THE CLASH "CITY ROCKERS" LIVE 1979 CHICAGO GREAT 'COLLECTOR' RECORD NOT TMOQ

$

46

THE CLASH "CITY ROCKERS" LIVE 1979 CHICAGO ~ 2-LP ~ GREAT 'COLLECTOR' RECORD
THE CLASH "CITY ROCKERS" LABEL: 'UNKNOWN' CATALOG NUMBER 91479 2 LP BLACK VINYL ~ CUSTOM LABELS RECORDED LIVE SEPTEMBER 14, 1979 ARAGON BALLROOM CHICAGO MATRIX (SIDE A):  ¥ 91479 A
CONDITION: VINYL: EX- to EX    INSERT SLIP: EX-    JACKET w/ STICKER RESIDUE
I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection these past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 45 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
This week on Ebay we are offering up this fantastic Clash 'collector' record, recorded Live in Chicago on their "The Clash Take The Fifth" tour in September 1979.
THE CLASH ~ "CITY ROCKERS" LIVE AT ARAGON BALLROOM CHICAGO SEPTEMBER 14, 1979
I purchased this album in late 1979 or early 1980 at one of my regular Chicago record store haunts.
This was recorded at the Aragon Ballroom on the North side of Chicago. The Aragon was an old 1920's style theater, located on Lawrence Ave at Kenmore Ave in Uptown. It only held about 4,000 people back then.
The show was broadcast locally on one of Chicago's FM Rock stations 93.3 WXRT. Chicago had several competing Rock stations in those days, and they often tried to out-do each other by playing live broadcasts of popular bands as they passed thru town. It was a great opportunity to get rare live material for us music collectors back then.
This gig was just amazing and the broadcast introduced many in the Chicagoland area to the Clash. It really helped push the band's notoriety, profile, and record sales in the States.
I saw many concerts and shows in those days, but I have fond memories of this Clash show and still have my ticket stub in my Ticket/Pass collection. I just checked. The cost was $7.50. Those were the days!
Having seen the show and having tape copies of the broadcast, I had to grab this album up when I found it in one of my regular record shops. At the time, I was grabbing up everything I could find by the Clash.
This is a 2-LP set taken from the Broadcast. It has a great set list, including several songs from 'London Calling,' performed well before the album was released, and the sound is very clean FM stereo, much better than what is typically found on these 'collector' records.
The Chicago show is one of the better sounding, high energy, and best performed shows from the "The Clash Take The Fifth" tour in September 1979, along with the September 21 show from the Palladium in NYC a week later, which was also broadcast.
The record and jacket are still in great condition.
The jacket is just a plain white cardboard sleeve, with the 'cover' printed on a separate slip-in sheet of yellow paper.
There's some remnants of an old price sticker in the top right corner of the jacket, but the insert sheet is still in very nice original condition. It's clean and complete.
The slip-sheet artwork is 'attached' to the jacket, but I see no evidence of tape or glue. I don't recall if I did that, or I purchased it that way. It was a long long time ago....
I see no maker's mark or company name on the insert or records.
The record labels are all hand-done and printed in black & white, with pictures, graphics and song titles. Very cool and rare for a 'collector' record, which usually has blank labels.
The labels and the run out grooves have the Japanese Yen symbol (¥) on them, but I suspect that is just a decoy, and this album has nothing to do with a Japanese Company or Japanese pressing.
This record was purchased in Chicago, around early 1980, but I suspect it was made by one of the regular 'collector' record labels like TMOQ, TAKRL, Pig's Eye, Rubber Dubber, Ruthless Rhymes, Vicky Vinyl, or somebody like that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The songs on this 2-LP live 'collector' record include:
Jimmy Jazz I'm So Bored With The USA Complete Control London Calling (I'm Not Working For) The Clampdown White Man In Hammersmith Palais Koka Kola I Fought The Law Jail Guitar Doors Police And Thieves Stay Free Clash City Rockers Safe European Home Capitol Radio Janie Jones Garageland Armagideon Time Career Opportunities White Riot
This isn't the complete show, as several of the 'lesser' songs have been left off, but it includes all the best songs and best moments of the show. I'm not sure if it's the exact running order, but it's close, as I recall.
LIVE AT ARAGON BALLROOM CHICAGO SEPTEMBER 14,1979
This show was recorded on the "The Clash Take The Fifth" tour in September 1979, their 2nd American tour of 1979.
On that tour, they had The Undertones as their support act, but would also recruit a local band, from whatever city they were in, as the night's opening act.
