Excerpt … it was well worth the wait as a couple of hundred or so lucky people who had found out about their set crammed into spaces around the campfire to see the band play a 5 song set including a cover of Neil Young’s “Dance Dance Dance”, “Roll Away Your Stone”, “Lovers Eyes”, “Nothing Is Written” and the bands biggest hit “The Cave” which was lapped up by the jubilant and excited audience.
The set was best surmised by M&S lead singer Marcus Mumford who said, during the set, describing The Strummerville Stage: “It’s a good secret spot of goodness at Glastonbury.” – continue reading →
Excerpt:
“If you’ve not been to Strummerville before, then you need to go. If you’ve not been to a Frank Turner show before, then you need to go. Having them both in one place results in a phenomenal event, but I can’t help but feel that every Strummerville show has this kind of magical atmosphere; with an anything-goes attitude towards musical talent, this line-up would not be repeated anywhere else in England, such is the diversity of genres on display, and it results in a liberating atmosphere that just makes you feel free… This is how music should be enjoyed, with anyone and everyone welcome, and anyone and everyone going home happy.”
Excerpt:
A delightful moment at Glastonbury this year was when I found the Strummerville camp fire (and it took a lot of searching – you would think a fire would be easy to spot in the darkness). The atmosphere was lovely, with a decent sized crowd scattered on sofas, rugs and the natural earth all gathered around a warming and roaring fire. It didn’t really matter what music was playing, but as it turned out there was a great collection of artists who performed low-key acoustic sets on possibly the smallest stage in the world.
This is the kind of thing that Strummerville promotes – good music being put in front of some attentive ears to hopefully try and gain a wider audience. Strummerville is a registered charity that, in true Joe Strummer style, aims to help new artists and bands record and get more exposure. It reflects Joe’s legacy to music, as The Clash continue to influence young bands everywhere. The charity helps young artists who otherwise would not have the means to normally progress their musical career. Strummerville is about doing things a bit differently, creating a community spirit within the music scene and allowing artists who actually have some things to say, to express them through the good old fashioned medium of rock ‘n’ roll.
This Sunday, Strummerville comes to the Inn on the Green to celebrate the start of the Carnival Weekend. While there may be many events on offer this weekend, this should provide some time to breathe whilst still enjoying the party atmosphere.
Excerpt:
“Don Letts, the documentary-maker, DJ, former member of Big Audio Dynamite and an old mate of The Sex Pistols and The CLash, doesn’t do apethy. He has made a short film to highlight the efforts of young bands that are still carrying the flame of Joe Strummer, thanks to backing from the charity Strummerville, set up in memory of the punk visionary and supported by friends including Damien Hirst and Billy Bragg. Bands such as The Riff Raff and Nimmo & The Gauntletts have benefited from Strummerville’s network of live events and rehearsal spaces. The otherwise exasperated Letts found himself ‘really encouraged by the project’.”
Excerpt:
“The afterlife of Joe Strummer is proving to be surprisingly rich. A blockbuster biography, a Julien Temple documentary, a string of tribute records, a limited-edition Strummer Telecaster and a Great Western loco bearing his name are all part of a wider sense that Strummer’s life and work remain an inspirational example. As Billy Bragg puts it here: “He’s not a legend but a legacy.”
Don Letts’ film supplies a snapshot portrait of Strummer’s life and times, including plenty of great home movie footage, and weaves this biographical material into Strummerville’s work. Several of the young acts that have been given a helping hand had only a vague (or no) notion of what Joe Strummer achieved, but all are quick to grasp that authenticity is at the centre of his output. “He was a man of the people,” says Alex Thomson of The Riff Raff, one of the hopefuls helped by Strummerville. “We’re trying to keep the fire burning.”
So far names like Shooting Star Poets and Nimmo And The Gauntletts remain on the fringes, but one senses that Strummerville, as alt.Fame college, will help deliver a breakthrough soon enough. “It’s about making bands stand on their own feet,” says one of the Gauntletts.
