Strummer Recording New Album
Fresh off their November Bringing It All Back Home Tour of the
U.K., Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros are heading into the studio
to record their third album. The follow-up to 2001’s Global a
Go-Go is due out in the spring.
During the last tour, the former Clash frontman and his band
road-tested new tracks like “Dakar Meantime” and “Coma Girl,” and
revisited Clash favorites like “Rudie Can’t Fail” and “(White Man)
in Hammersmith Palais.” “The idea is to go all around the island
and bash the new tunes out and kick them into shape,” Strummer
says. “There’s nothing better for a tune, ’cause you can change it
night by night. You say, ‘That bit sounded boring — get rid of
it.’ And after you play ten dates, it’s a lean, muscular
animal.”
The Mescaleros’ November 15th gig at London Acton Town Hall
featured a special surprise — fellow Clash
guitarist/singer/songwriter Mick Jones took the stage with Strummer
for the the first time in nearly twenty years to perform the
Clash’s “Bankrobber,” “White Riot” and “London’s Burning.” Strummer
had kicked Jones out of the band in 1983, after a tumultuous five
years together.
“You sort of grow up and stop grousing,” Strummer says of his
relationship with Jones now. “You bury the hatchet, or you just
sort of forget what the hatchet was.”
A full Clash reunion may be in store for March 10th, when the
Clash — along with the Police, AC/DC, Elvis Costello and the
Attractions, and the Righteous Brothers — are inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York. Strummer is not yet sure
they’ll play, but says if they do, expect to hear “White Riot.”
As for his take on why the Clash ceased to exist all those years
ago: “Maybe we said all we needed to say in a five-year blast. We
put out sixteen sides of vinyl in five years. Maybe we could have
strung that out over twenty years — and we’d be on the fifth side
of Sandinista! right now.”
Instead, right now, Strummer’s top priority is on the Mescaleros
and getting the new batch of songs on tape while they’re still in
shape. “We’ve gotta record them straight away — bang into the
studio and knock them down,” he says. “Remember: Musicians memories
are very short.”