JOHNNY THUNDERS COSA NOSTA - Live @ The Lyceum, London 9th Oct 1983 (* A MPFree Re-Post*)

An anonymous reader/listener who's got good taste has requested this mighty fine Johnny Thunders recording be re-posted, so here it is for whoever you are, and for whoever else wants a blast of some top quality Thunders gear, if they haven't already sampled it!. The Lyceum was packed and Johnny played his heart out for an hour and a half with a collection of top tracks, the old, new, borrowed and blue, the good the bad and the ugly, they are all here, on what is possibly my favourite Johnny Thunders live recording ever; as it captures everything that made him great as a musician and entertainer in just one hit. Enjoy!  

THE HEARTBREAKERS - Live @ CBGB'S (7th Sept 1975)

Here's a re-post by request which catches The original Heartbreakers avec Richard Hell alive and live at CBGB'S in the fall of 1975 This incarnation of the band was a short lived affair with Johnny Thunders not wanting to play second fiddle to Richard Hell.  Hell attempted to take over the 'breakers, but Johnny left taking Walter Lure and Jerry Nolan with him,  Billy Rath replaced Hell and the rest is history. Talking of history anyone with a passing interest in Rock'n'Roll really should check out the film Looking For Johnny (The Legend of Johnny Thunders) which is what it says on the can....a film that searches for some sort of truth amongst the myths in the life of one of the most enduring Rock'n'Rollers ever to pick up a six string.

GANG WAR! - A MPFree Download!

Johnny Thunders and Wayne Kramers short lived Gang War fell apart on the New York streets a few months after these four tracks were recorded in May 1980 at Max's Kansas City. They find the Thunders and Kramer partnership in fine form, sometimes this wasn't always the case. On paper it was an inspired connection (New York Dolls + MC5) the reality however proved different and the struggle between Thunders the entertainer and Kramer the musician on top of disputes over the dollar became too much and it all ended too soon leaving very little behind in the way of a musical legacy bar several live recordings, (the best of which is Jungle Records GANG WAR!) much of the studio stuff remains officially unreleased. (Now there's a project for Easy Action or Jungle Records.... The complete Gang War collection.) which is criminal, because the stuff I've heard is the real Rock'n'Roll deal, as are the four tracks here. Thanx to the original uploader.

JOHNNY THUNDERS - The Film! A Extract!

JOHNNY THUNDERS - A Film!

 OUT VERY SOON!

2013....The Beat Went on!

2013....What's been released this year and going round and round on my CD player. Well....In no particular order we have.... JOHNNY THUNDERS with Hurt Me, this album showed his tender side; stripped naked with just a guitar, a brittle and beautiful listen NIKKI SUDDEN, The Boy From Nowhere Who Fell Out Of The Sky is a six CD box set. A lovingly crafted and compiled collection of Nikki’s work. Both these were reissued by the wonderful Easy Action Records. Sweet Revenge by the criminally ignored Punk'n'Rollers the LIGHTNING RAIDERS, was not so much a re-issue, because back in the day it was never released. Knox may not be touring with THE VIBRATORS but On The Guest List shows he's still part of the band, with a collection of songs that rank amongst the best he's written, and all supported by a cast of special guests. The UK SUBS, they just keep going, and going and getting better as they go, maturing with age disgracefully. CHARLIE HARPER and CAPTAIN SENSIBLE, this was a real surprise Too Much Reality....took Punk to a new Psychedelic underworld of neon grey. GLM, released three blinding Rocky yet slightly poppy download only tracks from their website. DEADCUTS, do just that....they cut you dead! A switch-blade to the throat of all the taste-makers and trend-setters. Deadcuts are out there and have got something special going on. BABYSHAMBLES Sequel To The Prequel, a brilliant album, Pete Doherty has been the only real Great British Rock'n'Roller for the last....fuck knows how long. THE MOB returned with a single Rise Up! an anthemic call to arms. THE FITS, reformed legends of the UK82 Punk scene, returned with some Punk Rockin' action with their Lead On EP. NEW MODEL ARMY, released a dark and moody master piece, and JAMES KING AND THE LONE WOLVES crawled out of the wreckage with some sublime swamp rock blues. Finally a couple of Punk'n'Roll supergroups cut through the crap this year. THE CRUNCH with their album Busy Making Noise which is a blast of pure Power Pop Punk, their line up includes former members of the Cockney Rejects, Lords of New Church/Sham 69 The Clash and Diamond Dogs. THE INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOYS, include a Twenty Flight Rocker (Gary Twinn) Sex Pistol (Glen Matlock) a Gen X/Chelsea (James Stevenson) Blondie (Clem Burke.) released three stompin' tracks via their web page. Hopefully an album will be released in 2014. Finally PRIMAL SCREAM's 2013 was a real return to form, a musical and lyrical statement of intent. Well there you have it a year in my Rock'n'Roll world....Here's to the next one!

