The Clash - Lyceum Ballroom, London, Britain, 1-3-1979

The Clash is one of my favorite bands, and I really enjoy hearing live recordings from them, but only when the sound quality is excellent. So I'm posting this bootleg, even though it's pretty similar to another one I've already posted, because live Clash that sounds this good needs to get more attention.

The other concert I've posted already that's pretty similar is from the Agora in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 13, 1979. That's only a month after this concert, so the set lists are fairly similar. But there are enough differences to make both worthwhile.

Note that this concert is just three days into 1979. So while the Clash's big release that year was the "London Calling" double album, that came out at the very end of the year, so there's nothing from that here. Instead, the Clash's second studio album "Give 'Em Enough Rope" had just been released two months earlier, in November 1978, so the set list heavily relied on that.

This bootleg is a soundboard, one of probably only a handful by the band that sound this good. But I've managed to improve the sound quality a little more. The lead vocals were a low in the mix, not by a lot, but I boosted them up to the right level using the MVSEP audio editing program. On a couple of songs, the vocals tended to drop in and out, maybe because the singer was getting too far from the microphone at times. So I went through those line by line and boosted the quiet parts. Some lines were just too quiet to fix, but I improved a lot of them. That's why "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" and "Complete Control" have "[Edit]" in their titles.

This album is an hour and four minutes long.

01 Safe European Home (Clash)
02 I Fought the Law (Clash)
03 talk (Clash)
04 Jail Guitar Doors (Clash)
05 Drug-Stabbing Time (Clash)
06 talk (Clash)
07 City of the Dead (Clash)
08 Clash City Rockers (Clash)
09 Tommy Gun (Clash)
10 [White Man] In Hammersmith Palais [Edit] (Clash)
11 talk (Clash)
12 English Civil War (Clash)
13 talk (Clash)
14 Stay Free (Clash)
15 Cheapskates (Clash)
16 Julie's in the Drug Squad (Clash)
17 talk (Clash)
18 Police and Thieves (Clash)
19 Capital Radio (Clash)
20 Janie Jones (Clash)
21 Garageland (Clash)
22 Complete Control [Edit] (Clash)
23 London's Burning (Clash)
24 White Riot (Clash)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wf7R47cs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/IJOKQHEHrj6vqig/file

The cover photo is from the "Tribal Stomp II" concert in Monterey, California, in September 1979. I darkened some parts of it to give it more of a nighttime feel.

US Festival '83, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 5-28-1983 - Day 1, Part 9: The Clash

The ninth and final act to perform on the first day of the 1983 US Festival was the Clash. 

I'm excited to present this album because there aren't that many Clash concert recordings with excellent sound. This one seems to have been overlooked as an audio recording - I could only find poor sounding audience bootlegs of this show. But it turns out there was an excellent video of the set, which I then converted to mp3 files. In my opinion, this is now one of a handful of the best Clash live recordings out there, so this is a must have if you're a fan of the band.

Adding interest, this is the very last concert of what some people would consider the "real" Clash. The two main creative forces in the band were Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, who wrote or co-wrote nearly all of the songs. This turned out to be the last concert with Jones in the band. He was kicked out of the band a few months later. The band put out one more album after that, "Cut the Crap" in 1985, but it has a very controversial reputation.

One might think the band was falling apart at this point, so the performance was poor. In fact, the opposite was the case. The band gave a strong and passionate performance. But there's a weird back story to it which I want to relate in full.

In 1983, the Clash were riding high commercially, thanks to their 1982 hit album "Combat Rock," with two big hit singles, "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go." As a result, they were the closer for the first day, "New Wave Day," and one of the main headliners for the entire festival. The closers for the other two nights were Van Halen and David Bowie. It turned out the Clash were paid half a million dollars to perform, whereas Van Halen was originally to be paid a million dollars. However, Bowie was doing a concert tour in Europe at the time, and held out to be paid a million and a half dollars. The main backer of the festival, Steve Wozniak, had deep pockets after becoming a multimillionaire thanks to his role cofounding Apple Computers. So he agreed to pay a million and a half to Bowie. Then it turned out Van Halen had a provision in their contract that they got to be paid as much as any other act in the festival. So their million got bumped up to a million and a half as well.

