Brunel Estate 1974

In previous posts I’d written at some length about the tower blocks and housing estates so synonymous with some of the best work by The Clash. If you visited (most) of Notting Hill, Westbourne Park, Ladbroke Grove and surrounds in 2009 you’d be hard pressed to picture the same districts 35 years ago. It’s not a critical element of enjoying The Clash by any means but I think understanding London, or Britain in general in 1975 is a vital piece of the equation in what led to the volatile brew that stirred soon after. Punk Rock is such an all encompassing term, the London scene of ’76 wasn’t the first time the phrase was used and of course not the last. In the 1960′s it was a US term aimed at a younger adult with the wrong attitude and first was linked to music around 1970.

You can’t change a label this many years later but there is something really

Westbourne Park 1974

unique in what happened in British music between 1976-1979, all these years later I think what I take from it is the do it yourself attitude of the bands and the inclusiveness of the scene. Many writers have stated that the inclusiveness was what spurned the scene in ’76 and that it was short lived, depending on when you ‘date’ the start of punk certainly by 1978 it was almost a uniform and in many cases as unoriginal as the scenes that it was supposed to be sweeping away. I think that the fact that the Clash only made one ‘punk’ album by many peoples definintion speaks to their creativity and not to the oft used charges of sell out. The band evolved so rapidly between the summer of ’77 and the recording of London Calling just two years later it’s almost unimaginable.  That’s a topic for another time, but exploring the London that the band were growing up in and influenced by is a source of fascination for me.

Westbourne Park 2 1974

My only experiences of that part of the capital in the same years would have been going to see Arsenal play QPR at Loftus road. Not many memories

Westbourne Park Road 1974

remain with me except the Tower Blocks throughout London and the orange sodium lights on the Westway, the North Circular Road and the Great Cambridge Road driving home to my Hertfordshire home. I would have been about 8 or 9 when these photos below were taken. They create an image of a London that has now gone (for the most part) particularly in the near West pocket that has gone from squats to 3/4  million pound flats. The changes are as extreme as they are obvious, the environment that spawned The Clash has now gone, but the photos are priceless. I hope you enjoy them.

All images courtesy Jonathan Barker.

I already knew John Hughes was pretty special (see previous post) – but this previously unreleased interview cements it.

“Every time I put that music on, it reminds me emotionally where I was in the script,” he explained. “I usually listen to surf music, not much instrumental music, and when I was younger I listened to jazz. I used to write to the Clash — [albums like] Give Em’ Enough Rope — and early on, a lot of reggae.” He professed to being a “music snob” who refused to listen to top 40 when he was younger, and to getting copies of England’s Melody Maker magazine so he could look at the import charts and send away for records that none of his peers knew about.

“In the ’70s I was dying,” he said. “I couldn’t stand hippie music … all those people running around in their overalls, disco was horrendous, so I was listening to classical music, Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams,” he said, describing how he discovered legendary Chicago indie record store Wax Trax, where he first picked up albums by Elvis Costello. On a trip to England, he discovered punk bands like the Stranglers, the Buzzcocks and the Clash. For him, it was like finding the Beatles.

Full credit to MTV.com for getting this published the day after his sad loss. I was on the fence during yesterday’s article to suggest (and assume) that if John Hughes had been making films 4 or 5 years earlier The Clash would have been staples for the soundtracks – that assumption now looks safer. It didn’t surprise me  in the least that a trip to England planted so many seeds for him.

Sorry for the short post – don’t forget deadline for voting for top 10 Clash songs is tomorrow midnight PST.

Tim

Evening everyone, hope your weekend was better than ours. Relentless heat and a beautiful dirty dust storm bookended ours though I hear its about 16c and chucking it down in London. Though at least you have Twiglets!

Right, more important matters then. This December marks the 30th anniversary of the release of London Calling which in itself seems far too long ago. December also marks the anniversary of the loss of Joe back in 2002. A very special album is being released to coincide with these anniversaries and again it’s of great significance to the name Strummer.

Strummerville is the beneficiary in 2009 and I wanted to share with you an exciting project that’s being compiled called Shatter The Hotel : The Songs of Joe Strummer in Dub.

In addition to both anniversaries the release also pays homage to the spirit of Joe Strummer’s connection with Jamaican music via reggae and dub.  Though primarily a Toronto-based collective project, ex-pat Londoner and musician Prince Blanco (and Portsmouth fan it turns out) unites  Canadian artists and producers along with contributors, friends and collaborators from England, Scotland and the USA. Featuring tracks from both the Clash and Mescaleros catalogue, all artists  go about reinterpreting Joe’s works in a booming dub and reggae style

I’ll be keeping in touch with Prince (pompey) Blanco in the weeks ahead and be sure to relay information back to you via the Clash Blog. Check out the video below as well as the official press release from Blanco:

“The tracks I’ve heard so far run from straight-up roots dub to contemporary reggae sounds to dubbed out punk and dub-house styles. With this release, I want to further explore the concept Joe Strummer once defined as the ‘punk-rasta interface’. Some of the artists involved in the project so far are: Dubmatix, Don Letts, Creation Rockers, John Brown’s Body, Strummer biographer Chris Salewicz and photographer Adrian Boot.

From the beginning, it was my intention to make this release a benefit for ‘Strummerville: The Joe Strummer Foundation For New Music’. Strummerville is a registered charity that aims to create new opportunities

Don Letts & Prince Blanco

for aspiring musicians. Set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death, the charity seeks to reflect Joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them. Proceeds from the sale of ‘Shatter The Hotel: The Songs Of Joe Strummer In Dub‘ will then benefit the Strummerville charity.

The planned release date is December14th, 2009. I’m also hoping to set up live shows to celebrate the CD’s release both in Notting Hill (London) and in Toronto for early 2010 – stay tuned and tell your friends! ”