Unlike most of the 1979 audience, I was already aware of The Undertones, an Irish punk-pop rock band, led by Feargal Sharkey and the O'Neil brothers, as well as John Peel's strong approval of them. I owned the import "Teenage Kicks" and "Get Over You" singles and thought they were a pretty good Punk Pop band.
Feargal and the boys did a decent opening set, and the crowd recognized "Teenage Kicks" when they heard it. 
In Chicago, the 'local' opening act was the amazing Bo Diddley.
Bo Diddley was one of Joe Strummer's musical heroes and he opened several Midwest shows for the band on that tour.
Bo was fantastic. He commanded the stage with his presence. A big dude, with his trademark big black sheriff’s hat, his big shiny belt buckle and his 'Square' bodied guitars. The Chicago audience had a lot of respect for him, which wasn't the case for the opening act, The Undertones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Clash truly invaded Chicago that night.
There was a lot of hype in the press at the time that most Punk Rock bands couldn't play more than 2 chords on their instruments, but the Clash were different. They were all excellent seasoned musicians and blew the crowd away with a thunderous barrage of tight excellent playing.
The setlist included an endless stream of their 'hits'.
It was loud and visceral and you felt it in your chest and gut, as well as in your ears. They were loose but tight, confident in what they were playing. 
The Clash were in peak form on this brief tour. It was a fantastic show, performed in 1979 when the band was still playing with conviction and fire. 
You knew you were seeing a great band, at the peak of their powers, and witnessing a 'moment' in rock that you would never experience again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Clash had been around since early 1977, playing gigs around the UK and Europe, but weren't that well known in America, except for a pocket of fans who had their ears open to the UK Punk scene. 
Their debut album wasn't even released here until just before this concert, in the summer of 1979. The only album we had was "Give Em Enough Rope" and some import singles.
They never played live in the States until their short 3-week February 1979 'Pearl Harbor' tour. They had already earned some Punk and Rock 'respect' when they finally arrived in the States. They opened the 'Pearl Harbor' tour at the Berkeley Community Theater, not some dirty downtown L.A. punk club.
Many fans in the States, unfamiliar with the band, thought that the Clash would be like their UK counterparts The Sex Pistols, who invaded America a year earlier and left a bad impression.
Many felt that The Clash were only going to appeal to those strange folks who wore buttons, safety pins, torn clothing, and weird eyeglasses. Boy, were they wrong.
Some of the shows on the 'Pearl Harbor' tour didn't sell out, and they didn't play Chicago on that brief tour, but by the time they returned in September for their short, but slightly longer, "Take The Fifth" tour in September 1979, tickets were in huge demand and every show sold out to capacity.
I worked in Radio at the time, 'knew some people', and was able to get tickets.
~~~~~~~~~ The setlist included some performances from “London Calling,” before it was officially released, along with an endless stream of their earlier classics.
I don't remember if the first Clash album had been released in the States yet. It was released here in the summer of 1979, I think, but I already had a UK import copy and was very familiar with the songs, as were many in the crowd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This album features the 'Classic' lineup of the English punk band: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Nicky "Topper" Headon. 
The band was very animated, bouncing about, making comments, telling little tales, and moving all around the stage.
Joe Strummer sang in a harsh powerful voice, like he meant every word, emphasizing certain lines, and Mick perfectly filled in the gaps with backing vocals and "harmonies", if you could call it that.
Lead guitarist Mick Jones had some technical trouble with some of his pedals and boxes on a few numbers, but his crunchy tones sounded great. He knew the show was being broadcast and wanted to impress any musicians and critics listening with his chops. He played some killer guitar, strafing the audience with sound and bouncing it off the old theater's walls.
Paul Simonon was the epitome of cool; slightly laid back, keeping the groove going and playing some great, funky, reggae type rhythms. 
Nicky 'Topper' Headon’s drums were crisp and precise, like machine-gun fire. 
A fantastic show and a perfect slice of rock history.
Mick and Paul were said to be having some sort of dispute at the time, but there was no evidence of it on stage, other than Mick Jones staying on one end, and Paul Simonon at the other. It’s a powerful tight performance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From what I can still remember, the show at the Aragon was simply amazing.
Early in the first set, they played 'London Calling' which was a brand new song to most everyone in the audience. The single didn't come out until that December and the album was still months away, so many of the songs were 'new'.
Joe Strummer spit out ”bitten the dust” line with venom, letting the Chicago crowd know that Punk and The Clash were the new sound in town, and that all that 'phoney Beatlemania' stuff had bitten the dust.
