The Death Of Joe Strummer 22 December 2002

While they were widely regarded as one of the hottest live acts on the planet during the heyday of punk and beyond, they were also a superb recording outfit, and both the band’s debut album The Clash – recorded over three weekends in the London studios of their label CBS – and their later outing London Calling have frequently been rated among the greatest albums of all time by critics.

Born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey in August 1952, Strummer was the son of a British civil servant. He was educated in a public school in Surrey, but never truly felt at home among the class he had been born into. He was bitten by the rock’n’roll bug in his early teens, and getting his first guitar at the age of 16, began to define himself increasingly as a musician and an artist.

Having gone to Art College and spent some time busking in the London underground, Strummer surfaced first as the lead singer with The 101ers, a pre-punk outfit who played a fiery and energetic brand of 50s style rock’n’roll, and released a brace of singles on the Chiswick label, run by Irishman (and former manager of Thin Lizzy) Ted Carroll.

However, with the first stirrings of punk, Joe Strummer joined forces with guitarist Mick Jones and bass player Paul Simonon to form The Clash. When drummer Topper Headon was added – replacing original skinsman Terry Chimes – the crew they were ready to rock, and they did, in some style, with the politicised ‘White Riot’ and ‘London’s Burning’ featuring among their early output.

Initially surfing the punk wave effectively in the UK, they proved to have more durability than most of the novelty acts of the era and gradually matured into one of the most thought-provoking and musically focussed outfits in the game. In 1981, they released the sprawling three-album Sandanista, but it was not long afterwards that the first cracks began to show with the departure of drummer Headon.

Drafting in Chimes as his replacement proved effective in the short term and the band went on to achieve their biggest success to date in the US with the 1982 album Combat Rock. It was a superb record, highlight of which was the memorable ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’, which was released as a single. However, it was ‘Rock The Casbah’ that took them into the top 10 in the States – as well as in Britain – for the first time.

The reaction of the band members to their new found status as budding superstars was radically different, with Strummer accusing his friend and co-conspirator Mick Jones of preferring to go on holidays than touring. The differences proved to be insurmountable and in 1983, the golden era of The Clash effectively ended with Jones’ departure.

While Mick Jones went on to form Big Audio Dynamite with some success, The Clash never recovered and finally split in 1986, bringing to an end Joe Strummer’s own golden years.

In 1989, he released a solo album Earthquake Weather, before going into what has been described as his wilderness period in the 1990s. The description isn’t entirely fair. He collaborated with The Pogues on more than one occasion, the first time around temporarily replacing Phil Chevron, who was suffering the after-effects of a burst appendix. He also worked with the band on the movie Hell’s Ditch, directed by Alex Cox.

He also wrote the soundtrack to the movie Grosse Point Blank, released in 1997 – but there is no doubt that to a great extent the decade was overshadowed for Strummer by the legacy of a dispute with Sony, which made it impossible for him to pursue a solo career with the vigour that might have been anticipated from someone of his energy and ambition.

He returned to the fray in 1999 with the album Rock Art And The X-Ray Style, on which he unveiled his new backing band The Mescaleros, for the first time. Building up a head of steam, they began to tour and there was a feeling that Strummer might just be ready to get himself back into the main frame. 2001’s Global A Go Go album was positively received, and as a live outfit The Mescaleros were up there with the best.

The future looked promising – but as we know now, that promise was not to be fulfilled. Joe Strummer died at his home on December 22nd 2002, apparently as a result of a heart attack.

He will be sadly missed by fans all over the world – and especially in Britain and in Ireland, where he gigged with huge impact with both The Clash and, latterly, with The Mescaleros.