Back in 1984 a new version of The Clash (without Mick Jones or Topper Headon, who were replaced by three new members) was touring the US. The college radio station I worked at was promoting their show in Buffalo, NY. A few days before that show, several radio station friends and I drove to Oswego, NY to get some quick tape from the band. I was ushered into a room back stage along with my trusty tape recorder. After a short wait, Kosmo Vinyl brought in Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon.
I was a bit nervous but had a job to do. We had written down a few short things we wanted them to say on tape to promote our radio station as well as the upcoming show. The first one called our station “the only station that matters.” Joe was not happy with that at all, and I thought we might be ending before we even started. However, Kosmo quickly smoothed things over (for which I am eternally grateful) and Joe just winged it for a station promo. Then I gave them a paper with some information about the upcoming show, which was to take place at the University of Buffalo Alumni Arena.
Well, to my surprise, Joe and Paul struggled with “Alumni;” it turned out they were just not familiar with the word. At one point Joe looked at me and said “what is that?” I said something to the effect that “alumni are the people that used to go to that particular college.” “Ahhh” said Joe “the old boys.”
So, with that background, I present a short compilation of that raw tape. It includes Paul referring to the venue as the “Aluminum Theatre” and Joe cackling because of their struggles with properly pronouncing “alumni.” We also got Kosmo to recreate part of his standard intro of the band on that tour. Enjoy!