This left the Clash feeling miffed. Wozniak was paying huge sums left and right, especially to headlining acts, and the Clash probably could have held out for a lot more. But at the same time, the band had a punk reputation as being anti-capitalist, so it would have hurt their reputation to demand more. The band threaded this needle by demanding an extra $100,000, but insisting that it all be given to local charities to help the poor. Apparently, the promoters agreed to this before the concert began, but nothing was written down. As the time came for the Clash to go on stage, they got wind that that part of the agreement wasn't going to be honored after all. So instead of performing, the band gave an impromptu press conference backstage, insisting the promoters honor their deal to give some money to charity.

Wozniak later said, "The Clash made a bit of a stink, taking some sort of workingman's revolutionary stance."

Brian Setzer, a member of the Stray Cats, later recalled, "I remember they had a press conference going on. I asked [Clash bassist] Paul Simonon, 'What are you guys doin'? Aren't you supposed to be on stage?' He just shrugged his shoulders and laughed."

It took a lot of backstage bickering, but eventually some agreement to give some money to charity was agreed upon. As a result, the band went on stage two hours late!

One of the concert organizers Mark Bliesener later said, "It was just such an angry gig for them. Strummer could not get across to the crowd – at one point he was demanding hostility from them. There was so much rancor all night: were the Clash going on, were they not going on? And there was always an attitude about that band in the industry, especially a lot of American crews and promoters, because they just could not dig what that band was about."

But this could help explain why the band played great that night - they often did their best in a hostile situation. There even is a fitting line in the Clash song "Clampdown": "The fury of the hour, anger can be power, did you know that you can use it?"

Partway through the concert, something else happened that probably pissed off the band even more. Concert promoter Berry Fey later said, "They were bitching about money, but that's why we put a copy of the check up on the video screen – during their set – showing that they got half a million dollars."

However, the drama didn't end when their set was over. Bliesener later explained, "So when the Clash came off... the stage announcer got on the mic in this phony British accent, saying, 'You can shout as loud as you want, but the Clash have left the building.' It was just so obnoxious. Immediately, a fistfight broke out. The Clash's crew were just all over this guy. I think [bassist] Paul [Simonon] might have thrown a punch. But they felt goaded, and the atmosphere was so thick with exhaustion, tension, and testosterone. It was a horrible night, just in terms of the vibe of everything."

Regarding the recording, as I mentioned above, it sounds excellent, definitely on par with a soundboard. However, there are three songs with issues. The end of the first song was cut off ("London Calling"), continuing into most of the second song ("This Is Radio Clash"). Also, part of the fourth song ("Rock the Casbah") was also missing. Luckily, I found an audience bootleg and used that other recording to fill in the missing parts. That's why those three songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. But one can easily hear the drop in sound quality for those parts.

This album is an hour an 18 minutes long.

134 talk (Clash)
135 London Calling [Edit] (Clash)
136 This Is Radio Clash [Edit] (Clash)
137 Somebody Got Murdered (Clash)
138 talk (Clash)
139 Rock the Casbah [Edit] (Clash)
140 Guns of Brixton (Clash)
141 Know Your Rights (Clash)
142 Koka Kola (Clash)
143 Hate or War (Clash)
144 talk (Clash)
145 Armagideon Time (Clash)
146 talk (Clash)
147 Sound of the Sinners (Clash)
148 talk (Clash)
149 Safe European Home (Clash)
150 Police on My Back (Clash)
151 Brand New Cadillac (Clash)
152 I Fought the Law (Clash)
153 I'm So Bored with the USA (Clash)
154 Train in Vain (Clash)
155 The Magnificent Seven (Clash)
156 talk (Clash)
157 Straight to Hell (Clash)
158 Should I Stay or Should I Go (Clash)
159 Clampdown (Clash)
160 talk (Clash)

NOTE: The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue. But check the comments.

The cover photo shows Joe Strummer and Mick Jones from this exact concert.