JOHNNY THUNDERS - 'A White Christmas' Live @ The Peppermint Lounge, NYC 25/12/81 (*Re-Post*)

I've had a couple of requests to re-post this one, so here we go then..... According to Kris Needs in his book on The New York Dolls; Trash! “1981 saw Johnny at rock bottom, spending most of the year in New York doing drug money club gigs.” I dunno if this was one of those gigs, but artists get paid for their performance and Johnny did drugs, as for rock bottom, well Johnny certainly rocked at 2am in the morning in front of a small crowd at The Peppermint Lounge in New Yawk City on Dec 25^th 1981, when he filled in for The Damned, who were due to play, but couldn't get visas.  Enjoy!

Thanx go out to Chatterboxers Mrs Bobbins for the recording and Mindless for the info. The photo accompanying this re-post was lifted from fuckyeahjohnnythunders.tumblr  

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live in London 1983 (Re-Post)

Pic Courtesy of Mick Mercer Collection.

Gone but never to be forgotten. This gig at The Lyceum in London 1983 is one of the best gigs I've been to, and definitely the best time I saw Johnny Thunders. On a cold October evening, the Lyceum was hot, the atmosphere was electric. The support bands Jayne County, Chelsea, Turkey Bone and The Wild Dogs had heated the audience to boiling point. Johnny played a lengthy set made up from the old (Jet Boy) the new (In Cold Blood), the borrowed (Be Bop A Lula) and the blues (Gloria), plus an armful of Thunders classics. He even took a well received acoustic break. Johnny was on top form alive not dead, both lucid and lairy “Has anyone raped that bitch Margaret Thatcher yet?” he had the audience in the palm of his hand. After two hours he was joined for the encore by Peter Perrett and Patti Paladin, ending the evening on the same high it started. There will never be another Johnny Thunders. You can't put your arms around a memory, but you can grab a copy of Johnny Thunders CosaNostra Live at The Lyceum in 1983 here and here, (it's a two part download.) Thanx again to ic1960 over at the Chatterbox Forum for replacing my well played, stretched and snapped Camden Market cassette copy with this digital one. I've chosen to post this as it's my favourite Thunders bootleg and it seems a fitting way to remember him twenty two years since his death.  Enjoy MuthaFuckers Enjoy!

Some more action from EASY ACTION RECORDS!

Some new releases coming out in the next couple of months for a couple of NPW faves, time to put on the balaclava and withdraw some money from the bank.  Full details of release dates and prices available here at the EASY ACTION website.

