BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE- Irving Plaza

written by Backstage Bruce  

    Mick Jones, former guitarist and vocalist for The Clash, along with filmmaker Don Letts, launched the band 'Big Audio Dynamite' (B.A.D.) in 1984. Mick had spent his time after The Clash and before B.A.D. playing guitar with General Public and Sid Vicious along with other projects. 

    Unofficially the name of the band comes from the animated series, The Flintstones. Fred Flintstones' best friend, Barney Rubble, has his own band and the name of that band is Big Audio Dynamite. It is unproven, yet this urban legend has been around for 30 years and it does sound plausible, so I'm going with it.

 
    B.A.D. started with Mick Jones on vocals and guitar and Don Letts as sampler and videographer. To round it out, the great bassist Leo 'E-Zee-Kill' Williams was added in, along with the phenomenal drummer Greg Roberts. Dan Donovan on keyboards completed the quintet. Their first album was 'This Is Big Audio Dynamite'.

From my personal collection, 1)-My very first Backstage Pass ever. 2)- An invite to the after after-party. 3)- Ticket stub, from one of the shows, WLIR presents

    It was a huge success, yielding three singles: 'The Bottom Line', 'E=MC2' and 'Medicine Show'. My favorite number on that one is 'Sudden Impact'. The album's cover was a picture with four of the band members, dressed in cowboy attire, as Dan Donovan (keyboardist) was also doing photography duty. He designed the album cover as well. The album was great then and still is now.

    The music video for the song 'Medicine Show' is really cool and has a few great cameos: Johnny Rotten's in it as are two former members of The Clash, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon. 'MEDICINE SHOW' music video

    Fast forward two years later and the band released their second album, 'No.10 Upping Street'. It is a play on words. The band is from London and in London there is a famous address, No.10 Downing Street. It is where the Prime Minister of England lives. The band just changed downing to upping in this mixed up world, quite clever in fact. The first single, 'C'mon Every Beatbox' was a hit. 

    The tour came to New York City for five sold-out nights at Irving Plaza. I wound up going to all five. The name of the venue comes from the famous writer, Washington Irving, who grew up just steps away. Across the street is the Sleepy Hollow Pre-School Academy. Myself and friends were able to get tickets to night four. 

    Night one, I had nothing else going on so I decided to drive into NYC from Long Island. I get there and parked right up front, I couldn't believe it. I scalped a ticket and got in. The show starts, they looked and sounded great. They were wearing the same outfits they wore for the photoshoot for the album's cover. All five made the it into the photo this time. 

    The crowd was super pumped, very enthusiastic and danced the entire concert. B.A.D. played 12 songs, the three singles from the first album, plus the new ones, 'Limbo the Law' and my favorite from the second album 'Hollywood Boulevard'. 'A Party' was in the repertoire too, that is a party song. The final encore was 'C'mon Every Beatbox'.

A picture snapped that week at Irving Plaza

 

    The show comes to an end and everybody starts to file out, myself included. Almost everyone was gone, as I was walking toward the door to exit I hear music coming from above. I passed a staircase and I looked up and realized that is where the music was coming from. I started to climb the stairs. It was two floors. I get there and ask myself "What is This?" "It appears to be the after-party." I walked right in. It was an open bar and the DJ was spinning. People were dancing, this was a party. 

    I go to the bar and get a beer. Drink it on down and get another. I had a blast, I danced, I mingled. I saw Matt Dillon there. He and Laurence Fishburne did the spoken-word dialogue on the song 'Dial A Hitman'. I ran into the radio DJ Donna Donna from WLIR. We said our hellos. She asked me how I got in, she knew something was up. I met the entire band and asked for autographs because it was 1987 and it was my first time, so yeah I did that. I asked Dan Donovan if he would put me on the guestlist for the next night and he did! The routine had started.

 

    I arrive the following night and was able to park right up front again. I couldn't believe my luck. I park, enter through the stage entrance this time and talked to the guy there holding the clip board. My name is on the list and I am in. The show was fantastic again. They wore the same outfits. I went to the after-party again. I asked Dan to put me on the list again. This went on night after night. I was having a blast. 

    During the third night after-party I gave Dan a brand new NY Yankee hat as a way to thank him for putting me on the list every night. On night four, he wore it on stage! Instead of the white cap, that he usually wears, he wore the Yankee cap. I went with my friends that night and we were able to bring even more friends since I didn't need the tickets I purchased anymore. I brought all my friends to the after-party, what a great time! 

B.A.D. sent me a letter from London with fan club info, really cool postmark. 

    The final show, night five. I arrive and I start to walk through the door and I see two people sitting by the stage door, kind of dejected, like all hope of getting in was lost. I recognized the guy from my college. He worked in the concerts department. I am just one of the thousands of students there, so he wouldn't recognize me at all, but I am familiar with who he is. I tell him I've seen him around campus and asked if they were trying to get in and invited them to come with me. 

    They do, we walked in. I'm on the guestlist plus one. Here I am with two, clipboard guy has seen me all week long. (I was so sure he was sick of me by then, 23-years-old, Bridge & Tunnel, uh) He just lets us all in. It was another really fun show. The band's energy was just as high as it was the first night.

 

    I had just moved to New York in September of '85, and now here just 18-months later and I get myself on the guestlist almost every night to five sold-out shows in a row. This is where it all started, this was a whole new experience. And I never looked back.

 
    Over the years, the band changed line-ups and the name to become Big Audio Dynamite II. The fans were with them for the entire ride. 

    In addition to those five shows, I was fortunate enough to see them five more times in four-different clubs. Three of those clubs are permanently closed: Sound Factory Bar, 10-18, Roseland (twice, including a New Years Eve show in Times Square, Moby opened.) I am so grateful for every show that I was able to make it to.

 

    The last time we would get to see Big Audio Dynamite was during the reunion tour of 2011. The original line-up was back in place and that is what the fans wanted. The show was superb, the set list was a great mix of their career. 

    Brooklyn Bowl is a bowling alley/ live music venue. It was the site of B.A.D.'s performance when the reunion tour rolled through our area. The place is very hip, it is Brooklyn and we love it that way.