“These people are cannibals”: The Clash gig that helped launch Shane MacGowan
Despite the anti-establishment ethos and raucous music, when thinking about it deeper, it becomes clear that the first wave of British punk managed to capture the imagination through the savvy use of PR. Whether it be the contrived stunts of Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols or more slipshod moments that resonated, the punks knew how to weaponise the media to their benefit. It was this that also played a crucial part in The Clash’s rise and the launch pad of the madcap punk poet himself, Shane MacGowan.
While MacGowan will always be most famous as the frontman and lyrical visionary behind The Pogues, he got his first break as a musician as the frontman of The Nipple Erectors. This band not only had the best name in punk but also held the rare accolade of appealing to industrial pioneer Genesis P-Orridge, who wasn’t a fan of the genre’s traditionalist trappings but somehow liked them a lot. Fans often forget that despite being culturally Irish, MacGowan was born in Kent, went to school in London, and immersed himself in the pub rock and then punk movements years before hitting the big time.
Although The Clash and MacGowan might be musically different, their stories are interlinked, and their spirits aligned. While the former delivered several important shows in the early days, the most infamous during their rise was ‘A Night of Pure Energy’ on October 23rd, 1976. Following the momentous 100 Club Punk Special, punk was now fast taking hold of the nation, with violence becoming also associated with it due to the wild, alcohol-fuelled shows and their tendency to descend into physical chaos.
It might seem strange given its tendency to house refined music these days, but ‘A Night of Pure Energy’ was held at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. Even more bizarrely, due to unsubstantiated claims of cannibalism that occurred during their set, it proved to be a PR masterstroke that prompted much intrigue for those wanting to get into punk and were unfamiliar with the Joe Strummer-led outfit.
The gig was opened by Subway Sect and Snatch Sounds, with The Clash as the headliners. Featuring a who’s who of the punk movement, Patti Smith was there from across the pond, too, as she’d just played a duo of shows in Hammersmith. She even got stuck in and danced on stage to The Clash track, ‘I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.’.
Strangely, two weeks after that rowdy evening, on November 6th, the NME ran a story about the show by Barry Miles. Carrying the deliberately sensationalist headline “CANNIBALISM AT CLASH GIG” with the subtitle, “But why didn’t anybody eat MILES?” it did exactly what was intended: to create a stir among a Britain frightened to death by punks.
One part of the article read: “My God, they’re eating each other. These people are cannibals! The young man howls with pain as his blood-spattered young lady is dragged away, all the while trying to slash her own wrists. But for the dudes in the audience it’s just a regular Saturday gig. Maybe they eat earlobes themselves?”
A pair of misleading photographs by Red Saunders backed up the attention-grabbing headline. Featuring MacGowan and ‘Mad Jane’ Crockford, later of the Mo-dettes, they conveyed an image of pure punk carnage, leading to some actually believing cannibalism had occurred. The talking point of the photos was that MacGowan could be seen with blood pouring from his right ear, with it seeming as if it had been bitten off.
In true punk style, though, the claims of cannibalism would later be dispelled by some of those who were there, Clash members Strummer and Mick Jones. In the biography The Clash, they put the rumours to bed. Jones said explicitly: “He didn’t really have it bitten off, you know.” However, Strummer was in no doubt about how the accident increased their prominence: “Without Mad Jane’s teeth and Shane’s earlobe, we wouldn’t have got in the papers that week.”
As well as launching The Clash, that strange moment was just the beginning of Shane MacGowan, the cultural icon. There were many hell-raising moments to come. This includes his predilection for waving his member at unsuspecting train passengers from Bono’s bathroom. Looking at it retrospectively, ‘A Night of Pure Energy’ was a perfect way for him to introduce himself to the world.
