Paris Residency
Supported by The Beat, Wah (and Zero de Conduite?)

updated 19 Feb 02
updated 08 Nov 06
updated September 2020 - added new tape, Audio 1
updated 9 Feb 2022 added ticket

Audio 1 - 2nd generation

Sound 3.5 - time 1hr 48mins - 23 tracks
The second generation copy is significantly inferior.

Audio 2 - Master

Sound 4 - time 1hr 48mins - 23 tracks

I Fought the Law

Newly found master (and miraculously saved)

CLASH, Paris-France, Theatre Mogador, 26 september 1981, SM aud master. When I found my old cassettes and tried to play them, it was impossible to hear a sound.

Changing shell for the first 90 mns, i had the chance to hear something but had to do several rips to get and choose a correct result (a miracle).

For this upload i used 3 portions : entire side A and 2 halfs for side B; after this i did separates EQ and volume adjustments with Audacity (on side B, the quality of one of the channels was inferior).

Sure this tape sounded better years ago, but i think i can't get a better result now. The 4 encores were recorded on a second tape also in a very bad condition : after 2 shell changes i only managed to rip the first song (Safe European Home), with a few flaws at the end.

Dimer xtopher helped a lot in order to present the complete show, THANKS MUCH : he sent me a good recording from that night (apparently a 2d gen running too slow).

First, i thought it was from my source because the flips were identical, but i finally think it's a different take, a closer recording with more distinctive vocals. To make it run correctly, i made it 1,06 faster. Jimmy Jazz sounds exc, seems the quality of the 2 next songs is inferior (because a wilder playing ?).

Anyway, this torrent is from my master (minus 3 last songs), and never circulated under this version here.

Recorded with Sonny TCD5 & a couple of Beyer M201 N mics (probably from the theatre balcony).Cassettes - Marantz SD 4051, pitch adjusted - Zoom H4 - SD card - PC - Audacity (eq, volume, tracks, Flac export) - md5 with TLH.

2nd generation copy

This evidently second generation audience recording is similar in quality to the 24^th although a little more distant, and is almost certainly by the same taper. It’s an enjoyable recording despite the distance of the taper to the stage and with bass boosted all the instrumentation comes through OK, preserving an excellent Clash performance.  If the 24^th tape has plenty of audience cheering and clapping then this recording is the ultimate in audience participation! The enormously enthusiastic audience surrounding the taper sing, cheer, scream and clap throughout and if as a result it does not focus on the music played as much as it could it undoubtedly captures the special atmosphere in the theatre. 

Also check the Boot LP Up and At Em!

which contains a compilation from 24-30 September 81

Video - Antennae 2 with Freddy Hauser

Safe European Home partly & interview - date not known

Broadcast 4 octobre 1981 Freddy HAUSSER a suivi les CLASH lors de leur tournée parisienne. Des extraits du concert des CLASH donné sur la scène du théâtre Mogador viennent illustrer une interview des membres du groupe: Installés au comptoir d'un café, Mick JONES, Paul SIMOMON, Joe STRUMMER et Topper HEADON se présentent bièvement et évoquent la fin de leur tournée française. Images d'archive INA Institut National de l'Audiovisuel http://www.ina.fr Abonnez-vous

wildly enthusiastic sold out audiences

The Clash’s Paris residency in 1981 was a commercial and artistic success. The seven sold out audiences were wildly enthusiastic, almost adulatory and the resulting electric atmosphere in the packed Theatre de Mogador fired The Clash to deliver terrific charged and inspired performances. The audience recording from the 26th (4th night of 7) provides ample evidence of this. The band are on fire particularly in the second half of the concert and there is no evidence here of the growing gulf between Mick and Joe, indeed Mick’s singing on the increasingly rare White Riot is very enthusiastic indeed. 

The Clash continued at the Mogador to trail blaze the pushing back of the narrow musical barriers of white rock music; playing rap, funk, and reggae, with Futura 2000 rapping (and also painting a graffiti backdrop as the band played) and tonight Ranking Roger toasting on Police and Thieves. In addition

Zero de Conduite

Furthermore with echoes of The Brattles at Bonds the band are joined on the encores by the singer of the punk group Zero de Conduite aged 9 or 11! 

