with Paul, Mick and Joe
Broadcast 21 April 1981

thx to andy (cheshire) for lending the master tape

last updated 5 Mar 2005

cdr - FM / from tapers master.

Very rare recording

Recorded sometime in mid ’81 around the time when it was rumoured the Clash were putting out a pirate radio show.

In the days of no digital tuners, finding 103.8 FM was like hunting for the needle in the haystack. You kept tuning until you found something that sounded vaguely like the Clash. So this tape is a very nice find, probably the only one in circulation. The sound is great, true FM and merits a 5.

On Friday’s the same pirate station (Open Access Radio) broadcast DBC (Dread Broadcasting Corp.) and you would just listen out for reggae – no one else but John Peel on UK-BBC Radio 1 played it on the radio in those days.

Radio Clash was an ongoing project that never got off the ground in reality. The band wanted to start their own radio station where music could be played free of commerciallity and the spin gurus of music hype and taste. This was about as near as the band got, but it has a great playlist and as the band often said, shows how music could be so much better on the radio.

A great listen and the band, mostly paul, while they dont say a lot, are in foolhardy mood. They use the Radio Clash songs intro as the stations 'jingle'.

"RADIO CLASH pirate broadcast:

....(1) I can shed some light on this broadcast, I recorded it live off air on the 21st April 1982 at 309 Portobello Rd the last house on the block & just around the corner from Paul's flat in Oxford Gardens (you can see this building on the top left of the picture on your website).

At the time, I worked at Better Badges just across the road at 286 Portobello Rd. We of course all knew about the broadcast so I was ready with my finger on the pause button. I think it was also broadcast AM though the stereo mastertape of the show was offered to me by little Shaun who gets forceibly drugged in the Hell W10 film (just outside Better Badges funnily enough), I thought a fiver was too much & declined his offer!  

It is true that DBC also broadcast on the 103.8 MHZ [FM] wavelength and in August that year they broadcast from my flat on Portobello Rd during the Carnival.

I know copies eventually got out as it got duplicated at FO Wreckords on Portobello Rd around that time. I also remember that little Shaun (he wasn't particularly little actually) had an amazing quality mixer tape of one of the Fair Deal gigs which he intended to broadcast & even made handbills for & stuck around Ladbroke Grove in '82 (I've got one somewhere) but he had no contact with the pirates & it never happened, that tape was also for sale, I should have bought it!

I also remember seeing the shooting of Hell W10 quite frequently during the winter of  '82 & into '83 around Portobello & Oxford gardens areas."

We also have this piece of additional info from the taper

I can categorically confirm that the show was broadcast on the Open Access Radio FM channel 103.8 in stereo. Both I and a mate based in two areas of Langley, nr Slough, approx 20 miles outside London picked it up and taped it live from air.

The reason we knew it was going out? - there was a single line in tiny font detailing the event at the bottom of the gossip page of the NME - was it called Teezers from recollection? I knew nothing about an AM broadcast but I somehow doubt that the FM was a rebroadcast. Maybe it went out on both transmission formats at the same time?

I have no reason to doubt the date 21st April 82. I've since seen a poor sound quality "official" tape bootleg of the event and again 21st April 82 is confirmed as the date.

Joe/Mick/Paul's playlist for
OAR Radio Clash:

1. Cuss Cuss - Lloyd Robinson (edited)
2. Hold Them - Prince Buster
3. Heart Don't Leap - Dennis Walks
4. Shotgun - Junior Walker & The All Stars
5. Out’a’sight – James Brown
6. Mexico - Lee Dorsey
7. Brand New Cadillac - Vince Taylor
8. Help - Bo Diddley
9. Rockers’ Station - Mikey Dread
10. Geronimo - The Pyramids
11. What Will Your Mama Say (We’re In Love) - Clancy Eccles
12. Walkin’ To New Orleans - Fats Domino
13. Blood On The Saddle - Tex Ritter
14. I Fought The Law - Bobby Fuller
15. Crawfish - Elvis Presley
16. Old-Fashioned Way - Keith Hudson
17. Tell Them (One-One) - Delroy Wilson
18. Chain Gang - Sam Cooke
19. Clean-Up Woman - Betty Wright
20. Lights Out - Jerry Byrne
21. Brand New Automobile - Bobby Kingdom & the Bluebeats
22. Hijacked - Joe Gibbs
23. Outtro (?)

Any further info / reviews
appreciated