Jamaica World Music Festival, Montego Bay, Jamaica, 11-27-1982, Part 5: The Clash

The fifth act on the third day of the 1982 Jamaica World Music Festival was the Clash. There's just one more act after this one. 

It's somewhat risky for me to be posting this, because I posted this exact performance some months previously, only to have it banned due to a copyright violation. That really baffled me, because I believe everything on it is unreleased, and it can be found in many other bootleg sharing locations on the Internet without any apparent trouble.

Luckily, a musical associate who wants to stay unnamed is helping out. This person has a website where they've put the link for this. So you can go there and grab it. Hopefully that will put enough distance so this blog won't have trouble. It would be a real bummer posting everything else from this festival but this one set. So we'll see how it goes. Knock on wood. 

Like all the other albums I'm posting from this festival, I've adjusted the mix to bring up the lead vocals relative to the instruments, and I boosted the crowd noise after each song, which had been way too low.

By 1982, the Clash had gotten so big that they usually played large venues, even playing giant stadiums as an opening act for the Who. That resulted in poor sound quality in most cases, even on official recordings. So that makes this recording even more remarkable. Personally, I prefer this to their official live albums.

This album is an hour and one minute long.

64 talk (Clash)
65 London Calling (Clash)
66 Police on My Back (Clash)
67 talk (Clash)
68 The Guns of Brixton (Clash)
69 The Magnificent Seven - Armagideon Time (Clash)
70 Junco Partner (Clash)
71 talk (Clash)
72 Spanish Bombs (Clash)
73 One More Time (Clash)
74 Train in Vain (Clash)
75 Bankrobber (Clash)
76 This Is Radio Clash (Clash)
77 talk (Clash)
78 Clampdown (Clash)
79 Should I Stay or Should I Go (Clash)
80 talk (Clash)
81 Rock the Casbah (Clash)
82 talk (Clash)
83 Straight to Hell (Clash)
84 I Fought the Law (Clash)

The download link can be found in the comments.

I'm happy to say this cover photo is from this exact concert. The only one I could find was black and white. But I used the free Palette program to colorize them. I only made one little adjustment in Photoshop, to get the bandana in the back pocket completely red.

The Clash - Civic Theater, Akron, OH, 8-17-1982

There are tons of Clash live bootlegs out there, but in my opinion there are very few that have worthy sound quality. And the Clash are the kind of band where you need good sound quality to appreciate their music. (One can get away with lower quality with solo acoustic music, but the Clash definitely are not that!) I came across this concert bootleg recently. It definitely has worthy sound quality, coming from a good soundboard recording. It's fairly similar to another concert from them I've shared here (Jamaica, 11/27/1982), but I'm sharing it here to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

A lot of Clash concerts in 1982 took place in huge stadiums, when they were an opening act for the Who. The sound quality suffers in such venues. So I think this sounds better than their official live album from this time, "Live at Shea Stadium." This has more of an intimate feeling.

I improved the sound quality in a few ways. "Police on My Back" had a problematic section. I was able to patch it by using another chunk from elsewhere in the song. "Garageland" had a more serious issue, as the song got cut off about half way through. I found a different live version from 1982 (I forget which one) and spliced that in to finish the song off. That's why those two have "[Edit]" in their names.

One problem common with excellent bootlegs is that they're so good with recording the music on stage that they get very little crowd noise, making it sound like the crowd was unenthusiastic. That was the case here. So I boosted the cheering after every song. I also noticed small gaps at the starts and ends of the songs, and got rid of those. 

This album is an hour and 34 minutes long.