Excerpt:
“I’d never heard of Strummerville until they set up camp near the memorial stone last year. Founded by friends and family, shortly after Joe’s death, Strummerville is a registered charity, dedicated to creating new opportunities for aspiring musicians. They set up camp at the festival and build a huge fire which they keep burning for the full five days.
Joe was infamous for his campfires at Glastonbury and it’s rumoured that he once kept one alight throughout a terrible storm, refusing to submit to the fierce wind and rain. Not only is this the perfect tribute to Joe, but the heart and soul of the festival. When that fire eventually goes out, it’s all over ’til next year.”
Excerpt:
“Given that it is a documentary about the innovative music charity set up by Clash frontman Joe Strummer’s friends in the aftermath of his untimely death in 2002, it’s hard to think of an individual more suited to the task of directing it than Don Letts. This pioneer of punk/reggae fusion was pivotal member of the punk community, a close associate of The Clash, and a member of Mick Jones’ post-Clash band Big Audio Dynamite. Letts went on to direct Westway to the World, the cornerstone film documentary on the subject of The Clash.
Whilst his pedigree is unquestionable and his ensuing direction of Strummerville cannot be faulted, this is neither a film about Strummer nor The Clash. Instead, it is the briskly but efficiently told story of Strummer’s namesake charity, which has grown quickly from its inception in 2003 to greatly increase its remit; beginning with a vague intention to carry on Strummer’s legacy and DIY ethic, the charity has stumbled into vital relationships with other organisations and into the provision of free support and near-free studio time to artists in desperate need of a step up. Avoiding the term “bands” is wise here as before long, Strummerville demonstrates the surprising breadth of musical styles it has supported in its short but productive existence so far.”
Excerpt:
‘For those who don’t know, Strummerville is a registered charity that aims to keep Joe’s memory alive. Strummerville offers support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who might not normally have such access, among them the extremely talented band, the Riff Raff. Here’s their insider’s Glastonbury journal…
The festival started early for us this year; we, the Riff Raff, arrived on site with the Joe Strummer New Music Foundation (www.strummerville.com) on a (happy) Monday. With the sun beating down on our backs, we walked the two miles from the car park (carrying equipment) to the Joe Strummer field located in the opposite corner of the festival. For us, the first few days before the public arrives were spent constructing the stage and camp area around the Strummerville field, drinking copious amounts of local cider and eating good food.”
Excerpt:
“Strummerville, Glastonbury – The spirit of legendary Clash guitarist and devoted Glastonburian, Joe Strummer, burns on at Strummerville, where organiser hope to light the weekends biggest campfire.
The spot – near Shngri-La field is where Joe used to host his own parties. Over the weekend bands including The Drums, Frank Turner and Lissie will drop by for acoustic sessions … everybody’s welcome.”
Excerpt:
“Strummerville will be kicking off this year’s festival tour at their natural home, Glastonbury festival. They will be lighting the campfire (the biggest campfire at Glastonbury) Thursday night and keep it burning till Monday morning.
Situated in the Unfair Ground field in the exact same spot where Joe Strummer used to have his fire, the strummerville campfire sessions will start at midnight every night and will run until 3am. Confirmed acoustic performances from bands include a mixture of Strummerville supported bands and bands who are fans of Joe Strummer himself, such as: The Drums, I Blame Coco, Beans on Toast, Handshake, Sound of Rum, Ali Love, Lissie, Fionn Regan, Frank Turner, Depot, Nat Jenkins and many, many more (some who can’t be announced!). ”
Excerpt:
“Strummerville – a charitable foundation, set up in Joe Strummer’s honour – have announced a few of the bands playing their annual Campfire event at Glastonbury Festival.
Situated in the ‘unfair ground field’ in the exact same spot where the Clash frontman used to have his fire, the campfire will be lit on Thursday and it’ll be kept burning until Monday morning, during which time several artists will stop by between midnight and 3am every night to play acoustic sets.
