Alright let me quickly recap -

Mayor of Simpleton, or Nick Nolte on Chocolate diet

Elle magazine – glossy magazine for fashionistas and sloane rangers. Boris Johnson, the current mayor of London – revoltingly right wing and not even from the capital. The issue – using the lyrics to London Calling to halo BJ’s image on the cover of Elle’s special London Fashion Week edition. I wrote about it at some length here, and decided that although I found it to be a kick in the face to Joe Strummer who neither stood for the high society crowd nor the right wing (and is there a difference?) it was still worth mentioning. So I thought I’d seek higher ground and politely ask (ok…strongly ask) that a donation to Strummerville be made by Elle so that at least something positive would come from the issue (pun intended).

It’s worth noting that I wasn’t the only person aware, inflamed, confused or simply indifferent to the unlikely trio of Strummer/Johnson/Fashion Rag. Or as I like to think of it – Punk Rocker / Fat Tosser / Rich Shopper. I know this isn’t akin to the Russian Revolution or the imprisonment of innocents. I know that nobody got hurt in the making of this magazine, but I still think the principle is this -

Joe Strummer alive =  outraged Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer dead = use his lyrics wherever you want.

So on to some other people’s  posts about the topic.

Bandwagonesque says this blog.

Anti-fashion and stupid reports another

Jolly Good Show – say the Tories

Style points reckons this one

Do you think somone somewhere doesn’t quite understand ‘London Calling’!

I liked the Guardian’s quote best of all

Now, I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear Joe Strummer screaming like he’s just woken up from some apocalyptic Cold War nightmare, I’ve always thought what he was really saying was: “Go out and vote for an unfeasibly right-wing posh buffoon.”

Or this from the Billy Bragg forums

‘scuse me, from Robb’s busk outside the Shelter Shop in Brighton yesterday, covering The Clash’s “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”

“If Boris Johnson flew in today
They’d send a limousine anyway
PREFERABLY A HEARSE”

"a tribute" to The Clash

Now I try and be reasonable – and I probably wouldn’t have brought this topic back up if I had no reply or (ideally) a ‘thanks for your email we sent five quid to Strummerville now please run along’. Instead I get a stock “We felt this was a tribute to The Clash”

What????

How so? Oh yes…..London Calling was all about Fashion Week and a £3800 scarf, The Sun zooming in referred to the press pack? London is drowning simply a suggestion of the wealth in Chelsea?

What a load of crap and a disingenuous reply. Still, I didn’t expect much more.

I just hope the editor of Elle lives by the river. Maybe the king of scruffy can give some of his ‘chicken feed’ wage to Strummerville….

£250,000 feeds a lot of kids Boris

Tim

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