We wanted to share this with you this post made by a blogger who goes under the name of Shazwellyn.
“Let me introduce you to the charity Strummerville! Set up in honour of the late Joe Strummer of The Clash, the trustee’s consist of family and friends who create opportunities for musicians who lack the necessary funds to do so.
They also support projects and organisations based around Joe Strummer’s ethics and beliefs. This ranges from providing instruments to prisoners, to help with rehabilitation (Jail Guitar Doors), to supporting people after murder and manslaughter (SAMM).
As you can see they are not biased in where they direct their help. The key is intervention humanitarian…the common good. Strummer strived for an unbiased world – a world where racism and racial discrimination, whether against whites, blacks and whoever, ceases to exist. He strived for a world against racism by advocating freedom and fairness.
The Strummerville Charity was inspired by Joe – he helped make a difference in the world. From environmental to humanitarian and social issues, through his music he inspired change. The formation of Future Trees (now The Carbon Neutral Company) was his brainchild by instigating the planting of acres of trees and Johnny Appleseed by Strummer was released to advertise this passionate environmental message.
His legacy continues to help the lives of others. From the days he spent around the Strummer Camp fire at Somerset’s Glastonbury Festival, to the united collaboration of musician’s in aid of fundraising for Strummerville (cover of Janey Jones with Babyshambles and friends) – John Mellor continues to leave his mark. Strummer was an inspiration… The Future Is Unwritten!!”
Thank you for the kind words Shazwellyn
Loads of love,
Strummerville x
Thanks to everybody who contributed to this project and great night at Inn On The Green on Friday 5th to mark the release of the Shatter The Hotel Album.
Special thanks to Prince Blanco without whom none of this would have happened … we salute and thank you sir.
Tune in to a great live podcast recorded on the night from Pete Colgle’s Podcast Factory. Listen to interviews with Prince Blanco, Mighty Howard, Dubmatix and Citizen Sound and tracks taken from the Shatter The Hotel album and our Strummerville Winter Sessions album (this podcast is also available for free download).
Shatter The Hotel 14 track album/CD is available to buy from our online shop or download now from iTunes.
Pictures from the night - courtesy of Edward Bishop
A play looking at The Clash, punk and ’selling out’ is coming to Suffolk.
Meeting Joe Strummer, at Ipswich’s New Wolsey Theatre, looks at two fans’ relationship with the band they adore.
As they grow older they try and stay true to their youthful ideals in the face of getting jobs and holding down relationships.
“The value The Clash gave to me was about trusting your own instincts and doing it yourself,” said playwright Paul Hodson.
The Future Is Unwritten production is touring the UK and should find some takers, maybe from some who attended The Clash’s gigs in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich - more of which later.
The play centres on characters Nick and Steve and their friendship over 25 years - after meeting at the legendary Rock Against Racism gig in London’s Victoria Park in 1978.
Nick went to a public school and rejects his middle class career path - as did Joe Strummer who was a diplomat’s son. Steve is from a more working class background and is also searching for his place in the grand scheme of things.
[read full feature by Andrew Woodger]
To celebrate the UK release a launch event will take place on 5th February 2010 in the heart of Clash-land at Inn on the Green, tucked under the Westway between Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove. Scheduled to appear on the night are: Dubmatix, DubCats, Wrongtom, Citizen Sound, Chomsky Allstars and Don Letts along with special guests.
In the spirit of Joe Strummer’s connection with Reggae and Dub, Shatter The Hotel explores what he once described as the “rasta - punk interface”. The energy of punk fused with the rebellious sound of dub and reggae.
This collection of songs brings together some of (his) Joe’s friends, and collaborators as well as artists and producers that have been touched and inspired by his music and message. Tracks selected from the Joe Strummer and Mick Jones catalogue have been re-interpreted by artists that come from the UK, Jamaica, Canada and the USA.
Don Letts is credited as the DJ that single-handedly turned a whole generation of punks onto reggae. A friend of Joe’s, he is pictured on the cover sleeve of the 1980 release, ‘Black Market Clash’. He opens and closes this compilation alongside Dubmatix and former Big Audio Dynamite band-mate Dan Donovan with their take on London Calling, the track that propelled The Clash’s influence across the pond to the USA. Dubmatix (aka Jesse King) has toured North America and Europe extensively, collaborating with legendary reggae heavyweights such as Sugar Minott, Michael Rose, and Alton Ellis. Shatter The Hotel’s associate producer names London Calling as one of his favourite albums of all-time so reinterpreting the title track with Dan and Don( )was in his words ‘a labour of love’.
