In 2003 they were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame by The
Edge of U2. In
2004, Rolling Stone
ranked The Clash
#30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
|
Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 (1976–1978)
Formation and British success
- 1.2 (1978–1982)
Stardom and Success in the US
- 1.3 (1982–1984)
Tensions and disintegration
- 1.4 (1984–1986)
Cut the Crap and demise
- 2 Post-Clash
careers
- 2.1 Joe
Strummer
- 2.2 Mick
Jones
- 2.3 Paul
Simonon
- 2.4 Topper
Headon
- 2.5 Other
members
- 3 Politics
- 4 Trivia
- 5 Members
- 5.1 Main
lineup
- 5.2 Other
members
- 6 Discography
- 7 Filmography
- 8 Bibliography
- 9 See
also
- 10 References
and footnotes
- 11 External
links
|
History
(1976–1978) Formation and
British success
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. According to Mick
Jones in the 1999 Clash documentary Westway
to the World, Levene was kicked out for never
showing up to practice.
Strummer had previously played in the pub
rock act The 101'ers (his stage name at
this point was Woody Mellor; soon he would rename himself "Joe
Strummer", a reference to 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]
Strummer agreed to join the group, which was named The Clash.
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 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 had solid timing and excellent musical skills.
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 charged with a range of minor
crimes ranging from petty vandalism to minor thefts.
(1978–1982) Stardom and Success
in the US
With Topper Headon firmly in place on drums, the Clash
recorded Give 'Em Enough Rope
in 1978. Produced by Sandy Pearlman, whose previous credits included
the American heavy metal band Blue Oyster Cult, the album had a
straighter rock sound that many British fans found disappointing.
However, the band's fan base in the US grew with the release of this
album and the reconstituted The Clash in 1979.
The Clash then recorded London Calling.
Produced by Guy Stevens, who had previously worked with Mott the Hoople
and others, the album had a sound that was more in keeping with the
band's personality, allowing for a mix of rock, punk, reggae, and ska
elements that recalled the band's earlier days, but also had greater
maturity and production polish. The album contained 2 LP's and ended
with a hidden track not noted in the song list. Called Train
in Vain, it was, predictably, the song that received the most
airplay on album-oriented rock (AOR) FM stations in the US.
To follow up on this success, the Clash planned to record and
release a single every month in 1980. Their record label, CBS, balked
at this idea, however. Instead, these efforts resulted in the sprawling
album Sandinista! Containing elements of rock,
punk, reggae (including extended dubs), ska, and (somewhat)
tongue-in-check stabs at jazz and disco, unified by a heavily echoed
sound, this 3-LP, 36-song album was their most controversial to date,
both politically and musically. Some viewed it as their most complete
statement, while many others found it indulgent and incoherent. The
album had no catchy single and, in the inceasingly conservative
environment of AOR FM radio in the US, received minimal airplay.
The band retrenched and recorded Combat Rock,
a single-LP album produced by Glyn Johns, who had previously worked on Who's
Next and many other albums. Simpler and more straightforward
than Sandinista!, the album contained the single Should
I Stay or Should I Go? which received heavy airplay in the US
on AOR FM stations. The following single, Rock the Casbah,
a disco-ish song about the Iranian clampdown on imports of Western
music, was a bona fide Top 40 hit in the US, with heavy rotation on MTV.
(1982–1984) Tensions and
disintegration
After Combat Rock, the Clash began to
disintegrate. Topper Headon was asked to leave the band just prior to
the release of the album, due to his heroin addiction, which was hurting his
health and drumming. The band's original drummer, Terry Chimes, was
brought back for the next few months. 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. The band, although still
touring arenas and opening up for The Who in stadiums on their tour
in 1982 did not get along well; the original dates for the UK leg of
the Combat Rock tour were cancelled when Strummer
disappeared.
The band continued to tour, but by 1983, the years of constant
touring and recording took their toll. They were growing as musicians
and individuals, but they were not able to cope with the tension and
stress. Chimes left the band after the 1982-1983 Combat Rock
tour, due to the in-fighting and turmoil.
In 1983, drummer Pete Howard joined the band for the US
Festival in San Bernardino,
California, of which The Clash were, along with David
Bowie and Van Halen, co-headliners. 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,
Jones was fired due to 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 demise
The band picked Nick Sheppard, formerly of the Bristol-based Cortinas, and Vince
White as the band's new guitarists. Howard continued to be the drummer.
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, and they toured heavily over the winter and into early
summer. At a striking miners' benefit show ("Scargill's Christmas
Party") in December 1984, they 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 returned home. The band went on a busking tour,
playing in public spaces in cities throughout the UK where they played
acoustic versions of their hits and popular cover tunes.
After a gig in Athens, Strummer went to Spain to clear his
mind. 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. The Clash was effectively
disbanded and the members went on to other projects.
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 did songs for movie soundtracks (notably "Love Kills" for the
film Sid and Nancy),
and he co-produced the Grosse
Pointe Blank soundtracks with John
Cusack. As well, he experimented with different backing bands with
limited success.
In 1989, he released the first of his solo albums, Earthquake Weather,
which was neither a commercial nor critical success. He toured with a
new backing band, The Latino Rockabilly War, which
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.
In the late 1990s, Strummer formed backing band he called The
Mescaleros. In 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".
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. Jones commented
in the press that, after the brief reunion on Westway to the
World in 1999, the foursome were considering reuniting for a
tour. A film has been made about Strummer's life, 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.
Simonon 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 included drumming and
composing and performing the music for "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" (which he
also sang) and "Rock the Casbah" , 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, Headon had been dismissed by
the rest of the band due to the heroin addiction. His addiction
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 rehabilitation, he has overcome his
addiction, and is performing live again.
