Who's On First

All tracks recorded live at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 29th October, 1982. The Clash were playing support to The Who on one of their farewell gigs.

Track listing

1. London Calling
2. Police On My Back
3. The Guns Of Brixton
4. This Is Radio Clash
5. Spanish Bombs
6. Rock The Casbah
7. The Magnificent Seven
8. Armagideon Time
9. The Magnificent Seven (Reprise)
10. Janie Jones
11. Train In Vain
12. Tommy Gun
13. Clampdown
14. Brand New Cadillac
15. Should I Stay Or Should I Go
16. I Fought The Law

Review

Before the music starts, when the announcer is talking, the sound might put you off a bit. There's a lot of hiss and the whole thing sounds muffled. When Joe starts speaking his voice seems very distant as well. But once the music begins the quality seems pretty good. All the instruments are clear and the vocals become clearer as well (despite going a bit quiet at times). There's also some clipping on it at times - it's too loud and that causes a bit of crackly interference. Don't know if that's due to the soundboard setup or some idiotic bootlegger.

The band is very energetic. London Calling is performed well, at Spanish Bombs excellently. There's some great guitar effects (from Mick I presume) in between and during the songs, similar to the Jamaica gig, but this time there are no overdubs.

Joe seems particularly cheery, and laughs off the hostile elements that seem present in the crowd. He's having things thrown at him and kicks in to Rock The Casbah straight after oblivious to the fools in the crowd. Naturally, the song is fast and performed very energetically. I wasn't keen on this gig at first, but listening to it again has it growing on me. The sound, as mentioned, could be better but the drums, bass and guitars are all there, and thanks to Joe being very voiciferous, the vocals too.

The first part of Mag 7 ends and straight away kicks into a very funky Armagideon Time, and then it picks up again after that song, with the band continuing where they left off, and seeming even more up for it. Mag 7 seemed to have replaced White Riot as the song that got the Clash going. They never seem to skimp when performing it, and it's in almost every gig after 1980. I've also noticed that the Reprise comes after Armagideon Time in this gig and the Jamaica gig. Tommy Gun finds itself in the set and is performed well. Brand New Cadillac sees Joe shouting the lyrics at a very high pitch (and it's a great performance), then there's the obligatory Should I Stay Or Should I Go (I'm not keen on the Clash's only #1), with the guitars sounding quieter this time, but Mick's vocals louder. The sound does seem to be allover the place.

A pretty good show. The sound does seem to be varied though. Sometimes the drums even fade off a bit, and a there's the odd drop out, but it's a good performance by the band. Also, as it was outdoors, that may account for some of the hiss at least.

Rated: 6 / 10

Extra

'Who's On First?' seems to be a triple pun. The fact that the band are supporting The Who, and also, "who's on first?" as in "who is on first base?", as baseball is played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It is also a reference to Abbot and Costello's 'Who's On First?'.