Dubmatix - London Calling (Album Version) [feat. Don Letts & Dan Donovan]
The compilation ranges from straight-up roots dub to contemporary reggae sounds to dubbed out punk and dub-house styles including Lost In the Supermarket by South London producer, Wrongtom (Hard-Fi’s tour DJ and remixer), Creation Rockers’ interpretation of Four Horseman and Rock the Casbah by Nate Wize from Toronto who has DJ’d or performed alongside the likes of MIA, Blondie and Roots Manuva. His version features Jamaican vocalist Ammoye.
Joe Strummer’s friend and biographer Chris Salewicz has provided the sleeve-notes for Shatter the Hotel along with renowned photographer, Adrian Boot who has provided the images of Joe.
Proceeds from the sale of this release will benefit Strummerville: The Joe Strummer Foundation for New Music, a registered charity set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer the year after his death that seeks to reflect Joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them.
For more information please contact:
Mark Matthews (aka Prince Blanco)
Email: shatterthehotel@gmail.com
Web: www.shatterthehotel.com
A WELL-KNOWN guitarist and songwriter from Coventry died suddenly on New Year’s Day at the age of just 42.
Iain Howard, known as ‘H’ to his friends, collapsed at his home in Walsgrave Road, Stoke, and died of liver failure at the city’s University Hospital two days later.
The popular dad was known by hundreds of people as guitarist of Skabilly Rebels, which was formed by his lifelong friend and fellow band member Roddy ‘Radiation’ Byers, who also played with The Specials.
They were a frequent attraction at popular city venues including the Jailhouse, in Much Park Street, city centre, while they also performed in Germany, Sweden and Holland.
More than 50 people have already paid tribute to the musician on The Specials’ online forum. Friends have described him as a “top bloke” and a “thoughtful mate with a big heart.”
His brother John Howard, aged 52, of Styvechale, also paid tribute to his younger brother.
The father-of-two said: “He said to me his proudest moments were playing with Roddy and with the Bay City Rollers. He loved music since he was a little boy – he used to pinch all my singles.
He idolised the punk scene and was good on the piano and the violin.
“He was always known as a big musician and played up and down the country. He was also very caring and the sort of person who could start a conversation with anyone. You’d come out and feel you’ve made a good friend.”
Iain lost one of his closest friends, Gus Chambers, who was lead singer of The Squad, last year. John added: “When Gus died it really upset him. He had a tattoo on his wrist that said ‘Gus RIP.’ It hurt him quite a lot.”
He leaves behind parents Pam and Ken Howard, daughter Toni-Anne Rzezuchowski, son-in-law Ben, brother John, sister-in-law Edith and their children Sam and Amelia. The funeral arrangements are still to be announced.
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A couple of days before Christmas 2002 I get a text message from a mate saying Joe Strummer is dead. My mate owns a sex shop and does lots of gak. I thought he was finally losing it. Joe Strummer dead? No! No fucking way!
Elvis and Lennon’s deaths were shocking but this was news of a death of someone I had grown up listening to and occasionally aping. This was the death of someone who had spoken directly to me.
Rewind to 1977 and I’d got a right royal bollocking from my old man for customizing a white Harrington my mum had bought me on tick from Grattan catalogue. I’d got my mate Bob Marino — the first punk on our council estate — to do “The Clash” stencil on the back of the pristine white jacket. I thought I looked way beyond cool strutting around the streets in the jacket. My old man thought I was a vandal. Thank fuck he never clocked the Indian ink tattoo as well.
It might sound strange nowadays to say that a band can change your life, but that’s exactly what Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon did for millions of kids around the world in 1977. The Clash were the real deal and with Strummer leading The Last Gang In Town you intuitively knew you had a leader who walked it like he talked it. Even when news came out that he was the son of a diplomat and not a Ladbroke Grove urchin, it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because you knew Joe Strummer meant it. Strummer wasn’t slumming it. He couldn’t be! Nobody could fake those gutteral soul performances, unless of course they were extremely good actors, and let’s face it, the acting he did for Alex Cox and Jim Jarmusch in later life was hardly Oscar worthy.
Again, it’s hard to convey just how exciting it was buying a Clash single, running home, sticking it on the record player and listening to it over and over until you’d wore the needle down and pulled the print off the cover by staring at it for so long. The Clash were the full package: music, image, attitude.
