SEPTEMBER
23
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1977
Back on this day 25 years ago...........FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23rd 1977
1977
DATE INDEX
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
 release their third single, "Complete Control" coupled with "City Of The Dead" today. The lead track deals with the band's feeling about being signed to such a major record company as CBS. Small problems like trying to get your friends into the show for free and large problems like a feeling of a lack of control over your career. For the full review go HERE.
The Clash's insistence that 'Complete Control' should be their third single was considered by music press and fans alike to be a bold move taken by artists prepared to put their entire futures at risk on a point of principle. The song's release was construed as a tit-for-tat public humiliation of CBS by the band, a sign that the Clash had re-established in no uncertain terms the control about which they sang. Sebastian Conran's design for the sleeve accentuates the directness of the song's nessage, featuring a Clash-pink speaker cabinet on the front, Clash in the city - (Ian Dickson)and a collage comprising song lyrics, a band portrait and a burning building on the back. Bernie's press release for the single took an uncharacteristically reasonable position - possibly because the second instalment of the CBS advance was now due - but still reworked George Melly's words from Revolt Into Style into Berniespeak: 'It tells a story of conflict between two opposing camps. One side sees change as an opportunity to channel the enthusiasm of a raw and dangerous culture in a direction where energy is made safe and predictable. The other is dealing with change as a freedom to be experienced so as to understand one's true capabilities, allowing a creative social situation to emerge.' That CBS allowed the single's release says everything that needs to be said about the size of the threat they thought it represented.
(Bernie Rhodes extract taken from the Clash book 'Return Of The Last Gang In Town')


release their second album "No More Heroes" today and already have advance orders for 62,000 copies. The LP features the title track (their last single), as well as such dainties as "I Feel Like A Wog," "Bitchin," "Bring On The Nubiles" and the toe tapper "Peasant In The Big Shitty." For the full review go HERE. The 45 "No More Heroes" is on it's way to #8 in the UK singles charts. They also undertake a massive British tour starting tonight at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Stranglers roadrats - (Dont Care collection)It involves 11 other bands as support acts at various venues including US punk rock band The Dictators at 12 venues. The Dictators will play the last consecutive 12 dates including four nights at London Roundhouse, and were recruited after Hugh Cornwell saw them in New York recently.Other support acts are the Only Ones, Wire, Johnny Curious, Steel Pulse, Radio Stars, Krypton Tunes, Drones, Pop Group, Penetration and The Rezillos.

Jimmy Pursey gets nicked - (Dont Care collection)
Today the Vortex punk venue attempted to expand its territory, opening a twenty-four-hour coffee and record shop in Hanway Street, near Tottenham Court Road. Scheduled to play today at the grand re-opening are The Models, Nue, Sham 69, Mean Street and the Outsiders. Pre-opening press billed this as "Carnaby Street was to the Mods.. .Hanway is to the Punks." Opening up the club proved more of an adventure than imagined. By 1 PM, two hours after the opening, the press and a lot of punks had gathered at the new Vortex. The intention was for one band to play inside and another on the street outside. At lunchtime Sham 69 arrived, with a German camera crew in tow, and set up on the roof and launched into a set: 'I Don't Wanna', 'George Davis is Innocent' and 'Ulster', before the police arrived to enact the inevitable arrest of vocalist Jimmy Pursey. It only took a moment for them to find the power source, cut it and remove the band from the rooftop. The band's perch didn't belong to the Vortex after all.  It couldn't have worked out better though. Jimmy Pursey (the lead singer) was soon out on bail and their debut EP is also out on the new Step Forward label. The publicity thus engendered - they made that weekend's Sunday Times.
Roxy flyer - (Menace site)

Siouxsie And The Banshees
 GI Bus Club, Paris.

Erics, Liverpool

THE DRONES
Red Cow, London

Woods, Plymouth
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GENERATION X
THE CRABS
Rafters, Manchester

THE ADVERTS
Penthouse, Scarborough

ALBERTOS Y LOS TRIOS PARANOIAS
'Sleak'
Londons Royal Court theatre.

HAWKWIND
BETHNAL
City Hall, Sheffield