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.