esa_morena

I actually saw The Clash in  1983 at the US Festival in San Bernandino. I still had feathered hair and was wearing a Clash t-shirt with red, terry-cloth shorts, that had piping and a draw string bow which cinched up each side, and I rode all the way to San Bernadino in a compact Fiat station wagon without air-conditioning and that wouldn't start from time to time, and that needed to be parked on a hill or pushed in order to get going fast enough to pop the clutch and get it going, just to see them. A lot of other great bands were playing during the two of the three days of the festival that we attended, bands like U2, Oingo Boingo, Inxs, Flock of Seagulls, David Bowie, Men at Work and many more, but I would have gone all that way just to see The Clash play three songs, and it's a good thing I did because it was their last show with Mick Jones. 

My elementary and high school best friend, Nicole Lopez's mom, Shawn ,drove us. She was a cool single mom who loved The Clash as much as we did and who liked taking road trips, even in cars that were prone to breaking down, for she was somewhat of a mechanic, and if she had the right tools, was usually able to fix whatever had gone wrong, if only temporarily. 

The Clash were the headlining act, and there was a significant amount of lag time between the band before them and their set. Apparently, The Clash decided they wouldn't take the stage until the promoter, Apple's, Steve Wozniak, agreed to pay a million dollars to a charity chosen by the band. After much wrangling, The Clash took the stage with such ferocity that every cell of my 13 year old body lit up, and a whole day of bands worth of anticipation was released as they launched into London Calling. As close to the stage as we could get, Nicole, Shawn, and I danced and shouted and sang the lyrics to every song. Still pissed off at Wozniak, The Clash played a short set, which when it ended, sent the whole group of people closest to the stage crushing closer. If I remember correctly, they played an encore song, left the stage again, came back to shake hands with the crowd, then disappeared back stage. When they disappeared for the last time, the crowd began to chant and push wildly, and after about what seemed like about 5 minutes of steady chanting, some announcer began saying, "The Clash have left the building. The Clash have left the building." It was only until after a helicopter rose up from behind the stage and hovered for a few seconds over the sea of people on the ground, its lights flashing, that the crowd stopped chanting and began to roar and point  toward the sky. 

  The picture up top is an actual photo from the US festival performance. To the left here is a ticket stub. Check out the price!