01 talk (Clash)
02 London Calling (Clash)
03 The Leader (Clash)
04 Radio Clash (Clash)
05 talk (Clash)
06 Clash City Rockers (Clash)
07 Know Your Rights (Clash)
08 The Guns of Brixton (Clash)
09 talk (Clash)
10 Train in Vain [Stand by Me] (Clash)
11 The Call Up (Clash)
12 Rock the Casbah (Clash)
13 Police and Thieves (Clash)
14 Police on My Back [Edit] (Clash)
15 The Magnificent Seven (Clash)
16 talk (Clash)
17 Wrong 'Em Boyo (Clash)
18 Career Opportunities (Clash)
19 Somebody Got Murdered (Clash)
20 Brand New Cadillac (Clash)
21 I Fought the Law (Clash)
22 Armagideon Time (Clash)
23 Should I Stay or Should I Go (Clash)
24 Clampdown (Clash)
25 Straight to Hell (Clash)
26 Janie Jones - Garageland [Edit] (Clash)

https://www.imagenetz.de/ddD6m

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Ru9n1Qd7

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/iNspk12MWQwtG7W/file

I'm happy to say the cover photo comes from this exact concert, twice over. The top section is taken from a photo out in front of the venue. I adjusted the size and added the small text. The bottom section is from a black and white photo taken at this concert. I used the Palette program to colorize it, then made some more adjustments in Photoshop to help with the coloring. I also used the Krea AI program to further improve the image.

Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 12-26-1979 to 12-29-1979: Part 2: Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Matumbi & the Clash

This is Part 2 of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. It was actually a series of four concerts in a row, so it makes sense to post each of the concerts separately.

For the first night, the only musical act was Queen. But for this second night, there were three acts: Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Matumbi, and the Clash, in that order. I've numbered the songs so you can put all four parts together in the same folder if you want. That's why the first track here is already track 25.

I explained some in my Part 1 write-up how the only officially released album from this concerts was a double album that is now long out of print. Merely two of the songs here come from that. Luckily, a lot of music has come out unofficially on bootleg. Decades later, one bootleg emerged that was about as long as the official double album and had excellent sound quality. It seems these all were songs that were being considered for the album but didn't quite make the cut. That's where I got all but one of the songs but Ian Dury and the Blockheads and all the songs by Matumbi.

But the only full set to emerge from this show was the one by the Clash. Unfortunately, although it's supposedly a soundboard recording, that recording merely sounds okay. My intention has been to only use the songs that had very good sound quality. So first I included the songs from either the official album - "Armagideon Time" - and the ones from that bootleg mentioned above - "Bankrobber" and "London Calling." 

Then I listened to the bootleg of the Clash's full set to see if any more songs sounded good enough to fit here. I decided on three more: "Jimmy Jazz," "Train in Vain," and "Jamie Jones." I picked them mainly on the basis on the instruments. When certain instruments were prominent, the recording sounded murkier. I also tinkered with those three to make them sound better. But there was only so much I could do, so those three still sound rougher than the others here. By the way, this version of "Train in Vain" is interesting for how unusually fast the tempo is compared to how the band usually played the song.

I had never heard of Matumbi before this. They were one of the most popular British reggae bands in the late 1970s. However, their 1979 song "Point of View [Squeeze a Little Lovin']" was their only Top Forty hit in Britain. They fizzled out then broke up in the early 1980s.

There's a lot more music played than what is presented here. Since there is a bootleg of the whole Clash set, we know they played 16 songs, yet I've only included six of them. I assume it was similar with Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Matumbi, though maybe their sets were shorter since they were the opening acts. If anyone has any of the other songs for this concert or the other ones with worthy sound quality, please let me know and I'll add them in.

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

25 talk (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
26 Clever Trevor (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
27 Blackmail Man (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
28 Blockheads (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
29 talk (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
30 My Ol' Man (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
31 Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
32 talk (Ian Dury & the Blockheads)
33 Sweet Gene Vincent (Ian Dury & the Blockheads with Mick Jones)
34 Empire Road (Matumbi)
35 talk (Matumbi)
36 Come with Me (Matumbi)
37 After Tonight (Matumbi)
38 talk (Matumbi)
39 Point of View [Squeeze a Little Lovin'] (Matumbi)
40 Jimmy Jazz (Clash)
41 talk (Clash)
42 Train in Vain (Clash)
43 Bankrobber (Clash)
44 Janie Jones (Clash)
45 Armagideon Time (Clash)
46 London Calling (Clash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17362757/VA-ConcrtsfrthPeplofKmpchea1979Day2IanDryMtumbiClsh_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bQ4anA9w

The cover photo is of the Clash and was taken from this exact concert. On the right side in the background, you can see a big, round United Nations logo used for the Kampuchea concerts. I sharpened the image using Krea AI program.

