Madness @ Whisky A Go Go 1979-11-29

November 29, 2023

Madness
The Whisky
West Hollywood, CA
November 29, 1979
RG Master via JEMS
New Wave LA Series Vol. Eight

Recording equipment: unknown mics and recorder

JEMS 2020 Transfer: RG First Generation Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > iZotope RX6 > iZotope Ozone 6 > CD Wave > ffmpeg > FLAC

01 One Step Beyond
02 Mistakes
03 Believe Me
04 My Girl
05 Swan Lake
06 Razor Blade Alley
07 Rockin' in a Flat
08 Land of Hope and Glory
09 In the Middle of the Night
10 Bed and Breakfast Man
11 Tarzan’s Nuts
12 The Prince
13 Night Boat to Cairo
14 Madness
15 One Step Beyond

JEMS is pleased to continue a series of historic recordings made by our longtime friend and diehard music collector RG. He was on the scene in LA as a teenager, began recording shows in 1977 and continued on well into the 2000s. Our series will focus on tapes he made between 1977 and 1987.

What sort of music was he into? Well, one simple way to put it is KROQ music, meaning the bands that LA’s “world famous” new wave radio station was playing were the bands he saw and recorded. First wave if you will, with forays into indie and punk(ish) artists. The early years are dominated by UK artists breaking in the US. Over time his work expands to US bands in the second wave. Some of the artists RG taped include:

Siouxsie & the Banshees
Madness
The Specials
OMD
The Fall
The Damned
Public Image Limited
John Cale
Magazine
The Buzzcocks
Orange Juice
U2
Wreckless Eric
The Cramps
Johnny Thunders
Talking Heads
Iggy Pop
XTC
The Jam
The Only Ones
The Undertones
Boomtown Rats
The Birthday Party
The Penetrators
The Bluebells
Athletico Spizz ’80

Later on he caught The Smiths, R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and many more.

RG used good, not Millard-level recording gear, which means his tapes are mostly solid and listenable, with the occasional very good one and also sorta crappy one. What makes his tapes compelling is that RG was recording in a particularly vital window of time. In many instances these were the first or second times these acts played Los Angeles. Some never did proper US tours, only playing select dates in key markets like LA or NYC. Also, for many of these gigs, RG was the only taper. He grabbed a few local radio broadcasts along the way, too.

Because these shows were almost exclusively at clubs like The Whisky and The Roxy, the sets are generally short, 45 to 60 minutes because that's what you did at The Whisky. On occasion, RG would copy his own masters to save tape and we have done our best to distinguish what’s a true master and what’s a first generation copy. If there’s a doubt, we will note it. Regardless, the series will offer the lowest generation copies available of his recordings, digitized directly for the first time from RG’s tapes which had been stored in boxes for the last 15+ years.

The eighth volume in our series presents highly entertaining Madness on their first US tour. In fact, the band’s first gigs period take place earlier in the year if Setlist.fm is to be believed.

To the best of our knowledge RG’s recording is uncirculated and no other recording of this show is known to exist. This is the first tape in the series where we know RG’s surviving cassette is a first generation copy from his now lost master tape. Oddly, it is also the highest quality recording in New Wave LA so far and makes for a great listen with clarity and closeness. Samples provided. If you’re a fan of early Madness this should be a most welcome find.

Rick also recorded the local band who opened the show, The Plimsouls, in what would be one of their earliest gigs on a big LA stage. We’ll post that later in the series.

We’re so grateful to RG for letting JEMS dig into his tape boxes and pull out the assets for this series. He witnessed some amazing LA music history. Tip of the hat as well to cpscps who volunteered to handle post-production on our series which is a huge help to us and makes it possible to get more music in your hands. Stay tuned for more New Wave in LA.

BK for JEMS