Friday, April 2, 2010

The Clash 02/01/1982 Tokyo





I play records every now and then in Vegas bars and the Clash is always a safe bet. Popular with the Warped tour set, the Hotrod/Tattoo set, the 77 forever set, the I-got-a liberal arts degree in college Loolapoolza set ...etc.etc. The only problem being that, as a snobby, elitist record collector, you tire of things that you've heard more than three or four times. I've looked around for quality Clash bootlegs a couple of times- so as to find some playable, familiar material that had the uncommon freshness of something that isn't readily available.
This Japan set is so readily available that you can find people hawking it on Amazon. Nevertheless, it is not official product. There is a recently issued live document (audio only) of a 1982 The Clash opening for the Who. I haven't got around to hearing this so I can't vouch.

This set was pro shot for TV and is very well filmed and edited. The quality of the image is fair...the file that I pulled from some random torrent had the following specs:
The_CLASH_Live_Tokyo_1982-DVD_RiP_Fr_DivX_HQ_AC3_2.0-OBG_IADV.avi
608X448, 700 MB, 29.97 fps, 1588 kbps

By the way. in Gspot, what are Len, Qf, Sar, Dar, and Par???

I expect that the only thing that has held this back from being sold through official channels is that the guitars sound dismally weak- thin and quiet. Really a shame because otherwise the performance is strong.

1. London Calling
2. Safe European Home
3. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
4. Brand New Cadillac
5. Charlie Don't Surf
6. Clampdown
7. This is Radio Clash
8. Armagideon Time
9. Jimmy Jazz
10. Tommy Gun
11. Fujiyama Mama
12. Police On My Back
13. White Riot

Vocals on Fujiyama Mama are courtesy Pearl E. Gates AKA Pearl Harbour...a punk goddess apparently linked with Simonon about this time.

Although I've taken a few stabs at becoming more familiar with the Clash beyond the official releases, I haven't gone too deeply into it. I can recall two other things that I've examined. I also have a video of a 1980 Paris show which I vaguely remember as perhaps superior to this...in terms of audio quality and energy level...I also have an audio boot of a Bond's Casino night which is of superb quality straight through and is actually holds the interest of a casual fan through the course of the whole show. The only thing to stop anyone from reviewing hundreds of hours of Clash show recordings needs nothing but bandwidth and time...For HERE is a whopping collection of links to such a collection, all in both MP3 and lossless!

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