This is one of the best known and most widely available Clash boot lps. The first five tracks are the Guy Stevens-produced demos recorded for Polydor in December 1976. They are great early versions which are actually pretty close to the officially released songs in terms of arrangements and lyrics. The biggest difference is in Joe's vocals, as he deliberately enunciates every syllable ("like Matt Monroe" as he put it to Tony Parsons). Annoyed by Steven's insistence on decipherable lyrics, Joe overdid it to the point of parody at times. 'Janie Jones' and 'Career Opportunities' were included on the 'Broadway' box set and all five (plus 'Listen' and '1-2 Crush on You') were included on a CD with the Italian book 'Clash Story', although that version is poorly mastered.
'Listen', 'Capital Radio', and the interview are from the N.M.E. EP, which could only be obtained with a coupon from the mag and a sticker included with the initial copies of the debut album. This made it an instant collector's item which was itself later bootlegged as a 7" EP that still shows up frequently on eBay.
'1-2, Crush on You', 'Pressure Drop', and 'The Prisoner' are alternate, self-produced versions of these b-sides. The main differences are in the mixes and some instrumentation. There are keyboards and sax later excised from the official versions, and 'Prisoner' gets a great alternate guitar solo and a bass heavy mix.
The sound quality of this album is exceptional. 'Prisoner' is a little distorted and the 'Capital Radio' EP tracks have a little surface noise (probably as a result of being mastered from an original EP) but everything else is great. The Polydor demos are exceptionally crisp, and sound like they came right off the master tapes.
The album is available in it's entirety on CD as the Japanese disc 'The Burning Studios'. As with many boot CDs mastered from vinyl, there is a fair amount of surface noise and a bit of over compression. Another Japanese boot CD, 'Polydor Demo 76-78' is from a tape source. This has been advertised as coming from the master, but it is dull and hissy. Copies of the LP in good condition are pretty easy to find and are a better bet.
From the famous early French punk festival in 8/5/77. This was originally released as a limited edition of 650 numbered LPs with printed labels from Sweden, cat. # CC677. Subsequent re-releases were not numbered and had blank labels, but as far as I know all are red vinyl with a white title cover. The sound is pretty poor and harsh, but the gig must be heard to be believed! Joe's slagging of the Damned is a classic Punk moment, and the playing is ferocious.
Even rarer than this hard-to-find LP is the CD version, which was a limited edition of 500. Number RH-014 on the 'Red Hot' label, it is mastered from the LP. The colour front insert is from the cover of a 1977 English magazine called 'Punk Rock Rules OK?'. The back cover is white with red lettering, and though it claims to contain the entire concert, both CD and LP are missing three songs. Each CD is individually numbered in the lower right hand corner. My profound thanks to Jiro for #120!
This early boot LP is comprised of two partial gigs in Paris. The first, from 9/29/77, is notable for an early, somewhat tentative performance of 'White Man' with some different lyrics. They also perform 'London's Burning' twice, the second time as 'Paris is Singing', and there is a nice version of 'The Prisoner'. The show is great-were there any lackluster gigs in '77?- and the sound is a good audience recording for the time, a high 'B'. The songs that were left off the LP circulate on tape, unfortunately in lesser quality.
The show on side two, from 10/16/78, is known mainly for containing the band's segue from 'Police and Thieves' into a brief version of the Ramones' 'Blitzkreig Bop', and this is the source for the 'hidden' track on the official 'Rocker's Galore' promo CD. I now have a CDR of the complete show from a first gen tape that absolutely blows away both the 'On Tour' LP and the 'Rocker's Galore' track- it is exceptionally crisp and bright while the others are muddy.
