The Clash were an English punk rock band who were active from 1976 to 1986. They were one of the most successful and iconic bands from the original wave of punk rock in the late 1970s, and went on to incorporate punk with reggae, rockabilly, dance, jazz, ska, and eventually many other music styles into their repertoire. The Clash were legendary for their intense stage performances.
The Clash stood apart from their punk peers with their skilled musicianship and the passionate, left-wing political idealism in the lyrics of frontmen Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. This contrasted sharply with the nihilism of the Sex Pistols, the anarchism of Crass, and the three-chord simplicity of the Ramones. Although the Clash were a major success in the UK from the release of their first album in 1977, they did not become popular in the US until 1980.
Their third album, the late 1979 release London Calling is an influential album in the history of rock music; it was released in the US in January 1980, and a decade later Rolling Stone magazine declared it the best album of the 1980s. Rolling Stone also placed it at #8 on their list in 2003 of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The Clash's attitude and style, as much as their music, strongly influenced many other bands from the 1980s. In 2003 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash[1] #30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[2] Epic Records dubbed them "The Only Band That Matters"
Originally composed of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Keith Levene and Terry Chimes (credited, as a pun, on their first LP as "Tory Crimes"), the Clash formed in Ladbroke Grove, west London in 1976, during the first wave of British punk. Levene (later of Public Image Ltd.) was a friend of Mick Jones and served as guitarist and songwriter with The Clash, but never recorded with the band and, according to Mick Jones in the 1999 Clash documentary Westway to the World, was kicked out for never showing up to practice.
Strummer had previously been in the pub rock act The 101'ers (his stage name at this point was Woody Mellor; soon he would rename himself "Joe Strummer" after his rudimentary strumming skills on the ukulele as a busker in the London Underground); Jones, Simonon, and Tony James (later of Generation X) were (briefly) in legendary proto-punk band London SS. At the behest of their manager Bernie Rhodes, Jones, Levene, and Simonon recruited the slightly older Strummer from the 101'ers. "You're great," they told him, "but your group is shit". [1] Rhodes then allegedly gave Strummer a couple of days to think about joining. Strummer agreed, and the group became The Clash, the name being supplied by Simonon after seeing the word repeatedly in the Evening Standard.
The new band had their first gig on July 4, 1976, supporting the Sex Pistols, and that autumn the band was signed to CBS Records. In early September, Levene left. Chimes left in late November (briefly replaced by Rob Harper for the Anarchy Tour in December 1976) but was soon drafted back to enable the band to record their debut album. The band released their first single (White Riot/1977") and first album (The Clash) in 1977 to considerable success in the UK. However, CBS initially declined to release either in the United States, waiting until 1979 before releasing a modified version of the first album in the US, after the UK original had become the best-selling import album of all time in the United States.
Following the release of their first album, Chimes left amicably due to personal differences with the remaining members. In the documentary Westway to the World, Mick Jones referred to him as one of "the best drummers around". But Chimes, who had no great wish to make a career from music, said, "The point was that I wanted one kind of life - they wanted another, and why are we working together, if we want completely different things?" Chimes later joined the glam punk group Hanoi Rocks.
The band experienced a period of changing drummers. Mick Jones recruited Nicholas Bowen Headon, who was nicknamed "Topper" by the band, due to his resemblance to a cartoon monkey, and "The Human Drum Machine" by the producer of Give 'Em Enough Rope, Sandy Pearlman, due to his impeccable timing and skills. The musically-gifted Headon was planning to stay only briefly with the band in order to gain a reputation so that he might find a better group. In the process, the band's potential became apparent to him and he changed his plans and decided to stay.
Initially, The Clash were notable for their strident leftist political outlook and distinctive clothes, self painted with Jackson Pollock-style paint splashes and revolutionary slogans, such as "Sten Guns in Knightsbridge," "Under Heavy Manners," and "Heavy Discipline". Throughout 1977, Strummer and Jones were in trouble with the police for a range of minor crimes ranging from petty vandalism to stealing a pillowcase, while on 30 March 1978 Simonon and Headon were briefly arrested and fined for shooting racing pigeons with an air gun from the roof of their rehearsal studio in Camden.
(1982–1984) Tensions and disintegration
After Combat Rock, the Clash began to slowly disintegrate. Topper Headon was asked to leave the band just prior to the release of the album. The band was unable to cope with his ongoing heroin addiction, which had a disastrous effect on both his health and drumming. The true reason for Headon's departure was covered up by manager Bernie Rhodes as a "political difference". The band's original drummer, Terry Chimes, was brought back for the next few months. (For a period, Headon sank into severe depression, only to resurface with a solo album, then entering prison briefly for fraud, before finally cleaning up and kicking the addiction by the end of the decade.)