The song contains early lyrics with Joe singing “the midnight shutdown and I ain’t had enough" referencing London’s pub hours, and the original ending ”never felt so much like singing the blues”.
'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' got the crowd dancing to it's groove, some even pogo-ing, the first time I had witnessed that. 
Joe made some wry comment about radio sponsors before they kicked into 'Koka Kola'
'I Fought The Law' started out with a thunderous, pummeling drum roll by Topper while Joe literally hits the stage yelling “Hit the deck!” 
'Clampdown' was done as a fun, loose jam, and an intense 'Jail Guitar Doors' was another highlight. The show was full of great, unforgetable rock’n’roll moments.
'Capital Radio' just explodes, shredding the Aragon's stunned audience. A great version with slightly different lyrics, omitting the British DJ names. Joe adds some more comments about being on the radio, and snearingly sings “if you wanna hear a record you ain’t got a hope"
Mick slams out some power chords at the start of 'Clash City Rockers' that echoed and bounced off the Aragon's old theater walls. Mick’s solos cut thru the crowd like a switchblade knife.
This Chicago Aragon show is where they played 'The Guns of Brixton' for the very fist time.
It was written by Paul, and was based around the same theme as Jimmy Cliff's 'The Harder They Come' movie, with Ivan being the Jamaican anti-hero, only from Brixton, not Kingston.
Paul and Joe switched instruments and Paul Simonon sang the vocals on a fantastic, but early, arrangement of 'Guns Of Brixton'
It was a bit 'rough' and I can understand why it was left off this album. 'Tommy Gun' was literally a spotlight for Topper on drums and it too was rightfully left off this record.
The last several songs were mesmerizing and amazing.
'Armagideon Time' started out with the stage completely dark, and a long slinky intro, just the bass & drum groove. Then Joe in a spotlight, then Mick. The song has a great smooth groove and as it rolled to a close, all the house lights came on, and Joe shouts "1-2-3-4..." and they launched into a fantasic, scorching version of 'Career Opportunities' followed by an intense 'White Riot' to close out the show and leaving the crowd stunned and blown away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As an aside, there's some short, but fantastic, hand-held, silent 8mm footage of this show floating around among Clash collectors.
I'm not sure who shot it, but me and my buddy, who was on leave from the Marines at nearby Great Lakes Naval Station, are right up front, easy to spot, because he is in his camo uniform.
During one song, Joe made a comment about people tossing things onstage and needing to "take cover", so in the next song, people were tossing even more things onstage. My buddy took off his camo hat, his 'cover', and tossed it at Paul. It hit him square in the chest and fell onto his hands while he was playing. Without missing a note, he grabbed it and plunked it on his head, sideways and off-kilter. At the end of the song, he flung it back deep into the audience.
My buddy's 'Rock and Roll moment' that some fan captured on 8mm film! He later told me that he caught hell for returning to base without his cover, but said it was well worth it to have Paul Simonon briefly wear his hat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you’ve never seen the Clash,  it’s an amazing experience.
Few bands had the ability to not only define a new genre of music, but also spread that style of music directly to the masses by playing live gigs, and leaving a lasting influence on multiple people and multiple bands. The Clash were one of those bands.  
This 2-LP set captures the best moments from that show and belongs in any Clash, Punk, or rock vinyl collection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures.
I purchased this copy back in late 1979 or early 1980, and have taken great care of it since.
VINYL: The vinyl looks excellent. Clean and bright. Maybe a few tiny hairlines, but No serious scuffs, palpable scratches, or dings. It looks great, and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
The Deadwax has the simple matrix marks, but not much else. See the full Matrix markings above.
I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it looks. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
I haven't messed with it or cleaned it, other than my trusty 'DiscWasher' brush, in 40 years. It could use a good deep cleaning to make it even bettter looking and better sounding than it already is. 
LABELS: This is pressed with very cool 'custom' labels that have artwork, pictures and song titles. Unusual for a 'collector' record and a nice touch.
The labels are clean and bright. No marks or damage. The spindle holes are still sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.
JACKET: As you can see from my pictures, this still looks very nice for a 40 year old OG copy.
I discussed the jacket and slip-sheet cover above. This copy is still quite nice. The artwork is bold and bright. A nice survivor.
Overall, I'll call the whole record at least a strong VG++, the vinyl is very clean.
This record has been sleeved and stored properly for decades, and is still quite nice for an original pressing. This copy is all original, and a real gem. I'm sure you'll love it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far.  -- JOHN