The Clash – the only band that mattered.

The Clash to get Monday rolling – recorded live at Shea Stadium on October 13, 1982 and broadcast on December 31st by NBC Radio’s The Source.

Along with The Sex Pistols and The Damned, The Clash were some of the first examples of Punk from Britain to arrive in the States. Like everything that’s new, audiences (especially mainstream audiences) were slow at first to react or to form an opinion. It was new, loud and angry – coming from a different emotional space than say, The Ramones who were happening around the same time. Punk meant different things over here than it did in the UK. Across the Atlantic it was about reaction to the Thatcher years, it was about issues of poverty, class and racism – it was considerably more Political in its intent than it was in the U.S. and for that reason there was a certain disconnect and misunderstanding what Punk was all about in America – that’s not to say it was rejected by everyone here, but the ability of Punk to grab airplay on mainstream radio was a non-starter from the get-go and Punk, by and large was the domain of College Radio and some Underground stations as well as the fledgling MTV which would transform the landscape considerably in the coming years. Of most of the bands which formed the core of Punk from the UK, The Clash benefitted the most from being signed to CBS, a major label at the time – where the others were signed to comparatively smaller labels – translated; it meant The Clash would be promoted to a bigger audience than say, The Sex Pistols who were bounced off EMI almost immediately following their debut single and left floundering for a while, did garnish them Press via outrage rather than actual airplay.

So The Clash were gaining popularity while quietly falling apart owing to internal conflicts and addiction by 1982. By then they were filling stadiums and earning Platinum albums. So this appearance in October of 1982 puts them at Shea Stadium opening for The Who. The Source recorded it and released it in time for Halloween.

Grab lunch – press play and crank it up.

And while you’re here . . .