Confirmed acts so far include: The Drums, I Blame Coco, Beans on Toast, Handshake, Sound of Rum, Ali Love, Lissie, Fionn Regan, Frank Turner, Depot and Nat Jenkins, with more to come.”
Excerpt:
“The Drums played an intimate campfire show in the early hours of this morning (June 27) in the Strummerville area of Glastonbury.
The New York four-piece played their set on the area’s tiny bunting-laden stage, playing through small amps in front of a campfire and a few hundred festival-goers.
The timing of the set had been kept secret with the area largely unmarked, lending a sense of surprise to the show.”
Excerpt:
“What a weekend Coco had at Glastonbury, playing three shows in one day on Saturday!
It all started in the scenic surroundings of the Park Stage, which Coco opened on the second day of the festival and provided the perfect wake up call and cure for those with hangovers.
That was followed by an acoustic show at the chill and charge tent before Coco followed The Drums with an intimate set at Strummerville round a campfire just after midnight – the perfect end to the perfect day.
Look out for a blog from Coco about the festival coming soon…”
Excerpt:
“So you mudda skuddums going to Glastonbury this year, be sure to make your presence felt at the Strummerville campsite this year. Strummerville will be lighting the campfire (the biggest campfire at Glastonbury scuse me!) Thursday night and keep it burning all around the clock.
Located in Unfair Ground field in the exact same spot where Joe Strummer used to have his fire, the strummerville campfire sessions will start at midnight every night and will run until 3am.”
http://flyingwithanna.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/glastonbury-2010-a-few-things-you-should-do/
Strummerville Campfire Tip #2
Excerpt:
“Yes, it’s that time of year again when the whole country unites behind a common cause, dresses up in ridiculous outfits, drinks far too much alcohol and gathers together to watch their heroes bring them joy. No, not the World Cup, we’re all too hardened by dozens of disappointments for that – we’re talking about Glastonbury Festival.
This year the biggest festival of them all turns 40 – so what better way to gear up for Glastonbury than to offer 40 top tips for what to do at Worthy Farm this year. Sure, it might take as long to read as it will to get through the legendary Glasto queues, but it will be a lot more fun.”
Excerpt:
“Letts said of his film, ‘In a cultural climate that feels like punk never happened, Strummerville (the film) serves as a timely reminder of a way forward. It worked back then and it can work again.’ To see Joe’s ethos in practice leaves you with a lump in your throat. As he said ‘Everybody has a story to tell,’ and this film explains how his organization helps a new generation tell theirs.”
Excerpt:
“Situated in the Unfair Ground field in the exact same spot where Joe Strummer used to have his fire, the strummerville campfire sessions will start at midnight every night and will run until 3am. Confirmed acoustic performances from bands include a mixture of Strummerville supported bands and bands who are fans of Joe Strummer himself, such as: The Drums, I Blame Coco, Beans on Toast, Handshake, Sound of Rum, Ali Love, Lissie, Fionn Regan, Frank Turner, Depot, Nat Jenkins and many, many more (some who can’t be announced!).”
Excerpt:
“Continuing, the singer mused on the connection between The Drums and classic 60s pop. “We try to write simple, classic pop melodies, that’s what those ’60s girl groups did so well. So it makes sense. This is the thing that I’m most excited about.” Meanwhile, The Drums are set to play a special set at Glastonbury this weekend. The band are scheduled to play at the Strummerville campfire, created in honour of legendary Clash frontman Joe Strummer.”
This film is a available on DVD exclusively from our website, click here for more info
Excerpt:
“Strummerville is an organisation I have a lot of love for. Joe Strummer was a hero of mine. His death affected me greatly and I wanted to do something to pay my own tribute and conceived and delivered Charlie Don’t Surf: A Cinematic Tribute To Joe Strummer. It took place at the Curzon Soho in London in 2005 and celebrated the film work of Joe, as actor and composer. The event was staged in association with Strummerville, the charity set up in his name following his death. When I heard that Don Letts had a made of film of the work they were doing, I knew I had to spread the good word.
