Thanks for dropping back in at the blog – hoping your Saturday went well wherever you may be. I’m trying to keep a number of ongoing series of features active on the site, one of which is Clash landmarks which looks in some detail at venues where The Clash played live or other significant places in the history of the band.  In part one of this post I started to look back at the venue just outside of Denver where The Clash started the US legs of the Combat Rock tour. Beginning a set of dates in Colorado is not typical for a band traveling over from the UK but that was how it was scheduled. 1982 was a year of intense touring for the band and the US dates came just 6 days break after a 22 date UK tour which itself was on the heels of an earlier US tour and dates in Asia. By the time they arrived in Denver they had already played more than 80 dates and it was only early August.

Back to the venue itself…..Red Rocks looks simply brilliant and the thought of a nice summer night there and a good band would be a brilliant mix. The setting itself is not something you will find in London of course as the sloped seating is shielded on both sides by huge limestone walls to create a natural bowl. As I lamented in the prior post its just a shame that ‘Live at Red Rocks’ (or any another venue) wasn’t part of the band’s history, whether that was due to the record company or the band I don’t have inside knowledge of course.

Remarkably a stage has stood and concerts were first held at Red Rocks over a century ago when entrepreneur John Walker (I know…coincidence!!)  saw the potential of the location.  He held a few concerts there in the early 1900′s and eventually in 1927 the city of Denver and the parks authority bought the site from Walker. The site was improved in the 1940′s and has held a regular concert series every summer since 1947. The Beatles even played there in 1964 as the venue began to host rock events which it did until 1971 when a riot took place at a Jethro Tull concert. (Jethro Tull get their first and only mention on the blog). Less risky acts were only brought in for a few years and later (1976) it returned to being an active rock venue. While the list of bands that have played Red Rocks is really impressive we’re focused on The Clash and the show in ’82.

The band were tight by all accounts and a set of more than 20 songs wasn’t over dependent on the new material from Combat Rock but pulled from a library that now stood at over a hundred possible songs. Allen Ginsberg also appeared onstage for his recital. Were you there? If so would love to hear your recollections. In addition this series will be greatly enhanced in general by any concert memories you have so I’ll always welcome your input if you have. I recommend you have a look at the official Red Rocks site for more images and audio, video and other goodies.

More soon…gotta run around in the heat for a while. – Tim *(thanks for dropping in)