Sunday band-fest supporting the Kursaal Flyers & Crazy Caven & The Rhythm Rockers

updated 20 December 2014 - added new flyer with badge
updated May 2023 - added Spunds review
updated Dec 2023 added new advert

Unofficial CD,
5 Go Mad at the Roundhouse*

Sound 3.5 - 42mins - Source CD - Tracks 15

*5 Go Mad at the Round house also includes 13 tracks from 27 October 76 Birmingham Barbarellas

Janie Jones

A very enjoyable listen

Although an audience recording suffering from the usual problems of distance and bass capture, it's a very enjoyable listen with a wideish dynamic range and fair degree of clarity. Recorded using decent equipment probably by the same person who taped the Midnight Special and Barbarellas' gig (also on 5 Go Mad At The Roundhouse).

The CD came out long after the tape, which had been circulating since the late 70's and is a big improvement in sound. The old circulating tapes are of very poor quality and should be avoided.

The boot MS is either from the master or very low generation and has some spots of wear. Guitars and drums are very clear allowing Keith Levene's lead work to be heard and evaluated. Vocals are good but somewhat distant. Many of the lyrics on the unrecorded songs can now be heard (or at least guessed at). The recording also captures very clearly the audience shouts and responses to Joe's attempts at audience participation.

Keith Levene's last gig with The Clash.

Journalists invited; 3 show up.

The best quality recording circulating from 1976

This is an historic and essential Clash bootleg. It's the best quality recording circulating from 1976 and therefore the best source for checking out the early line up with Keith Levene, hearing the early unreleased songs and noting the development of the later recorded songs.

Despite being only their 5th gig it stands as an exciting performance in its own right and confirms that The Clash were a great band right from the start. More significantly however, it records Joe Strummer's efforts at engaging the audience, and therefore is an early example of why The Clash now command their own place in rock'n'roll history. This was no ordinary good time rock band content to entertain its audience, its aim was nothing less than to change people's lives, "we don't want to just sell records".

Adverts

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POSTER, Roundhouse, 5th September 1976

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Last Gang In Town

Marcus Gray's Last Gang In Town describes the gig in some detail but is critical at Strummer's attempts at audience participation. This is partly unfair, Joe is obviously nervous (admits to being) and unsure how to deal with hecklers but his sincere desire to communicate and get through to the audience is clear. The response of the audience at the end is not as cold as Gray suggests and it's clear some of the audience at least is impressed.

Here was an almost unknown band, coming on first at 6 o'clock before the bar had opened, to a typical Roundhouse audience of bedenimed latter-day hippies, waiting for the main acts and not expecting something so radically different in both sound and dress. Not surprisingly therefore they were nervous and the easy option would have been to bash out the songs as previous gigs, abuse the audience and make an early exit. Significantly Strummer rejected that and sought to communicate his frustrations with the rock scene to an audience from his own area. Some of the put-downs of hecklers are nervous and embarrassing but he gets the punk DIY ethic: if you're bored do something about it, across at least sincerely if not totally successfully.

Gray acknowledges that it was a varied and proficient 14 song set, but with pacing ruined by these lengthy interruptions which failed to generate any compensatory dramatic tension. Chas De Whalley in a Sounds review dismissed the bulk of the songs and compared them unfavourably with 101'ers and Bernie was supposed to have been incensed, shouting "it was fucking shit!"

Setlist

1. Deny
The song fades in losing its beginning. Lyrics and song structure are very similar to the recorded version. A very good version with the twin guitar interplay coming across well at the ending coda.

2. 1-2 Crush On You
This is terrific, fast and furious. Joe on lead vocals.

3. I Know What to Think About You
An unrecorded song based on a slow Can't Explain riff. Many of the lyrics can now be heard. A good song and one of the longest in the set.

4. I Never Did It?
"I could have been as rich as you"," I never did it", repeated at end. Mick's Beatles like harmonies can be heard already which would later help make "The Clash" such a unique and great record. Another fast and enjoyable unrecorded song.

5. How Can I Understand the Flies?
Introduced as "a summer song", its about the Davis Road squat reported to have been filthy! "How can I go to sleep for the flies buzzing around my head!" First Ramones LP is an obvious influence. Slight song but enjoyable.

6. Protex Blue
Very good performance, guitars clear, same lyrics as recorded, good vocal from Mick.

7. Janie Jones
Before the song Joe starts his attempts to get more reaction from the audience, "I suppose you think you can pay your £1.50 and just come in and sit down as if it's a fuckin' TV set, get off your denims, you might wear them out!"

On Midnight Special Mick sang the chorus but from now on Joe now sings the whole song. Its still sung in the first person "I'm in love etc". Same lyrics as recorded version but not the finished classic yet; it sounds too basic without the punk snarl yet.

8. Mark Me Absent
Before this song starts Joe says "now its time for audience participation, tell me what are you doing here? two for rock'n'roll". Someone shouts "waiting for the next band" to which Joe's response was " I don't know what you are about the waist, but I guess its in advance of 36", so if you want to carry your corpulent body up to the bar and stuff it with a few more barrels, go ahead " Joe is clearly nervous and not good yet at dealing with hecklers, there are cries of get off the stage. Joe " alright then 20 various suggestions, what sort of fun you going to get of the rock'n'rollers, the Kursaal Flying Machine?! Did you watch the documentary on TV last year on them, nothing else on, agreed." Someone shouts "were you in the 101'ers?" "Never heard of them", his response. "How many of you are in your normal consciousness?" someone shouts "shut up smart arse, get on with it", Joe exasperated says "you big twit, so what if you've got 5 A-levels, what do I care, that's just a dirty trick" Someone correctly shouts "your drummers got them!" referring to Terry Chimes, Joe's response is a serious "don't worry I'm working on him".