The Ledoux brothers Johan (born in 1972) and Guillaume (in 1970) were closely involved with the music scene from an early age, accompanying their parents to all the major French folk music festivals almost as soon as they were old enough to walk.  

However, by the end of the 70's the Ledoux brothers' musical taste had undergone a radical transformation. Johan and Guillaume deserted the folk music circuit after discovering the thrilling world of punk, abandoning flutes and violins to listen to the thrashing guitar sound of the Clash and Gun Club.  

Inspired by their punk rock idols, it was not long before Johan and Guillaume decided to form their own band. In 1981 the brothers got together with two friends of their own age - Anne-Sophie Bolender (on vocals) and Franck (on bass guitar) - to form the group Zéro de Conduite, who soon began performing their first gigs.  

The young group had barely got their career off the ground when they were spotted by talent scout/artistic director Bernard Batzen. Impressed by Zéro de Conduite's raw energy and fresh-faced talent, Batzen helped the group kickstart their career. And by 1983 the Ledoux brothers and their friends would find themselves performing as support group for their punk idols Gun Club at the Printemps de Bourges festival. 

The young French rockers would then go on to fulfil another teenage dream, supporting their British punk idols the Clash. In 1984 Zéro de Conduite were also invited to perform at the inauguration of the new Paris music venue Le Zénith, where they shared the stage with a host of top French stars.  

Besides playing all these high-profile concerts, Zéro de Conduite were also busy at work in the studio. In the course of their highly successful career, the group would record five singles and an eponymous album (released on the Off the track label in 1988). In spite of their lightning rise to fame, however, Zéro de Conduite would decide to split when they were in their late teens. 

However, barely two years after the demise of Zéro de Conduite, the Ledoux brothers resurfaced on the French music scene with a brand new group called Blankass who covered “Death or Glory” and have enjoyed some success and longevity.

It maybe that Zero de Conduite supported The Clash on this gig or it may have been later, but certainly a very young voice is heard on the encores and a number of accounts attribute this to Zero de Conduite. The photo below from the Mogador shows a very young guest vocalist much to the very apparent amusement of Mick and Joe.

Tickets

Crashing power chords sound great at the start of One More Time

The recording begins with audience cheers then an edit goes into the start of Broadway. Joe sounds distant but on good form, speaking his lyrics at one point for effect. Mick’s guitar playing is great at the Mogador and the recording captures it quite well, his crashing power chords sound great at the start of One More Time. The highly enthusiastic audience chant then clap along loudly to a, powerful and committed performance. There are some adlibs on a fine Radio Clash with an improvised ending. Mick’s backing vocals sounding clearer than Joe’s reflecting presumably the position of the taper.

Despite the unfamiliarity, the audience give a very warm response to the many new songs played tonight. Know Your Rights sounds like a song in transition with Joe talking the lyrics over the music including “you have the right to free speech, as long as its not the truth, or anything to do with the truth and furthermore in anyway connected to the truth” and as such is not as effective as the later performances where the lyrics are integrated into the music.

Guns of Brixton shouts Paul to cheers and Mick plays some great guitar as the audience sing along. “Don’t forget your seat,” says a cryptic Joe before Charlie Don’t Surf. Mick sings lead vocals (and plays some great imaginative guitar) before Joe comes in adlibbing about  “napalm, neutron, its Saigon gold, Saigon pop music, Saigon prostitutes” but most is unclear. The band drop it right down to a hushed ending then with a scream from Joe and a double drum pattern from Topper the band blast into Magnificent Seven. Again not extended, as at Bonds for example and it’s a fine if unexceptional performance as is Train In Vain with the audience clapping along enthusiastically. 

“Any requests?” asks Joe to the audience “Would you like to hear Little by Little… this here’s Topper Headon” Ivan Meets GI Joe is followed by an intense Clash City Rockers and Koka Kola (returning at Mogador to the set after a gap since June 80).  A sing-along Bankrobber ends the first CD, the band clearly enjoying themselves.

The second CD begins with The Leader strangely without the usual lead guitar intro (or there is a particularly seamless edit). Performances tonight are all good but from Washington Bullets onwards the band hit a higher level with some terrific performances, the band feeding off the energy of the audience. Mick plays some terrific guitar and the band improvise an extended performance including Joe who comes up with an adlibbed section “Gonna sing this song, but it won’t take long, about Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, about how they got together to? let me tell the children?” 

