The Ramones are streaming an unboxing video for the newly-released expanded deluxe 40th anniversary edition of their classic 1979 live album, “It’s Alive.”
The 4CD/2LP package delivers the band’s New Year’s Eve 1977 show at the Rainbow Theatre in London alongside three unreleased concerts from the same week of the UK tour, including a December 28 gig at Top Rank in Birmingham, a December 29 performance at Victoria Hall in Stoke-On-Trent, and a December 30 stop at Friars in Aylesbury.
Taking its name from a 1974 horror film, “It’s Alive” was the last album to feature all four original band members: Dee Dee Ramone, Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone and Tommy Ramone; it features material from the group’s self-titled 1976 debut, 1977’s “Leave Home” and “Rocket To Russia.”
"That was one of the best shows they ever played,” long-time Ramones road manager Monte A. Melnick tells Billboard about the Rainbow Theatre concert. “Everything went well; they sounded great, and they were together, and the venue was terrific, and the crowd was great. It also sticks out in my memory because the crowd destroyed the first ten rows of the theater there, which was amazing at the time. Everybody was freaking out - they didn't expect the mosh pit in a seated theater. It was basically a hundred percent show, in my mind."
"We managed to convince the hierarchy at Rhino that this should be done, because there'd never been a proper release of It's Alive here in the United States," adds engineer Ed Stasium. "There was never a vinyl release, and the CD release in the '90s was very under the radar. Then we realized we had all these other shows as well that had never been listened to or mixed, so those two factors gave Rhino the impetus to actually release this thing.
“I think this is the best representation of The Ramones live that we're ever going to get. This is the Ramones at their peak, with Tommy on drums, the whole vibe is just fantastic."
Tommy – the last surviving member of the original Ramones – died in 2014 at his home in Ridgewood, Queens, New York at 65 following treatment for bile duct cancer; Joey died from lymphoma in 2001, Dee Dee passed away from a heroin overdose in 2002, and Johnny died from prostate cancer in 2004.
“It’s Alive: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition” has been produced in a limited and numbered edition of 8,000 copies, and comes packaged in a 12 x 12 hardcover book; the band are streaming “Rockaway Beach” from the Top Rank gig to mark the set’s release.
See also:
Ramones to release expanded 40th anniversary edition of It’s Alive
The Ramones premiere lost Road To Ruin video for I’m Against It
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