Origins: 1974–1976 Before the Clash's founding, the band's future members were active in different parts of the London music scene.
Joe Strummer, whose real name was John Graham Mellor, sang and played rhythm guitar in the
pub rock band
The 101ers, which he had formed in 1974 with
Álvaro Peña-Rojas. Mellor later abandoned his original stage name "Woody" Mellor in favour of "Joe Strummer", a reference to his rudimentary strumming skills on the ukulele while he was a
busker in the
London Underground.
Mick Jones played guitar in
protopunk band
London SS After London SS broke up in early 1976, Rhodes continued as Jones' manager. Chimes was asked to audition for the new band and was accepted but quit soon after. The band were still searching for a lead singer. According to Chimes, Billy Watts, who "seemed to be, like, nineteen or eighteen then, as we all were", handled the duties for a time. Rhodes was watching Strummer, with whom he made exploratory contact; both Jones and Levene had seen Strummer perform and were impressed. In April, Strummer saw the Sex Pistols
open for one of his band's gigs. Strummer later said: I knew something was up, so I went out in the crowd which was fairly sparse. And I saw the future—with a snotty handkerchief—right in front of me. It was immediately clear. Pub rock was, "Hello, you bunch of drunks, I'm gonna play these boogies and I hope you like them." The Pistols came out that Tuesday evening and their attitude was, "Here's our tunes, and we couldn't give a flying fuck whether you like them or not. In fact, we're gonna play them even if you fucking hate them." On 30 May, Rhodes and Levene approached Strummer after a 101ers gig and invited him to meet up at the band's rehearsal location on Davis Road. After Strummer turned up, Levene played "Keys to Your Heart", one of Strummer's own tunes. Rhodes gave Strummer 48 hours to decide whether to join the new band that would "rival the Pistols". Within 24 hours, he agreed. Simonon later said: "Once we had Joe on board it all started to come together". According to Simonon: "It really came to my head when I started reading the newspapers and a word that kept recurring was the word 'clash', so I thought 'the Clash, what about that' to the others. And they and Bernard, they went for it." Levene was becoming disaffected with his position in the group. At the Black Swan, he approached the Sex Pistols' lead singer
John Lydon, whose stage name was Johnny Rotten, and suggested they form a band together if the Pistols broke up. Hours after their debut, the Clash, most of the Sex Pistols and much of London's "inner circle" of punks attended a performance by New York City's leading punk rock band
the Ramones at
Dingwalls; according to Strummer: "It can't be stressed how great
the first Ramones album was to the scene ... It was the first word of Punk, a fantastic record". Afterwards "came the first example of the rivalry-induced squabbling that was to dog the punk scene and undermine any attempts to promote a spirit of unity among the bands involved". Simonon fought with
J.J. Burnel, the bass player of
the Stranglers, a slightly older band who were publicly identified with the punk scene but were not part of the "inner circle", which centered on the Sex Pistols. Rhodes insisted the Clash should not perform live again until they were much tighter so they intensely rehearsed the following month. According to Strummer, the band devoted themselves to creating a distinct identity, saying:The day I joined The Clash was very much back to square one, year zero. Part of Punk was that you had to shed all of what you knew before. We were almost Stalinist in the way that you had to shed all your friends, or everything that you'd known, or every way that you'd played before. Strummer and Jones shared most of the writing duties; according to Jones: "Joe would give me the words and I would make a song out of them". The band sometimes met in the office over their
Camden Town rehearsal studio. According to Strummer: "Bernie [Rhodes] would say, 'An issue, an issue. Don't write about love, write about what's affecting you, what's important." Jones later said: "Bernie had a hand in everything. Not the lyrics—he didn't help with the lyrics. He didn't tell us not to write love songs, as the myth goes—that's kind of simplified version of it. He told us to write what we knew about". Strummer performed lead vocals on the majority of songs but he and Jones sometimes shared the lead. Once the band began recording, Jones rarely had a solo lead on more than one song per album, though he was responsible for two of the group's biggest hits. On 13 August 1976, the Clash, wearing paint-spattered "
Jackson Pollock" outfits, played in their Camden studio before a small, invitation-only audience, which included
Sounds magazine critic
Giovanni Dadamo, whose review described the band as a "runaway train ... so powerful, they're the first new group to come along who can really scare the Sex Pistols shitless". On 29 August, the Clash and Manchester's
Buzzcocks opened for the Sex Pistols at
The Screen on the Green; it was the Clash's first public performance since 4 July. Chimes left in late November; he was briefly replaced by
Rob Harper as the Clash toured in support of the Sex Pistols during December's Anarchy Tour. Strummer also said: "I don't believe in all that anarchy bollocks!" According to the Clash guitarist
Mick Jones: "The important thing is to encourage people to do things for themselves, think for themselves and stand up for what their rights are". On 25 January, the band signed to
CBS Records for £100,000, a remarkable amount for a band who had played about thirty gigs and very few headlining shows. Clash historian Marcus Gray said: "the band members found themselves having to justify [the deal] to both the music press and to fans who picked up on the critics' muttered asides about the Clash having 'sold out' to the establishment".
