Customer Reviews

Welcome to the Club

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I attended Ian Hunter's triumphant 1980 return to the Roxy while he was touring in support of _Welcome_to_the_Club_. I've seen a lot of concerts in the intervening 25 years, but that show still burns brightly in my memory as perhaps the greatest show I've ever seen.

Issued in vinyl, the double album had three sides of live material, and one side of studio tracks. Those studio tracks appear as the last four tracks of CD2 in this collection, and in my opinion, are for completists only. Two live bonus tracks appear on the CD -- a pretty good rendition of "The Golden Age of Rock and Roll," and a so-called "medley" of "Once Bitten Twice Shy/Bastard/Cleveland Rocks." Those songs are not performed as a medley, however... they are partial renditions of songs which are presented in full earlier in the disc, spliced together with fade-out/fade-in transitions. Perhaps these are alternate takes that had some sort of sonic problems that needed editing.

The remaining live material, however, is arguably the best live performance ever caught on recorded media. The performance is inspired, and the sound quality and production do a wonderful job of capturing the excitement and energy of Ian Hunter at his best. All the best known rockers -- "All the Way from Memphis," "Cleveland Rocks" (now very well known thanks to Drew Carey), "Just Another Night," and "Once Bitten" -- are there, and they blow the roof off the house. The best known ballads -- "Irene Wilde," "Standing in My Light" -- are there, too, showcasing Hunter's considerable crooning talents. And of course, "Dudes" is the mandatory encore. Two unexpected highlights, however, are two songs which were turned into rockers for this tour: "Bastard," which was always a great song even in the studio, but which achieves a new level of success as the rocking anthem that it becomes here; and "Laugh at Me" (written by Sonny Bono, of all people, and which Hunter has previously identified as the song he used to audition for his job as lead singer for Mott the Hoople). Hunter intros the song by saying something like, "Here's an old one that I've done lots of ways. Here's the latest way." This time, "Laugh at Me" turns into an "F* you, I don't care if you laugh at me" anthem, and the song suddenly makes sense instead of conjuring images of a ten-year-old Sonny Bono getting beat up in the school yard.

If you need an intro to Ian Hunter, this is probably the best place to start.

This is my favorite live album of all time.Ian and Mick tear The Roxy down in this 1979 performance.The album was produced and arranged by Hunter and Ronson,its definitely a joint collaboration.Ronson's riffs blend perfectly with Ian's working class lyrics.Martin Briley on bass,Eric Parker on drums, Tommy Mandel on keyboards,Susie Ronson and Ellen Foley on background vocals on "We Gotta Get Outta Here";a song about Ian's paranoia in public. My favorite parts are Ian talking with the crowd.Someone shouts "Ian,we love you" to which he replies "love you too".A few tracks were recorded live at Media Sound including "Silver Needles" a tribute to the fallen Johnny Thunders.He does of a cover of Sonny Bono's "Laugh at Me", making it rock like a storm.Buy this album! I have it on vinyl and I'm getting it on cd too.It's been a favorite "for yearyas".

This import CD edition of this classic live album of the late 70's restores 3 live performances plus a 3 song live medley missing from the original release.

This is one of the greatest treasures in my entire collection. I've never lost interest in the entertainment value and authenticity of this masterpiece.

This is live music as it should be. Hunter & Co. plug into the audience and create an experience neither will forget. Ian and the boys grind out full-throttle rock n roll like hot cakes and sausage. Forget your teenie-rockers, posers and wannabes. This is THE live album. If you don't own this album, you ain't no rock n roller!

WELCOME TO THE CLUB is a wonderful CD reissue of a live LP by Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson, with band credits finally restored. Unfortunately, Mick is cut out completely from the band photo, although there's a separate photo of Ian and him together. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful reissue of an album that's been out of print for far too long, and it's great to have it back.

Been waiting for this one. This album, along with "Stand in the Fire" by Zevon, was the live album I thought would never be released on CD. So glad I stumbled across it (albeit a year after it had been released) on a shady site and bought the hard copy. Pure sweat stained rock. On my top 10 list of live rock albums.

The version of "Standing In My Light" on this CD is electric, psychotic, angry, cathartic Lou Reed / Bob Dylan-style ranting...with double the punch of the "You're Never Alone..." studio version. In "All The Young Dudes," Ronson teases with the intro riff, barely played above a whisper. Then, in his best lazy Cockney drawl, Hunter says "louder..." and Ronson just leans into the riff with all of the volume and passion that he can muster. This set is a real "Mick & Keith" gem...two musicians who formed a perfect partnership at the top of their game. Loud, sloppy (but the "good" kind of sloppy), featuring Hunter's all-time strongest material (and a few Mott gems as well).

A classic live album, covering material from Mott the Hoople to You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic. The late Mick Ronson is in all his glory on this. Great fun.

It has been said (by "whom," I don't know, I am no philosopher) that the greatest art is inspired by or because of the intensity of an emotion that one experiences. And 1980, the year that "Club" was released was just exactly THAT to me. I mean, as far as music is concerned, what more could I have asked from Ian Hunter? Indeed, "Club" features some of the greatest songs of his career (more about that in a minute), Mick Ronson was back playing guitar for him, and the band they'd assembled (evidentally, from what I've been told, some of New York's finest) was tight as a tick! I saw this same show in Atlanta way back in June 1979, and I distinctly remember telling my drummer, "Man if he keeps THIS up, I believe we'll jus' forget about the Stones for awhile!" All these songs on "Club" are faithfully replicated (save for the wonderful "doo-wop" version of "The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll"), and this album/cd even has four (well, three) studio songs tacked onto the end. And I want to go on record right here and state that there is absolutely NO JUSTICE if Ian Hunter doesn't go to Rock And Roll Heaven for (I have no superlative adjectives to describe it) "We Gotta Get Out Of Here," which is EASILY the very BEST "Disco Sucks!" song of all eternity. And "We Gotta" even has the alltime #1 BABE, the scrumptious Ellen Foley, doing the same thing to Ian that she did to Meatloaf a scant three years before on "Paradise By The Dashboard Light." But if for nothing else (and I'll admit this is selfish), the very last song on the cd is about/describes an acrimonious, excruciatingly painful divorce that Ian evidentally thru sometime in the near past - and I went thru MY first divorce in 1980, and "Sons And Daughters" helped me realize that I wasn't the only one who'd suffered pain like that. So needless to say, the album/and now, cd, has everything I could wish for on it. Again: This Is RIGHT WHERE Ian Hunter peaked! And a note to my musician friends: This is NOT Ian's "Sgt Pepper" - better yet, it's his "Get Yer Ya Yas Out!"