London Recalling

The last time I was in the same building as Mick Jones was on December 27 1978 when The Clash shock and awed the London Lyceum on their Give ‘Em Enough Rope tour.

He’s lost a bit of hair since then, but otherwise Jones remains the whippet-thin bundle of energy whose sparking off of Joe Strummer is what made the Westway warriors great.
Also the same is the fire in his belly as he gets ready to go on the road with his new band, Carbon/Silicon. Joe Strummer’s no longer around of course, but Jones has a new foil in the shape of former Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik man Tony James. Actually, ‘new’ isn’t entirely accurate.
“Before punk hit we were in a band together called London SS who never really got beyond the rehearsing and changing members every week stage,” the now 52-year-old Mick reminisces. “A couple of the line-ups weren’t bad, but really it was a learning process for what was to come.”
Despite going off in different musical directions at the start of 1976, Jones and James remained close pals.
“The first time I met Mick was at a Heavy Metal Kids gig in the Fulham Greyhound,” Tony, 53, picks up. “Our paths crossed again when I met this singer who invited me to come and see his band rehearsing in Southwark. When I got there he said, ‘We’re firing our rhythm guitarist because he’s no good’... and that was Mick! That night the two of us went back to the famous Maida Vale tower block where he lived and started the friendship, which has endured to this day.
“We shared flats all the way through the punk days; I was the best man at his first marriage; he was the best man at mine; and I’m the Godfather of his children. The only thing we didn’t do for 27 years was make music together!”
One of the catalysts for Carbon/Silicon forming was Jones’s involvement with the then fresh-faced Libertines.
“It was like meeting Morecambe & Wise or Chas & Dave,” he laughs. “Carl and Pete were a classic English double-act who dazzled with their charm and their enthusiasm. They made me realise how much I missed the camaraderie of being in a band that was obsessed with making music.”
Before he agreed to produce Up The Bracket, Mick took Tony with him to a Libertines gig in London-On-Sea, aka Brighton.
“I was his canary down the mine,” James notes. “We saw this bunch of 17-year-old kids playing Beatles songs backstage, and were so invigorated by their enthusiasm for rock ‘n’ roll. It reminded us of what we were once – and hopefully are again with Carbon/Silicon, which will invariably be compared with our past endeavours, but to us is a completely new band.”
This last statement brings furious nods of agreement from Jones.
“I dare say it would’ve been quite lucrative if we’d called ourselves Generation Clash, but that’s not what we’re interested in.”
While refusing to trade in their own former punk glories, the video for Carbon/Silicon’s recent single, ‘The News’, bizarrely finds them throwing shapes in front of Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy In The UK’ and ‘God Save The Queen’ posters.
“That was by pure chance,” Mick insists. “I’ve got this studio-cum-archive-cum junk room full of stuff, which I’ve collected from way back – Tony’s its officially designated fire officer! Anyway, we just happened to set up in front of a couple of Jamie Reid Pistols screen-prints.
“Something else I’ve got in there is a Berlin Wall of videos I recorded back in the ’80s. I’ve no idea what’s on 'em because the labels have all faded but if I’ve a spare couple of months I might see what’s on there and make the interesting stuff available.”
Another of the standouts that’s made it onto Carbon/Silicon’s recently released The Last Post album – think Big Audio Dynamite with serrated guitars rather then samplers – is ‘Oil Well’. Namechecking 9/11, Saddam and Bin Laden, it’s guaranteed to get conservative ganders up next year when Mick and Tony hit the States.
“Do you know what I found out today?” Jones asks rhetorically. “It looks like the Statue of Liberty’s standing still, but actually she’s walking. I don’t like most of what their government’s doing, but otherwise I adore America and its culture.”
It didn’t sound that way in 1976 when Mick co-authored The Clash’s ‘I’m So Bored With The USA’.
“People took it as being anti-American, but actually it was anti-the Americanisation of what was happening where we lived. Funnily enough, my mum, who used to be English, has taken up American citizenship and can list off all the names of their presidents.”
Also on Carbon/Silicon’s 2008 tour itinerary is Ireland.
“I’ve loved Dublin ever since The Clash played Trinity College,” Jones says referring to the legendary 1977 gig, which a young student by the name of Gerry Ryan helped to organise. “I remember beforehand being taken to all the pubs where James Joyce drank and thinking, ‘How the fuck did he get any writing done?’”