“Hungry darkness of living who has been in the pit” almost whispers Joe before Topper and Paul come in at the start of an extended Ghetto Defendant, (another new song in development with a number of lyric differences to its recorded incarnation). Joe is in great form singing his new urban lament with some different lyrics  “…without ever once tasting that pie in the sky” A pause in the song, the audience cheer thinking it’s the end but the band continue almost instrumentally with Joe screaming  “welcome to the city.. tear gas, dream ends as it starts” and then as the music drops to a hush whispering his lyrics at the end just as at the start. 

Joe in his best French introduces Futura 2000 who has been painting the backdrop as the band play, ”Maintenant pour le premier fois en temps nous presentment graffiti de New York Monsieur Futura 2000!”  Mick plays some great guitar over Futura 2000 rap vocals on his Escapades of Futura 2000 but the song drags on somewhat but is then followed by a fresh and spirited sounding Should I Stay or Should I Go. “Lets sing a song for Texas,” shouts Joe and Topper’s drums thunder into a blistering I Fought The Law.

“Now we switch on the atomic power” and the energy levels continue to peak on a fired up Clampdown. Joe adlibs a plenty “Atomique, Shanghai , just waiting to be melted down, have you seen a burning human?  Switch on the microwave!”

The terrific ending to the main set continues as Mick picks out the intro to a passionate Somebody Got Murdered. The band really responding to the energy of the audience who on London Calling sing along seeming to know every word! Mick and Joe sound really fired up and the main set ends on a high. 

The audience roar for more and there is an edit, which goes into the first encore with the start of a lengthy intro to an 8 minute Police and Thieves. The audience clap along and roar as the band go into the familiar start of the song. Joe adlibs  “down the Champs Ellyssee, I see the flic, (Police)” and then Joe shouts “Rrrrrrrrroger!” and Ranking Roger from support band The Beat comes to the microphone and toasts on Police and Thieves for the first time. The audience sing along in time to the rhythm “Oh- oh - ooh- AAAAH!” Finally Topper’s drum rolls bring the song to a conclusion.

An edit then restarts into the start of Safe European Home (which may have lost a song(s)?)“Par avion!” shouts Joe as the audience provide the backing vocals! A young voice is heard over the ending talking in French, presumably the singer from Zero de Conduite. The youngest Clash guest vocalist remains at the microphone on a terrific Jimmy Jazz. Joe adlibs “So I said je ne sais quoi, who is this man? Where does he come from? Do you have a photo? And the Policeman he says don’t you give me any of that kind of lip or I’ll put you so far back inside that they won’t find the keys, as I’ve got to find this man the public enemy No1. Does he have long black hair, does he have a black moustache above his eyes or is he walking around with an Arab head dress on somewhere down in Piccadilly! Now how is this word spelt, drummer take it down J-A-Z-Z” Mick plays some great guitar lines. The band then blast into Janie Jones and leave the stage. 

The audience roar for more and get their reward after an edit. “You tell me what night is it tonight?” says Joe and Topper beats out the intro to White Riot which features by then a rare full and committed participation of Mick Jones who sings along whole heartedly. As a memorable performance ends the audience are still cheering for more as the young voice still at the microphone says “C'est fini!”

Did you go? What do you remember?

Info, articles, reviews, comments or photos welcome.
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Setlist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26	Broadway One More Time This is Radio Clash Know Your Rights The Guns Of Brixton Charlie Dont Surf Magnificent 7 Train In Vain Ivan Meets GI Joe Clash City Rockers Koka Kola Bankrobber The Leader Washington Bullets Ghetto Defendent Grafitti Rap Should I Stay I Fought the Law Clampdown Somebody Got Murdered London Calling Police and Thieves Safe European Home Jimmy Jazz Janie Jones White Riot

Also check the Boot LP Up and At Em! which contains a compilation from 24-30 September 81

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11	Somebody Got Murdered This is Radio Clash Know Your Rights Grafitti Rap Should I Stay or Should I Go The Magnificent Seven Ghetto Defendent Lightning Strikes Instrumental Overpowered by Funk Innoculated City Hit the Road Jack