The Clash
This Clash show was at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on The Mall in London. It is a small hall probably with a capacity of about 700 people although on this night it was filled to overflowing.
The Clash were playing some of the new songs from their upcoming album Sandinista! named after the Nicaraguan guerilla group . This was the first time they were performing these songs in front of their fans.
The problem for a photographer in these situations is that you have to try and squeeze your way to the front of an excited crowd that is bouncing up and down and don’t want to let you through. on this particular night I had just come in from a cold winter’s night into a hot and sweaty club. The lens on my camera steamed up immediately and it took 20 minutes for the condensation to clear from the lens’ inner surfaces. It was very frustrating looking through my camera to see a ‘soft-focus’ image of The Clash! I only managed to get about five frames that were not totally blurred.