The Clash couldn’t have come at a better time. The country was rotting under a corrupt and inept Labour Government that culminated in The Winter Of Discontent. We’ve obviously learned nothing as we find ourselves over 30 years later still ruled by a corrupt Labour Government who are even worse than the one in 1977. The Clash cut through the partisan bullshit of the left/right paradigm and came out firmly on the side of raw Truth. The lyrics hit the head and the heart and implored us to be angry with our lot. ‘White Riot’s incendiary clarion call shook us out of apathy and infused us with a sense of belonging. This was music for the disaffected, marginalized and those hungry for a direction. Above all, it was a call for change. That change came in the form of a new entrepreneurial spirit.
In my opinion The Clash epitomized a move away from state reliance. The state was fucked and the only way to move forward was to do it yourself. Simple: go out and form your own band, start a fanzine, throw a disco, write, design, make films, start a radio station, build your own record label, just create, do anything, something to beat the boredom and make a mark. This attitude seeped into the ideology of Thatcherism. Though loathe to admit it, the first wave of Punk Rockers in the UK were more in line with the Thatcher/Reagan spirit than the dead horse of the pseudo socialist Labour party that celebrated defeatism and subsidy. I doubt Joe Strummer would ever recognize the correlation but it’s there if you study the history. The amount of artists, writers, designers, film makers and successful entrepreneurs who charted their own courses from the punk big bang is staggering.
If Joe Strummer — and by default the rest of The Clash — should be remembered for anything though, it is their maverick attitude towards culture. Strummer got me listening to reggae and dub. Through him I found classic rock & roll, folk, country and western and even a little World music. It was this eclecticism that always kept Strummer relevant. Strummer was a genuine music lover, and believe it or not, that isn’t always the case with famous musicians.
I was fortunate to attend the remembrance benefit of Joe Strummer at The White Cube Gallery a few years ago. In the true spirit of Joe, Paul Buck, Johnny Johnson, James Brown, Paolo Sedezzari and me celebrated in high old style and to this day still look back on it as one of the best nights out…ever. The place was rammed with ‘creatives‘ from right across the spectrum. From pop stars to footballers and actors to psycho’s, chancers and misfits the place rocked out to Joe’s music and it was a testament to a man who was truly loved by all who met him. In the final analysis that’s all that ultimately matters…Joe was a good guy and an inspiration to those of us who didn’t want to do a “real” job for a living.
© Words - Dean Cavanagh/ ZANI Ltd
Published with kind permission - View Original Source
JOE STRUMMER SUBWAY
Artist Robert Gordon McHarg III - a Tribute to Joe Strummer
22nd December 2009
This is the subway where Joe used to busk - Edgware Rd / Harrow Rd, London. Designed by Robert Gordon McHarg III - these are the signs put up in honour of Joe Strummer today, 22nd December, his anniversary.
This is Joe Strummer Subway …
For more info:
SUBWAY GALLERY
Kiosk 1 Joe Strummer Subway
Edgware Rd / Harrow Rd
London W2 1DX
07811 286503
info@subwaygallery.com
subwaygallery.com
In memory and honour of Joe Strummer we’re delighted to release our Winter Sessions Showcase 2009 album today on his anniversary.
This is a compilation album of recordings by bands who performed at the Strummerville Yard in the rain under the stars.
All tracks are available for free download here
Thank you everyone for your continued support and love this year.
Wishing you all peace and love for Christmas and 2010.
Strummerville x
ps. if you’d like the CD please send self addressed envelope to:
Winter Sessions Showcase 2009
Strummerville
22A Stable Way
London
W10 6QX
On Sunday 20th Dec Don Letts presented a Joe Strummer related show filled with an hour of tunes from Joe Strummer plus songs from The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers and Dubmatix ft. Don Letts and Dan Donovan with their version of London Calling…
“Ever since I saw ‘Play Misty For Me’, I dreamed of being a radio DJ. But how to get around the damn playlists and corporate interference? Then I got a call. In 2007, BBC 6 Music asked if I’d like to join the team and I jumped at the chance. Contrary to popular opinion, I’m not at home cranking dub reggae 24/7. That’s just in my DNA. With ‘Culture Clash Radio’ I hope to make some new friends and broaden people’s perception of me, by playing tunes I can certify.
For the moment it’s just 60 minutes of all killer, no filler sounds, that cross time, space and genres. For the most part I’m gonna let the music do the talking. So, in the mean time and in between time I’ll gladly take your e-mailed thoughts and suggestions. Enjoy the ride…” Don Letts
NME - Dec 21st 2009: A hand-drawn Christmas card by Joe Strummer is to go on sale tomorrow (December 22), seven years to the day since the Clash frontman passed away.
The card was designed by Joe to be given to friends and family personally. As well as the card, a tribute album is also being released tomorrow (22nd Dec) showcasing new UK acts.
