| Mick Jones |
Mick
Jones during his time with Big Audio Dynamite (NYC, 1987)
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Michael Geoffrey Jones |
| Born |
26 June 1955 (1955-06-26) (age 52)
Brixton,
South
London, England |
| Genre(s) |
Rock
Punk
rock |
| Occupation(s) |
Singer, Guitarist |
| Years active |
1975–present |
| Label(s) |
CBS Records
I.R.S. Records
Radioactive Records |
Associated
acts |
The Clash
General Public
Big Audio Dynamite
Carbon/Silicon |
Mick Jones on stage with The Clash
Mick Jones (born Michael Geoffrey
Jones, 26
June 1955, Brixton, South
London, England)
was the lead guitarist
and a vocalist
of the British band, The
Clash, followed by Big Audio Dynamite and
currently Carbon/Silicon.
|
Contents
- 1 Early
life
- 2 The
Clash
- 3 Big
Audio Dynamite
- 4 Recent
projects
- 5 Other
information
- 6 External
links
- 7 References
|
Early life
Jones was born in Brixton to a Welsh father and a Russian
Jewish mother. He spent much of his early life living with his
grandmother, Stella, in Wales while his parents struggled to make ends
meet, unable to stay afloat financially due to the closure of mines and
factories in Wales.
Jones went to art school, because "[he] thought that's how you get into
bands and stuff".
"I used to follow bands around. I followed Mott the
Hoople up and down the country. I’d go to Liverpool or Newcastle or
somewhere—sleep on the Town Hall steps, and bunk the fares on the
trains, hide in the toilet when the ticket inspector came around. I’d
jump off just before the train got to the station and climb over the
fence. It was great times, and I always knew I wanted to be in a band
and play guitar. That was it for me".
The Clash
-
When he was 21, he (and Paul
Simonon) saw Joe Strummer singing in a pub
and asked Strummer to join their new band. Jones said in an interview
in 1979 for the NME:
"With Joe I could see he was a great performer saddled with a duff
band." Simonon later thought of the name of the band (The Clash) by
looking at the Evening Standard.
Jones played lead guitar, sang, and co-wrote songs from the band's
inception until he was fired by Strummer and Simonon in 1983. Jones'
lack of punctuality played a major role in his dismissal from the band;
he would frequently abandon rehearsals and gigs.
For his time with The Clash, Jones, along with the rest of the
band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 2003.[1]
Big Audio Dynamite
-
After his expulsion from The Clash, Jones was briefly a
founding member of General Public. However, by
the time that band's debut album appeared, Jones was no longer an
official band member, although he did play guitar on many of the
album's tracks.
Leaving General Public behind, in 1984 Jones formed Big Audio Dynamite
(often shortened to B.A.D.) with film director Don
Letts, who had directed various Clash videos
and later the Clash documentary Westway
to the World. The band's debut album This Is Big Audio Dynamite
was released the following year, with the song "E=MC2"
getting heavy rotation in dance clubs, and both singles "Medicine Show"
and "E=MC2" charting in the UK
Singles Chart.
For Big Audio Dynamite's second album, No.
10 Upping St., Jones reunited with Strummer.
Together, the two wrote several songs on the album, including "Beyond
the Pale", "V. Thirteen", and "Sightsee M.C."; Strummer also co-produced
the album. Their reunion did not last long, and following that
collaboration, the two did not work together again for some time.
Big Audio Dynamite's third album, Tighten
Up, Vol. 88, featured cover art painted by
the ex-Clash bassist, Paul Simonon. Shortly following its release,
Jones developed pneumonia and spent several months in
hospital.[2] After his recovery, Jones
released one more album with Big Audio Dynamite, Megatop
Phoenix, before reshuffling the line-up and
renaming the band Big Audio Dynamite II and
releasing The Globe
album.
In 1991, Jones was featured on Aztec
Camera's song "Good Morning Britain", with Roddy
Frame.
The band's line-up was reshuffled again in 1994, and they
released the album Higher Power
under the name Big Audio. In 1995, a greatest hits album,
Planet B.A.D. was released as well as a studio album
called F-Punk
under the original Big Audio Dynamite name. A further album, Entering
a New Ride was recorded in 1997,
but was only released on the internet due to disagreement with Radioactive
Records, their then record label. One more "best of"
collection, called Super Hits, was released in 1999.
Recent projects
In 2002, Jones teamed up with former London
SS, Generation X and Sigue
Sigue Sputnik member Tony James to form a new band
named Carbon/Silicon. The band has toured
the United
Kingdom and has performed a number of anti-fascist benefit concerts; they
have also recorded three albums: A.T.O.M,
Western Front
and The Crackup Suite
which were available online for free. Their first real release was The News
EP. The band encourage their fans to share
their music on P2P networks, and allow the audio and
video taping of their shows. Their first song, "MPFree" is an anthem
for P2P file sharing [3].
Jones has also become an occasional producer. He was at the
controls for the London based band The
Libertines debut album Up
The Bracket. The CD was
critically well received, both in the UK and U.S.
Jones stayed on to produce the band's second and final album,
eponymously titled The Libertines.
He also produced Down In Albion,
the debut album of former Libertines lead singer and guitarist Pete
Doherty's new group Babyshambles.
Jones is also credited with contributing guitar and vocals to
"Mal Bicho," the lead track of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs'
album Rey Azucar.
He recently provided the score for Nick Mead's film, Dice
Life - the Random Mind of Luke Rhinehart, a contemporary
dance film created by Nick Mead and Wayne McGregor, featuring Luke
Rhinehart, author of The Dice Man.
At the NME Shockwave 2007 awards, Jones took to the stage and
performed with Primal Scream.[4]
Other information
- Jones has a cameo appearance in the 2003 film Code 46,
singing the Clash song "Should I Stay or Should I Go" in a karaoke club.
- Jones could be seen in the video for the Babyshambles and
friends cover of The Clash song, "Janie
Jones", which was recorded for the Strummerville foundation.
- In 2006, Jones was seen in the music video for the Johnny
Cash song, "God's Gonna Cut You Down".
- Big Audio Dynamite's "E=MC2" is
generally credited as the very first song to use a sampling
technique.
- Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash play the two
police officers in the video for Big Audio Dynamite's "Medicine Show".
- Jones wrote the lyrics for Eric
Clapton's "Bad Love", a track from the latter's Journeyman
album,
released in 1989.
External links
References
| v • d • e The
Clash |
| Joe Strummer | Mick Jones | Paul
Simonon | Topper Headon |
| Nick Sheppard | Keith
Levene | Pete Howard | Terry Chimes | Vince
White | Rob Harper |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: The
Clash | Give
'Em Enough Rope | London
Calling | Sandinista!
| Combat Rock | Cut
the Crap |
| Compilations and lives: Black Market Clash
| The Story of the
Clash, Volume 1 | Clash
on Broadway | The
Singles | Super Black Market Clash
| From Here to Eternity:
Live | The
Essential Clash | London
Calling: 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition | Singles
Box |
| Related
articles |
| Punk rock | The
101ers | London SS | Public
Image Ltd | Big Audio Dynamite | Havana 3am
| The Latino Rockabilly War
| The
Pogues | The Mescaleros | The
Libertines | Carbon/Silicon | The Good, the Bad
and the Queen |
