999 Emergency At The Old Waldorf 1979

The English music press back in 1978/9 did not support the idea of the current crop of punk/ new wave bands touring in the States stating they were bored with the USA and bands that were considering going would be selling out. I asked some of our fans what their opinion was on this and asked if they thought we should go. The resounding answer was an absolute yes telling us to jump at the chance and that they would too, given the opportunity. We had an agent in the US, Ian Copeland who ran the FBI agency New York who had also put on other acts of the time for example, XTC, the Police /Ultravox etc. Ian Copeland had a great idea, rent a small van and go and play lots of venues in places people would not normally play as well as all the big cities. You're talking about a time when there was very little middle ground in music, you are either making it at the top or at the very bottom just trying to make it to play a show. We decided to take up what FBI were offering and give it a go we toured all over the states constantly this enabled us to build up a strong following because this was the new wave/punk music it was very popular over there at the time because people were looking for something new as they were in England and Europe. It was a very good time to play our music and there were plenty of venues in plenty of backwaters. We also played major cities, in LA we'd play The Whiskey and other smaller venues then graduate up to The Santa Monica Civic Center. 999 really appreciated the US audiences who in turn appreciated the band we were proud to break down barriers and share empathy with our audiences there and we received a really fantastic reaction to our music. In the states local and college radio played an enormous role in promoting the live shows and introducing the new music to the local community and involving that community in the stations programming this was something that simply did not happen in the UK there was just no equivalent. KLAX DJ and engineer Terry Hammer recorded this show for a live radio broadcast at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco and 999 were booked to do two shows a night. The doors would open for the first show, we'd play our set and encores, the audience would leave then bang the doors would open for the second show. It was hard work but 999 always enjoyed a challenge and it was incredible really because so many people from the first show bought tickets for the second to get another dose of the music and fun which all helped to create a fantastic atmosphere which I think is captured so well here by the engineer Terry Hammer in this live album of the second show at The Old Waldorf 2 July 1979.