‘Dirk the Jerk’ replied, “There’s nowhere else to play. Mabuhay Gardens is the only club booking non-union punk rock bands in the entire Bay area“ - & he was right. But we decided to change all that. We Boycotted Mabuhay Gardens. Whoa! We asked our fave local bands to play 330 Grove St. wi/ The Dils. Dirk freaked. He told them all, “Play that Dils show, & you’ll never play here again.” 330 Grove Street was a 3 story Victorian hall, balconied, & ringed around a dance floor. The police came. A new tradition. A momentous success. The whole town opened up to freedom & sound that night; to this day. Temple Beautiful. Deaf Club. American Indian Center. Warehouses. Piers. Storefronts. Art show spaces, garages, parking lots, new clubs, etc. - all growing exponentially. Because of the courage of all involved in such a huge gamble- allbenefitted. The fans, the bands, promoters, artists, etc.; & the scene itself. Ours now. The Dils did all this, & more.
Joe Strummer in hospital
with the Dils' 2nd single.
Q: Excellent. What do you recall about your experience with the Clash?
Strummer had heard the 2nd single & liked it. He & Jones were in town to mix ‘Give ‘Em Enough Rope’ and managed to catch our final show @ the Mab. We met @ the Pinecrest afterward for burgers, where Joe told us; ”You’re the best f*#% band I’ve ever heard/seen”. He asked us if we’d like to tour. We were later offered the Santa Monica Civic show only. In retrospect, that was probably a blessing. We were then informed that we must join the musician’s union to play that show. We would have had to pay triple our take from the show to do this. ($ 350 each!) Peter Urban, our manager, had us join the I.W.W. instead; under the Entertainment chapter as Musicians. Totally legal, & it cost us but $25 apiece or so. That came back to bite us in the ass; as well as one other thing, too ...
I often worked at Iguana Studios (most of the punk bands rehearsed there), in exchange for Dils’ rehearsal time. (the other two never did) One night I see only one band on the chalkboard for the entire evening: the Smash. It turned out to be the Clash; running up the stairs (after the roadies had powered an unbelievable amount of equipment up already) with their collars around their faces like they anticipated some kind of ‘Hard Day’s Night’ screaming mob. HA HA HA HA !!!
John, Tony and Chip.
Joe & I smoked a fatty, him inviting me in repeatedly. Great fella. I had to decline; responsible for the studio, phones, etc. I called Chip, who sent Tony over. At this time there were flyers going ‘round saying that the Clash were “The Only Band That Matters”. This, understandably, did not sit well with the Dils. Tony arrives, starts messing around in our locker w/out saying a word to me. Jones, on a break, does a double take & says, “Tony! What’s new, man?” “Nothing you haven’t already heard or read”, he replied. Jones shrugs, & goes back into their room. Tony closes locker, waves to me, & leaves. Way to go, genius!
The Clash roundly ignored us throughout, apart from their junkie drummer, who sneered at my attempts to tune my tom toms off-mike. We got no soundcheck. We were told at 7:40 to go on at 8:00, not 8:45. We drank our complimentary room temp 7Up & went on. Hey! Chip was beet-red & about to collapse after 4 songs. The union sound men were all doing their jobs, after a fashion. They sabotaged us creatively, testing all frequencies, etc., Dils in nightmare dub. The union, it seems. Hella voice, for a moment, gone. Huge bass, oops! Where’s, oh - THERE’s the drums- oops! Fans screaming “What the f#*’s goin’ on?! We can’t hear you !?“ Bo Diddley & his ''band'', went on next- perfect sound. Then the Smash finally appeared. Coked to the gills, slick, soul dead. Girl punks were dragged from stage edge & cursed at by security, “Fuck you ho, shutup”. I nearly got stomped rescuing Gerber from them. The Smash were pounding away, oblivious to the BS 15 feet away. Some things never change. I came out of that quite disillusioned.
Q: So you never dealt with them again?
I met Strummer, & Jones, a few other times. They tried to buy our songs after our breakup. They were rejected.
PART ONE HERE
PART THREE HERE
Editors note: Joe Strummer photo by Shahn Kermani, which I scanned from Search & Destroy No.6 (1978)
Dils photo from Class War LP/CD on Dionysus Records.
My Chip Kinman interview
from April 2001.
