Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / [HIGHLIGHT] Did Joe Strummer's Death Prevent a Clash Reunion? - From EP 386

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[HIGHLIGHT] Did Joe Strummer's Death Prevent a Clash Reunion? - From EP 386 · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a clip from our latest episode of book Don
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Rock our guest Pat Gilbert. He's just released the new
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: expanded fiftieth anniversary edition of Passion is a Fashion The
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Real Story of the Clash. Joe Strummer, He's born John.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Meller, Don Meller.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you explore that complicated relationship between Joe Strummer of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the Clash quote unquote and John Meller. Did researching his
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: upbringing change how you viewed him, Oh.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Because it was it was always in the in the
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: in the music press at the time that Joe. I mean,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: as I mentioned before that he came from a different
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: background to the other people in the band. And rock
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: and roll is about reinvention. Rock and roll is about
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: you know, you're you're a normal guy or gal, and
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: you you know, you put on a set of clothes,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: you develop an attitude, you might you maybe take on
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: a different name, and and you transform yourself and in
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: doing so you might end up transforming other people. How
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: about how they behave, how they think, and so on.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: So I didn't I always knew Joe would be a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: sort of complicated person to me, but when you did
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: actually meet him, he was He was absolutely fine. He
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: was full of mischief. He was full of fun. He
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: had that, you know, I never really felt he was
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: putting on too much of an act, you know, especially
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: towards the end of his life. You know, in a
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Clash he was just this became this kind of demon.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: It was. It was a performance when he was on stage, definitely,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: But I think he kind of resolved those issues or
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: maybe it's such just that that whole thing about about
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: he was always driven to escape his upbringing. You know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: think there's if you're born into a world that you're
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: not comfortable with sort of transcending that. I don't think,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: by whatever means possible, I don't think there's anything wrong
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: with that.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Do you think Joe died still wrestling with the legacy
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of the Clash.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I think he did. And I think there's Chris Sanovich,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: another British journalist who was hung out with the Clash
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and wrote about them a lot at the time. He
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: was always saying that Joe always wanted to reform the Clash.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I think the Clash were those big legacy and he
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: was always keen on the idea of you know, getting them,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: getting them back on the road and getting them out
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: there because he maybe within that context was the context
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: that he made most sense as a human being and
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: to himself. He was Joe's drummer of the Clash. And
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: you have to wind back. So if you wind back
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: to the late nineties and the very early tooth thousands,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and Joe died in two thousand and two, the Clashes stopped.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Was quite low at that point in Britain. In the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: nineteen nineties. We've had we've had, we had the big
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: cool Britannia thing with Oasis and Blur, and you know,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: music moved on a generation and nobody was talking about
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the Clash much at all. And when Joe formed his band,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: the Mescaleros, and after like a almost a ten year break,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: went back on on the road with the Mescaleros, he
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: was playing to relatively small audiences. I saw the first
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Google Vison, one of the very first gigs he did
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: when he came back in ninety nine, and it was
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: to maybe three or four hundred people. If it would
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: be the Clash, it would have been four thousand people.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: And I think he found that he found that quite difficult,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: and I think the music he made then was some
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: of the best music that he ever made. It really
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: was good, but it was never going to go anywhere
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: commercially or even possibly even pay for itself. So I
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: think there was definitely a clash reunion brewing at the
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: time in Joe's head around the time he died.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you think that would have happened pretty soon.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Well, they were in the last months of his life.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: They were. It was announced the band The Class were
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of Fame, so there was a lot of talk about
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: whether they should get together to play around the induction.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: But as far as I can, I mean, the Class
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: it was very complicated entity. But I think again it
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: was Paul Simonon who was the most trench in not
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: wanting to play because he viewed it as a as
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: a kind of corporate event or driven by corporate corporate
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: energy and forces, so he was against it. But whether
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: they would have done I don't know. I reckon it
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: is fifty to fifty.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.