THE HEARTBREAKERS - L.A.M.F Devinitive Edition (A Review)

This 'definitive edition' box set has been out for a couple of months now, but it's still worth a review. Originally released in 1977, LAMF was plagued by sound issues; had the endless mixing of the songs turned the sound to mud, or was the problem in the mastering of the vinyl? Well listening to the different mixes and the cleaned up original release that are spread across the four discs in this collection, it would appear that the mixing was fine, cos there are some really good versions of all the old familiar songs, that sound timeless; cos brilliant Rock'n'Roll never dies.  The disc of demos, includes stuff from the original line-up with Richard Hell on Bass, and a session from the definitive (Thunders/Lure/Rath/Nolan) line up, which has a couple of tunes that never made it on to LAMF on it.

Yes some of this stuff is available on other Jungle Releases; The Lost 77 mixes, Vintage 77, and the DTK box set, so for the newbie it's not a bargain, but for the Thunders junkie/aficionado it's a must have fix.

It all comes beautifully packaged with a great little booklet that covers the time The 'breakers spent in London recording, mixing and hanging out. Plus four badges to tell the world you're: Born To Lose/Loose Like A Mutha Fucker ! Like I said not a bargain, but well worth the £17.99 + P&P from Jungle Records. But I wouldn't pay £25 from my local HMV shop..... no wonder they went bust!  Much respect to record labels like Jungle, Easy Action, Captain Oi and Damaged Goods for keeping the spirit alive.

JOHNNY THUNDERS *NEWS*

With the 35 year anniversary of Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers L.A.M.F approaching, (Mon Oct 3^rd 1977, according to George Gimarc's Punk Diary book) those good folk at Jungle Records are gonna be releasing a 4 CD Box set! Here's an advanced press release from Jungle Records telling us all about it.

The Heartbreakers' 4-CD 'L.A.M.F.' - 'Definitive Version' box set.

Features:
* The original Track Records album restored!
* Pre-LAMF demos unearthed!
* Alternative mixes exposed!
* the '94 'lost mixes' version
* 44-page detailed booklet

A highlight of the box is a restored version of the original Track 
Records album, which was universally condemned in 1977 for having a 'muddy mix' (caused by mastering errors) and led to the departure of drummer Jerry Nolan.  Now, using modern audio restoration techniques, at last it sounds as it was intended with the 'mud' removed.

Another highlight is a disc with pre-'L.A.M.F.' demos from three 
sessions in 1976 and 77, including previously unreleased tracks with 
Richard Hell on bass.

A further disc has 21 alternative 'L.A.M.F.' mixes from the marathon 
sessions at five different top London studios.

It also includes the hitherto definitive remade 'lost mixes' version, 
re-compiled in 1994.

The package is accompanied by a comprehensive, 44-page booklet featuring a 'Making of 'L.A.M.F.'' timeline, an introduction by Thunders biographer Nina Antonia, plus guitarist Walter Lure's recollections of the Heartbreakers time gigging, recording and living in punk London from 
1976-77.


Dunno how much this hit of Thunders is gonna cost , hopefully the deal will be under twenty quid. For the vinyl junkies there's a slab of  180g DMM cut vinyl in a revamped gatefold sleeve, Alongside this is a reissue of the expanded 'D.T.K. - live at the Speakeasy' album on purple vinyl (limited, numbered), and also a reissue for all three original 7" singles: - Chinese Rocks/Born To Lose, One Track Mind, and for the very first time, the exceedingly rare It's Not Enough 7".  Vinyl LPs LAMF & DTK will be available at Jungle Records ebay shop next week. 

JOHNNY THUNDERS / NIKKI SUDDEN (Re-Posts)

Today’s music is a double header of re-posts; JOHNNY THUNDERS and NIKKI SUDDEN, it seemed fitting to put them both together in one post as they crossed paths in several ways. Johnny was always big influence on Nikki, both musically and stylistically. Nikki first met Johnny when The Heartbreakers were touring Britain in 1977, they then met up again when  Nikki interviewed Johnny for Zig Zag magazine in 1980, during the encounter they scored and took drugs together before swapping certain items of clothing with each other. Five years later on The Jacobites first tour of Germany in 1985, someone in the audience shouted to Nikki “You're Johnny Thunders in disguise” Nikki responded by gesturing toward Dave Kusworth and saying “and this is Keith.” The only time they came close to a musical collaboration, as far as I'm aware, was when Nikki recorded Johnny’s Have Faith, for a tribute CD, Again...This One's For J.o.h.n.n.y. (Thunders didn't play on it) that and the Thunders covers that Nikki often slipped into his live sets. Sadly both Nikki and Johnny are no longer with us, but their music and memories continue to not only live on but grow.