Listen to and download Strummerville’s ‘Winter Sessions Showcase Album 2009‘ now.
Tuesday 22nd Dec 7pm - Late
The FlowerPot, 147 Kentish Town Road, London NW1 8PB (FREE ENTRY)
Promoting the work of Jail Guitar Doors & Strummerville
Acoustic Sets from:
Drew McConnell (Baby Shambles)
Sam Duckworth (Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly)
Jonny Neeson & Leon Walker
PLUS VERY SPECIAL GUESTS!!
THE YALLA YALLAS are a fantastic punk rock ‘n’ roll band from Leeds. Their name was carefully and deliberately chosen as a rallying call to unify. “So long liberty, lets forget you didn’t show. Not in my time” a sentiment expressed on an early Joe Strummer recording, one which spurned him on to form The Mescaleros, and one which struck a chord with the band and their audience.. Some members have appeared in other Leeds based punk rock bands The Dead Pets, 3milehigh and The Gushers. Others have built up a solid reputation as solo performers. All of them now share a common goal to bring anthemic mayhem to wherever they play.
http://www.myspace.com/theyallayallas
THE TAGNUTS Cambridge “Gimp-Core” ska punkers are back! After almost a year away The Tagnuts are ready to do it again. This is the hometown night of a UK tour for The Tagnuts that sees them playing across the country. Their unique and energetic live shows have been sadly missed! Good to have you back!!
http://www.myspace.com/thetagnuts
THE TEN-O-SEVENS are real punk rock’n’roll! These four lads combine elements of early punk rock with the sound and attitude of the most obnoxious of garage punk bands. Their songs are fast, loud, nasty, snotty, catchy and sweaty simple chord tight style tunes that will stick to your head like cheap superglue!
http://www.myspace.com/krummylanky
THE DEAD BATTERIES return to the Moon as part of their winter tour with local legends the Tagnuts. They are fast, they have a lot to say, and they say it with venom! Great anarcho punx from Ipswich, don’t miss them!
http://www.myspace.com/thedeadbatteries
There are plenty of great Strummer/Clash related Prizes to be won, as well as the usual stalls selling merchandise and maybe even some late Christmas Prezzies!
Expect punky xmas décor, Last Gang In Town DJ’s playing punk and ska, drink promotions and maybe even a mince pie or two, it’s a Strummerville Benefit and Last Gang Xmas Party/ 6th Birthday all rolled into one! What more could you want for Christmas!!!?
Saturday 19th December
@Man on the Moon, 2 Norfolk Street, Cambridge
£5 adv / £6 door
Doors 7:30pm
Ticket reservations email lastgangintownuk@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/thelastgangintownuk
Heads up people - its on again in 2010
The Annual Joe Strummer Tribute With The Death Or Glory Sound System, Take The 5th and Havana-a-go-go doing their Ramones thing. Profit to Stummerville & Once again at the Komedia Brighton 44 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN.
This, for us has been a highlight of the year since Dan and Gordon put on the first gig celebrating Joe’s life in 2003. a fantastic event last year - It was great to meet up again with people who have similarly supported the event along the way.
A passionate punk comedy about attitude, friendship and celebrity and a celebration of the man who set the agenda for a generation.
Nick and Steve’s lives were transformed by Joe Strummer and The Clash’s potent mix of politics, soulful rock’n’roll and iconic imagery.
1978. The lads see The Clash for the first time, headlining the Anti-Nazi League carnival in Victoria Park. It’s as if they take an oath to stay true to the values embodied in that day…
2002. Strummer’s tragic and unexpected early death forces Nick and Steve to re-evaluate their lives.
Winner of a Fringe First award, this heartfelt, comic play charts Nick and Steve’s attempts to maintain their ‘oath’ to Strummer while living through Thatcherism, paying the bills and maintaining relationships - how the lads grew up in the real world in the shadow of their hero.
‘theatre’s High Fidelity’ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
‘Paul Hodson’s marvellous play… it’s required viewing, not just for Strummer’s many admirers, but also for anyone who enjoys funny, perceptive and passionately sincere new writing’ Manchester Evening News
Full info and tour dates visit: www.the-future-is-unwritten.co.uk
Strummerville Winter Sessions - 28th November 2009. We had some amazing bands, hot food and warm fires.
A massive thank you to all who braved the cold winter rain and a special shout to all the bands that played - Ginga, Internet Forever, My Second Head, Nimmo & The Gauntletts, Panama Kings, Skylarkers, Smokey Angle Shades, The Musical Differences, The Riff Raff, Thomas J Speight.