Though this is cited in many sources as a rare LP, there is some confusion regarding this. The original French pressing IS somewhat rare, and can be distinguished by it's full cover with a thumb notch, and by the center labels which read 'Tommy Gun'. The U.S. reissue has a thin cardboard wrap-around cover and labels which read 'The Tommy Guns Live'. This is not rare at all, and in fact I found a still-sealed copy for $15- I once saw a copy WITHOUT the cover go for over ten times that on Ebay, so beware! The LPs are pretty much identical otherwise, both featuring the famous Penny Smith cover shot of MIck, which was lifted directly from an old N.M.E. article, 'Clash on Tour' logo and all! There is also a version in a paper insert sleeve known as 'Clash in Europe', though I haven't seen that one- if anybody has a copy, why not send Jeff a scan of the cover for his 'Clash on Stage' site?
An excellent, seminal Clash boot LP, I can't help wishing that the bootleggers had gone the distance and released it as a 2LP set with both gigs complete. I now have a nice, complete lower-gen copy of the 9/29/77 gig, thanks to Mick Mercer.
This is a great compilation culled from several '78 shows- hopefully complete recordings of all these will eventually surface. The sound quality is excellent, and in fact many (though not all) of the songs were overdubbed in the studio while the band watched footage of themselves. I managed to get ahold of an original promo cassette of the soundtrack, which was sent to radio stations to drum up interest in the film. Most of the recordings circulating are from radio broadcasts of this, but the 15 track CDR I made of the cassette has much better sound quality than those I have heard. The cassette source differs from the video in that 'White Man', 'I'm So Bored', 'Janie Jones', White Riot' and 'Complete Control' are complete instead of the cut versions in the movie, and 'English Civil War' is here, which dosen't appear in the film at all.
The bootleg label 'Head' has just released a nicely packaged CDR called 'Rude Boys' which contains 11 tracks from the film, but BEWARE. The songs are direct lifts from the film, and therefore 'White Man' and 'Complete Control' are the cut versions, and the sound quality is very disappointing- distorted and poor. It's hard to fathom why, because excellent sounding copies of the videocassette are extremely easy to find- my local HMV and Tower both have lots in stock. Avoid this one unless you're a completist.
This is the most widely bootlegged Clash show of them all, with half a dozen LPs and at least that many CDs available. The quality varies widely, too. 'Klashing with the Clash' is the original release, first in a brown sleeve with a heart, then in a white sleeve with a slick black & white paper insert, and as a single picture disc which uses the insert in a red and beige version. The bootleggers thoughtfully left the track listing for the second record on. 'Klashing' has the best sound overall, warm, crisp and bright with little distortion. Unfortunately, it is also the shortest; 'Jail Guitar Doors', 'Tommy Gun', 'Wrong 'em Boyo', 'Janie Jones' and 'Garageland' are all missing. Conversely, the 'Clampdown USA' LP is complete and has a full colour picture sleeve (the picture is from the Rolling Stone article in the April 17 '80 issue), but has the worst sound of the boot releases I've heard, dull and flat.
Of the CDs, 'The Guns of Brixton' from Great Dane of Italy has the best sound, the best packaging, and is complete. 'Live USA' on the German Live & Alive label sounds almost as good, but omits 'Guns of Brixton' and 'English Civil War'. It also has what must be the most hideous packaging I've seen on a boot disc-no mean feat! 'Bronx City Rockers' from Raid Masters and 'Money Made Us Flexible' from American Concert Series are two more Italian CDs. They are missing 'Jail Guitar Doors' and have the set list completely mixed up. These have the worst sound of the CDs I've heard, lacking the crispness of the other two. All the CDs are better than the 'Clampdown USA' lp, however.
Other versions of this show which exist include 'The Clash' LP and 2LP, 'Bits and Pieces' 2lp, and probably others. 'London Calling' and 'English Civil War' from this show were also released as a boot single called 'Live in New York' or 'BBC Broadcast', and 'Koka Kola' was included on the four song compilation EP 'Virgin Hormones'.
The reason for all this bootleg activity is probably that this was the best sound quality recording of the group to this point. The performance is charged up and highly enjoyable, though a little sloppy at times. Still, it's an essential Clash show and highly available.