The Zig Zag interview can be found at Cactus Mouth Informer. Nikki's recollections of Johnny Thunders can be seen at White Trash Soul, and some more of Nikki's writings, about Johnny can be read at What A Nice Way To Turn 17.

You can't put your arms around a memory, but you can get your hands on JOHNNY THUNDERS – Live in Stevenage.... Here, and NIKKI SUDDEN's Lost In A Sea Of Scarves....there. 

Remember kids the drugs do work, but they can screw you up and could kill you!  

JOHNNY THUNDERS / NEW YORK DOLLS - Re-Posts

NEW YORK DOLLS - Live @ Michigan Palace 31/12/73

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live @ The Venue, London 22/4/82  (Part 1)   (Part 2)

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live in Stevenage 10/5/90 (Re-post)

Right then here's another blast of JOHNNY THUNDERS captured live in Stevenage, I won't bore you with the in's and out's of why it's taken so long to re-post this, but it involved a fucked hard drive, a lost memory stick and a computer that refused to let me rip a CD, but if we don't let the bastards grind us down, we'll get there in the end, so here you are, a rather sad but beautiful, performance by the one and only Johnny Thunders aided and abetted by Mick Vayne on Guitar and Jamie Heath on “New York Saxophone” Enjoy, cos you don't get 'em like Johnny no more, he was the real deal!  

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live in Rotterdam 22/9/84

Right then here we have one of the godfathers of the whole Rock’n’Roll bands go unplugged thang*, its Mr Johnny Thunders, who was giving acoustic renditions of his normally electric electric numbers back in the early 80‘s. On some Thunders acoustic shows it’s touch and go as to whether he makes it through the song he starts, this one from Sept 22nd 1984 at the Pandora’s Musicbox festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands finds Johnny in fine coherent form starting as he means to go on and finishing what he started. It’s a short FM Broadcast 5 song set, (The Wizard, Play With Fire, Ask Me No Questions, She’s So Strange and It’s Not Enough.) Due to the small size of the files, in an NPW first and probably last I can offer this recording as a FLAC file or standard MP3, take your pick. Born To Lossless or Born To Lossy the choice is yours, either way enjoy! Thanx to the original uploader, and also credit to Pandora’s Music Box Blog for the picture of Johnny on stage at the festival.
*In 1979 Pete Townsend preformed Pinball Wizard and Won’t Get Fooled Again acoustically, at The Secret Policeman’s Ball a benefit for Amnesty International, in 1981 the less godfatherly Sting, Phil Collins and Bob Geldof did similar performances at The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball. (File under interesting but useless pop facts.)

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live @ Pustervik, Goteborg, Sweden 11/12/85

Another day, another memory….Nikki Sudden, Joey Ramone, and now…. Johnny Thunders, who passed away in a New Orleans hotel room 20 years ago today. My personal supply of Thunders stuff has run out. I have a vast stash of other Thunders gear, but the majority has come from torrent sites, with specific instructions from the uploaders not to convert to MP3. So I’ll respect their requests, unlike those Bastard Bootleggers trading illegitimately and making cash from Johnny’s name by using the torrent files as masters for their illicit trade. If yer thinking of buying any of these from Ebay, don’t! Search the web and torrent sites, because the stuffs out there and you aint gonna be lining any ones pocket. Alternatively purchase Jungle Records officially released Bootlegging The Bootleggers, a great CD of Johnny’s work recorded between 1985-1989, and compiled by the man himself from the various bootlegs of his he’d come across, the spoken word intros from Johnny to the songs are classic. Anyway, enough….Time to put yer ears around a memory, with this here recording, I cant remember where I got it from, but it wasn’t a torrent. Dunno if it’s a copy of one of those bootlegs though, whatever, it’s a great listen. I don’t much care for the title it’s been given though, yeah I’m guilty of using drug related puns in my posts, Johnny was a drug user, but he was not a zero!