Other members
Terry Chimes played with various other
bands between and after his stints with the Clash and 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, and he lives in Elephant and Castle in
Southwark, London.
Pete 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 co-founded Public
Image Ltd (PiL) with John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny
Rotten) after he left the Clash and shortly after the Sex
Pistols disintegrated. His guitar work was imitated by
guitarists from punk bands and post-punk pop bands, including The Edge of U2. On later PiL
recordings, Levene played synthesizer. He left PiL acrimoniously in
1983 following a fall-out with Lydon.
Nick Sheppard collaborated with Gareth
Sager (formerly of The Pop Group and Rip
Rig & Panic) in Head from 1986 to 1989, 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 the bands Heavy Smoker and the New Egyptian
Kings. In July 2002, Sheppard was proposed as the guest guitarist on a
Japanese tour with Johns' new band, Sinnerstar, but the tour was cancelled.
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.
Trivia
- For the first 3 years of their career The
Clash were based in what is now 'The Stables' Market in Camden
Town, London.
"Guns On The Roof" (from the band's "Give
'Em Enough Rope" album) was written about an incident which took place
here.
- Martin Munsch, American
producer, talent manager and owner of [PunkRock Records], had worked
with Strummer on a final dub version mix of "Revolution
Rock". The mechanical version was acknowledged in 2002. [2]
- The Clash recycled the riff from The Who's
classic single "I Can't Explain" at least 5 times
during their career, most notably with "Guns On The Roof". Slight
variations on the same riff appear as the backbone of "Capital Radio"
and "Clash City Rockers", and two tracks only available on live bootleg
from 1976, "I Know What I Think About You" and "Deadly Serious".
- Clash members appear in the 1983 Martin
Scorsese film The King Of Comedy
(starring Robert De Niro). Strummer, Jones and
Simonon can be glimpsed during a crowd scene. The movie's credits bill
them as "street scum".
- Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul
Simonon and Topper Headon, along with others, are
credited on the 1981 CBS
recording "Spirit of St. Louis" by Mick
Jones' then girlfriend, Ellen Foley. The producer credit is
attributed to "My Boyfriend".
- Joe Strummer was posthumously honoured by a
British rail company, Cotswold Rail who named one of their
locomotives after him. The new "Joe Strummer" train was unveiled at a
ceremony at Bristol
Temple Meads by his wife, Lucinda.
Members
Main lineup
- Topper Headon – drums, percussion
(1977–1982)
Other members
- Terry Chimes – drums,
percussion (1976;1977;1982)
- Rob Harper – drums, percussion (1976–1977)
Appeared in "New Clash" or "Cut
the Crap Clash", after Jones and Headon left the band:
- Nick Sheppard – guitar,
backing vocals (1983–1986)
- Vince White – guitar
(1983–1986)
- Pete
Howard – drums, percussion (1983–1986)
Discography
-
Main
article: The Clash discography
Studio albums
- The
Clash - (April 8, 1977) #12 UK, #126 U.S.
- Give
'Em Enough Rope - (November
10, 1978) #2
UK, #128 U.S. #79 AUS
- London Calling
(2LP) - (December
14, 1979) #9
UK, #27 U.S. #16 AUS
- Sandinista!
(3LP) - (December
12, 1980)
#19 UK, #24 U.S.
- Combat Rock - (May 14, 1982) #2 UK, #7 U.S.
- Cut the Crap - (November
4, 1985) #16
UK, #88 U.S.
Filmography
- Rude Boy
(1980) (directed by Jack Hazan and David Mingay)
- The
Clash: Westway to the World (2000) (directed by
Don Letts)
Bibliography
- Gilbert, Pat. 2004. Passion is a
Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash, Aurum Press Ltd.
Hardback: ISBN
1-84513-017-0. Paperback: ISBN
1-84513-113-4. US Paperback: Da Capo Press. ISBN
0-306-81434-X.
- Gray, Marcus. 2001 Return of The
Last Gang In Town, Helter Skelter Publishing. ISBN 1-900924-16-1.
- Gray, Marcus. 1995. Last Gang In
Town: The Story and Myth of The Clash, Fourth Estate Limited.
ISBN
1-85702-146-0.
- Green, Johnny; Barker, Garry; & Lowry,
Ray (Ill.). 1999. A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day with The
Clash, Indigo. ISBN
0-575-40080-3.
- Smith, Pennie. 1980. The
Clash: Before and After / photographs by Pennie Smith ; with
passing comments by Joe Strummer...[et al.], Boston: Little,
Brown. ISBN
0-31680-169-0
- Yewdall, John Leonard. 1992. Joe
Strummer with the 101'ers and the Clash, 1974-1976, Image
Direct. ISBN
0-9519216-0-6
See also
- Blackhill
Enterprises (Peter Jenner and Andrew
King)
References and footnotes
-
Epic Records' Director of A&R, Bruce Harris, came up with the
phrase. He is credited with convincing the company to release The Clash
in the USA. His wife, Marion(Bernstein) Harris, was the product
manager. She is credited with convincing Joe Strummer to include lyrics
in the sleeve.
-
The Clash by The Edge. Rolling
Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone (2004-04-15).
-
The Immortals: The First Fifty. Rolling
Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone (2004-03-24).
-
Engine named after Clash singer. BBC
News (2005-02-12). Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
-
The 1979 USA release of the debut album was significantly different
from the original 1977 UK release. See The
Clash for a discussion of those differences.
-
All of The Clash's albums and singles were originally issued on CBS
Records; subsequent re-issues and CD releases have been through Epic.
External links
| 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 |