Jan 1980. A very rare and original promo poster from the bands 1979 classic album. A little damage to top left but would still look fantastic framed. Pnp not included
Shop display for London Calling that I acquired this one card display piece from our local record shop back in 1979. (I had the green and pink posters but they are long gone) It’s 24 x 3 1/2 inches and is in good condition for its age, see the photos. It has some writing on the back but this doesn’t affect its look.
Shop Displays
THE CLASH - SHOP DISPLAYS. OMEGA AUCTIONS Two card text displays - likely from a c 1979 shop display. Each piece masures 61 x 8.5cm. Sold for £420 - Hammer Price
The Clash A promotional poster for the album 'London Calling',1979, folded, CBS Records, 24 x 24 inches
The Clash A promotional poster sold at Bonhams Auctions
Footnotes The album was recorded in London during August-September 1979, just prior to the 'Clash Take The Fifth' US tour. Photographer Pennie Smith and artist Ray Lowry accompanied the band and it was during their appearance at The Palladium, New York City, on 21st September, that Smith took the cover photograph of Paul Simonon smashing his guitar.
Ray Lowry's original album cover artwork was sold by Bonhams, Knightsbridge, London, December 2009 for £72,000 ($115,000). This poster aimed at record shops places emphasis on the price of the album - Two for a fiver.
THE CLASH - ORIGINAL UK CBS 'LONDON CALLING' PROMOTIONAL POSTER.
An original 1980 CBS/Epic-issued promotional poster for The Clash - London Calling. Measures 113 x 117cm. In poor condition and in need of restoration with tears, creasing, losses (notably to corners). Sold for £380 Hammer Price
London Calling is the third studio album by The Clash
London Calling is the third studio album by The Clash, released in the UK on December 14, 1979 (January 1980 in the US). It reached #27 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart and #9 on the UK chart. In 2003, it was ranked at #8 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
HEREHERE
The album represented a significant change in The Clash's musical style, which now featured major elements of ska, funk, pop, soul, jazz, rockabilly and reggae far more prominently than in their previous two albums. The album's subject matter included social displacement, unemployment, racial conflict, drug use, and the responsibilities of adulthood.
After recording their second studio album Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978), the band separated from their manager Bernard Rhodes. This separation meant that the group had to leave their rehearsal studio in Camden Town and find another location to compose their music. Drawing inspiration from rockabilly, ska, reggae and jazz, the band began work on the album during the summer of 1979. Tour manager Johnny Green had found the group a new place to rehearse called Vanilla Studios, which was located in the back of a garage in Pimlico. The Clash quickly wrote and recorded demos, with Jones composing and arranging much of the music and Strummer writing the lyrics.
In August 1979, the band entered Wessex Studios to begin recording London Calling. The Clash asked Guy Stevens to produce the album, much to the dismay of CBS Records. Stevens had alcohol and drug problems and his production methods were unconventional. While recording he would often swing ladders and throw chairs around the group to create an emotional atmosphere. The Clash got along well with Stevens, especially bassist Paul Simonon, who found his work to be very helpful and productive to his playing and their recording as a band. While recording, the band would play football to pass the time. This was a way for them to bond together as well as take their minds off of the music, and the games got very serious. Doing this helped bring the band together, unifying them, making the recording process easier and more productive. The entire album was recorded within a matter of weeks, with many songs recorded in one or two takes.
If punk rejected pop history, London Calling reclaimed it, albeit with a knowing perspective. The scope of this double set is breathtaking, encompassing reggae, rockabilly and the group's own furious mettle. Where such a combination might have proved over-ambitious, the Clash accomplishes it with swaggering panache. Guy Stevens, who produced the group's first demos, returns to the helm to provide a confident, cohesive sound equal to the set's brilliant array of material. Boldly assertive and superbly focused, London Calling contains many of the quartet's finest songs and is, by extension, virtually faultless.
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THE COVER ARTWORK
~ Pennie Smith
On September 20, 1979 The Clash had a gig at the Palladium club in New York. During the concert, the upset bassist wrecked his guitar on the scene, and the moment was captured on photography by Pennie Smith. Thanks to this photo, one of the most famous album covers in the history of rock came to existence.
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According to NME magazine (March 16, 1991), Paul Simonon smashed his bass guitar - as photographed on the cover of the album - at exactly 10:50 pm. This is because he broke his watch in the process and handed the busted bits to photographer Pennie Smith, who snapped the photo.
Pennie Smith, who photographed the band for the album, originally did not want the photograph to be used. She thought that it was too out of focus, but Strummer and graphic designer Ray Lowry thought it would make a good album cover. Lowry thought it was an homage to the design of Elvis Presley's self-titled debut album, with pink letters down the left side and green text across the bottom.
In 2002, Smith's photograph was named the best rock and roll photograph of all time by Q magazine, commenting that "it captures the ultimate rock'n'roll moment - total loss of control". The album cover for London Calling was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010.