This is a superb audience recording, especially considering the era. Sincere props to the taper, whose master was sourced for the recent 'White Men in Hammersmith Odeon' CD. The 'outro' segment of post-gig conversation and parking announcements was cut on previous vinyl releases '16 Tracks' (sound quality slightly inferior to the aforementioned CD) and 'Despatches from the Clash Zone'(sound quality slightly inferior to the aforementioned LP, with two songs cut in favor of studio tracks). 'Despatches' is quite a bit rarer than the other releases, but any version of this show will make you happy so don't sweat the minutiae. 'Armagideon Time' was officially released on the 'Concerts for Kampuchea' LP in stunning, lush pro sound, but I won't lament the lack of a full-length soundboard recording since we're lucky enough to have this excellent audience tape.
The performance here is exemplary, super-tight and clean. They do play it a little safer than usual, but the 'London Calling' tunes are particularly charged and the alternate version of 'Bankrobber' is just awesome. I greatly prefer this to the final, slowed-down release.
Possibly the best show from 1980 when considering performance and sound quality. This show circulates as the original double LP 'Capital Crisis', an Italian CD of the same name, another CD titled 'For Fxxks Sake', and as a black and white video.
The 'Capital Crisis' LP sports a great deluxe full colour cover, but the sound quality is of a mediocre audience recording. It appears the taper was on a budget too, as backwards music from a previous recording can be heard bleeding through in places. It is easy to find though, and usually pretty cheap, even on Ebay. The 'Capital Crisis' CD on the 'Golden Stars' label is mastered from this LP, but it has a great cartoon cover that is among the best boot artwork I've seen.
Also quite common is the video of this show. It seems that bands performing at the Capitol Theatre would be filmed for simultaneous broadcast on their video screens, affording punters in the cheap seats a better view. The soundboard audio track from this video is the source for the 'For Fxxks Sake' CD, and though mono, it is far superior to either 'Capital Crisis'. The black and white artwork is nothing special, but the back cover has a nice shot of the four angry young punks enjoying a quiet cup of tea. The show features a prominent Mickey Gallagher on keys, and a guest appearance by Mikey Dread.
The new 'Capitol Radio' CD is the latest release of this show, on the 'Gold Standard' label. It has nice graphics, and a cool gold-plated disc, which looks very classy. The sound also appears to be from the video source, and though it is brighter than 'F.F.S', my copy has a lot of digital crackling on the high end. Are they all like this?
Considered as a body of work, the Euro tour of '81 has to be one of the Clash's best periods. Good as they are, most of the shows circulating from 1980 verge on the unlistenable in terms of sound quality, and a little burn-out seemed to settle in during the marathon Bond's residency that followed. For this tour though, the band hit the road after a long lay-off from performing with many new songs to premiere, and the excitement is evident. What I particularly like is that almost every show has a unique aspect, from the peformance of 'Let's Go Crazy' in Barcelona, to 'Corner Soul' in Paris, to the moody 'Charlie Don't Surf' and frenetic 'White Riot' of Florence. The sound quality of the shows circulating is also very good on average.
Stockholm is one of my favourite shows of all, and thanks to Giuseppe I have a CDR that was recorded from the master tape. The sound has some distortion on the high end, and there are occasional noises that sound like something rubbing on the microphone, but overall it is a very nice audience recording. There's lots of bottom end and everything is clear- you can even hear a partisan audience member blowing raspberries at Mick Jones during the intro to 'Somebody Got Murdered'! Go figure.
As in Copenhagen two nights previous, the band switch from 'One More Time' into 'The Street Parade', and the effect here is incredible. What really makes it special is the audience, who sing along to 'One More Time' in almost a counterpoint to the vocal melody. It's quite chilling, and an appropriate segue into 'The Street Parade', which I have always considered the most atmospheric and underrated Clash song. The entire band, Joe and Topper in particular, are in fine form throughout the set.
This show may have been released as a Swedish double LP called 'When Djurgar'n Had to Make Place for The Clash'. Djurgar'n are a Swedish hockey team whose home rink was the Isstadion, the venue for this show. I have a a 2cdr set which was supposedly recorded from this LP, but I have some doubts about it's authenticity: The sound on my CDR from the master is far superior, and it appears that someone has dubbed some vinyl noise onto the beginning of each CDR, which stops abruptly when the music starts. Of course, the only question is why anyone would bother to fake a Clash boot LP. If anyone has any further information on this, or has actually seen a copy of this LP, please contact me.
