“The chief of police came up to me in the cell and went, Is this the Englander who’s accused of beating up punks? Then he bent down and said, Good for you, mate.” Joe Strummer on the night a Clash gig turned into a bloody band versus audience riot

The Clash, 1980.

In 1977, on The Clash's debut single, White Riot, vocalist/guitarist Joe Strummer sang about wanting “a riot of my own” . He wouldn't have to wait terribly long to get one. In fact, before the year was out, the 11th hour cancellation of his band's scheduled debut Belfast gig, on the aptly-titled Out Of Control tour, resulted in punks facing off in the streets against the Royal Ulster Constabulary. 

This skirmish, however, was nothing compared to the violence the band would encounter two-and-a-half years later while performing in Hamburg, West Germany. 

“The first time we went there this guy was undoing my Doc Martens all night as we played, Strummer recalled in a 1988 interview with Musician magazine. “About the fifth time I said, The next time you touch it I’ll do you, ’cause I’m trying to sing.’ He touched me again, so I kicked him in the head. After the show I was in the washroom and he was washing blood off his face.”