The Clash - The Agora, Cleveland, OH, 2-13-1979

This is a killer concert by the Clash. Looking at Clash fan sites, I read that it's generally considered one of their top five concert recordings. But it did have one problem in that the vocals were recorded too low. But if there's one editing trick I've been using a lot lately, it's boosting the vocals relative to the instruments. So now this great bootleg sounds even better than before.

In my opinion, the Clash had two musical phases. In their first phase, from their start until early 1979, they were known mainly as a punk band. Then, from late 1979, with the release of their classic double album "London Calling" until their break-up, they diversified their musical palette much more, taking them well beyond punk. The problem is, there are very few great audio recordings from their more punk-oriented years. Making professional sounding recordings didn't fit with the punk mentality. The best chance at that time was from live radio broadcasts. But the BBC, which had a near radio monopoly in Britain, was hostile to punk music at the time. The Clash did do a few short things for the BBC, but not much. (For instance, they started one John Peel session, but they walked off before it was recorded.)

This recording came about because the Clash had their first tour of the US in early 1979. The tour only lasted a couple of weeks, with just nine shows. But luckily, a rock radio station in Cleveland, WMMS, decided to record their show there. As it so happened, that station chickened out and never broadcast the show, because they were afraid their classic rock fans wouldn't like a full show of punk music. However, the recording survived and got around. So, I could be wrong, but I believe this is the best sounding concert recording from the band prior to the inclusion of "London Calling" material later in 1979. But also luckily, the band was on fire that night, playing a very spirited show. The performance is the main reason Clash fan love this recording so much. Even band member Joe Strummer called the concert "great."

Here's an account of the concert by Caroline Coon, who saw the whole tour, since she was both a journalist and the girlfriend of the band's bassist Paul Simonon at the time:

"That was a particularly intense show. There were kids fainting in the crush at the front. Most bands didn’t provoke that kind of intense response from the crowd, so the local security guys had never seen this kind of behavior and their instinctive reaction was just to get them off the stage the quickest way possible - by hitting them. We'd seen these goons just punching them back into the audience. The Clash instructed me that this absolutely must not happen, and it was quite a struggle. We had to keep watch constantly for anybody who was in danger. If the band saw gig security getting brutal they would just stop playing and tell the bouncers to cool it.We would bring the kids from the pit carefully up onto the stage and off through the wings."

So, yeah, if you're a Clash fan, you really should give this a listen. In addition to using the audio editing program UVR5 to boost the lead vocals, I also made the banter between songs clearer. And I added some extra cheering at the end of the last song (by patching in cheering from earlier in the concert), since there wasn't much there.

This concert is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 I'm So Bored with the U.S.A. (Clash)
02 talk (Clash)
03 Drug Stabbing Time (Clash)
04 talk (Clash)
05 Jail Guitar Doors (Clash)
06 Tommy Gun (Clash)
07 talk (Clash)
08 City of the Dead (Clash)
09 talk (Clash)
10 Hate and War (Clash)
11 talk (Clash)
12 [White Man] In Hammersmith Palais (Clash)
13 talk (Clash)
14 Safe European Home (Clash)
15 talk (Clash)
16 Stay Free (Clash)
17 talk (Clash)
18 English Civil War (Clash)
19 talk (Clash)
20 Guns on the Roof (Clash)
21 talk (Clash)
22 Police and Thieves (Clash)
23 Capital Radio (Clash)
24 Janie Jones (Clash)
25 Garageland (Clash)
26 Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad (Clash)
27 London's Burning (Clash)
28 White Riot (Clash)
29 talk (Clash)
30 Complete Control (Clash)
31 What's My Name (Clash)

NOTE: The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue, sorry. But check the comments below.