After the 9/21/79 New York gig, this is the most frequently booted Clash performance. The source is a video feed for the Japanese 'Young Music Show', and the sound quality of all the boots I've heard is very good stereo soundboard. Unfortunately, there's little else to recommend, as this is one of the poorest Clash shows. The band are lifeless, Joe's voice is thin and Paul is particularly ham-fisted. Joe comments a couple of times that it "sounds so empty up here", so maybe poor stage sound was a factor.
'Charlie Don't Surf' is a standout, though, and one of my favourite performances of this tune. A boot cassette of this show also circulates, which is the only place to find 'Guns of Brixton' and a decent version of 'Magnificent Seven'. That's pretty much it for highlights.
However, if you're reading this page you probably have, or plan to get, this boot in one form or another. The CDs 'Yellow Riot' and 'Rockin' the Red Point' are identical in sound and set list. They each contain a dozen tunes and have pretty basic packaging. 'Red Point' IS the only boot CD I've seen with a picture of Topper on the cover, though. 'This is Live Clash' is a little more dressed up, with some nice live shots of the boys, and three bonus tracks ('Guns of Brixton' and 'Train in Vain' from the 'Fridays' TV show, and 'Should I Stay' from the US Festival). It also contains a guest spot by the execrable Pearl Harbour doing 'Fujiyama Mama' and has slightly better sound than the previous two.
Though beautifully packaged by Great Dane of Italy, 'Che Guevara' represents a sort of nadir in Clash bootlegs: it combines the thirteen songs from 'Live Clash' with four from the infamous Lochem Festival, the only show worse than Tokyo that has been booted!
Punk Vault recently released this superb 2CD set, which contains the full sets by the Clash, Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks from this historic show. The gig took place on August 29, 1976, and was probably the Clash's second public show. As such, it contains several early unrecorded songs and features Keith Levene on guitar, so any serious collector should absolutely seek out a copy. The sound is of a very good (excellent for the time), very low generation audience recording. Legend has it that the Pistols sabotaged the Clash's sound, and while both groups would probably like you to believe that, the sound is very similar to the presumably unsabotaged Roundhouse gig a week later. That show can be heard on the equally essential '5 Go Mad in the Roundhouse' CD.
This Japanese double LP features a beautiful stark black and white sleeve and demos from all stages of the band's career. The Polydor demos and '78 alternates from 'Fashion Mall' comprise the first side, and again they are of lesser quality than on that LP. Side two and the first half of side three are the excellent 'Give 'em Enough Rope' demos. These are of varying quality; 'Safe European Home','Julie','Stay Free' and 'Drug Stabbing Time' are available in superior sound quality on the superb 'Rope Demos' EP. 'It's Not Over', a particularly awful early version of 'Gates of the West', is from the 'Studio Demos' EP, as is 'One Emotion'. Again. the sound is somewhat better on that record. However,'Another History' IS the only place to find the 'Groovy Times' and 'Last Gang in Town' demos, and the excellent Mickey Foote demos. The 'Clash City Rockers' and 'Tommy Gun' tracks are actually probably performances from english television, and not demos at all. The Rope demos and Foote demos from this LP have now been released on CD as 'For All the Young Punks' from the Tommy Gunn label, who previously released the excellent 2CD 'Burning Tokyo'. Surprisingly, this new CD is very lackluster, with poor sound and mediocre graphics- a far cry from their last effort.
Three 'Combat Rock' outtakes round out the album, and of course the complete original mix of that album is available as the 'Combat Out Rocks' CD. Despite the criticisms, 'Another History' is still a rare and highly desirable bootleg, and it's great to have all these hard to find tracks in one place. Many thanks to Takahiko for my copy! I have now put together a 40 track, 2CDR set of almost all the band's studio outtakes, demos and alternates (leaving out anything officially released) from the best sound sources available.
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