The Clash

Mick Jones : Guitar, Song Joe Strummer : Song, Rhythmic Guitar Paul Simonon : Bass, Song Topper Headon : Battery, Percussion
The Clash myth. The simple evocation of this name already says a lot of a history of Rock. There is clearly a "before" the Clash, and a "after". It all started in 1974, Joe Strummer (song), the mythical leader of the future Clash, plays in group 101ers , a rhythm group , with Keith Levene (guitar). Mike Jones (guitar/song), the other thinking head of the band, played in London SS with Terry Crimes (battery) from 1976. After some hesitant debut, Joe Strummer left his band after seeing the Sex Pistols on stage. He joined Paul Simonon, Mick Jones to form the Clash hard core. Terry Chimes and Keith Levene make quick passages in the band, but it's Topper Headon, on drums, who quickly imposes (naturally?) just after the first album.
The debut The Clash made its first concert at The Black Swan (Sheffield) on July 4, 1976. Paul Simonon (who is sort of the "reggae" soul of the combo) glued on the squares of his bass the letters A, B, C, D, E, F to spot his notes... the other trained for a year to play over the records... On Sunday, August 29, 1976, they played in support of the Sex Pistols and played the first part during the Anarchy Tour (with the Sex Pistols , Heartbreakers and Damned ) in December 1976.
History The Clash lives, plays, lives in a squat, the Clash makes its music at home (diy), the Clash considers itself amateur (in the first sense of the term, i.e. lovers). The Clash is called the Clash, following Paul's proposal, after reading the press. The name is ticked by the eye, the name corresponds to the vision they have of the world in which they evolve, the Clash is a sound Clash by itself (from "London Calling" to "Should I Stay or Should I Go"). Clash is one of the first groups to mix different influences, different cultures in such a coherent way. The links between Punk (what others have called "the sound that thinks") and Rastas exist in the undergound scene, especially since the opening of the Roxy Club on 1 January 1977 (first punk club in London). It is the dj Don Letts (among other director of Westway to the World documentary cult on the Clash) who is behind this formidable crossover Punk/ska/reggae, which is not a geographical coincidence since Jamaica is a long-standing English colony. The myth is on its way. And even though the fanzine Sniffin, Glue, announces that punk is dead, the day the Clash signs on Major CBS (for 10 albums, over 10 years and £100,000), the Clash continues its revolution and records about ten albums, so simple (The Clash), doubles (London Calling), triples (Sandinista!), Live (From here to Eternity), Singles (The Singles), and also full of tribute to The Clash (Burning London: The Clash Tribute). End of The Story, 1985. But consider that the true end of the Clash is in 1983, at their peak.
The Clash Joe Strummer resumes short service, with Mick Jones in Big Audio Dynamite, then as guitarist/singer of the Pogues, on a tour. Then the silence, until the day he reconnects the guitar and ends up playing again what he loves above all (the rhythms and the music of the world) within Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros, under the friendly pressure of Tim Armstrong who devotes a cult to Clash (Let's be clear, without the Clash, no Operation Ivy, No Operation Ivy, no Rancid, without Rancid no...?), and well the same Joe Strummer decided to fold baggage, on December 23, 2002, at the age of 50. Ciao artist. Respect.
Epilogue But now what are we doing? Well we wait for the rumors to be confirmed: the reformation of the Clash, with the role of Joe Strummer....Tim, Himself (the same name). Clash is not dead you are told.
Post-Scriptum Finally, I couldn't resist the desire to make you read these few lines of Charles Shaar Murray, "musical critical journalist" of the time: "The Clash are part of these garage music bands that should quickly return to their garage with the locked doors and the engine on. As the other said, "What they reproach you, cultivate it, because it is you."