Monday 2 December 2019

Run DMC live in London (1986)



Taken from this 1995 Radio 1 Rap Show, here's 18 minutes of the mythical night at Peoples Club in Paddington, West London where Run DMC, Whodini, Hurricane and Cut Creator (and possibly even LL Cool J) performed and freestyled for 3 hours at an after party on the Raising Hell tour.

Other snippets of the night have been online before and Westwood even played some of it back in his LWR days, but I don't think we'll ever get to hear the full session. I messaged DMC on twitter hoping to get more info but all he could offer was "I remember that night! Fun as hell!!!"

There was a good interview with Tim a few years ago on the XXL site where he spoke about the club:

"People's Club, that was like one of the first black-owned clubs in this country. It was originally called the Q Club, but then it lost its license. In those days, clubs could operate without a license so it was like an illegal club and that used to go on until 6, 7, 8 o'clock on a Friday morning and it was just crazy. It was a real hood spot; you're talking about the '80s here so there was a lot of guys dressing like pimps and it would be a lot of their girls in there as well. There would be a lot of pimps, a lot of drug dealers. You couldn't use the toilet in there because it was like a drug-dealing [den]. By 6 in the morning, there'd be a smoke cloud in the basement and there'd be people smoking coke and crack and it was just one of those extreme street spots, but that's where I played every Thursday.
And what used to happen was Whodini used to record their albums over in London 'cause they were signed to Jive Records and their studios were only in London so they'd be over. And people like Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, but they didn't really come to the club like Whodini did. And then when that Raising Hell Tour with Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys and Whodini came, they all used to just come down there and freestyle for hours and just hang out and get high. Larry Smith, rest in peace, he used to come there every Thursday. You couldn't buy anything by the glass, it was only bottles. You could only buy like a bottle of champagne, a bottle of brandy, a bottle of wine. As a young kid, like 18, 19, 20, just growing up in that environment, it was like the best experience"

2 comments:

  1. Not sure if it'll help in the search but I believe this was the afterparty for the Saturday show at Hammersmith Odeon (which according to the flyer originally posted on Mike Allen's Capital Radio site, began at 7:30 PM on the 13th of September in '86), since this was during the midst of their international Raising Hell tour and they probably were less likely to go to a party and stay for hours if they had another show the following night, as they did with the Friday show.

    Source:

    http://www.mikeallencapitalradio.com/_/rsrc/1302972728544/home/1986/1986-shows/september-1986/RunDMC_Flyer.jpg

    Especially as the rumors state that the afterparty freestyle performance starts up around 10 PM and “they ain't leavin' 'til six in the mornin'...” As you stated it's somewhat unclear as to who was all there but certainly Run-DMC and Whodini, and I've also heard that Beastie Boys and LL made appearances.

    Here's LL from Hammerstein earlier that night:

    https://www.mixcloud.com/CLAPA_01245/ll-cool-j-live-at-hammersmith-odeon-1986/

    As well as the Run-DMC Hammerstein bootleg:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNn9qS0-XdM

    NME journalist Dele Fadele wrote an article about the show entitled “Run Like Hell” that ran two weeks after:

    https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/run-dmc-whodini-ll-cool-j-beastie-boys-hammersmith-odeon-london

    And finally here's some high quality (but sadly mostly watermarked) shots from the Hammersmith gig that evening, showcasing the attire:

    https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/photo-of-run-dmc-run-dmc-at-hammersmith-odeon-london-13-september-picture-id85219038?s=2048x2048

    https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/photo-of-run-dmc-run-dmc-performing-at-hammersmith-odeon-london-uk-picture-id85219039?s=2048x2048

    https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/photo-of-run-dmc-run-dmc-performing-at-hammersmith-odeon-london-uk-picture-id85219040?s=2048x2048

    https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/08/books/review/08carter/08carter-superJumbo.jpg

    https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/photo-of-run-dmc-run-of-run-dmc-performing-at-hammersmith-odeon-uk-picture-id85219042?s=2048x2048

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  2. thanks man, nice work. Westwood says he played the Thursday at the club but not sure if this would've been his night or not.

    ReplyDelete