Joe then introduces Mark Me Absent with its "back to your schooldays". A fast, furious but catchy song "I got away" being the message about school.

9. Deadly Serious (Dig a Hole)
Before this other unrecorded song Joe is more successful in getting across to the audience. " Have you been having a good time down the pubs, I've been trying to see some groups but I have to stay in, only thing I've got is a TV with no sound, I wanna go out really and see some groups, but there's nothing worth seeing out there, I've seen it all before, so I just watch something like Taras Bulba and lip read through out! I just want to protest about this state of affairs, so if any of you people in the audience who aren't past it yet, why don't you get up and do something around the town instead of lying around" He got his point across, and now its on with the rest of the set and the heckling stops.

A fast furious Deadly Serious (Dig a Hole), based on a fast version of the Can't Explain riff, but it's a slight song, one of the weakest.

10. 48 Hours
This was written to bolster the live set and not to fill out the first LP as some journalists have suggested. It's not a great version yet, lacking the punk snarl and venom but is short, fast and enjoyable.

11. I'm So Bored With You
Still sung about a girl with totally different lyrics to its later recorded form, "what can I do, you don't look like her" "public school" also features so presumably its a put down of a rich girl. Guitar work is not very exciting from Levene , a work in progress.

12. Sitting at my Party
Taper changes tape and there's an edit before this last unrecorded song, probably the weakest. Short fast, and with unintelligible lyrics.

13. London's Burning
The last 3 songs are excellent and ample warning of the greatness to come. Lyrically and musically it's already very similar to the recorded version but London's not burning with boredom yet, subway verse is repeated twice and its "drowning in a sea of television". The ending is weak and not developed yet.

14. What's My Name
Great performance, already sounding a classic. "What the hell is wrong with you, you look so fucking cool (words used in later live performances including Rude Boy). Other different lyrics including he's at the house late at night (but not with the celluloid strip/camera) but with a much more menacing carving knife, taking a life. Why was this lyric changed, its much more disturbing evocation of the extreme possible effects of alienation and identity, the song's subjects?

15. 1977
"Dedicated to the future", sounds great, nearly the finished classic.

There are cheers at end and applause. This exciting performance clearly didn't go down badly with all.

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A ‘Sundae Outing' at the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm

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This may be the first photo of them, that's Camden's Roundhouse in the background

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Facebook Search | The Clash The Roundhouse 1976

Sounds: Roundhouse Review

11 September 1976

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The Clash - photographed at Chalk Farm rehearsal studio in December 1976

PuNk and Stuff | @PunKandStuff | Link

The Clash - photographed at Chalk Farm rehearsal studio in December 1976 by Steve Emberton pic.twitter.com/X5RIrJ0TxL

— PuNk and Stuff (@PunKandStuff) January 1, 2023

PuNk and Stuff | @PunKandStuff | Link

The Clash photographed near Chalk Farm/Camden Town in December 1976.
Photo © Sheila Rock. pic.twitter.com/XCnMT5DhJJ

— PuNk and Stuff (@PunKandStuff) January 6, 2024

The Kursaal Flyers/Crazy Cavan/Clash:
Roundhouse, London.

Chas de Whalley, Sounds, September 1976

Link or at Rocks Back Pages, paywall

JOE STRUMMER'S Clash--the best new band of the year? Well, some would claim as much. At least you can guarantee that any band formed by the 101ers guitarist will bristle with fire and energy...

The Essential Clash Bootleg Bible

Chris Knowles

Link

You can go on the web and find any number of complete Clash bootleg discographies. That is not my intention here. What I set out to do here was to provide the curious with what I think is a meaningful representation.

Jon Norledge - Camden Town

I think I can help clear up the minor omissions at the end of the review (last paragraph on RH side) on this page.
 
The producer was 'Wombler' Mike Batt. Batt wrote and performed Wombles songs in a Womble outfit ! http://www.toonhound.com/wombles.htm
 
However Batt was also a renowned producer and knew how to arrange a 'big sound' with an orchestra. As did George Martin and most of the studio producers of the 60's. This is what the Kursaal Flyers were after at that time for the Golden Mile LP. I was at the Roundhouse gig for an interview for a roadie job with the Kursaals.

I always will remember the Clash for the rants at the audience. It was normal to sit down during performances in those days - so it was amazing to hear Joe Strummer shout at us about  'wearing out yer denims'. So I was delighted to see that you have a recording of this gig and that my memory hadn't let me down. I got the job with the Kursaals and toured with them until they broke up at the end of 1977.

We kept in touch with the Clash (in particular - Mick Jones) during their meteoric rise to fame and met them 'back at the hotel' whenever our tour dates coincided. Coincidentally I was at the Roundhouse for the opening 2 events of the BBC Electric Proms.

The first film was about Pete Doherty which included the studio sessions for his new single - Janie Jones.

Funny to think I saw that song performed at the same venue exactly 30 years ago! (The other event yesterday was Paul Weller live - amazing. He did loads of Jam songs including Going Underground, Town Called Malice and In the City !!).

Setlist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15	Deny 1-2 Crush on You I Know What to Think About You I Never Did It How Can I Understand the Flies Protex Blue Janie Jones Mark Me Absent Deadly Serious (Dig a Hole) 48 Hours I'm So Bored with You Sitting At My Party London's Burning What's My Name 1977