Black Market Clash Expands The Clash Story To Two Sets At The Curtin

Melbourne’s Black Market Clash will devote a full two-hour performance to The Clash this Friday, with a three-piece horn section and a vinyl collection spanning 10 LPs adding new depth to the live presentation.

by Paul Cashmere

Black Market Clash will take The Clash’s catalogue deeper than a conventional greatest-hits set when the Melbourne band presents The Story Of The Clash across two sets at The Curtin in Carlton on Friday 2 October, giving the group its first full two-set presentation of the project.

The performance will cover the five studio albums that charted The Clash’s development from the raw punk of their 1977 debut through to the broader musical territory of Combat Rock, while also drawing on singles, B-sides and other recordings that sat outside the original UK albums.

That broader catalogue is central to Black Market Clash’s approach. The set includes familiar songs such as London Calling, Rock The Casbah, Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Train In Vain and I Fought The Law, alongside deeper selections including Lost In The Supermarket, Rudie Can’t Fail and Revolution Rock. The official performance details confirm the two-set, two-hour format and the addition of a three-piece horn section.

The expanded format gives Black Market Clash more room to reflect the way The Clash continually changed their musical vocabulary. Punk remains the foundation, but the catalogue also reaches into reggae, ska, dub, soul and rock ‘n’ roll.

The horn section is particularly relevant to that story. Songs including Rudie Can’t Fail and Revolution Rock can be presented with arrangements that acknowledge the increasingly expansive sound The Clash developed as their records moved beyond the boundaries of their early punk material.

The five-piece Black Market Clash features Melbourne musicians Victor Stranges, Garry Allen, Stu Thomas, Mike Dupp and Gian Cannizzaro. Stranges, who founded Pop Preservation Society, has a personal history with the material that predates the current project by decades.

As a teenager, Stranges played drums in Melbourne punk band Drunk ‘n’ Disorderly, where Clash songs were part of the band’s pub repertoire.

“Having grown up listening to, learning and playing these songs, the music was absorbed through a sort of osmosis,” Stranges says. “It honestly feels like it’s in my DNA. I’ve lived with this music for most of my life.”

That connection is also reflected in the wider Pop Preservation Society series, which has developed live presentations around the work of artists including Blondie, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits. Stranges’ Songwriter Series has explored projects including New York Stories and Get Stiffed!, while Last Of The Angry Young Men: British Punk/Post-Punk Songsmithery is scheduled for November.

The Black Market Clash performances have also extended beyond live music. Stranges has produced companion films using documentary footage, archival interviews and imagery, placing the songs within the musical scenes and histories that produced them.

Friday’s Curtin performance follows the band’s sold-out Brunswick Ballroom appearance in June, where Black Market Clash shared The Story Of The Clash & The Specials with Loonee Tunes’ More Specials. The Carlton show is different in scale and structure, giving The Clash the entire evening rather than dividing the performance between two catalogues.

There is also a physical-record component to the night. One eligible paid ticket holder will be drawn during the intermission to receive five classic Clash releases on 180g vinyl, representing 10 LPs and a stated value of approximately $400.

The collection includes The Clash, Give ‘Em Enough Rope, the two-LP London Calling, the three-LP Sandinista! and the limited edition Combat Rock + The People’s Hall. The prize effectively mirrors the musical journey being explored on stage, connecting the live performance with the records that originally carried The Clash’s music into record collections.

For Stranges, that connection is personal. His background includes buying records, working in record shops and eventually making records himself, making the vinyl component more than an additional attraction to the event. It links the way The Clash was originally discovered with the way their catalogue is now being revisited live.

Black Market Clash’s The Story Of The Clash takes place at The Curtin, 29 Lygon Street, Carlton, on Friday 2 October. Doors open at 8:00pm, with the first set beginning at 8:30pm. The performance is for audiences aged 18 and over, with general admission tickets priced at $42.80. Official event information confirms the two-set format and the intermission vinyl draw.