Clash Live Series (Only an idea)

[matedog]

Bruce has been releasing a ton of his professionally recorded shows (and some semi-professionally recorded) via the Nugs website. This includes a lot of his legendary shows which has been a lot of fun to finally get these shows. There's been some inconsistency with some of the mixes, but it's generally been great for the fans as they have been sitting on a lot these tapes for 40+ years.

That got me fantasizing about The Clash doing a similar thing - professionally mixed releases of their live archive. Let's be honest, they probably aren't going to have big sellers worthy of promotion like the one time they tried with the woeful Live at Shea. Why not release these tapes via a similar site like Nugs to monetize these tapes that are collecting dust?

Using FHTE as a baseline of stuff we KNOW Sony has in their archives, I could see these being possible for release:

1979-01-03 - Lyceum - Easy promo since professional footage of this show
1980-02-18 - Lewisham - Easy promo since professional footage of this show
1981-06-08 - Bonds - Easy promo since professional footage of this show
1981-06-09 - Bonds - Easy promo since professional footage of this show
1982-09-07 - Boston
1982-09-08 - Boston
1982-10-12 - Shea Night 1

I didn't include the Rude Boy stuff from FHTE because they are so heavily overdubbed I'm not convinced any of it is live. Even the drums on London's Burning from RAR aren't live.

Stuff Sony *might* have access to (this is hard with BMC down, so I'm going on memory and am probably missing some stuff):
1982-02-25 - Hong Kong - I believe this was a radio broadcast, so perhaps a pre-broadcast tape is available.
1981-05-10 - Teddy B mentioned Sony was planning on releasing this as part of a S! anniversary release. That strongly suggests they have the tapes.
1977-05-28 - I believe this was a radio broadcast, so perhaps a pre-broadcast tape is available.
1976-Various - There's a rumor that Mickey Foote recorded a bunch of earlier shows. Perhaps through 1977.

I could probably go on with other radio broadcasts that *might* be available, but I think you get the idea. I suppose Sony would have to determine if this would make sufficient money vs. the cost to mix and master the tapes. Ideally Sony would earn money on this release and the fans would get some great new material (win-win). Or they might hold on to something like Lewisham to package with London Calling 50th in 10 years. Though the way they handle the legacy, they'll just repackage the regular album "Special 50th Anniversary Remaster" with a picture book or something. Or something else worthless like the vanilla tapes on vinyl

[Heston]

Great idea but I'm not holding my breath.

The Lewisham show is the head scratcher. Peak live Clash, what we've heard so far is great, so what gives?

[Dr. Medulla]

Wire did this for awhile with their “legal bootleg” series of downloads. Nothing flashy but a nice gesture to their admittedly small fanbase and a little extra cash. For something like this to happen, I imagine Sony would just make a deal with a small label to release them as it's too small for it to care about. But for a band whose reputation is mostly rooted in its live shows, it's a startling oversight.

[matedog]

Wire did this for awhile with their “legal bootleg” series of downloads. Nothing flashy but a nice gesture to their admittedly small fanbase and a little extra cash. For something like this to happen, I imagine Sony would just make a deal with a small label to release them as it's too small for it to care about. But for a band whose reputation is mostly rooted in its live shows, it's a startling oversight.

So bands bigger than The Clash (Bruce) do it as do bands smaller than The Clash (Wire).

The live releases have been particularly baffling - FHTE (which I find generally very enjoyable), then Shea (okay, it has the big Combat Rock songs and is a punchy greatest hits show, but being the sole full live show release makes no damn sense 12 years on), and the wretched-sounding Lyceum tracks tacked on to Sound System (I believe Teddy confirmed they were an afterthought).


I just don't get Sony's approach with repacking London Calling every 5 years. There is legit "new" material that is at their disposal yet they opt to let the fanbase slowly die out without ever tapping this potential venue source.

[Kory]

Wire did this for awhile with their “legal bootleg” series of downloads. Nothing flashy but a nice gesture to their admittedly small fanbase and a little extra cash. For something like this to happen, I imagine Sony would just make a deal with a small label to release them as it's too small for it to care about. But for a band whose reputation is mostly rooted in its live shows, it's a startling oversight.

So bands bigger than The Clash (Bruce) do it as do bands smaller than The Clash (Wire).

The live releases have been particularly baffling - FHTE (which I find generally very enjoyable), then Shea (okay, it has the big Combat Rock songs and is a punchy greatest hits show, but being the sole full live show release makes no damn sense 12 years on), and the wretched-sounding Lyceum tracks tacked on to Sound System (I believe Teddy confirmed they were an afterthought).


I just don't get Sony's approach with repacking London Calling every 5 years. There is legit "new" material that is at their disposal yet they opt to let the fanbase slowly die out without ever tapping this potential venue source.

Teddy did say there was going to be some big news in 2020, maybe this will be it.

[Heston]

the wretched-sounding Lyceum tracks tacked on to Sound System (I believe Teddy confirmed they were an afterthought).

That was unforgivable. We'd heard how good they could sound properly mixed so I was looking forward to them. Vocal levels all over the place and virtually unlistenable.

[matedog]

Wire did this for awhile with their “legal bootleg” series of downloads. Nothing flashy but a nice gesture to their admittedly small fanbase and a little extra cash. For something like this to happen, I imagine Sony would just make a deal with a small label to release them as it's too small for it to care about. But for a band whose reputation is mostly rooted in its live shows, it's a startling oversight.