Loads of Love,
Strummerville x
In May of 2009, the “100% Genki” tour brought 4 Japanese bands to the UK, who played 4 festivals across the country. Showcasing Japan’s vibrant music scene, the tour visited Brighton, London, Manchester and Liverpool over 10 days.
2００９年５月、「１００％元気」というツアーが４組のバンドを日本からイギリスの４つのフェスティバルに連れてきた。
On 30th November 2009 underground hero Beans On Toast will release his debut album - Standing On A Chair – a 50 track double album incorporating all his songs to date.
The gravel-voiced singer/songwriter from Braintree has been busy penning songs on his child-sized guitar for the past couple of years. His Bragg-esque odes take in themes of sex (‘Junkfood Sex’), drugs (‘M.D.M.Amazing’), sex whilst on drugs (‘Eggs Benadict’) and wry social, political commentary that is both poignant and funny (‘Fuck The Smoking Ban’, ‘London At War’). Occasionally he has made them available online. Occasionally he has stood on a chair and sung them out in pubs and clubs up and down the country. Finally, now, he’s collected them all together and presented them in an old-skool double disc album.
‘Standing On A Chair’ is the perfect antidote to the glossy, cheesy, manufactured Christmas dross that is currently clogging up the charts. An anti-Christmas, Christmas album best enjoyed post-pub with good friends, cheap booze and in high spirits.
Having just played to around 16,000 people whilst supporting friend Frank Turner on his huge UK sold out tour, he will be heading out, with his guitar and wooden chair to play his own shows in January 2010. Further details to come.
We love Beans On Toast and are grateful for all his amazing support and general good vibes around all our work here at Strummerville.
Click Here to buy Standing on a Chair
Beans on Toast MySpace
Thanks to Mauro and crew for organising their sixth benefit for Strummerville. The tribute takes place again in Bologna, the town in which The Clash had their first Italian concert on June 1st 1980.
This years bill includes 12 great bands with Rude Boy star Ray Gange spinning a DJ set [details on MySpace]
Also in the evening there will be live painting by artist Giuliano del Sorbo continuing with the presentation of the book “I wanna Riot” with author Luca Frazzi , with a reading on the Clash lyrics by Andrea Merendelli (author and director of Clash To Me).
The night will also pay tribute to the experience of the anti-racist label 2 Tone Records (really loved by Joe Strummer) in the year of his 30th anniversary (1979-2009).
Continuing their series of cultural tours of the capital, Guardian music editor Tim Jonze meets Trish at the Strummerville yard, Don Letts, & Jon Savage. Who’d have thought Notting Hill’s well-heeled streets gave birth to some of punk’s defining moments? Tim tracks down the people and places where the legacy lives on…
For one day only Edgware Road’s Subway Gallery was turned into a makeshift recording studio. On October 30th 2009, commuters and residents were invited to come down to the art gallery, located in the tunnels under Edgware Road, to go underground to record their own music tracks.
Scores of people including buskers and bemused passers-by made their way down to take part in the gallery’s ‘Rocking the Subway’ event.
The gallery was open from 11am but the mass recording did not take place until the afternoon. The aspiring recording artists were also joined by The Musical Differences.
For more info go to Subway Gallery website.
Thanks ever so much to the people at Pirates Press Records and Cock Sparrer for holding a silent auction for a set of autographed Cock Sparrer test pressings! One test pressing for Shock Troops, Runnin’ Riot ‘84, True Grit Outtakes, Two Monkeys, Guilty As Charged, Live n Loud, Back Home and Here We Stand.
As well as a test pressing of the England Belongs To Me picture disc single and The Spirit of ‘76 etched single will be included in the package (as well as a few goodies from Strummerville).
This will all be packaged in a casebound 12″ boxset and autographed by all members of Cock Sparrer.
This is truly a one-of a kind collectors item.
Pirates Press and Strummerville thank you in advance for your offers and contributions, and more so your undying overall support of all our endeavours. We wish you all the best of luck!
The auction begins on Pirates Press Records’ anniversary party on Friday 13th November, and will available on their website (http://www.piratespressrecords.com) starting the following Monday 16th November for those people unable to attend. The auction will end on Thanksgiving Day 26th November at high noon at which point the winner will be announced.
Award-winning filmmaker Don Letts and his production company Brassneck TV are making a documentary about Strummerville. The film will feature performance footage and interviews with artists, supporters and founders.
He’s looking for footage shot at past Strummerville events, so if you think you can help please get in touch!
Don Letts is credited as the man who through his DJing at clubs like The Roxy brought together punk and reggae music.
Follow Brassneck TV on Twitter