Pennie Smith
Pennie Smith is one of the UK's leading rock photographers. She had been photographing for NME when she first met The Clash in 1976. She recalls " They knew my work through NME. I think they decided I was the photographer for them because I could do in pictures what they made in noise. " She stayed with them throughout their US tour in 1979, and a book of her Clash photographs, The Clash Before and After, was published in 1980 by Eel Pie Publishing.
The Clash and Elvis
She is modest about her contribution: "I don't think I created their image - I just added atmosphere and perhaps the setting to the image they already had"
"I remember thinking something was wrong, realising Paul was going to crack - and waited. The shot is out of focus because I ducked - he was closer than it looks"
~ Pennie Smith
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Clash album details
London Calling track list, prior to its release in December 1979.
THE CLASH's new double album, 'London Calling', is now slated for release by CBS on December 14. It will retail at a recommended price of £5. The full track listing is: 'London Calling', 'Brand New Cadillac (the old Vince Taylor number), Jimmy Jazz, 'Hateful', 'Rudi Can't Fail', 'Spanish Bomb', 'Right Profile', 'Lost In The Supermarket',
'Clampdown', 'Guns Of Brixton', 'Wrong 'Em Boyo, 'Death Or Glory', 'Koka Kola, 'The Card Cheat', 'Lovers Rock', 'Four Horsemen', 'I'm Not Down', 'Revolution Rock', Most of the tracks are written by Strummer and Jones, but there is one Paul Simenon composition, 'Guns Of Brixton'. And several have been previewed at the Clash's
Notre Dame Hall gig in the summer and the recent American tour. A double A- sided single, 'London Calling/ Armagideon Time' (a song by Jamaican artist Willie Williams), will also be released. The band are also planning to play some Christmas gigs and venues are now being arranged. Full details will be given soon.
Ray Lowry / The Clash - London Calling - Giclйe print (1 of 70)
The third and final print edition of this timeless sketch.
Just 70 of this edition will be available. Image taken from the preliminary sketch of what later became one of the most iconic album sleeve covers'.
In all, as a screen print (79), ChromaLuxe (20) and now a Giclée edition (70), there will only be 169 (official) prints of this sketch worldwide.
I'll pass you over to the ghost of Ray who describes the creative process of the design;
“ The London Calling album cover had to feature the infamous pink and green rock and roll lettering, God made me do that. Early roughs show that as the one constant with say, the band roughly delineated, depending upon which photo was eventually to drop from heaven. Joe would often look over my shoulder, as would Micheal, and Mr Strummer thoroughly approved of my choice, as he made quite obvious. Everything was done on an wink and a nod basis and why the hell I thought I was even going to get near to the cover is a bit of a mystery, sod it, lets just have a go. I believe that Joe and I were the only ones to share that exultant, “Yihaa, This Is It” moment when we spotted that marvellous little shot among the many, many shots on Penny’s sheet of contact prints one shady, smoky evening in some hotel in some state towards the end of the trip. I didn’t know until just recently that the dear chap had wrangled long and hard with Penny about it. The old gal didn’t fancy it because it was out of focus, but I think that his Strummership and Moi saw a fantastic rocking moment. Monsieur Simonon smashing the tool of his trade to smithereens on the stage of the New York Palladium – POW! Take that you Yankee Upstarts – We’re still so bored with the USA.
Actually, I had no idea that it was out of focus. Half blind at the best of times and probably half pissed at the time, that simply had to be the one. History seems to have proved us correct. But back then, it seemed that the combination of rip-off lettering and unrecognisable central figure would cause all sorts of difficulties with the powers the be’d at CBS. We need not have worried, my design and myself were met with something a little short of indifference back in London and I was confined to the obscurity of some corner in their art department while the big boys excited themselves with the then, latest Shakin Stevens slice of vinyl regurgitation. I seem to recall Radio 1 being on most of the time. Nom due merde! We who would be valiant be etc. etc.”
| Outer dimension - 23" x 23" approx | Art Dimension - 16.5 x 16.5" approx | Giclée print | Hahnemühle German Etching | 310gsm |
An early draft of the opening lines of “Lost in the Supermarket," from 1979's landmark "London Calling" album
Brenda Siegelman - From the Rock and Roll hall of fame 10 years ago. An early draft of the opening lines of “Lost in the Supermarket," from 1979's landmark "London Calling" album
On what would've been Joe Strummer's 62nd birthday, we salute the Hall of Fame Inductee and founding member of The Clash. Pictured is an early draft of the opening lines of “Lost in the Supermarket," from 1979's landmark "London Calling" album, handwritten by Strummer on the back of a guitar-string packet. More Clash, including footage from their 2003 Induction here: http://bit.ly/1vnula8
Record Mirror, Letters, of complaint, Can't here you
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