For the album cover, I found some promotional art put out the by the radio station that sponsored the show (yet refused to actually air it). It had the name of the three bands on the bill in big letters in the middle. I removed the names of the two opening acts (Alex Bevan and Bo Diddley) and moved "The Clash" up to make room for a photo. Then I added in a photo taken in San Francisco on that same short February 1979.

Various Artists - A Song for Joe - Celebrating the Life of Joe Strummer, 8-21-2020

The coronavirus pandemic has been with us for half a year, and yet the home concerts continue. Musicians generally are having a hard time of it, since holding a concert is one of the most difficult things to do while maintaining social distancing. So this is a benefit concert for "Save Our Stages," which is a charity trying to prevent independent concert venues from closing permanently. 

I'm posting this because I like the musical theme. The concert pays tribute to Joe Strummer, the lead singer and co-songwriter for the Clash. All the songs here were written by Strummer, some from his time in the Clash and some from his solo career after that. In particular, it was timed to take place on Strummer's birthday. (He died of a heart defect in 2002 at the age of 50.) If you want to hear Clash songs done in a different way, this is a great way to do that.

Due to the pandemic, the concert doesn't have a location per se. Every artist recorded their songs in their own homes or recordings studios, then sent them in to be played in a concert format. As a result of that and the social distancing problem, many of the songs are done in an acoustic format. But many are done with a full band too, which is fitting since Strummer's songs usually rocked.

I've cut this down a lot from the original broadcast. That is an hour and 53 minutes long, whereas this is only an hour and eight minutes long. The main reason for the difference is I cut out nearly all the verbal tributes to Stummer. There were so many that there sometimes was more than one between songs. There were a lot of famous people who recorded their thoughts on Strummer. I deleted 22 of those! The only one I kept was from Bruce Springsteen. For one thing, he's the great Bruce Springsteen, but also his comments were very short. (Note that there is NO music by Springsteen here.) If you want to hear the others, I suggest you go to YouTube and listen to the whole concert there. There are some particularly entertaining stories by Steve Buscemi and Bob Weir.

As far as the music goes, I included everything but two songs. The first one I cut was a performance by Joe Strummer of "Police on My Back" from 2001. While very nice, I thought it didn't fit the format of people giving tribute to Strummer. The other song I cut was "Raw Grace in Your Face" by Eugene Hutz. That's an original song by Hutz about Strummer. While nice, I also felt that didn't fit the format. Again, if you want to catch those, check out the YouTube video. The Strummer song is at the front and features rare video footage of him playing on stage.

Pretty much all the performances here are good. They pretty much have to be, because they're Joe Strummer songs. ;) I especially like "Death or Glory" by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, and "Straight to Hell"  by Lucinda Williams. Note that a few of the songs actually weren't written by Strummer (and/or his Clash mate Mick Jones), but are covers that are closely associated with him. "I Fought the Law" and "Police and Thieves" are examples of those. All the songs are done only once, except for "Death or Glory," done once by Jeff Tweedy near the start, and then by Jesse Malin with Bob Weir (of the Grateful Dead) near the end.

01 Get Down Moses (Interrupters)
02 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
03 Death or Glory (Jeff Tweedy)
04 Bankrobber (Tom Morello)
05 Johnny Appleseed (Jesse Malin)
06 Spanish Bombs (Hinds)
07 Washington Bullets (Hold Steady)
08 Janie Jones (Jesse Dayton)
09 I Fought the Law (Joe Ely)
10 Long Shadow (Brian Fallon)
11 Charlie Don't Surf (Cherry Glazerr)
12 Tommy Gun (Dropkick Murphys)
13 Police and Thieves (Nikolai Fraiture)
14 London Calling (Butch Walker)
15 Train in Vain (Josh Homme & Troy Van Leeuwen)
16 [White Man] in Hammersmith Palais (Frank Turner)
17 Rudy Can't Fail (Josh Klinghoffer)
18 Silver and Gold (Lyza Jane & C.C. Adcock)
19 Straight to Hell (Lucinda Williams)
20 Coma Girl (Dave Hause)
21 Death or Glory (Jesse Malin with Bob Weir)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376835/VA-ASngfrJoeCelebrtingLifeJoStrmmer__8-21-2020_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I used a promotional poster for the concert. I had to redo the list of performers, because I cut out all the people (except Bruce Springsteen) who gave verbal tributes only. I also made a couple more minor changes, adding and removing some text. But it basically looks the same as the original.