The loss of Headon brought much friction, as he was an essential part of the band and well-liked by the others. Jones and Strummer began to feud, although it is often said that some of the friction between the two arose because manager Bernie Rhodes disliked Jones and thought him arrogant, and was promoting Strummer against him. The band, although still touring arenas and opening up for The Who in stadiums on their tour in 1982, barely spoke to or even glanced at each other, both during the concerts and backstage. Indeed, the original dates for the UK leg of the Combat Rock tour were cancelled when Strummer disappeared on the eve of the gigs.
The band continued to tour but by 1983, after years of constant touring and recording, the strain took its toll. They were growing as musicians and individuals, but as said in interviews were still quite young - Simonon and Jones were still only 26 and 27 respectively and Strummer was 30 - and inexperienced to cope with such difficult and tension-plagued situations. Simonon, a long-term friend of Jones, felt inclined to side with Strummer because he became frustrated with Jones' musical experimentation.
Chimes left the band after the 1982-1983 Combat Rock tour, convinced that the band could not continue with in-fighting and turmoil. In 1983, after an extensive search for a new drummer, Pete Howard was recruited and performed with the trio at several low-key US dates and finally at the US Festival in San Bernardino, California. The Clash were one of the headliners of this festival, along with David Bowie and Van Halen. The crowd of roughly half a million was by far the biggest of the Clash's career. This was Jones' last appearance with The Clash. In September 1983, prompted by Rhodes, Strummer and Simonon sacked Jones from the band, citing his problematic behaviour and divergent musical aspirations. (Jones went on to found Big Audio Dynamite (BAD) with Don Letts, and both Strummer and Simonon collaborated with BAD at various times.)
(1984–1986) Cut the Crap and the final demise
After a series of auditions, the band announced Nick Sheppard, formerly of the Bristol-based Cortinas, and Vince White would be the band's new guitarists. Howard continued to be the drummer, although there were rumours that Headon or Chimes might return to replace him. The band played its first shows in January 1984 with a batch of new material and launched into a self-financed tour, dubbed the Out of Control tour. The band toured heavily over the winter and into early summer. At a striking miners' benefit show ("Scargill's Christmas Party") in December 1984, it was announced that a new record would be released early in the new year.
The recording sessions for Cut the Crap were chaotic, with manager Bernie Rhodes and Strummer working in Munich, Germany. Most of the parts were played by studio musicians, with Sheppard and later White flying in to come up with guitar parts. Struggling with Rhodes for control of the band, Strummer wiped his hands of the project and returned home. Around this time the band went on a busking tour. They applied strict rules that allowed them to carry only 10 pounds and one change of underwear, travelled separately or in pairs, and met at public spaces in cities throughout the UK where they played acoustic versions of their hits along with covers like "Twist and Shout" and "Stepping Stone".
After a gig in Athens, Strummer fled to Spain to clear his mind. When he returned he effectively broke up the band. While Strummer was gone, the first single from Cut the Crap, "This Is England" was released to mostly negative reviews. The song, much like the rest of the album that came out later that year, had been drastically re-engineered by Rhodes, with synths, drum machines, and football-style chants being added to Strummer's incomplete recordings. Other songs played on the tour remain unreleased to this day: "Jericho", "Glue Zombie", and "In the Pouring Rain". Although Howard was an adept drummer, virtually all of the percussion tracks were produced by drum machines.
Post-Clash careers
Joe Strummer
In 1986, Strummer collaborated with ex-bandmate Jones on BAD's second album, No. 10 Upping St., co-producing the album and co-writing seven of its songs. Strummer acted in a few movies, notably Alex Cox's Walker, and Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train (film), as well as a cameo in Aki Kaurismäki's I hired a Contract Killer, in which he sings "Burning Lights/Afro-Cuban Be-Bop". He became known in this period for his work on movie soundtracks (notably "Love Kills" for the film Sid and Nancy), and later for co-producing the successful Grosse Pointe Blank soundtracks with John Cusack) and experimented with different backing bands with limited success. In 1989, he resurfaced in the music scene, releasing the first of his solo albums. Earthquake Weather was neither a commercial nor critical success. He did, however, tour with a new backing band, The Latino Rockabilly War. They contributed five songs to the soundtrack of the movie Permanent Record, including an instrumental and the song "Trash City", which was also released as a single. In 1991/92 Strummer joined The Pogues after their split with former frontman Shane MacGowan for a series of concerts across Europe.
