Joe Strummer...

[Adam Trahan]

wha 'appen.

did we all forget?



it's been a while now, thought someone woulda posted a little about "the man" passin on.

joe and the gang well, the clash, i heard it best, "the only band that matters" tell me you haven't skated a pool alone with the clash in a cassette blastin away on a hot summer saturday mornin.

[forget that, someone WILL tell me they didn't]

anyway, so much good music from joe.

i got to see 'em, mescalaro's i don't know, maybe sometime last year in the fall. he was beltin out clash balads with his band, man i was crying like a little girl. had no idea that was the last i would see of him.

so many pay tribute to the clash, i won't forget you EVER joe.

thanks for all the cool memories, glad i got to see you every time i could.

[Rick Stanziale]

I was just about to graduate from high school outside Atlanta in 1982 when I was skarfing at the Varsity (Chuck Gill, chime in here) and who is sitting there eating chili dogs - the Clash.

They gave us passes (we already had tickets) and we headed back to the Fox Theater the following evening.

So that night at the Fox, I'm taking a piss between bands, walk out of the restroom, and who is standing there - Chrissy Hynde. Being the naive 17 year old that I was (hey, this was '82 remember), I stood there gawking rather than initiating a conversation. But I digress.....

Isn't it amazing how things like skateboarding and music can have such an impact on our lives?

[Adam Trahan]

Yeah, 82 was a good year in music. The mid 90's were too.

Great story about the Clash, how cool.

Sad to see Joe gone, i hope Mick continues on, BIG had some good times, maybe we'll 'ere more outta them.

[Chuck Gill]

Man, that 1982 show at the Fox was EPIC! Rooster and the Red tops (local rockabilly band...the singer pointed me to the tattoo artist who would end up giving me my first work) opened. Out came the Clash...4 seconds into the set the crowd got up and ran to the front....my friends and i were among the first. Security saw the wave of people and just gave up. I saw 'em from the front row. At one point Strummer came down to the edge of the stage...in front of the orchestra pit (!)...and played a few bars of Glen Miller's "In The Mood" (or was that the '83 show?). Topper was still with the band at that point...only time I saw the REAL lineup.

1983...they came back again, this time in support of Combat Rock. If I am remembering right, Strummer went missing a few weeks before the tour was to begin...no one knew where he was, or if the tour would happen. We were sweatin' it. Atlanta was to be the first US tour stop (just like Las Pistolas in '78...say, did I ever tell y'all I have a pair of white Cool-Ray Polaroid wraparounds that were supposed to have been worn by Sid Vicious onstage at the final Pistols show in San Francisco? I had connections, man! But I digress...). Anyway, Strummer finally showed up a few days before the tour started, sporting a new mohawk (a la Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, not the usual punk-rock-looking thing). They were in town a few days before the show and were spotted all over the place, but mostly at Lenox Mall looking at the boom boxes. It is rumored every member of the band bought one, as did most of the road crew. It is also rumored that Paul's was the biggest. Another absolutely insane show, and the infamous riot after happened that night. I now work with the guy whose wife started it (it really is a small world)...confrontation with the Communists and all. Atlanta really had Clash fever for a few weeks around that show. A day or two later I was walking around the mall in my Clash t-shirt and someone asked me if I was with the band *rolls eyes*.

1984....last time I saw the Clash....or Strummer for that matter. I always had a theory the band would break up in 1984. In the song "1977", Strummer starts counting up through the years, and we gets to '84 there is an explosion. I took it as an omen. But, 1984 came around and they did not break up. Topper was already gone (replaced by Terry Chimes on the previous tour), and Mick Jones had quit by then. As much as he sucked, he was somehow very important to the Clash's chemistry because after he left....P.U.!!!! Yes, apparently it was possible for the Clash to suck...just try and find a copy of "Cut The Crap" if you need proof. The show wasn't really worth it, but afterwards we got to go backstage. Instead of talking with any of the guys in the band, my girlfriend and I sat and chatted with Kosmo Vinyl for awhile. We were impressed by his Legion of the Cramped shirt. He was impressed we liked the Cramps too. It was cool, too bad the show sucked. The Clash did, in fact, break up a year or two later, maybe there was another album in there. But now that all their old stuff is reissued, and the boxed sets and greatest hits albums have been compiled, everything after Combat Rock has been erased from the "official" Clash history....proof positive their last album or two really did SUCK.