Trish Whelan, director of the charity explained how the film came about:
“I guess [it] came about when Don saw so much good stuff going on around the charity and he got a real sense of the work we are trying to do here. He was the perfect person to tie it all in. He was so close to Joe for all those years and has such a great handle on good music and I really feel he managed to tap into the essence of Joe and the real essence of how we work here”.
Strummerville helps young, aspiring, struggling musicians get the basics to succeed. They help supply places to rehearse, places to record, exposure, advice and support and as with everything surrounding Joe’s life, the pool of talent to draw from is extensive and special.”
Excerpt:
“The Drums are among the bands confirmed for the Strummerville camp at Glastonbury this year.
Once again, the charitable foundation set up in The Clash legend’s honour will be hosting its own campfire sessions at the exact spot where Strummer used to have his own fire.
Located at the Unfair Ground, Strummerville will be hosting acoustic performances around the fire starting at midnight and running late into the night.
Alongside the Brooklyn band, sets from Frank Turner, Ali Love, Fionn Regan, I Blame Coco and Lissie have been confirmed, with more names to be announced.”
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
By Logical Lizard, feature article on Tuscon Citizen
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To say I miss Joe Strummer and The Clash is as pointless and redundant as remarking: “Wow, it is really hot in Tucson in the summer.” Although I did not really know Joe personally, I was lucky enough to meet him more than once, and saw the mighty Clash live and firing on all cylinders numerous times back in the punk days. One of the remarkable things about Joe was that after even the briefest of conversations you had the feeling that you actually did know him, and that he was genuinely interested in what you had to say. He was a real person.
Despite the fact that Joe has been gone for nearly seven years it is, surprisingly enough, still a great time to be a Clash fan. In recent years we’ve been blessed with From Here to Eternity, a live compilation which is actually my single favorite Clash album; Combat Rock being my least favorite with, let’s face it, really only a handful of decent songs (yes, I know I am in the minority there, but what’s new about that?).
We can can watch and re-watch Don Letts’ masterful film Westway To The World, which I consider to be the finest rock documentary every made. I am in no way a fan of director Julian Temple’s work—I find it gimmicky and affected—but he does cover interesting subjects and his Strummer documentary, The Future Is Unwritten, is important viewing for any fan of punk rock history.
Chris Salewicz’s Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer is, for my money, the best rock bio ever written (well, maybe first equal with Dave Marsh’s Who chronicle, Before I Get Old). Sony finally saw fit to officially release 1982’s Live at Shea Stadium on CD and punk rockers can revel in all things Clash related on Tim Merrick’s Clash Blog, ingeniously subtitled “The Only Blog That Matters.”
Dick Rude’s 68-minute film Let’s Rock Again is tauntingly short, but remains an entertaining and good-hearted record of Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros on the road shortly before Joe’s death. And that is the really tragic part. After years of self-imposed exile in a post-Clash wilderness, Joe had finally reinvented himself, teamed up with long-time friend, mentor, and musical collaborator Tymon Dogg and was touring with an eclectic and highly talented band. The new songs may not have had quite the musical kick that his great songwriting partner, Mick Jones, brought to the old Clash numbers, but there was an expansive, world music vibe to the Mescaleros. And Joe looked happy in concert, like he was finally doing what he wanted.
The three Mescaleros records: Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, Global A Go-Go and the posthumous Streetcore are a glorious jumble of musical styles. Those records do not fit into any known category of music and quite right too. By 2001, Joe was a mature composer, singer and performer at the height of his powers, drawing upon his love of richly diverse musical forms including jazz, reggae, blues, ska, rockabilly, folk, and punk rock. What could he have accomplished given another ten years behind that battered Telecaster?
