the legendary gig that joe strummer, singer from the punk rock band “the clash” attended and inspired his writing their classic ‘white man in hammersmith palais’ took place on the 05th june 1977. at the hammersmith palais venue on shepherd’s bush road w6, london during the height of punk mania. the full line up for the show were all jamaican artists dillinger, leroy smart, delroy wilson (all the first time from jamaica) and ken boothe. “ken boothe for uk pop reggae” who had already scored some hits with ‘everything i own’ and ‘crying over you’ in 1974. joe strummer was expecting roots, rock, reggae but the sound system this evening ‘admiral ken sound’ was playing ‘four tops all night’ as in soul and northern soul that were staple crowd pleasers at the time to warm up the audience, but in joe’s eyes the music should have reflected more jamaican roots based music. the song also deals with bigger issues of black and white unity, but some people including the punk rockers. “they’re all too busy fighting, for a good place under the lighting”. joe strummer himself was looking for fun. “i’m the whiteman in the palais... just looking for fun”.