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live @ The Hope and Anchor, London 21/4/82

Here’s another show from Johnny Thunders stay in London during 1982. This one was at The Hope and Anchor, in April 1982. Some of the tracks were released on the Wanted: Dead Or Alive - Reward $10 bootleg album, this tape is a different source and was recorded by a mate of mine in the audience. Johnny is on fine form, or as fine as Johnny is depending on yer point of view.
After asking for some more reverberation Thunders first words are to a heckler, ”Hey scumbag, shove it up yer mothers left nut” before launching into Alone In A Crowd, quite a bit of crowd interaction, Johnny even gets political asking the punters what they think about The Falklands and Nuclear Weapons. For reasons long forgotten, I never went to any of these 1982 gigs, and had to wait until Oct 1983 at The Lyceum for my first hit of Johnny live, still ranks as one of the best gigs I’ve been to….ever! Pretty much saw most of his London gigs since then, and a fair few around the country and had the privilege of promoting an acoustic show of his in 1990 in Stevenage. What made him special as a performer for me was that no gig was ever the same, depending on his mood and state of mind, but they were all pure and honest. Johnny Thunders was the real deal!

JOHNNY THUNDERS - 'A White Christmas' Live @ The Peppermint Lounge N.Y.C (25/12/1981)

Here’s a double dose of NPW favourite: Johnny Thunders. First up there’s a scan of a short article from a 1994 Record Collector by Nina Antonia, the author of In Cold Blood, the definitive biography on Johnny. Secondly here’s a recording of Johnny at The Peppermint Lounge in New Yawk City on Dec 25th 1981, when Johnny filled in for The Damned, who were due to play, but couldn’t get visas.
According to Kris Needs in his book on The New York Dolls Trash! “1981 saw Johnny at rock bottom, spending most of the year in New York doing drug money club gigs.” I dunno if this was one of those gigs, but bands get paid and Johnny did drugs, as for rock bottom, well he certainly rocked, at 2am in the morning in front of a small crowd. Enjoy!
Thanx go out to Chatterboxers Mrs Bobbins for the recording and Mindless for the info.

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live @ Folkets Park, Sweden 19/6/83

This is a great Thunders bootleg: an FM Broadcast from Sweden in the summer of 1983, another ‘Camden Town Classic’ 3 for a fiver I think they were back in the day. The same gig was also released on vinyl as Cosa Nostra Never Sleeps, £10 - £12 from Kensington Market, as money was tight I went for the tapes. On this one Johnny’s on great musical form; tight, together and thunderous, the quality is mighty fine. Highly recommended! L.A.M.F

THE HEARTBREAKERS - CBGB'S N.Y.C 7th Sep 75 (Re-Post)

Here’s a re-up request, can’t believe it was 3 years ago when I first posted this. Maan! Time flies when yer having fun, or should that be fun flies when you’ve got no time. This is an early show from The Heartbreakers, when Richard Hell was on Bass and sharing vocal duties with Johnny Thunders, this became a bit of an issue within the band, when Hell wanted to do all the vocals he was ousted, no longer a Heartbreaker he was soon to become a Voidoid and Johnny was left to handle the vocal duties. The cover of this Camden Town tape is from the first Heartbreakers photo session in early 1975, by Sept when this was recorded Walter Lure had joined on second Guitar, and the bands publicity advised the punters to “Catch ’em while they were still alive” If you want a hit of something pure and uncut, here yer go. Enjoy!