Mark Perry, founder of the leading London punk periodical ''
Sniffin' Glue'' wrote: "Punk died the day the Clash signed to CBS", but recanted when he first heard the single "
White Riot", saying: "They're the most important group in the world at the moment. I believe in them completely. All I said about them is crap." According to one of the band's associates the deal "was later used as a classic example of the kind of contract that no group should ever sign—the group had to pay for their own tours, recordings, remixes, artwork, expenses ..." According to Strummer in March 1977: Mickey Foote, who worked as a technician at the band's concerts, was hired to produce their debut album, and Terry Chimes was drafted back for the recording. The band's first single "White Riot" was released in March and peaked at number 34 in the
UK Singles Chart. The album
The Clash was released the following month and peaked at number 12 on the
UK Albums Chart; Chimes, whose career aspirations owed little to the punk ethos, left the band again soon after the recording sessions. He later said: "The point was I wanted one kind of life and they wanted another and, like, why are we working together, if we want completely different things?" As a result, only Simonon, Jones and Strummer are featured on the album's cover, and Chimes was credited as "Tory Crimes". Strummer later said: "We must have tried every drummer that then had a kit. I mean every drummer in London. I think we counted 205. And that's why we were lost until we found Topper Headon." Simonon nicknamed Headon, who had briefly played with Jones's band London SS, "Topper" because he felt Headon resembled
Mickey the Monkey, a character in the comic
Topper. Headon could also play piano, bass and guitar. The day after he signed to the band, Headon said: "I really wanted to join the Clash. I want to give them even more energy than they've got—if that's possible"; in an interview over twenty years later, he said his original plan was to stay briefly, gain a name for himself and then move on to a better gig. Strummer later said: "Finding someone who not only had the chops, but the strength and the stamina to do it was just the breakthrough for us". In May, the Clash set out on the White Riot Tour, headlining a punk package that included Buzzcocks,
the Jam, Subway Sect,
the Slits and
the Prefects. The day after a Newcastle gig, Strummer and Headon were arrested for stealing pillowcases from their hotel room. The highlight of the tour was the
Rainbow Theatre in London on 9 May; it was the first time The Clash had played a major music venue. The audience began ripping up seats and the gig turned into a riot. Strummer commented: "That was the night punk broke ... we were in the right place doing the right thing at the right time". That same month, CBS released "
Remote Control" as
The Clash second single, defying the wishes of the band, who saw it as one of the album's weakest tracks. Headon's first recording with the band was the single "
Complete Control", which addresses the band's anger at their record label's behaviour. It was co-produced by reggae artist
Lee "Scratch" Perry, In October 1977, the Clash set out on the "Out of Control" UK tour. The tour was due to open at the
Ulster Hall, Belfast but the insurance was pulled and the gig was cancelled at the last moment. This led to punks blocking the road outside the venue and a confrontation between the punks and the police, which became known as the "Battle of Bedford Street". In February 1978, the Clash released the single "
Clash City Rockers"; On 30 April, the Clash played at
Rock Against Racism in
Victoria Park, London. Late 1970s England had seen an increase in racist attacks and a growth in support for the far-right political party
The National Front. Also on the bill were
X-Ray Spex,
Steel Pulse,
Misty in Roots and headliners
Tom Robinson Band; they played to 100,000 people, who marched through London and attended the RAR Carnival. In June, the band released "
(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" as a single, which peaked at number 32 in the UK Singles chart; Before the Clash began recording their second album, CBS requested they adopt a cleaner sound than its predecessor to reach American audiences.
