Ticket
The Apollo
2nd July 1978

First time we got to see the Clash, and I managed to get seats in the first few rows, right in front of centre stage. If it hadn't been so disastrous, it would have been a great start to the performance. The band made their way onto the stage without announcement, with the stage in complete darkness. The lights came on in a big flash, and the bank launched simultaneously into 'Complete Control'. Then all hell broke loose. It seemed that almost instantaneously, everybody in the twenty rows behind us surged forward - running across the tops of the seats, over other people - and within seconds the row of seats in front of us had collapsed backwards, trapping quite a few people by their legs - including me and my wife. Confusion reigned, and while people weren't exactly fighting, it was just as if we were caught in a riot, those who had caused the collapse totally ignoring the people on the floor that they were climbing over in their rush to get to the stage. Somehow or other we managed to extricate ourselves, and then started helping others to escape. The security people were no help - what I seem to remember is that they were more interested in throwing the wreckage of the chairs into the audience. Anyway, we finally managed to make our way back through the crush to the first transverse aisle, where we watched the rest of the gig. And the real disappointment was that we missed all of 'Complete Control', my favourite Clash song at the time. I never bought tickets for the front rows of the Apollo after that.