From time to time it’s going to be time to dust out the vaults and share some older existing stories/interviews that are online. Hopefully it’ll add to the value of the site as an ongoing resource for you – and for me. I’ll bash these out from time to time when I see people searching for information that I’ve omitted so far, and seeing as that cavern covers many years this will keep me busy.

One such person is Lucinda Strummer (Mellor)

Lucinda at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

As the widow to Joe she has done a wonderful job in keeping his spirit alive and supporting projects such as Strummerville. I have it on first hand knowledge that she is kind, helpful, gracious and very accommodating in supporting events with Joe’s name on them. Anyone who has read Redemption Song The Ballad of Joe Strummer will understand the extremely important part she played in Joe’s life as his partner. For those unitiated there are some great excerpts from the Chris Salewicz book here.

Rather than recite her history during her time with Joe I wanted to focus on the Yeoman like work she’s carried out in Joe’s name since he passed. As soon as 4 months after Joe died Lucinda in March 2003 was to appear with other members of The Clash in Cleveland to be recognized for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame (see image above).

Also in 2003 Strummerville was started and there are some extracts from an interesting interview here during which she gave some focus on the origins and ideals of the foundation.  As noted in the in that interview the seeds of this were sown when Joe was still alive, more specifically around the famous Glastonbury campfires.

In June of 2003 this excellent (but short) piece appeared in the always Clash friendly Guardian. The feature focuses on Glastonbury, what it meant to him and how he looked forward to it.

Glastonbury was something that he (Joe) looked forward to every single year. The preparation that would go on beforehand – the tent-buying, the poles, the flags … everything was like a military operation

In 2005 Lucinda appeared in Bristol at Temple Meads Station of all places to mark the christening of a railway locomotive named Joe Strummer in honour of the singer. That’s what we do in England, we name trains after people. Not airports and highways… so at this very hour somewhere in East Anglia a diesel locomotive named Joe Strummer is chugging through the fields. I think Joe might have really liked that.

Lucinda and Locomotive Joe

In part two I’ll look at the last few years and her continued work around Clash projects and some potential for unpublished works, cartoon and notes from Joe. Plus also a few quick notes about her remarrying last November. Clash fans should always wish her well.

Tim