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Royal Court Theatre 1984

All tracks recorded live at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, 5th March, 1984.

Track listing

CD1:

  1. London Calling
  2. Safe European Home
  3. Introductions
  4. Are You Ready For War
  5. Rock The Casbah
  6. Sex Mad War
  7. Know Your Rights
  8. The Guns Of Brixton
  9. Ammunition
  10. Clampdown
  11. Radio Clash
  12. Clash City Rockers
  13. This Is England
  14. I'm So Bored With The U.S.A.
  15. Career Opportunities
  16. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
  17. Police & Thieves
  18. Three Card Trick
  19. Janie Jones
  20. I Fought The Law

CD2:

  1. We Are The Clash
  2. Tommy Gun
  3. Complete Control
  4. English Civil War
  5. Brand New Cadillac
  6. Armagideon Time
  7. Should I Stay Or Should I Go
  8. Garageland
  9. Bankrobber
  10. Spanish Bombs
  11. White Riot

Review

The first thing of note on this show is the poor sound quality. The first track starts with an annoying blip then silence for a few seconds before you hear Kosmo Vinyl's familiar introduction. Then it's into London Calling and the playing isn't all that inspired. It's pretty dull and the poor quality makes matters worse. The bass isn't audible and the guitars are very quiet also. The drums and vocals are reasonably clear but the whole thing is covered in clipping as soon as the volume gets high enough (which is a lot of the time). The sound also experiences slight fluctuations in the volume. The band are not on very good form here. London Calling seems to amble along, with rough vocals from Joe and the band. Matters improve somewhat with Safe European Home but yet more sound trouble as it goes quieter and can't seem to settle on a volume. Again, the singing is poor from Joe, and the backing vocals from Nick and Vince are pretty dire as well. Out of key and sounding more like a rabble shouting for all their life's worth. The poor sound probably makes this sound a lot worse than it probably was.

After the first two songs Joe introduces Nick, Vince and Pete to applause from the crowd. He seems really cheerful here, and concerned about fans getting crushed in the sway. Then this show gets a bit better. Are You Ready For War is very good. A great guitar intro and the sound problems seem to have been rectified somewhat, though not completely. It's still bad to average but the performance of this song shines through. Rock The Casbah is a reasonable performance, but not very good. It's primitive with shouting vocals and basic guitar playing and a constant single drum beat for the most of it. There is a nice guitar bit about 1 minute 20 seconds in and after that Pete seems to hammer the drums intensively for a short solo and it sounds pretty good. Sex Mad War is a good performance despite the covering of interference. Again, the whole sound is too rough. Joe's vocals especially. Know Your Rights is a quick version, and played similar to the previous songs.

For Guns Of Brixton, it's the harmonica to start it, and as I've said before it works very well. Good guitar work also and this is a good performance. Ammunition is an energetic blast. There certainly is no lack of energy for this show. The main highlight of disc one is This Is England. It's well performed, with great guitar work and funky tune. The new songs seem to be performed a lot better than the older Clash tunes, though it's probably because only the older songs can be compared with the Mick Jones era.

There is a pause after I'm So Bored With The U.S.A. then the sound kicks in again a little into Career Opportunities. Other standouts on disc one are (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais, complete with audience participation and the other new song Three Card Trick (Joe strangely associates it with 1988 and I have no idea why). Fast and furious renditions of Janie Jones and I Fought The Law end disc one.

There are a few seconds of silence, a bit of crowd noise, a slight cut out and then Joe jokes with the crowd over the 'Arab slipper' thrown on stage during Rock The Casbah. "Alright Mustapha!" then it's into We Are The Clash, another new song at this time. The sound is free of clipping and interference at the moment and seems average, and remains the same for the rest of disc two. It's thin, lacking bass and distant, but an improvement over disc one. The song is performed very well. There's a brief cut in the sound before English Civil War, before which Joe announces the winner of the breakdance competition. He's certainly in high spirits. Armagideon Time is a simplistic playing, with little guitar work and finally the bass is audible, but it's not a good sound. Probably the highlight of the second disc is the rendition of Should I Stay Or Should I Go. A good performance with Nick Sheppard singing the lead vocals, and doing a pretty good job. There's another brief cut in the sound before Bankrobber which is a good laugh with more crowd participation. Spanish Bombs is performed well and to end it's White Riot, which is buried away under hiss and sounds very distant.

An average show. The poor sound quality throughout affects it a lot and though the band are very energetic it's not the best performance. This Is England is the highlight.

Rated: 6 / 10

Extra

For a good '84 show I highly recommend you check out Patriots Of The Wasteland.

Thanks to Rob Thompson for the copy of this.