Watch The Clash play ‘Tommy Gun’ on pioneering punk show ‘Something Else’
Few bands in the punk scene possessed enough longevity to be considered truly great. Such was the ferocity of the explosive musical movement that its inhabitants were bound to be charred beyond recognition after the blast had subsided. Punk groups needed to evolve and develop a brand-new sound to escape such radiation. The Clash were one band who managed to do this most seamlessly, somehow incorporating a wide breadth of genres in their new sound without seeming to differ too far from punk ethics.
Having found their debut release, The Clash was quickly assimilated into British culture in 1977, the band were just as quickly atop the pedestal of punk rock. By 1978, with the movement already beginning to smoulder after the raging fires of invention had died out, The Clash were already trying to evoke the new sound that would permeate their greatest full-length release London Calling. One such song that showcased these steps towards cementing their legacy was ‘Tommy Gun’.
The Clash had already outlasted their perceived closest rivals, the Sex Pistols, when they began making their second album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope. While Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Paul Cook and Steve Jones heavily relied on the shock and awe approach of punk. Strummer and the band were more interested in using the platform of punk to spread their socially conscious message, something they succeeded in doing on ‘Tommy Gun’, a song about terrorism.
“In the late 1970s, the National Front [a right-wing extremist hate group] was spreading across England,” Strummer later reflected on the political sphere in which ‘Tommy Gun’ was born. “They were a terrorist group if there ever was one, but bands like the Clash were deemed dangerous, evil even, by Thatcher and the like,” the late singer then added about the right-wing fury that seemed to follow the punks around their creative process.
In the album liner notes to Clash on Broadway, Joe Strummer explained that he believed terrorists probably enjoy reading about their killings in the news, in a similar way to popstars would be elated with a rave review for their latest record. He told the NME: “I was saying us rock ‘n’ rollers are all posers and egomaniacs, but we know that terrorists are as bad, or worse than we are. They definitely love to read their own press… I know they dedicate their life to a cause, but they’re always posing for pictures.”
Despite any fury from the conservative core of Britain, ‘Tommy Gun’ would go on to be the band’s first top 20 hit, and it was because the group performed it whenever given the opportunity to be on television. Much like the below, which sees The Clash belt out the tune on Something Else, one of Britain’s brightest spots for brandishing new talent in the 1970s.
The show was built out of the need to develop TV shows specifically for “the youth”. To get around guessing what these kids with safety pins through their noses wanted on their televisions, they just employed them. Or as close to the stuffed suits of BBC would allow. That meant using a comparatively inexperienced crew and untrained presents; previously unheard regional accents began popping up, and there was minimal scripting in this magazine format, with ‘freeform discussion’ championed alongside the best new bands in the land.
The show would go on to influence countless other Youth TV shows like The Tube and The Word, but those programmes could never come close to the array of punk talent Something Else has in its vaults. One such performance saw legendary punk icons The Clash in their only televised performance for the BBC (after they refused to lipsynch for the weekly show Top of the Pops), playing ‘Clash City Rockers’ and ‘Tommy Gun’ in the 1978 appearance on the first airing of Something Else as well as a typically sardonic interview.
Watch The Clash perform ‘Tommy Gun’ on Something Else below.
