JOHNNY THUNDERS, DEAD AND ALIVE!

Right then, this is it, my personal stash of Johnny Thunders bootlegs has run out, had a bit of a result forgot I had one of these, so it’s two for the price of none in today’s post. First up it’s a show from The Venue in London on 22/4/82, one that goes down in Thunders folklore. His band which included Tony James (Gen X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Carbon/Silicon) had only learnt the songs on the afternoon of the gig and Johnny was carried into the sound check unconscious, he was later joined on stage by Sylvain Sylvain from The Dolls for a couple of numbers. It’s a great audience recording, an hour and a half of pure Thunders; fuck ups, false starts, falling a parts and in places pure shambles, but ultimately a great rock’n’roll show, one of my favourites of his to listen to, shame I didn’t go. Seconds up round two another great performance two years later on 5/4/84 in Helsinki, Finland, Johnny’s on fine form here, some classic audience baiting “Do you kids fuck reindeer or take drugs?” at this point in his career Johnny was trying to stay off the smack and wasn’t to impressed with the Finnish methadone program, which he tells the audience about “I gave up heroin but I didn’t give up pot” a rather uncomplimentary rant about Sweden and the problems he’d had there, getting banned for being a ‘Drugged Human Wreck” and taking away jobs from Swedish musicians takes place during So Alone. Once again another great Thunders show. Anyway if ya wanna fix and a kiss hit it! The Venue, London. Side 1 / Side 2 / Helsinki, Finland