The Clash Clash Calling May 28, 1983 (The date on the art, "May 29, 1983", is incorrect) The US Festival II Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, California Home Records (HR6021-8) SBD > VHS > CD > ? > SHN 01. London Calling (end cut) / This Is Radio Clash (beginning cut) 02. Somebody Got Murdered 03. Rock the Casbah 04. The Guns Of Brixton 05. Know Your Rights 06. Koka Kola 07. Hate And War 08. Armagideon Time 09. Sound Of The Sinners 10. Safe European Home 11. Police On My Back 12. Brand New Cadillac 13. I Fought The Law 14. I'm So Bored With The USA 15. Train In Vain 16. The Magnificent Seven 17. Straight To Hell 18. Should I Stay Or Should I Go? 19. Clampdown from http://clashzone.jeffdove.net/b83.html This is another of my absolute favorite shows, and I was at this one too. This is the band at their angriest. The playing is so sharp and intense and Pete Howard's drumming is so good that it's really a damn shame that the real Clash had to end here. For those who don't know this is the last live performance with Mick Jones. The US Festival was a three day ego trip by Apple co-founder and retired millionaire Steve Wozniak. His first one had been over Labor Day weekend in 1982. There he selected the bands which he most wanted to see play togther and put on his dream gig. That show met with moderate success, so for part II he conducted surveys to find out what the kids wanted to hear and parceled out the acts to new wave day, heavy metal day, and AOR day. The Clash were riding their biggest US success with "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and "Rock the Casbah" and thus got voted in. They didn't receive the most votes, that honor went to Men at Work (remember them?), but Woz tapped them as the new wave day headliners and gave them $500,000.00. Van Halen got one mil to headline heavy metal day and Bowie a cool 1.5 for day three. The Clash, and Strummer in particular, didn't take too kindly to the whole US concept and began a constant stream of criticism in the media. More cries of "sell out" were directed at them for taking all of that scratch, which may have motivated some of the anger. Joe began making demands on Woz else the band hold back their services. He wanted a certain number of donations to charity, and the Clash stated that their fee would go to help struggling young bands in England. (In fact this money was held up for a long time as Mick filed suit to freeze it after his sacking. Who knows where it eventually went - probably to the lawyers.) In the days leading up to the show Joe kept up the hits in the local papers. The show itself was run by the fascist Bill Gramm [sic Graham] organization. These guys have a stormtrooper mentality, and as at the time their idea of leading edge rock were Frisco burnouts like Journey and Santana, they proabably weren't in the mood to take these English rabble rouser's lip. Paul is said to have been drunk, and he, Joe, and Kosmo Vinyl get into several brawls with the Gramm [sic Graham] gestapo. After a 100+ degree day of crap like Flock of Seagulls, the Stray Cats, and Men at Work in an atmosphere of thick brown LA air, Clash fans were more than ready for the show. About half of the 200,000 ticket buyers weren't however and had headed for the exits. The Clash were even further delayed by some lame-brained idea to promote peace by simultaneously broadcasting to and from a Russian gig. We got to see some old men play bad fusion and they didn't get the Clash but Men at Work! By show time tempers were flaring. The group was on fire as they played, and Joe continuously berates the audience and America in general (You buy! You die! That's the motto of America!) There were several mid-stage huddles as they abandoned the set list and came up with more appropriate songs for the occasion such as "Koka Kola" and "I'm So Bored with the USA." This show is also on video. The CD Clash Calling cuts off the end of Londing Calling and the beginning of Radio Clash. A "B+" grade audience tape is complete. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As to why the first two songs (track 1 on the "Clash Calling" boot) are cut: http://www.sharoma.com/clash/items/clash_calling.htm I know the answer to your question about why the first two tracks of the "Clash Calling" boot are cut (London Calling cuts halfway into the last half of Radio Clash). The source for the audio boot is the video of the show. This video also has the cut. So whoever dubbed the first video off of the master videotape somehow screwed up and put that glitch in the first two songs. Every circulating bootleg video of the show has the glitch, although someone, somewhere, must have a complete version. Perhaps a complete version sits on a shelf in Steve Wozniak's library. After all, he paid out mega bucks to put on the show, so maybe he has a copy. Anyway, as Graham Jones points out, there is another boot of this show that exists. This one is an audience recording that is of lesser quality, but the first two songs are complete. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For even more info about this show/boot see: http://www.geocities.com/j-blokhed/clashcalling.html http://www.gpjones.free-online.co.uk/Bands/Clash/recordings/1983/83-05-28_SanBerdino/83-05-28_SanBerdino.html