Us '83

There's no doubt that for $20 (even in 1983 prices) that's an interesting line up.

This was the last gig Mick Jones played with The Clash, in front of 250, 000 people. The Clash had truculently refused to play hours before their stage time but relented. There was an argument with Dave Lee Roth about the $1.5 million Van Halen were receiving and Joe insisted the organisers, including Steve Wozniak of Apple fame, pay them more or donate more to Clash approved charities. This led to a pissed off Clash taking the stage and the tensions are evident in the clips- the whole thing was recorded- although some of the tension may be internal. Joe and Mick were barely speaking, Mick and Paul rowed on and off. As a result, Mick was playing his 80 minutes on stage in the band he formed. Topper was gone too by this point, replaced by Nick Howard (who had replaced Terry Chimes/Tory Crimes). During the show Joe repeatedly abused the audience and organisers and on leaving the stage (even more pissed off that the dj began playing songs straight away, denying them an encore) the band got into a scuffle with security. During the brawl, in a last display of band unity, Paul waded in to stop Mick getting a kicking ('cos he's only a skinny bloke Mick isn't he' said Paul). Having said all this, for a band adapting their set and sound to stadiums this is top stuff. Mick, Joe and Paul are tight and the drumming is good enough. Paul looks like the coolest bassist in the world and can clearly play the thing too, without the notes panted on the fretboard like in the early days. However you look at it, it's a long way from Camden Town in 1976.

There's some variable quality clips on Youtube. The whole show is there but a lot of it has been filmed by a man watching it on video on his TV in his front room. The two below are straight from the DVD and are good quality.






There's a new Clash box set in the offing, remastered by Mick and packed in a boom box/ghetto blaster designed by Paul, with demos and extra tracks (that have been available on bootlegs for donkey's years) and accompanied by all manner of trinkets, retailing at somewhere around one hundred pounds. It is ridiculous. Yes, of course I want it.

Walk Evil Talk

Black And Blues

Jim Reid, ex-Mary Chain frontman, has got a new song up on here on Soundcloud called Black And Blues. It's a Jim Reid song, you know what it'll sound like. I like it. Jim's comment about it is 'What I've been wasting my time with lately'.

The Mary Chain's five studio albums are soon to be re-released as triple packs, 2 cds with all the extras you'd expect and a dvd of videos, tv appearances and so on. A couple of these might be tempting if Rhino hadn't put out a box of rarities a couple of years back and double cd best of last year, and the whole set of albums were re-mastered and re-released not too long before that. The Smiths soon to be released boxset features their albums (and singles on the big box set, in both vinyl and cd format) re-mastered (because the originals sounded awful didn't they?), and depending on which format you buy would set you back £50 or £300. It's all a long way from 7" and 12" singles for a quid or two in the mid 1980s and junk shop clothes.

Happy When It Rains

Box Set Go

The box set has got a bit more out of control this year (and somewhere there is a pedant waiting to point out it's boxed set). Box sets are nice, expensive, official product, beautifully put together, and designed to appeal to the obsessive collector. People like me I suppose.

David Bowie's Station To Station, released this year in a deluxe edition with five cds (full album, full live show, different mixes, versions etc), a lovely booklet, and with all kinds of memorabilia (facsimile back stage passes, tickets, badges and whatnot). Does anyone need five cds of Station To Station? Will anyone ever play the whole thing?

Neu! released a box this year with all three studio albums, some stuff they did in the 80s, a lovely booklet, and a Neu! stencil. For stencilling the Neu! logo wherever you might want to.

Screamadelica, soon to be released, with five cds (full album, all the remixes, live show, Dixie narco e.p., dvd of The Making Of..., T-shirt, and Screamadelica slipmat. For a penny under one hundred quid. Initial quantities signed by the band. Actually I quite fancy a Screamadelica slipmat. And the dvd will have interviews with Weatherall, with moving pictures and everything. But every remix has been released before, there's no new ones, and no new material. (While I'm here, I have a memory of being in a nightclub and hearing Moving On Up played but with Denise Johnson singing not Bobby. Does this version exist or was it my slightly addled 3am brain?)

Orange Juice's Coals To Newcastle- contains pretty much everything they did across five cds and dvd of tv shows. Lovely.

I'm sure there's loads of others I haven't mentioned. I'm sure they're all lovely too. I love the attention to detail. I like nice booklets and photos and interviews. I like the gimmicks- the slipmat, the stencil. I'm looking forward to the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds action figures and New Order playmobil set. I like the having-everything-in-one-place feeling. But we are being suckered here. They know we want it. They know some people (middle aged men mainly) will part with increasing sums of money for this stuff, despite already owning most or all of the material, and having 'upgraded' before, lp to cd, single cd to 'legacy' edition. Are we being catered for or exploited? I suppose it depends how much you want the slipmat, the t-shirt, the booklet, the photos, the remastered album (and why wasn't the original album mastered very well then?).

This is Fuer Immer off Neu!2, the opening track, ten minutes of aural bliss that doesn't change very much but leaves you feeling better than when it started. I'm off to covet box sets on the internet.

Fuer Immer (forever).mp3

The Stooges 'Down On The Street (Take 2) (False Start)

One of the few joys of cds overtaking vinyl in the late 80s/early 90s was the box set, and even this was a mixed blessing. The whole box thing was good, lovely booklets and packaging, essays, photos, facsimiles of ephemera (badges, tickets, tour laminates, press cuttings), personal accounts and the sense of having everything in one place. The Clash On Broadway and the Joy Division box set are both good examples. Some of them are a bit frustrating- New Order's missed off Love Vigilantes and Age Of Consent in exchange for a whole live disc. There was also the overfaced feeling of 'Christ, now I have to listen to all of this'. But generally, a good thing, if obviously aimed at middle aged completists. Not people like me obviously.

The Stooges The Complete Funhouse Sessions set a benchmark unlikely to be equalled. Take an absolute stone-cold killer album and include everything recorded during the whole time they were in the studio- chat, out-takes, false starts, tracks finishing abruptly, the lot. As wiki says 'it contains every note, word and sound'. As such the ordinary consumer might feel that over twenty versions of Loose might be overdoing it a bit, especially when every version is almost identical. Fifteen takes of Down On The Street. Fourteen takes of TV Eye. Has anyone ever listened to any of the discs all the way through? Furthermore, the band picked the right take for the album every time. The extras are all superfluous. It's completism gone mad, but I love it. I don't own it by the way. Amazon has a used copy for $999.99, but there are places you can find it on the net. So here you go, Down On The Street, killer track, Stooges tight as you like, Iggy in charge, false start.

Down_On_The_Street_(Take_2)_(False_Start).mp3