.::The Clash::.

The Clash were: Joe Strummer - Vocals, guitar
Mick Jones - Guitar, vocals
Paul Simonon - Bass, vocals
Topper Headon - Drums

Strummer's lasting culture Clash
Clash frontman Joe Strummer, who died on Sunday (22nd Dec 2002), will be remembered for his band's social conscience as well as his great rock tunes.

In the late 1970s, the Sex Pistols may have grabbed the headlines, but The Clash became the more considered, musically intelligent voice of a generation. Tapping into the disaffection of class and race struggles in urban Britain, Strummer led the band to national prominence with songs like White Riot, their first single in 1977, which included lyrics on how "all the power's in the hands/of people rich enough to buy it". They attracted a growing following by hitting a similar nerve, with songs like Clash City Rockers and White Man in Hammersmith Palais, railing against unemployment and social inequality.

But the message was brutally honest, not "worthy", and for those who did not buy into it, there was always the damn good rock music. But the band really announced themselves to the world with the rallying cry London Calling, which went to number 11 in the UK in 1979. Born John Graham Mellor in 1952, Strummer was the son of a diplomat and was given a middle-class upbringing at boarding school in Surrey before going to study art in London - before deciding that it was a "lousy set up".,

He had immersed himself in music since childhood, and his own musical career began when he started busking with a ukulele at Green Park tube station. He played in two bands, the Vultures and the 101ers, but when The Sex Pistols supported the 101ers in west London in 1976, Strummer saw the possibilities open up for him and was inspired to form The Clash. The band went on to be firm fixtures on the music scene in the late 70s and early 80s, having 13 UK top 40 hits and, with the Pistols, the Jam and the Specials, producing the soundtrack of an era.

Throughout their careers, The Clash were active in social causes, headlining Rock Against Racism concerts, while Strummer and band mate Mick Jones were arrested for a string of offences from vandalism to stealing a pillowcase. The band also broke down musical boundaries by combining punk with reggae, soul and dance.

They worked to break the US market - which they did - but the band imploded after its members drifted apart in 1983.The group formally split in 1986, and Strummer went on to pursue various brief projects in the music and film worlds.

He starred in several films, such as Straight to Hell and Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, and released a solo album in 1989. A short stint filling in for Shane McGowan as front man for The Pogues was followed by a period of public inactivity in the 1990s - but he began to rediscover his passion for music when he appeared on the Black Grape single England's Irie in 1996.

While rumours of a Clash reunion always came to nothing, he took to the stage with a new band, the Mescaleros, who were working on a third album when he died. But it was with The Clash that he made the biggest impact, and will leave the biggest mark.

The Clash were the greatest rebel rock band of all time. Their commitment to making political pop culture was the defining mark of the British punk movement. They were also a self-mythologising, style-obsessed mass of contradictions. That's why they were called The Clash. They wanted desperately to be rock stars but they also wanted to make a difference.

While Paul Simonon flashed his glorious cheekbones and Mick Jones threw guitar hero shapes, no-one struggled more manfully with the gap between the myth and the reality of being a spokesman for your generation than Joe Strummer. All musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity. Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans. Joe opened the back door of the theatre and let us in, he sneaked us back to the hotel for a beer, he too believed in the righteous power of rock'n'roll. And if he didn't change the world he changed our perception of it. He crossed the dynamism of punk with Johnny Too Bad and started that punky-reggae party.

He drew us, thousands strong, onto the streets of London in support of Rock Against Racism. He sent us into the garage to crank up our electric guitars. He made me cut my hair. The ideals that still motivate me as an artist come not from punk, not even from the Clash, but from Joe Strummer. The first wave of punk bands had a rather ambivalent attitude to the politics of late 70s Britain. The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Stranglers, none of them, not even the Jam, came close to the radicalism that informed everything the Clash did and said. The US punk scene was even less committed. The Ramones, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers and Blondie all were devoid of politics. Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers. Instead, the incendiary lyrics of the Clash inspired 1,000 more bands on both sides of the Atlantic to spring up and challenge their elders and the man that we all looked to was Joe Strummer.

He was the White Man in Hammersmith Palais who influenced the Two Tone Movement. He kept it real and inspired the Manic Street Preachers. And he never lost our respect. His recent albums with the Mescaleros found him on inspiring form once again, mixing and matching styles and rhythms in celebration of multi-culturalism. At his final gig, in November in London, Mick Jones got up with him and together they played a few old Clash tunes. It was a benefit concert for the firefighters union. One of the hardest things to do in rock'n'roll is walk it like you talk it. Joe Strummer epitomised that ideal and I will miss him greatly.

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