All words and photos Rob Bamford
‘Echo & The Bunnymen – When I heard their first album I really loved them and when they played Guildford it was a must to go and see them.’
‘The next time I saw The Clash was at the Brixton Fair Deal. This was originally meant to be on 21st May 1982. Tickets for the tour hadn’t been selling well and Joe Strummer went AWOL for a few weeks (which was staged to try and drum up ticket sales). Also there was friction in the band and drummer Topper Headon was sacked for heroin addiction. So the gig was put back to July 11th 1982. This a bit of a blow as it was world cup final day and being a footie fan this wasn’t great!
However this was a brilliant gig as they had brought back drummer Terry Chimes (who played on the first album). As he hadn’t had time to learn the newer songs they a did a few from the first album and seeing them do Garageland live was the icing on the cake. Straight to Hell was also brilliant live. It was packed and we got there a bit late so couldn’t get any near the front so the photos I took weren’t particularly great. I went this gig with Kaz who was in one of the photos I sent.’
‘The next gig was Portsmouth Guildhall on the same tour on 28th July 1982. This wasn’t such a great gig as their performance was rather patchy although I did get some reasonable photos. It had originally been scheduled for the 15th May.
I saw them again 1984 back at the Brixton Fair Deal (now the Brixton Academy) on Friday 9th March. Joe and Paul had fallen out with Mick Jones, sacked him and brought in three unknown members. I went to this with two mates, Chris and Pete who hadn’t seen them before. However it was very disappointing as without Mick Jones it just wasn’t The Clash. For some reason I hadn’t taken my camera but no regrets as this wasn’t a memorable night.
See Rob’s photos from 1981 –
Previously Unseen Photos of The Clash / Siouxsie / Bauhaus & More. Rob Bamford Ch.3 1981
ITTLG 