When The Clash blessed America with an iconic performance on their TV debut
It took a surprisingly long while before The Clash ever graced American TV screens.
A lot had happened in the preceding four-odd years. The Sex Pistols had already crashed and burned, The Damned flirted with cartoonish gothic camp, The Stranglers spun synth-soaked tales of aliens and ufology, and the Buzzcocks just about managed to eke some cracking singles before calling it a day in 1981.
But The Clash proved to be the original UK punk wave’s most successful export. Burning through 1977’s eponymous debut and the following year’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope, a jump into 1979’s London Calling’s double-LP canvas embracing rockabilly, R&B, and hard rock heft saw The Clash conjure an eclectic score to the similar social ennui pervading over The Specials’ ska reportage, chiefly unemployment, political failure, and the racial tensions up and down the country.
Such weighty grapple earned them the ‘only band that matters’ tag, earnestly believed by hardcore fans, if rubbing up some of the punk peers the wrong way. Still, The Clash would march into the 1980s with cocksure creativity, ready to crack the States like so many rock bands before them.
It was the right time. For years, the UK had developed a greater industry trend of the promo, a film accompaniment packaged with a single, should any band not make it to mime on Top of the Pops. Such a visual headstart meant a plethora of new wave groups had promos to offer for the new-fangled MTV machine, the music video network gobbling up clips from the likes of Duran Duran, Billy Idol, and The Police, catapulting them to stardom and triggering the Second British Invasion.
The Clash found themselves right on this pop cultural cusp. America’s musical beckoning had already cast its spell on The Clash, from their soaking up US rock forms to London Calling’s affectionate Elvis Presley pastiche cover, but an invite to one of the day’s briefly popular Stateside comedy shows would see The Clash take hold of America just as Billboard was starting to fill up with acts across the Atlantic.
They were the third act to ever play Fridays. The ABC network’s answer to NBC’s Saturday Night Live, The Clash musical spot on April 25th, 1980, served as many US music fans as their first introduction to the British punks.
All swapping positions with each other, with Paul Simonon behind the mic one minute, followed by Joe Strummer on vocals the next, The Clash tear through a four-minute set on their US TV debut, ‘London Calling’, ‘Train in Vain’, ‘The Guns of Brixton’, and ‘Clampdown’ before leaving the stage to a shrieking applause.
America would take to them immediately. Before long, Sandinista! and Combat Rock would thrust The Clash to one of the most essential names of the UK new wave, and they’d be headlining festival shows to as many as 140,000. Such career propulsion owed much to that pivotal Fridays show, however, the moment when the class of ‘77 punk group defied all expectations in their Billboard and MTV conquering.