The Clash - Jaap Edenhal, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 5-10-1981

The Clash could be great playing live at times. But they've only released two live albums: "From Here to Eternity" and "Live at Shea Stadium." I find both of them strangely disappointing. The first one samples live performances from when they started out in clubs until when they ended in stadiums, and I don't think it holds together. For the latter one, I don't think they were at their best when they were playing a greatest hits type set list in front of 50,000 people.

I've searched for better live recordings, but it's been tough. One reason I post a lot of live solo acoustic material at this blog is that bootlegs of music in that format usually sound pretty good. It's hard to mess up a recording when all you have is a voice and a guitar. But when you have a full band, a recording can sound murky and bad if it isn't mixed right. That's the case for the vast majority of Clash bootlegs, from what I've heard. Luckily, there are a few exceptions. This is one of the very best.

This is a complete 57-minute long show from after the band's "Sandanista!" album. Only six of the songs come from that album though. There are songs from all parts of their career up until that point. In my opinion, the band plays with a lot of energy and often sounds even better than they did on record.

01 London Calling (Clash)
02 The Leader (Clash)
03 Somebody Got Murdered (Clash)
04 talk (Clash)
05 White Man in Hammersmith Palais (Clash)
06 talk (Clash)
07 The Guns of Brixton (Clash)
08 Lightning Strikes [Not Once but Twice] (Clash)
09 Ivan Meets G. I. Joe (Clash)
10 This Is Radio Clash (Clash)
11 Charlie Don't Surf (Clash)
12 The Magnificent Seven (Clash)
13 talk (Clash)
14 Bankrobber (Clash)
15 Train in Vain [Stand by Me] (Clash)
16 talk (Clash)
17 Career Opportunities (Clash)
18 Clampdown (Clash)
19 One More Time (Clash)
20 I Fought the Law (Clash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288235/TClas_1981a_JaapEdnhalAmsterdmNetherlnds__5-10-1981_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I wanted to use a photo of the band in concert in 1981. I was surprised that I couldn't find any good ones. But I did find some from 1980, so I used that instead. I don't know where this photo is from other than the year.

The Clash - This Is Radio Clash - Non-Album Tracks (1981-1982)

My last two posts have been collecting all the good stray studio tracks from The Clash. This is the third and final such album.

This album covers the years 1981 and 1982. The Clash lingered on until 1985 without key member Mick Jones. I might have included some songs from that 1983 to 1985 line-up even though many people don't really consider that the true Clash. However, I've heard most of those stray songs and they're just not very good.

Only one album was released during this time, 1982's "Combat Rock." That album originally was going to be a much longer album, called "Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg." I've listened to a bootleg of that, and I feel the group make a good decision to shorten the songs. My usual policy is to not include songs on official albums unless they're significantly different. Some of the longer versions of songs that made it on "Combat Rock" could be called different, but I don't think they improve the songs, so I left all those off. If you're interested, get the "Fort Bragg" bootleg. A couple of completely unreleased songs, like songs 9 and 10 here, are also on that bootleg.

Also around this time, the Clash were quite enamored with dub and remix versions of their songs. Some of them were given different song titles. I didn't include any of those, regardless of song title, because, again, I didn't think those versions were very good.

You may note that I start and end this album with the classic Clash song "This Is Radio Clash." That's because they did two versions with almost entirely different lyrics. In this case, I DID consider both versions worthy of repeat listenings.

By the way, the song "Graffiti Rap" might sound like something other than a Clash song. But in fact, it is, and it was sometimes done by the Clash in concert at the time. The guest rapper Futura 2000 totally dominates the song. But note that he's also a key part of the song "Overpowered by Funk" on the "Combat Rock" album.

