If Music Could Talk

And your impressions? Mine was Newcastle Mayfair 1980. just listening now for the first time in ages. I think I bought it before I heard Sandinista so I heard Somebody Got Murdered here first, the LP version sounded kinda tame when I finally heard it. I ended up listening to this bootleg more than the albums at the time as I loved the atmosphere of the gig. It's rough and ready but compared to the 1983 show I listened to last week they are on fire. The worst thing is I have a few mates who were at the gig who now taunt me about how great it was.

Hammersmith Odeon, 27 Dec 79. Bought this one for around $50 in 1988 or so. Don't recall specific impressions, but I wasn't especially wowed by it, but that can be almost entirely attributed to the fact that at that time I preferred studio versions by any band.

Heston wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 6:04pm

And your impressions? Mine was Newcastle Mayfair 1980. just listening now for the first time in ages. I think I bought it before I heard Sandinista so I heard Somebody Got Murdered here first, the LP version sounded kinda tame when I finally heard it. I ended up listening to this bootleg more than the albums at the time as I loved the atmosphere of the gig. It's rough and ready but compared to the 1983 show I listened to last week they are on fire. The worst thing is I have a few mates who were at the gig who now taunt me about how great it was.

That's a hell of a first bootleg to get. Non-soundboard and a fucking chaotic show.

First live stuff was FHTE for me. First bootleg was probably Give Em Enough Dope. Both were pretty exhilarating. Cap Radio live vs. studio is incredible.

My first was technically Rat Patrol, but the first live one was 9.21.79 at the Palladium. As I recall, it blew me away. It would be many more years before I'd learn to hate them.

Kory wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 7:14pm

My first was technically Rat Patrol, but the first live one was 9.21.79 at the Palladium. As I recall, it blew me away. It would be many more years before I'd learn to hate them.

I first heard Rat Patrol on tape in 1994 and it was just a ball of hiss. I pray we will get a full release one day, if only for Inoculated City.

Heston wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 8:01pm

Kory wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 7:14pm

My first was technically Rat Patrol, but the first live one was 9.21.79 at the Palladium. As I recall, it blew me away. It would be many more years before I'd learn to hate them.

I first heard Rat Patrol on tape in 1994 and it was just a ball of hiss. I pray we will get a full release one day, if only for Inoculated City.

I want that Car Jamming too.

Kory wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 8:17pm

Heston wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 8:01pm

Kory wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 7:14pm

My first was technically Rat Patrol, but the first live one was 9.21.79 at the Palladium. As I recall, it blew me away. It would be many more years before I'd learn to hate them.

I first heard Rat Patrol on tape in 1994 and it was just a ball of hiss. I pray we will get a full release one day, if only for Inoculated City.

I want that Car Jamming too.

Yeah, and whatever alternate mixes of Overpowered By Funk exist.

My second boot was the NY Palladium show you mentioned, I loved Mick's guitar sound on that.

It was either the 9th of June Bonds show or Lochem, every second hand store I went into always had those two boots for sale. I loved them both equally simply on the basis it was the only live Clash I had for several years. It was strange to learn many years later that the Lochem show had such a low rating, I still love it unquestioningly to this day.

Mine was Milan 21/05/1981 in the early/mid eighties

My first thoughts were how tinny the sound was. I got to love the live versions of Bank Robber & the Call Up of which I did not really appreciate the studio versions. It was only in the last few years that I realised that Joe shouted 'missed you c**t' because someone threw something at him.

It was a long time later that I realised how spoilt I was.

Low Down Low wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 10:02pm

It was either the 9th of June Bonds show or Lochem, every second hand store I went into always had those two boots for sale. I loved them both equally simply on the basis it was the only live Clash I had for several years. It was strange to learn many years later that the Lochem show had such a low rating, I still love it unquestioningly to this day.

I love bits of Lochem, Police and Thieves especially.

SF '82 or Leicester '77, I think.

"What a Norman!"

Heston wrote: ↑

21 Jul 2017, 7:11am

Low Down Low wrote: ↑

20 Jul 2017, 10:02pm

It was either the 9th of June Bonds show or Lochem, every second hand store I went into always had those two boots for sale. I loved them both equally simply on the basis it was the only live Clash I had for several years. It was strange to learn many years later that the Lochem show had such a low rating, I still love it unquestioningly to this day.

I love bits of Lochem, Police and Thieves especially.

Yeah its a bit fucked up in parts alright, but the high points are great. P&T is spectacular and SEH, Guns, Ghetto, KYR and Mag 7 are all good on it.

Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Feb 1979. Bought as one of those cassette dubs with photocopied insert at a record fair in about 1983, and I still have it (complete with what looks like actual letraset labels on the tape shell, i.e. not photocopied - the dealer must've been bored/ obsessive about his product)
Like loads of those tapes it plays back miles too fast, but dammit, while the band were imploding at time of purchase (if not already post-Mick, I can't remember) THIS reminded me why I loved them.
First 2 albums' material, loads of chat and attitude from Joe, an audience that sounded more like a riot (with people clearly suffering from the crush), and it was in glorious stereo with Mick and Joe's guitars panned hard left and right so you could really hear Joe's ferocious rhythm work. Marvellous stuff.
I've got it on CD since in speed-corrected, upgraded form and still can't understand why this hasn't been leaked in a longer form, or had an official release of some kind.

Down At The Casbah Club. Got it during the summer of 1984, I think, while spending a week in Chicago with a friend of mine -- I marveled at the weird silver and red cover, and ropey sound quality, but the minute I heard the performances, I was hooked -- the opening salvo of Guns Of Brixton and Somebody Got Murdered ranks among my all-time favorite live Clash-dom listening experiences, especially for Terry's caveman drum into to the former song. Though he gets a fair amount of stick here, he sounds fine to my ears, at least on this particular night, anyhow.

And it made an impression on others, too, as I quickly found out when playing selected tracks for one of the guys in my dorm at MSU that fall. He asked to hear Should I Stay, to satisfy his curiosity at how that might sound live. The minute that intro kicked in, crackly sound and all, he grinned from ear to ear, saying: "Man, that is RAW as HELL!"

I also like Side B (all of it, minus Casbah, which never worked for me), Armagideon Time, and Straight To Hell (two of the more intense versions of those songs, in my view). Eventually, I got to the point of taping it, so I could have a copy to play in the car while driving back and forth to Grand Rapids that same summer. (I was taking a film class at the time: history does not record who led. Or finished. :-)

Down At The Casbah Club made me vividly aware of the whole live/studio dichotomy, and prompted me on my quest to whatever live boots or shows I could get my hands on -- which soon led to me to a friend's copy of Klashing With The Klash, which also wound up on tape very quickly. But that's another story.

Mont de Marsan, 77. Red clear vinyl in a plain white sleeve. It was so super rough sounding to me at the time, but exciting. I loved the vitriolic aside about the Damned throwing a stink bomb. I had only heard the US version of the debut at the time, and there was no tracklisting, so I had no idea what to call Protex Blue on the tape I made for my Walkman.