The Clash released “This Is Radio Clash” as a UK single through CBS on November 20, 1981. Its combination of funk, rap and dub continued the musical experiments of Sandinista!, but this recording had a life of its own: it never appeared on the band’s original studio albums.
The band had already made room for rap and dub across the three records of Sandinista!, released in 1980. Its opening track, “The Magnificent Seven,” grew from their encounters with New York’s emerging hip-hop scene. “This Is Radio Clash” continued that interest in music built around a groove, with the single’s multiple mixes giving the band room to revisit and reshape the same material.
One of the people helping finish it was engineer Joe Blaney at New York’s Electric Lady Studios. Blaney had been working there as a technician when the opportunity came along. “They needed to finish the single really quick,” he recalled in a 2014 interview with Kamikaze. He worked with the band on the single’s mix and went on to record Combat Rock, released in 1982. An urgent job finishing one record had become a working relationship that carried into the next album.
The lyrics put the band’s politics at the center of the groove. The song imagines The Clash transmitting from an unauthorized station, sending their message into listeners’ homes. References to curfews, military violence, civil liberties and nuclear danger give that broadcast specific subjects to confront. The radio imagery can be read as an argument about access: who gets heard, who controls the signal and whether music can carry a message across borders.
That broadcast theme runs through the different versions. On the seven-inch, the A-side was backed by “Radio Clash,” a remix with different lyrics. The small difference between the titles matters: these are distinct versions. The UK 12-inch placed them together on its first side, then used the reverse for “Outside Broadcast” and “Radio 5.” With two versions on each side, listeners could follow the recording through four treatments. Even the titles suggest a station moving between transmissions, making the sequence part of the experience.
The single peaked at No. 47 on the UK Singles Chart and spent six weeks on the chart. Its run began in late November and continued into January 1982. The song subsequently reached listeners through compilations, where its closely related versions sometimes caused trouble.
Some editions of Super Black Market Clash contained the B-side “Radio Clash” but labeled it “This Is Radio Clash.” The US edition of The Essential Clash repeated the error in 2003. For listeners following the printed title, that meant encountering the alternate lyrics while expecting the original single. Dropping those two words from the title identified a different recording, something the compilation listings obscured.
The 2006 Singles Box gathered “This Is Radio Clash,” “Radio Clash,” “Outside Broadcast” and “Radio 5” together again, preserving the sequence of the original 12-inch and reproducing its sleeve artwork. All four versions could be heard in order on one CD.