01 This Is Radio Clash (Clash)
02 Midnight to Stevens (Clash)
03 Graffiti Rap [Live] (Clash with Futura 2000)
04 House of the Ju Ju Queen [Demo] (Clash)
05 First Night Back in London (Clash)
06 Cool Confusion (Clash)
07 Long Time Jerk (Clash)
08 The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too (Clash)
09 Idle in Kangaroo Court [Kill Time] (Clash)
10 This Is Radio Clash [Alternate Lyrics Version] (Clash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15105201/TClas_1981-1982_ThisIsRadioClsh_atse.zip.html

I got lucky with the cover art. I used the cover for the "This Is Radio Clash" single. Most versions don't include the words "The Clash" on it, but I found one rare version that does.

The Clash - The Cost of Living - Non-Album Tracks (1979-1980)

I've been having some trouble with my laptop lately. I can still type okay, but it's becoming increasingly hard for me to use Photoshop. So I think until I buy a new laptop (hopefully in the next week or two), I'll post here without album covers (unless one can be used easily without changing much, such as this one).

As I said in my last post, there are enough Clash stray tracks for three albums. Here's the second of the three.

I'm calling this album "The Cost of Living" because the Clash put out an EP with that name in 1979. But, in fact, only the first four songs are from that. And one of those, "Capitol Radio Two," is a rerecording of the song "Capitol Radio" from the first stray tracks album I posted here (but it's different enough to merit inclusion, including having a slightly different name).

The rest of the songs come from a variety of different sources. Most are A- or B-sides, but there are also a few outtakes from the "London Calling" and "Sandinista!" albums.

01 I Fought the Law (Clash)
02 Groovy Times (Clash)
03 Gates of the West (Clash)
04 Capital Radio Two (Clash)
05 Armegideon Time (Clash)
06 Heart and Mind (Clash)
07 Bankrobber (Clash)
08 Stop the World (Clash)
09 King of the Road (Clash)
10 Blonde Rock and Roll (Clash with Ellen Foley)
11 Every Little Bit Hurts (Clash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15105204/TClas_1979-1980_CostoLiving_atse.zip.html

The cover is just the cover of "The Cost of Living" EP, except with the word "EP" removed from the title.

The Clash - Clash City Rockers - Non-Album Tracks, 1976-1978

The Clash are one of my all-time favorite bands. They were only around a few years, so they didn't record that many songs, but practically everything they did was great, including most of their stray tracks.

They were prolific enough to come up with three albums' worth of stray studio material. This is the first of those three albums. I have the material for all three albums in rough chronological order.

This album starts with two songs from The 101ers in 1976. They were The Clash in all but name. One of the two 101ers songs here, "Keys to Your Heart," was performed live by The Clash from time to time at least until 1980. I wanted to use a Clash version, but unfortunately the sound quality wasn't very good on any of the versions I could find. This studio version is essentially the same, but sounds much better.

The rest of the songs are from 1977 and 1978. The first Clash album, simply titled "The Clash," is a bit confusing because the US and British versions are quite different. As I almost always do, I consider the British version the standard one, so there are a few songs here from the US version.

There are a lot of classic songs here. I think, had this been an album, it would have at least been rated higher than their second album, "Give 'Em Enough Rope."

01 Keys to Your Heart (101ers)
02 Letsagetabitarockin' (101ers)
03 1977 (Clash)
04 Capital Radio (Clash)
05 Listen (Clash)
06 Complete Control (Clash)
07 City of the Dead (Clash)
08 Clash City Rockers (Clash)
09 Jail Guitar Doors (Clash)
10 [White Man] In Hammersmith Palais (Clash)
11 The Prisoner (Clash)
12 1-2 Crush on You (Clash)
13 One Emotion (Clash)
14 Pressure Drop (Clash)
15 Time Is Tight (Clash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15105148/TClas_1976-1978_ClshCityRockers_atse.zip.html

There was an official stray tracks album released while the Clash were still a group called "Black Market Clash." I considered using that as the title for this one, but I thought that could be confusing, so I went with the title of one of the A-sides on it instead. But I used the "Black Market Clash" cover, except for changing the text.