May 1985 the Clash busking in Leeds

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Jimmyv
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon 21 Apr, 2014 6:16 pm

Post by Jimmyv »

Tasa wrote: Jogon wrote: I thought I closed this? It's back.Has someone got a shoe box of photos. Too early for mobile phone footage.Where was this photo taken? S'posed to be Royal Park but don't recall that part of it? Yes, that's definitely the back terrace and garden of the Royal Park. I'm not sure if the terrace is still there as I haven't been there for years, but there are now flats built where the garden was. thats the back garden at the Royal Parkthe gig was organised by The Magnificent Seven who put benefit gigs on and invited local talent to play. The Clash just turned up and asked to play.i think there were 100 bands on that day

tnimbus
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat 08 Apr, 2017 10:22 am

Re: May 1985 the Clash busking in Leeds

Post by tnimbus »

I was cramming for my 2nd year Biochemistry exams in an attic room in Queens Road when I heard these guys walking down the road strumming guitars and looked out the window. Saw some guys heading towards the Royal Park and I went back to cramming & didn't go down the boozer that night.

The pictures above are definitely the back of the Royal Park.

Friends of mine were down there and one of them Donna, pinched Strummer's arse. The University Student paper ran a bit on it and I remember seeing the photos in it - maybe they keep a record....

They stayed with friends of a friend Martin. Story was that Strummer was so hard to get on with he was 'moved' around quite a bit as no one could spend any time with him.

Glad this is on here otherwise I don't think people would believe me when I recall the story.

jesusaubergine
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun 22 Oct, 2017 11:16 pm

Re: clash at royal park

Post by jesusaubergine »

Jogon wrote:I remember mates saying they'd seen them at the time.But the venues and sheer oddity of it seemed to rule it out and since then I've thought it a Leeds Rock-History Urban-Myth.Seems they played May 4th - Leeds pubs & clubs, then Le PhonographicMay 6th - Royal Park PubMay 7th - (outside) Leeds Uni then The FavershamCan anyone shed light and offer images or some footage?    
the actual date was may 5th. There was no multi-band gig going on though it is true The Magnificent 7 did organise such events, there at the Royal Park and many other venues. Fact is, we were allowed to rehearse upstairs and store our gear there in return for playing every thursday. That weekend we had been playing in Manchester friday 3rd and sat 4th. We returned to Leeds to drop the gear off beck at the Royal Park tea-timish. It so happens that The Clash were being subversive - turning up at pop concerts of The Alarm who they thought were crap rip-offs pandering to music execs. So they would give those queuing for this 'radical popcorn' music a taste what real anti-establishment punk sounded like. They waited for those queues to from down at the Royal Park - then we turned up unloading our instruments. They grabbed them and played an impromptu set. That's the story. They will have had their own guitars etc somewhere stashed for use later on and they might have gone elsewhere such as the Fav, but that's the story about them at the Royal Park.

jesusaubergine
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun 22 Oct, 2017 11:16 pm

Re: May 1985 the Clash busking in Leeds

Post by jesusaubergine »

PS It wasn't The Original Clash by then. Only Strummer and Simenon remained from earlier times. You can hardly see on the photo but the guitar Paul Simenon is playing has a couple of stickers on it- Wham and Take That, and that was back before it was hip to like either - I guess Paul chose that Washburn to play because he could distinguish crap pop from cool pop. Good man.

Cardiarms
Posts: 2993
Joined: Tue 21 Oct, 2008 8:30 am

Re: May 1985 the Clash busking in Leeds

Post by Cardiarms »

Can’t be a Take That sticker, they didnt form until the 90s. The The perhaps? I remember hearing about this but never knew it was true!

tonyodo
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat 22 Jun, 2019 2:13 pm

Re:

Post by tonyodo »

Ha ha - I was there - I have the pics - great night busking outside the Union and in the Fav car park
Jimmyv wrote:
Tue 22 Apr, 2014 2:32 pm
Tasa wrote: Jogon wrote: I thought I closed this? It's back.Has someone got a shoe box of photos. Too early for mobile phone footage.Where was this photo taken? S'posed to be Royal Park but don't recall that part of it? Yes, that's definitely the back terrace and garden of the Royal Park. I'm not sure if the terrace is still there as I haven't been there for years, but there are now flats built where the garden was. thats the back garden at the Royal Parkthe gig was organised by The Magnificent Seven who put benefit gigs on and invited local talent to play. The Clash just turned up and asked to play.i think there were 100 bands on that day

DeeVee
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon 14 Oct, 2019 5:25 pm

Re: May 1985 the Clash busking in Leeds

Post by DeeVee »

Hey Tonyodo,

I was beginning to doubt my own memory until I found this site and saw the pic further up this thread. I was at the Royal Park. Could you upload your pics somehow ?

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