“The energy was phenomenal”: how The Clash fired up the LA punk scene

Hi Spike! Where and when did you first encounter The Clash, and how did it affect your photography and outlook?
I first heard Give ’Em Enough Rope in 1978. My neighbour Don Snowden, a music writer for the LA Weekly, gave it to me in our Hollywood apartment building. It made an immediate impression – and then after listening to their first LP, I realised that authority was always to be questioned and that has always stuck with me. At the time I was working as a paparazzo – hotels, award shows, celebrities. It paid well enough, but I didn’t get much out of it. The Clash felt different: urgent, direct, and believable. I wanted to be closer to that world. The camera was how I did it.

What was the LA punk scene like in the late ’70s?
Unsettled, energetic and very DIY. LA was spread out, so the scene wasn’t centred in one place. Clubs like the Starwood, the Whisky, the Roxy, Madame Wong’s all mattered. People drove long distances for shows. There was no MTV, no national radio equivalent to the BBC, and no John Peel. If you wanted new music, you had to go and find it. The scene wasn’t punk in a narrowly British sense. It included art students, surfers, outsiders, freaks, queer kids and people with nowhere else to go. You could see very different bands on consecutive nights. Nobody had money, but there was a lot of intent.

How influential were touring British bands on the LA scene?
Very influential, though often indirectly. Most arrived with major label backing, so they already had status. Seeing them live showed local bands what was possible – in sound, attitude, and scale. The Clash carried particular weight. Their first US shows mattered. If they’d failed, it could have slowed the momentum of the LA scene. 2-Tone bands like Madness and The Specials also had a strong impact, although without the UK context it was shorter-lived. Even so, it fed into later American punk and ska.

What were some of the craziest things you witnessed at shows?
Crowds were physical. People climbed onstage, knocked equipment over, and security was often unprepared. PiL at the Olympic Auditorium was strange – the venue was used to boxing and wrestling, not punk. The Germs at Flipper’s roller rink was chaotic and barely held together. What stayed with me more, though, was watching bands develop quickly. The Go-Go’s changed noticeably within months. Unknown bands played small rooms with complete commitment. You could sense things forming, even if no-one was thinking in those terms at the time.

Tell us about the lead-up to The Clash’s first US shows in 1979…
By early 1979, expectations were high. The records were out, the singles were already well-known, and the local press was focused on their arrival. There was excitement, but also a sense that it mattered. They were controlled, intense, and convincing. The show they played at the Roxy [in April 1980] was the best gig I’ve ever been to – the energy was phenomenal.

How did you end up gatecrashing an official Clash photoshoot?
A friend blagged an interview by saying he was from the NME. I came along and started photographing while another photographer was setting up. It wasn’t deliberate – it just happened. The photographer wasn’t pleased, but it didn’t escalate.

And the LAX photos – how did those come about?
I checked which flights they were arriving on from previous tourdates and went to the airport. I was fortunate with the timing. They’d just landed and were unaccompanied, and they stopped to pose for me. The photographs reflect that – straightforward, unguarded moments.

Did you get to meet or spend time with the band?
No. I wasn’t looking to socialise. I saw them working, and they were consistently focused. They understood what the shows meant to the audience and took that seriously. They lived up to the expectations.

Spike’s exhibition Picture This: A Public Image is at Camden Open Air Gallery, London (Feb 27 – March 11), New Century, Manchester (March 23 – April 5) and Gallery 40, Brighton (May 12-16); the accompanying hardback book is available now from here