Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers @ Whisky A Go Go 1978-09-22

LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME

I should have matched this up with the mystery drive source to make sure they are both the same set but didn't really have time. That source was way too rough to work thru last time I tried.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eQnWtoqd

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers
The Whisky
West Hollywood, California
September 22, 1978
RG Master Cassette via JEMS
New Wave LA Series Vol. 18

Recording equipment: unknown mics and recorder

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

01 intro
02 Leave Me Alone
03 Chinese Rocks
04 Little London Boys
05 Too Much Junkie Business
06 All By Myself
07 Let's Go
08 Seven Day Weekend
09 I Love You
10 Can't Keep My Eyes On You
11 Born to Lose
12 One Track Mind
13 I Wanna Be Loved
14 Do You Love Me?
15 Pipeline

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 (Vol. 4)
Madness (Vol. 8)
The Specials (Vol. 6)
OMD (Vol. 10)
The Damned
The Stranglers (Vol. 1)
Public Image Limited (Vol. 3)
John Cale (Vol. 9)
Magazine
The Buzzcocks (Vol. 7)
Orange Juice (Vol. 13)
U2
Wreckless Eric
The Cramps
Johnny Thunders (Vol. 18)
Talking Heads
Iggy Pop
XTC (Vol. 2)
The Jam
The Only Ones
The Undertones (Vol. 17)
Boomtown Rats (Vol. 5)
The Birthday Party (Vol. 15)
The Penetrators
The Bluebells (Vol. 12)
The Plimsouls (Vol. 11)
Athletico Spizz '80
Killing Joke (Vol. 14)
Jonathan Richman (Vol. 16)

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.

Volume 18 takes us back to a 1978 appearance by NYC punk legend Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers at the Whisky. The short, tumultuous history of this band is best told elsewhere, and as can sometimes be the case, the legend stands in excess of the body of work.

That being said, this is a rare recording of a specific iteration of the band that gigged almost exclusively on the East Coast and in the UK circa 1978. The set features most of the songs from the band's infamous debut album, L.A.M.F. RG's manages to get a very solid and listenable recording of Thunders' ragged but right performance. Samples provided.

We hope this one is appealing to fans of the NYC punk scene. If you are interested in that era, we highly recommend Clinton Heylin's book From The Velvets To The Voidoids. 

We’re grateful to RG for letting JEMS dig through his tape boxes and pull out the assets for this series. He witnessed 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