As time went on and the atmosphere at The Clash’s live performances became increasingly charged, the band’s encounters with the police became more serious. According to Chris Saelwicz – who was in attendance — one such incident occurred in Glasgow in 1978 at the Apollo Theater, which was notorious for the gratuitous violence its bouncers used against punk audiences.
So upsetting was the sight of the audience being beaten that Strummer and his band left the stage, only to be confronted at the stage door by fans accusing the musicians of failing to intervene. Guitarist Mick Jones remembered (via The Daily Record): “When Joe came out the back door, he was so angry he smashed a bottle and was immediately jumped on by plainclothes policemen and he was arrested.” Paul Simonon, the band’s bassist who later wrote the incendiary anti-police anthem “Guns of Brixton,” reportedly tried to help Strummer, but was hit with a truncheon and also arrested and spent the night in jail alongside his lead singer.
Strummer was arrested once more during his time with The Clash, this time in Hamburg, Germany, in 1980, when, after audience members repeatedly took his mic to tell the band they had sold out, Strummer struck an audience member on the head with his Telecaster, drawing blood and horrifying the crowd. He was arrested for assault. Strummer later identified the moment as a “watermark,” when he realized that violence had gotten the better of him, per Saelwicz. He later claimed: “Since then I’ve decided the only way you can fight agro in the audience is to play a really boring song.”