Finally in the late 1990s, Strummer gathered top-flight musicians into a backing band he called The Mescaleros. On November 15, 2002 Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros performed a benefit gig for the striking Firefighters of London (FBU) at the Acton Town Hall, London (later referred to as "The Last Night London Burned"). For the encores, Mick Jones joined the band. They were: "Bankrobber", "White Riot" and "London’s Burning". There is a popular myth that this was the last concert Joe Strummer played, but in fact his final gig was at Liverpool Academy on 22 November 2002.
In December 2002, Strummer died suddenly of a congenital heart defect at the age of 50. The Mescaleros’ album he was working on at the time, Streetcore, was released posthumously to critical acclaim in 2003. It was very unfortunate for The Clash, as Jones commented in the press that after the brief reunion on Westway to the World in 1999 the foursome were seriously considering reuniting for a tour, and that it looked likely to happen.
A film has been made about his life recently, it is called The Future Is Unwritten.
Mick Jones
After his expulsion from The Clash, Jones formed Big Audio Dynamite (often shortened to B.A.D.) in 1984 with film director Don Letts who directed various Clash videos and Westway to the World. The band's debut album, This is Big Audio Dynamite, was released the following year with the song "E=MC²" receiving heavy rotation in dance clubs. The next album, No. 10 Upping St., reunited Jones with Strummer. Jones released three more albums with Big Audio Dynamite before reshuffling the line-up and renaming the band Big Audio Dynamite II. The band was later renamed Big Audio in the mid-1990s. Jones featured on the two studio albums by The Libertines as producer and also produced the debut Babyshambles album. Jones is currently touring and recording with his new band, Carbon/Silicon.
Paul Simonon
Following the break-up of The Clash, Simonon formed a group called Havana 3am, which recorded only one album in Japan and quickly folded. Then Simonon returned to his roots as a visual artist, mounting several art-gallery shows and contributing the cover for Jones' third BAD album, Tighten Up Vol. 88. Simonon's reluctance to play music again has largely been cited as the reason why The Clash were one of the few 1970s British punk bands that did not reform to cash in on the punk-nostalgia craze of the late 1990s. Bruce Springsteen reportedly offered to stand in for Simonon for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the performance never materialized. It is widely speculated that Simonon did not play the bass for more than a decade, and he was quoted in Westway to the World as saying that The Clash are over and that "suits him fine". He is currently collaborating with Damon Albarn, of Blur and virtual band Gorillaz, Simon Tong of The Verve, and Tony Allen, main founder of the afrobeat and drummer of Fela Kuti to form The Good, the Bad and the Queen. Their first gig took place on the 26 October 2006 at the Roundhouse.
Topper Headon
Headon's contribution to The Clash was by no means limited to his drumming for the band; he composed and performed the music for "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" (which he also sang) and "Rock the Casbah" almost entirely by himself, the latter becoming the band's biggest hit in the U.S. when it reached #8 on the Billboard charts in 1982. By this time, however, Headon had been dismissed by the rest of the band due to the heroin addiction which has dogged him for most of his adult life. His addiction stood in the way of any musical alliances he tried to form, and eventually landed him in jail for supplying a user who later overdosed and died. Except for forming a short-lived R&B band (in 1986 he recorded a LP called Waking Up as well as a 12" E.P. titled Drumming Man), Headon disappeared from the music business until the filming of Letts' retrospective documentary about The Clash, Westway to The World, where he sincerely apologised for his addiction. Headon also attended a subsequent presentation to Strummer, Jones, Simonon, and Headon of a Lifetime Achievement British Music Award. After many years of unsuccessfully trying different forms of rehabilitation, he has now apparently kicked his habit and is performing live again. It was after one of his live performances that he heard the news of Strummer's death, in 2002.
Other members
Terry Chimes
Chimes played with various other bands between and after his stints with the Clash. He was Black Sabbath's drummer for a couple of years in the mid-1980s. He eventually retired from the music industry to become a chiropractor. Since 1994, he has had his own practice in London's South Woodford neighbourhood. He now lives in Elephant and Castle in Southwark, London.
Pete Howard
Howard was in the Fiction Records band Eat, before forming Vent 414 with Miles Hunt in 1996. He joined Queen Adreena in 2002.
