As Corvalis, Ore. Ska outfit Crazy 8s were making the ascension in the early 80s, they landed a gig opening for a little band called The Clash. Morning Show Producer Owen Murphy caught up with lead vocalist Todd Duncan about the band's encounter, including a bonding moment with Joe Strummer.
INTERVIEW BY OWEN MURPHY
TRANSCRIPTION BY ABBIE GOBELI
"They said, “we'd like to meet the band” and they said, 'sure, come on in.' I said, 'Hey Joe, I want to give you a present.' And it was a book called Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky – the old sixties kind of civil rights protest handbook kind of thing. He was really taken aback, he liked it a lot. He said, 'well the only way I'll accept the present is if you sign it to me.' So here I am—to Joe Strummer, Todd Duncan, Crazy 8s. So we talked about politics a little bit, had a picture or two and it was pretty much it—said hi to Paul and Mick. I didn't get to Topper the drummer, but the kooky part—we were so excited about that set. We had a forty-five minute set arranged and we were so excited, we did it in twenty-five minutes. It was like— the promoter goes, 'well you guys got to play for twenty more minutes.' So we just said, 'OK we'll just do the set again.'"
KEXP is celebrating International Clash Day all day long, both online and on the air; click here to see more KEXP interviews and articles.
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