I was so pumped to see the show I guess I didn't notice. I particularly remember Brand New Cadillac, Clampdown, Guns of Brixton and London Calling as new tunes. It was a fucking awesome show, probably the best concert I've ever seen.

Only two opening bands;B-Girls and Undertones, Feargal took off his shirt to impress us.

Love the site. Neill Vanhinsberg Vancouver BC




The Clash, Toronto, ?fall 1979


I was working in Ottawa at the time, for a major telephone monopoly, and had to get permission to miss a day and a half of work so that I could drive down to Toronto for this concert. The venue had been moved at the last minute, improbably enough to the O'Keefe Centre, which normally hosted the opera, and touring versions of big Broadway musicals.

First warmup act was the B-Girls, three charming young women who could neither sing nor play their instruments, doing a classic girl-group schtick with new wave overtones. We sat in our seats and peered around the people dancing in the aisles. Second warmup act was the Undertones, five kids about my age, about whom I knew nothing except the title of one of their songs, "Jimmy Jimmy". We moved ahead one section for them and stood. It was difficult to pogo to their music, and equipment problems plagued their set. After a while the lead singer threw down his microphone and stormed off.

When the Clash came on there was a rush for the front. We clambered up to the first section and staked out territory. It was the only time I saw a concert standing on the armrests, trying to keep the young woman pogoing on the seat in front of me from dashing her brains out on the floor. Behind me an Elvis Costello look-alike paced back and forth, ignoring the band, running his hands nervously through his hair. I could barely see the band through a bouncing curtain of bodies. The Clash dashed through their set, material from the first two albums, ending with "White Riot", at which point everyone swarmed the stage, all the equipment was tossed around, and the band disappeared abruptly as the house lights came on like a bomb.

I wrote about the concert in a prose piece with the idiotic title of "Sten Guns In Knightsbridge" (taken from a lyric on "?1977", the B-side of "White Riot") which was published in ?the Imprint a few months later. The B-Girls never managed more than one single, "Fun at the Beach"; I could still sing you the entire thing. The Clash reached their peak with their next album, "London Calling" (which was not punk at all, except in spirit), then went through an embarrassing slide with "Sandinista" and "Combat Rock". I was to see them once again, at the CNE Grandstand on free tickets, and it was an awful show. Lead singer Joe Strummer appeared in a few ultracool movies by Alex Cox and Jim Jarmusch before evaporating; guitarist Mick Jones formed Big Audio Dynamite and is still making forgettable music.

The band that would leave the most lasting impression on me was, improbably enough, the Undertones. Their first album played a major role in a certain lost weekend of mine in 1980. They put out four in total, moving towards melodic pop, before calling it quits. One of the band members still makes vital and compelling music with the band That Petrol Emotion. Rykodisc has repackaged their work on CD; I bought their greatest hits package at Christmas in 1994 and discovered that, eighteen years after it was recorded, "Teenage Kicks" has lost none of its magic. I wish I could remember their playing it.

The O'Keefe Centre sustained $5000 in damage during the Clash concert, and a change in policy barred rock bands forever. No great loss. The place is a barn. Changing its name to the Hummingbird Centre did nothing for the acoustics.



Just a minor correction to Neil Vanhinsberg’s comment on the September 1979 Clash show in Toronto. Neil writes:


"I also seem to recall at one point Joe mentioned a radio station, could have been the OK station that sponsored the show CFNY or the awful classic rock station Q-107. He said he listened to it and it sounded like farting noises. Maybe that is on the tape too."


That actually happened at the Clash’s previous Toronto appearance, in February 1979, at the Rex Theatre. That show was promoted by Q-107, and they were the target of Joe’s ire. (I actually even mentioned the comment in a review of the February show I wrote for issue no. 2 of the Surfin’ Bird fanzine. Good luck ever finding a copy of that!)


The reason I’m sure about this is that I was at the February show in Toronto, but not the September show. I was living in the US by then, and saw them on the September tour at the Palladium in NYC, with the Undertones and Sam and Dave on the bill.


Cheers. Tycho MansonToronto, Canada