Keith Levene
After he left the Clash and shortly after the Sex Pistols disintegrated, Levene co-founded Public Image Ltd (PiL) with John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten). His guitar work was much imitated by several punk rockers and others, including The Edge of U2. On later PiL recordings, Levene would often forgo his guitar for synthesizer. He left PiL acrimoniously in 1983 following a fall-out with Lydon.
Nick Sheppard
From 1986 to 1989 he collaborated with Gareth Sager (formerly of The Pop Group and Rip Rig & Panic) in Head, but their three albums made little impact. Sheppard next worked with Koozie Johns in Shot, which signed with I.R.S. Records in 1991, with Copeland as manager; however the band's recordings were never released. Sheppard moved to Australia in 1993, and played in Heavy Smoker and the New Egyptian Kings. In July 2002, it was suggested Sheppard would be guest guitarist on a Japanese tour with Johns' new band, Sinnerstar. The tour was cancelled.
Discography
Main article: The Clash discography
Studio albums
1. The Clash - (April 8, 1977) #12 UK, #126 U.S.[4][5]
2. Give 'Em Enough Rope - (November 10, 1978) #2 UK, #128 U.S. #79 AUS
3. London Calling (2LP) - (December 14, 1979) #9 UK, #27 U.S. #16 AUS
4. Sandinista! (3LP) - (December 12, 1980) #19 UK, #24 U.S.
5. Combat Rock - (May 14, 1982) #2 UK, #7 U.S.
6. Cut the Crap - (November 4, 1985) #16 UK, #88 U.S.
Politics
Like many early punk bands, The Clash protested against monarchy and aristocracy. However, unlike many early punk bands, The Clash rejected the overall sentiment of nihilism, which led them to be criticized by influential punk bands such as Crass and Angelic Upstarts. Instead, they found solidarity with a number of contemporary liberation movements. Their politics were expressed explicitly in their lyrics, in early recordings such as "White Riot," which encouraged disaffected white youths to become politically active like their black counterparts, "Career Opportunities," which expressed discontent about the alienation of low-paid, production line style employment and the lack of alternatives, and "London's Burning," about political complacency.
In 1978 at a Rock Against Racism show organized by the Anti-Nazi League, Strummer wore a controversial t-shirt bearing the words "Brigate-Rosse" with the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof) insignia in the middle. He later said in an interview that he wore the shirt not to support the left-wing terrorist factions in Germany and Italy, but to bring attention to their existence. In the song "Tommy Gun" his stance was ambiguous. Caroline Coon stood up for what The Clash were doing during this period: "Those tough, militaristic songs were what we needed as we went into Thatcherism". (Passion is a Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash, p. 190)
The group also supported other musicians' charity concerts, most notably at the December 1979 Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, presented by Paul McCartney. The benefit album released from the concerts features one song by The Clash, "Armagideon Time." The Clash offered some support to the Sandinista and other Marxist movements in Latin America (hence the title of their 1980 album, Sandinista!). They were also involved directly with the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism. By the time of the December 1979 album London Calling, the Clash were trying to maintain punk energy while developing musically. They were especially wary of their own emerging stardom: they always welcomed fans backstage after shows and showed open-mindedness, genuine interest and compassion in their relationships with them.
The title of London Calling evokes American radio newsman Edward R. Murrow's catchphrase during World War II, and the title song announces that "...war is declared and battle come down..." It warns against expecting them to be saviours — "... now don't look to us / Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust..." — draws a bleak picture of the times — "The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in / Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin" — but calls on their listeners to come out of their drugged stupor and take up the fight without constantly looking to London, or to The Clash themselves, for cues — "Forget it, brother, we can go it alone... Quit holding out and draw another breath... I don't want to shout / But while we were talking I saw you nodding out..." — finally asking, "After all this, won't you give me a smile?"
The Clash are generally credited with pioneering the advocacy of radical politics in punk rock, and were known as the "Thinking Man's Yobs" by many simply for voicing a political slant other than anarchism. They were never driven entirely by money; even at their peak, tickets to shows and souvenirs were reasonably priced. The group insisted that CBS sell their double and triple album sets London Calling and Sandinista! for the price of a single album each (then £5), succeeding with the former and compromising with the latter by agreeing to sell it for £5.99 and forfeit all their royalties on its first 200,000 sales. These "VFM" (Value For Money) principles meant that they were constantly in debt to CBS, and only started to break even around 1982.
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