God, I miss that band...I drove to work today listening to Armagideon Time. I'd sure like to see that one performed live just one more time...

All you young Strummer fans should try and find a copy of the movie "Straight to Hell"...Alex's Cox's movie right before or right after Sid & Nancy (can't remember which). Strummer was great as a drunken bank robber stranded in a Mexican Town with a gang of coffee-addicted Irish gunmen. Really, you just gotta see it....

Damn, I gotta go plug in Rude Boy and watch some live footage now.

[Rich Stephens]

I was/am a huge fan of the Clash and they had a major influence on my life, musically and politically. I only got to see them live once and it was without topper or terry on drums, down in so cal at the u.s. festival thing in '83.

In 1987 in Santa Barbara I got to see Joe playing guitar for the Pogues (a double bill with Los Lobos). I was about 18 years old and got backstage and was drinking with the Pogues and whatnot and picked up this acoustic guitar and played a bit and then Joe pokes his head in the room and says something like "just be careful with that guitar - it was a gift." Naturally, I put it down immediately! Of course I felt like an idiot, but looking back on it I told myself how cool he was. Here I was, some drunk kid playing a guitar he had received as a gift and it would have been understandable if he had yelled at me to put it down. But he didn't.

In my college years when I still had plenty of hair, strangers would come up to me and tell me I looked like Joe. That was fine by me.

When Joe passed, my band played his song Sleepwalk at our next gig. We'll miss him.

What can I say?

-Slim

[Rick Stanziale]

Chuck - wow, thanks for taking the time to bring back the memories.....I had all but forgotten about the riot in front of the Fox.

Other memorable shows I attended at the Fox.....Devo (must have been 1980).....Elvis Costello - when he walked out on stage it was obvious that he had gained a LOT of weight

Across the street in the Agora Ballroom I caught the Ramones (Joey hit me with the mic stand when I got up to stage dive) before heading over to 688 to see Black Flag (Rollins/Damaged tour)

and don't even get me started (or should I say, "don't get Chuck started") on all the shows I saw at Metroplex

I miss Neon Christ

[Chuck Gill]

Rick...shouldn'ta got me started LOL.

I just talked to Randy yesterday...there is a good bit of interest in putting out a Neon Christ 20 year retrospective next year (June '84 was when their record came out). Hopefully it will happen. We have all been hoping for a reunion show, but since the rockstar formerly known as Kip is now, well, a rockstar, it probably ain't gonna happen.

I'll venture a guess that you mosty certainly did NOT see the Ramones the same day as Black Flag at 688 for the Damaged tour. If my hazy memory is correct, Black Flag was, let's see, March 20 1982 (maybe March 21?). I stepped on a nail in the 3rd street tunnel (which was under construction at the time) and got chased out....hopping on one foot...by the MARTA police. Back to a buddy's dorm room to doctor the puncture up, then on to 688. Saccharine Trust opened, seems like there was another band too, but I missed 'em. Unless I am forgetting something, the Ramones were at the Agora in the summer of '81, then not again until sometime in the spring of '83 or so. The summer of '81 show happened while I was in town for orientation at Tech. I can remember it like it was yesterday....snuck into the Agora despite being underage by latching onto a group of folks as they walked in and pretending like I belonged. The whole floor of that place bounced up and down when it was full of people slamming...what a trip. Remember how after shows we would all scan the floors to see if any cool buttons fell of anyone? The '83 show was when stage diving was happening. Rob Buczynski of DDT jumped off the stage and hit my girlfriend in the face with his boot....gave her a nasty shiner but since it looked like newwave makeup it was all good. '83 was the first time I saw them that they came onstage to "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", but it was hardly the last...

I am frightened I can dredge this up. It gets even scarier from about Nov '83 on, when I can check my proof sheets and start pinning actual dates to events.