So bands bigger than The Clash (Bruce) do it as do bands smaller than The Clash (Wire).

The live releases have been particularly baffling - FHTE (which I find generally very enjoyable), then Shea (okay, it has the big Combat Rock songs and is a punchy greatest hits show, but being the sole full live show release makes no damn sense 12 years on), and the wretched-sounding Lyceum tracks tacked on to Sound System (I believe Teddy confirmed they were an afterthought).


I just don't get Sony's approach with repacking London Calling every 5 years. There is legit "new" material that is at their disposal yet they opt to let the fanbase slowly die out without ever tapping this potential venue source.

Teddy did say there was going to be some big news in 2020, maybe this will be it.

I missed that. Hopefully it isn't just Sandinista with a picture book.

[101Walterton]

There is a whole series of Clash live shows on vinyl floating about. Don’t think they are official (haven’t bought any) but professional looking boots?

[matedog]

There is a whole series of Clash live shows on vinyl floating about. Don’t think they are official (haven’t bought any) but professional looking boots?

Yeah, I mean we have a large selection of decent to great sounding boots that will serve me just fine if we never get anything official ever again. I'm just hoping for new material that we know exists.

[101Walterton]

There is a whole series of Clash live shows on vinyl floating about. Don’t think they are official (haven’t bought any) but professional looking boots?

Yeah, I mean we have a large selection of decent to great sounding boots that will serve me just fine if we never get anything official ever again. I'm just hoping for new material that we know exists.

Here’s a couple, racks in my local shop are full of them

[Kory]

Wire did this for awhile with their “legal bootleg” series of downloads. Nothing flashy but a nice gesture to their admittedly small fanbase and a little extra cash. For something like this to happen, I imagine Sony would just make a deal with a small label to release them as it's too small for it to care about. But for a band whose reputation is mostly rooted in its live shows, it's a startling oversight.

So bands bigger than The Clash (Bruce) do it as do bands smaller than The Clash (Wire).

The live releases have been particularly baffling - FHTE (which I find generally very enjoyable), then Shea (okay, it has the big Combat Rock songs and is a punchy greatest hits show, but being the sole full live show release makes no damn sense 12 years on), and the wretched-sounding Lyceum tracks tacked on to Sound System (I believe Teddy confirmed they were an afterthought).


I just don't get Sony's approach with repacking London Calling every 5 years. There is legit "new" material that is at their disposal yet they opt to let the fanbase slowly die out without ever tapping this potential venue source.

Teddy did say there was going to be some big news in 2020, maybe this will be it.

I missed that. Hopefully it isn't just Sandinista with a picture book.

I think he has a good handle on what we'd consider big news. I'm hoping for COB myself.

[matedog]

Wire did this for awhile with their “legal bootleg” series of downloads. Nothing flashy but a nice gesture to their admittedly small fanbase and a little extra cash. For something like this to happen, I imagine Sony would just make a deal with a small label to release them as it's too small for it to care about. But for a band whose reputation is mostly rooted in its live shows, it's a startling oversight.

So bands bigger than The Clash (Bruce) do it as do bands smaller than The Clash (Wire).

The live releases have been particularly baffling - FHTE (which I find generally very enjoyable), then Shea (okay, it has the big Combat Rock songs and is a punchy greatest hits show, but being the sole full live show release makes no damn sense 12 years on), and the wretched-sounding Lyceum tracks tacked on to Sound System (I believe Teddy confirmed they were an afterthought).


I just don't get Sony's approach with repacking London Calling every 5 years. There is legit "new" material that is at their disposal yet they opt to let the fanbase slowly die out without ever tapping this potential venue source.

Teddy did say there was going to be some big news in 2020, maybe this will be it.

I missed that. Hopefully it isn't just Sandinista with a picture book.

I think he has a good handle on what we'd consider big news. I'm hoping for COB myself.

We've discussed this before, but I think that'd be such a cool release - Great live footage of the band, the nascent hip hop community, and pre-Guiliani NYC. I'm struggling to think of a similar film from any band, I think it'd be so unique.

[dave202]

So bands bigger than The Clash (Bruce) do it as do bands smaller than The Clash (Wire).

The live releases have been particularly baffling - FHTE (which I find generally very enjoyable), then Shea (okay, it has the big Combat Rock songs and is a punchy greatest hits show, but being the sole full live show release makes no damn sense 12 years on), and the wretched-sounding Lyceum tracks tacked on to Sound System (I believe Teddy confirmed they were an afterthought).


I just don't get Sony's approach with repacking London Calling every 5 years. There is legit "new" material that is at their disposal yet they opt to let the fanbase slowly die out without ever tapping this potential venue source.

Teddy did say there was going to be some big news in 2020, maybe this will be it.

I missed that. Hopefully it isn't just Sandinista with a picture book.

I think he has a good handle on what we'd consider big news. I'm hoping for COB myself.

We've discussed this before, but I think that'd be such a cool release - Great live footage of the band, the nascent hip hop community, and pre-Guiliani NYC. I'm struggling to think of a similar film from any band, I think it'd be so unique.

Agree totally. It would be a great document of the band, the times and the community and also put what they were doing at that time into a perspective that is unknown to a lot of people.

[Dr. Medulla]

We've discussed this before, but I think that'd be such a cool release - Great live footage of the band, the nascent hip hop community, and pre-Guiliani NYC. I'm struggling to think of a similar film from any band, I think it'd be so unique.

Your desire all but assures it won't happen. Because the Clash.

[TeddyB Not Logged In]