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Watch The Clash Perform ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ at 1983’s US Festival

the clash, should i stay or should i go, us festival dvd

By 1983, the Clash were one of the biggest bands in the world, but they were nearly at the end of their rope. In the preceding year, the group had a genuine worldwide hit single in “Rock the Casbah,” had embarked on an American stadium tour with the Who, and were imploding under all of the weighty contradictions that came with being global rock stars with self-avowedly socialist, working-class ethics. Their performance at the Steve Wozniak-organized US Festival (as in United Us in Song) in California in 1983 — from which the above performance of “Should I Stay or Should I Go” was taken for the Icon and Unuson-produced, Glenn Aveni-directed US Festival 1983: Days 1-3 DVD  — was the band’s last with founding guitarist Mick Jones. Though the band would carry on without him for a couple more years — and he and co-leader Joe Strummer would collaborate again — it was curtains for the Clash. US Festival 1983: Days 1-3, which also includes performance footage of U2, INXS, Stray Cats, the English Beat, Judas Priest, Missing Persons, and more, is due to arrive on December 3 courtesy of MVD. It will also be available for purchase via iTunes.