Paris 1981 - The Beat, The Selector & The Clash

I was reminded recently of this gig which my mate Alan never likes to remember, he left, just after "Washington Bullets", and as some of you know, that was about the 4th song.

I was mad for the gig but had no idea how to get tickets.

I'd bored Reidy most of the day we arrived in the city and he kept saying "its a sell out, forget it".

We had a good day, up to Montmartre, then down along the ChampsElysees and up the Eiffel Tour, making a Fat Al stop on the way for a bag of fun sized Mars Bars.

As luck would have it, as we scaled the heights, then sat surveying the skyline, a guy looked over enviously at me munching my 4th mars bar. I threw one over and we got chatting.

He was English, London, good guy, I gave him another mars bar and asked if he'd heard of the Clash.

He said he was the tour manager.

I laughed.

He said he was.

I said I'd tried to buy tickets.

He said "I'll get you backstage passes."

I said "Ya Beauty! thank you!"

He said "write your names down"

I said "there you go"

What an encounter, I was to be honest sceptical, but I really liked the guy and if it was a wind up so be it, a couple of fun sized mars bars and a lovely thought for a few hours.

We turned up 4 hours later and said "oui, liste de guest"

I stil dont know what guest list is in french but we gave our names and they were there.

"Merci", and 2 backstage passes were handed to us.

I was blagged into oblivion. What the fuck. We've got into a gig nobody can get tickets for fuck fuck fuck what is going on......selector, Pauline Black ya dancer, how good is she, on ma radio, then the Beat mirror in the bathroom, rankin, oh how good is this.....then the Clash.....

I'm just heading off, not a big fan of the Clash....says Reidy......ya what!!!!!!!!!!!

As I got older I realised he was more EWF, yes Earth Wind and Fire, the band, not the game....

I danced for joy, shouted till i was hoarse and then went back stage and ate like a wee fat boy, well I'd finished the mars bars 4 hours earlier.....

I went back stage, and I said "hmmm, yeah, sorry my mate had to go home he felt ill....thanks again brilliant tickets, great gig and the buffet's no bad!

There's 4 members of the Clash, our man with the Mars Bar, another guy, 2 girls, me & platters of food. These guys dont look like they've eaten in weeks and I'm thinking another day's Bobby Sands' wont do them no trouble....

I'm Fat Al please enjoy the Buffet!