Good Morning all. Woke up at 4:10am today like a bleeding 6 year old waiting for Father Christmas to do his thing. What am I doing up so early? For starters I went to sleep early for once (1030) and I’m also a bit anxious about a football match in Manchester in a few hours. I’m sure the motorway is jammed right now as both sets of fans make the long drive North from London. Speaking of football, it’s time for another in our Clash Landmarks series. Football also operates in the States, but as you know this version involves motorcycle helmets, 36 referees, seemingly 80 players per team and lots (and lots) of television adverts. Occasionally they will actually carry the smaller rugby ball a few yards, pile on top of each other and then it all starts again. This goes on for 3 hours and its the most popular sport in the country, needless to say it hasn’t gone global – nowhere else can find enough TV advertisers or referees. (or simply huge men). So…I speak of the NFL….not proper football of course but the sport that caused our next Landmark to be built in the first place.

move yourself to go again

The Pontiac Silverdome played host to The Who and The Clash on Sep 30, 1982 and I’ll cover the concert after we look at the building. Pontiac is (was) a large car manufacturer but is also a suburb of Detroit about 18 miles north of the city centre. In the last landmark we looked at the site of the first Clash concert in a tiny pub in Sheffield, six years later they were playing in buildings best suited to building aircraft or hosting american football.  I’ve driven past the Silverdome about 12 years ago but not ventured in (the Lions weren’t in session) and it struck me as immeasurably ugly and large both at the same time. Surrounded by car park concrete in a non descript primarily blue collar suburb it looks more like it fell from the sky as opposed to being part of a community. The large domed stadium was completed in 1975 with a (sports) capacity of 80,000 fans. Silverdome was named such due to the fibreglass panels of the roof and the colour of said panels when viewed from the air. Naturally enough the NFL season doesn’t provide enough revenue opportunities so as such many other events were hosted in the arena. The highest attendance was for a ‘Wrestlemania’ show (is that the right term?) of 93,000+ in 1987. Concert audiences were as high as 76,000 (Led Zeppelin) and about 72k saw The Clash that night. My only proper ‘view’ of the inside of the stadium was the Word Cup games that it hosted in 1994. It looked like a big old warehouse and the distance from the seats to the pitch looked daunting.

In September 1982 The Clash had entered into a tour supporting The Who. Many at the time saw this as the old guard handing over the keys to the next big thing. In terms of popularity The Clash were near their apex and it was a wise enough choice by The Who. Pete Townsend has always professed being a

silverdome interior

fan and the West London links are deep between the two bands. When I lived in Acton in the mid 80’s I had no idea that every crevice of that area was filled with the early days of The Who….this was mostly due to my obsession with The Clash.  Anyway, the tour was good for exposure for The Clash even if the forum (giant indoor and outdoor Stadia) was not. I’ve occasionally been to shows at huge venues to see support bands in preference of the headliner and it’s always (as a fan) a strange experience. Most recently I saw Supergrass support some large band from the Pacific Northwest (that’s today’s trivia question) and the whole event is odd. 90% of the people around you are more interested in discussing television, sports, boyfriends, anything but the band. The drum riser is left for the headline act, leaving your heroes a junior version. The set (in this case) was capped at about 11 tracks coming in at perhaps 40 minutes and when it ends no encore. Then the crowd refill on beer and wait for the main act as I headed for the exit. I’m not sure how well The Clash were received by Who fans, I’d guess your ‘average’ Who fan in 1982 about 28-35 years old, a different demographic to Clash fans of course but I think that the similarities to the bands might have created broader appeal in general, hard to say – I wasn’t there.

Tickets for the show were $15 and the gates opened as early as 3pm (stupid… as the first act Eddie Money wasn’t on stage until 730om). By the time The Clash finally appeared at 9pm the arena was pretty full and most people weren’t there to see the pretenders to the throne. Against a chorus of boos The Clash took to the stage and opened with London Calling, apparently they struggled to convert the crowd and it almost a struggle of fan versus non-fan. The fact that probably 2/3 of the crowd had aleady been inside the stadium in excess of four hours can’t have worked in favour of The Clash. In true awkward style instead of leaning on better known songs from London Calling The Clash dissected Combat Rock to the annoyance of many. It never got much better and a 45 minute set ended without an encore and left the masses ready for a bit of See Me…Feel Me.

Personally, I feel sports arenas are for sports. I’ve never been a concert at a football stadium and I’m sure I won’t. Nor have I asked Arsenal for a kickabout at my local club. It’s not just the distance from the stage, it’s the acoustics, the hassle, the toilets and the fact that it means some huge level of detachment for the band. It simply must. When you look at a band like u2 who probably haven’t played a hall of under 2,500 people since the 3rd album I’m amazed that they can still feel connected to their audience. Obviously the tour helped The Clash financially and paving the way for Combat Rock to become huge. I think they were on course to break the US market anyway and I wonder if those few months would have been better served playing ‘normal’ venues. If anyone visiting the blog attended this or another of the Who support shows please write in and share your memories.

Buy a dome

As for the Thunderdome…well the Lions left and moved back to the city and the big old dome is now used for very little. The city is trying to sell it to anyone  with enough cash and the ghosts of Mick and Joe trying to convert an all too large audience remain.

Final note – as I watch the funeral of Ted Kennedy, though this man had some flaws – he spent much of his life fighting for those with less, and pushing for the underprivileged and trying to forge a more balanced and equitable society. For those reasons alone – we’ve lost a good man.

Tim