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]
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
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
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
Huge thanks to everybody who made the Rock & Roll Public Library Project such a great experience for us, to all the bands who played at the closing gig and especially to Mick Jones for inviting us to put a studio into the exhibition and for just generally being such a dude and being so encouraging and supportive - check out the stage invasion at the end!!!
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?
The Clash were an English rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk rock. Along with punk rock, they experimented with reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap and rockabilly. For most of their recording career, The Clash consisted of Joe Strummer (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Mick Jones (lead guitar, vocals), Paul Simonon (bass, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals) and Nicky “Topper” Headon (drums, percussion). Headon left the group in 1982, and internal friction led to Jones’s departure the following year. The group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986.
The Clash were a major success in the UK from the release of their debut album, The Clash, in 1977. Their third album, London Calling, released in the UK in December 1979, brought them popularity in the United States when it came out there the following month. It received wide critical acclaim; a decade later Rolling Stone magazine declared it the best album of the 1980s.[1]
The Clash’s politicised lyrics, musical experimentation, and rebellious attitude had a far-reaching influence on rock, alternative rock in particular.[2] They became widely referred to as “The Only Band That Matters”, originally a promotional slogan introduced by the group’s record label, CBS. In January 2003 the band—including original drummer Terry Chimes—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash number 30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[3]