Before Clash completists and aficionados of all things mid-80s rock/rap crossover get too excited, this doesn’t even feature the original BAD line-up, but its poor relation, BAD Mk II. Put together after the original band broke up at the end of 1989, this line-up crucially finds the everaffable Mick Jones fronting, without his talismanic sparring partner Don Letts, whose presence and contributions lent the whole project much of its cross-cultural street credibility and kudos.
Shot at London’s Town & Country Club in 1990 and with a total running time of only 50 minutes, this is far from the complete show. Essentially, it’s an edited highlights package, with pride of place reserved for the selections from BAD’s debut album, This Is Big Audio Dynamite (Medicine Show, E=MC2 and The Bottom Line), plus the show-closing cover of Prince’s 1999. With their genrebusting sound fashioned from the collision of rock, rap and dub, Big Audio Dynamite were very much of their time. If this were the group in their mid-80s pomp, it would have been a different story altogether. As it stands, the show just feels tired and not a little ordinary.
