In Clash lore, the band's stint as the opening act for the Who's farewell tour in 1982 is where the band had stardom in its hand and dropped it on the floor. That's how Joe Strummer phrased it in retrospect, but in 1982 the pairing was seen as a rock cultural clash, with the Who's audience bristling at the punks, and the punks not quite being comfortable operating on a larger scale – a suspicion somewhat proven by the band's implosion within months of the Shea Stadium gig.
The Who’s 1982 tour, which was all in North America apart from two warm-up dates at the Birmingham NEC in England, was their last to feature Kenney Jones on drums and they wouldn’t tour again until 1989. The tour promoted the recent “It’s Hard” album, which had been released in June 1982, and the set list included a number of tracks from that album, some of which the band would only play live on this tour.