STORY OF THE CLASH JOE STRUMMER(vocals guitar) MICK JONES (guitar vocals) PAUL SIMONON(bass) NICKY "TOPPER" HEADON(drums) 1976 JUNE: After nine abortive months with seminal punk outfit London SS, Jones(b June 26,1955,Brixton London) forms The Clash in Shepherd's Bush, London with Simonon(b December 15,1955,Brixton),who has never played before but learns bass guitar. Bernie Rhodes from Malcolm McLaren's Sex Boutique in London becomes their manager. Guitarist Keith Levene(later of Public Image Ltd) and drummer Terry Chimes join, and Strummer (b John Mellor, August 21,1952,Ankara,Turkey) is persuaded to leave R&B group the 101ers,which he formed in 1974 with Alvaro Pena-Rojas. AUGUST 13: The Clash give their first "official" public performance, in a London rehearsal hall. AUGUST 29: Formal debut gig (after an unannounced support slot behind the Sex Pistols in Sheffield, South Yorkshire)is at Screen On The Green, Islington, London. SEPTEMBER 20: Band play the 100 Club Punk Rock Festival, London, but club owners are wary of potential punk violence and gigs generally prove hard to find. Levene leaves the group after only five shows. OCTOBER 23: They play "A Night Of Pure Energy" at the ICA Theatre, London. DECEMBER 6: Band embark on the Sex Pistols' highly controversial "Anarchy In The UK" tour (all but three gigs will be cancelled). 1977 JANUARY 1: The Clash play the opening night of the Roxy Club in London's   Covent Garden. With record companies now showing interest in the punk genre, The Clash sign to CBS worldwide (after recording some demos for Polydor in December), a deal negotiated by Rhodes. Their debut album is recorded over three weekends .Chimes leaves and is replaced by "Topper" Headon (b May 30,1955, Bromley, Kent). MARCH: Group pull out as the support act to a John Cale tour. APRIL 9: Typically antagonistic debut single White Riot makes UK Number 38. APRIL 30: Featuring 14 rapid punk cuts, their album debut , The Clash, largely written by Strummer and Jones and produced by Mickey Foote, reaches UK Number 12, immediately showcasting their raw, aggressive, guitar-driven punk angst. MAY 1: The "White Riot" UK tour starts at the Roxy, with The Jam and the Buzzcocks as support bands (the Jam will pull out on May 29). Remote Control is released. MAY 9: London's Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park is vandalised during a Clash gig. JUNE 10: Strummer and Headon are each fined £5 in London for spray-painting "Clash" on a wall. JUNE 11-12: The duo are detained overnight in prison in Newcastle ,having failed to appear at Morpeth magistrates court on May 21 to answer a robbery charge relating to the theft of a Holiday Inn pillowcase. They are fined £100. The latest tour, which starts a few days later, is wryly named "Out On Parole". JULY 16: Group take an "Awayday" to Birmingham as consolation for the cancelled "Digbeth Punk Festival", to headline "Britain's Burning-The Last Big Event Before We All Go To Jail" at the Birmingham Rag Market, with the Slits, the Saints, Cherry Vanilla and the Tom Robinson Band. AUGUST 5: The Clash perform at the second European punk festival in Mont de Marsan, France. OCTOBER 8: Complete Control, recorded with reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, makes UK Number 28.The group spend an afternoon in a German jail after a dispute over a hotel bill which a promoter should have paid. DECEMBER: During a further UK tour, a punk riot ensures during the band's appearance at a gig at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, Dorset. 1978 FEBRUARY: Strummer is hospitalised for 11 days with hepatitis. MARCH 4: Clash City Rockers make UK Number 35.Their debut album, still not released in the US (where CBS deems it unsuitable for radio play), sells more than 100,000 on import, making it the biggest-selling imported album ever in the US. MARCH 30: Simonon and Headon are arrested in Camden Town, London for criminal damages, after shooting down racing pigeons with air guns from the roof of Chalk Farm Studios. Four  police cars and one helicopter are required to make the arrest. Fines this time will total £800. APRIL 30: Band headlines the "Anti-Nazi League Carnival" in London, organised by Rock Against Racism. JULY 1: White Man In Hammersmith Palais makes UK Number 32, as the group embarks on a 10-date UK tour at Granby Hall, Leicester, set to end on July 12 at the Top Rank, Birmingham. With some work already completed for a second album, they meet Blue Oyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman, and finish the project with him. JULY 8: Strummer and Simonon are arrested and fined (£25 and £50 respectively) for being "drunk and disorderly" after a show at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. SEPTEMBER 9: Group performs at London's Harlesden Roxy. OCTOBER 21: Rhodes is fired as manager after the band and CBS find him hard to deal with. He is replaced by one of  The Clash's early champions, Melody Maker journalist Caroline Coon. NOVEMBER 1: Rhodes, who has a contract giving him 20 per cent of the band's income, is granted a court order stating that all Clash earnings are to be paid directly to him. NOVEMBER 25: Their second album, Give 'Em Enough Rope, debuts at UK Number 2. DECEMBER 2: Band play two sell-out concerts at London's Lyceum Ballroom, as they begin their "Sort It Out" UK tour. 1979 JANUARY 6: Tommy Gun reaches UK Number 19,their biggest selling single to date. JANUARY 31: Group begin a North American tour in Vancouver, Canada, with Bo Diddley as the unlikely support act. FEBRUARY 17: They perform at New York's Palladium Theatre during the US leg of the tour, dubbed "Pearl Harbor '79", opening the show with I'm so Bored With The USA . MARCH 24: English Civil War reaches UK Number 25 APRIL 7: Give 'Em Enough Rope makes US Number 128 JUNE 23: Four-track EP The Cost Of Living, headed by a revival of Bobby Fuller's I Fought The Law, reaches UK Number 22. Coon and the band part company. AUGUST: Group record 12 songs in three days with veteran producer Guy Stevens(who had recorded their demo in December 1976), at Wessex Studios. SEPTEMBER: Their second US tour, with the Undertones opening, is dubbed "The Clash Take The Fifth" (a reference to temporary fifth member Mickey Gallgher, of Ian Dury's Blockheads, on keyboards). US  support acts include R&B stalwarts Sam And Dave , Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Lee  Dorsey, plus "new wave" country-rocker Joe Ely, and pschobilly band the Cramps. SEPTEMBER 21: Group perform at The Palladium, New York. OCTOBER 6: Album The Clash, belatedly released in the US, makes Number 126. NOVEMBER: A new album, completed with Stevens, is announced as a double retailing at a single-album price. DECEMBER 22: Released, as promised, at a single-album price, double album London Calling. Co-produced by Stevens (originally to have been called The New Testament, with its sleeve a pastiche of Elvis Presley's debut album) debuts at its UK Number 9 peak. DECEMBER 27: Group co-headline (with Ian Dury) the second of four benefit concerts for the people of Kampuchea, at London's Hammersmith Odeon. THE '80's