THE CLASH ON SUNDAYS (2)

Disc 2 is Capital Radio.

This was a 7″ EP released on 9 April 1977 but was only available to readers who sent off a coupon printed in the NME plus the red sticker found on the band’s debut studio album.

It contained four ‘tracks’ in as much as there were four separate listings:-

Side 1

1. “Listen” (excerpt)
2. “Interview with The Clash on The Circle Line (Part 1)”

Side 2

3. “Interview with The Clash on The Circle Line (Part 2)”
4. “Capital Radio”

It was a limited pressing and before too long, with demand having greatly outstripped supply, copies were changing hands for silly money.  Even now, a tattered and battered second-hand copy will fetch £20-25 on the second-hand market.

mp3 : The Clash – Listen (excerpt)
mp3 : The Clash – Interview with The Clash on the Circle Line (Part One)
mp3 : The Clash – Interview with The Clash on the Circle Line (Part Two)
mp3 : The Clash – Capital Radio

The interview was with Tony Parsons of the NME who also contributed the essay for the box set:-

CAPITAL RADIO : Released as an NME give away April 1977

On the day of the interview that appears here, me, Mick, Paul and Joe met on a tube station on the Circle Line. I had a big bag of speed. I’d met  ’em before and it was a great way to het to know ’em. I really loved the band. I think they thought this guy’s our ally. The main thing I remember is the four of us in the photobooth on Liverpool Street Station taking the speed and a policeman trying to get in.  It was early ’77, a fantastic time because it was all taking off. They could see the great adventure unfolding before them. We went back to Mick’s gran’s by the Westway and then we went to the Speakeasy. We were turned away for not being famous enough.

The next day, Julie (Burchill) and I went down the studio for the recording of Capital Radio as it was going to be an NME single, first 25,000 readers got one or something. We spent all day at the studio, watching them work. They were a band with three leaders, at the time they clearly loved each other like brothers do.

They had Terry Chimes on drums at that point, he was a good drummer but he was too ordinary, he didn’t realise the history of what was happening, he kept saying ‘There’s a Bing Crosby film on tonight.’ And I remember Mick Jones being shocked by this.

I remember Strummer improvising. ‘Don’t touch that Dial’. They knew then all the dreams were gonna come through. They were a great band, live, in the studio, great together, they looked like superstars walking down the street.

We were too tired to go to bed that night, and the Pistols played ar Screen on the Green really late. We walked in and Strummer was there, holding a baby. He joked, ‘This is mine!’ It seemed an impossibility that any of us would ever have children or grow up. Magical days.

Tony Parsons, novelist and former NME journalist