Sandy Pearlman, who is known for his work with
Blue Öyster Cult, was hired to produce the record. Simonon later said: "[R]ecording that album was just the most boring situation ever. It was just so nitpicking, such a contrast to the first album ... it ruined any spontaneity." Strummer said: "it wasn't our easiest session". The band dismissed their manager Bernie Rhodes and hired artist and journalist
Caroline Coon to replace him. and received mixed reviews in the UK music press, where some reviewers complained about its relatively mainstream production style. The album reached number 2 in the UK album chart.
NME readers voted ''Give 'Em Enough Rope'' the second-best album of 1978 and the Clash were voted the best group in the same end-of-year poll. The band embarked on a North American tour, culminating in a performance at the
Palladium in New York City. In support of the album, the Clash toured the UK supported by the Slits and
the Innocents. The tour, which consisted of more than thirty shows, was promoted as the Sort It Out Tour. The band later undertook their first, largely successful tour of North America in February 1979. In June 1979, the band released the
extended play (EP)
The Cost of Living, It is regarded as one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. In the US, the single "
Train in Vain" became their first top-40 hit, peaking at number 23 on the
Billboard chart. In the UK, the
title track was released as a single and peaked at number 11—the highest position any Clash single reached in the UK before the band's break-up. and
Q magazine later cited it as the "best rock 'n roll photograph of all time". During this period, The Clash began to be regularly billed as "The Only Band That Matters". Musician
Gary Lucas, who was employed by CBS Records' creative services department, has said he coined the tagline. Fans and journalists soon widely adopted the epithet. At the end of 1979, the band members attended a private screening of a new film called
Rude Boy, which is part fiction and tells the story of a Clash fan who leaves his job in a
Soho sex shop to become a roadie for the group. The movie, which was named after the
rude boy subculture, includes footage of the band on tour, at a London
Rock Against Racism concert and in the studio recording ''Give 'Em Enough Rope''. On 27 February 1980, the film premiered at the
30th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won an honourable mention. The Clash had planned to record and release a single every month in 1980. CBS dismissed this idea and the band released only one single—an original reggae song called "
Bankrobber", in August. It featured
Mikey Dread and reached number 12 in the UK Singles Chart. Critical opinions were divided;
Trouser Press writer Ira Robbins described half of the album as "great" and the other half as "nonsense" and worse, while
New Rolling Stone Record Guide critic
Dave Marsh said: "
Sandinista! is nonsensically cluttered. Or rather
seems nonsensically cluttered. One of the Clash's principal concerns ... is to avoid being stereotyped." The album sold reasonably well in the US, where it charted at number 24. In the UK, the album peaked at number 19 and the single "The Call Up" charted at number 40. Chimes was brought back to drum for the next few months. The band opened for
the Who on a leg of their final US tour that included a show at New York's
Shea Stadium. Dave Marsh later listed "This Is England" as one of the top 1001 rock singles of all time. The album peaked at number 16 in the UK Albums Chart and at number 88 in the US. On 15 November, Jones and Strummer shared the stage, performing three Clash songs during a London benefit show by
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. In September 2009, Jones and Headon reunited to re-record the 1970s Clash B-side "Jail Guitar Doors" with
Billy Bragg, who founded an eponymous charity that gives musical instruments and lessons to prison inmates. Simonon and Jones are featured on the title track of the
Gorillaz album
Plastic Beach (2010), marking the first time they had worked together in over twenty years. They later joined the Gorillaz live band for their 2010 live dates, including the
Escape to Plastic Beach Tour. In July 2012, Strummer's daughters Jazz and Lola gave a rare interview to discuss the tenth anniversary of Strummer's death, his legacy and the possibility of a Clash reunion had their father lived. Jazz said: There was talk about the Clash reforming before he died. But there had been talk for years and years about them reforming. They had been offered stupid amounts of money to do it, but they were very good at keeping the moral high ground and saying no. But I think if Dad hadn't died, it would have happened. It felt like it was in the air. In the UK on 9 September 2013, and a day later in the US, the Clash released a 12-disc box set called
Sound System, which includes their re-mastered studio albums on eight discs and three discs featuring demos, non-album singles, rarities and B-sides; a
DVD with previously unseen footage by
Don Letts and Julien Temple and other film footage; and merchandising ephemera, including an exclusive the Clash poster. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon oversaw the project, including the re-masters. The box set was accompanied by
5 Album Studio Set, which contains the first five studio albums (excluding
Cut the Crap) and
The Clash Hits Back, a 33-track, two-CD best-of collection. In a 3 September 2013 interview with
Rolling Stone, Mick Jones discussed the band reuniting, saying it likely would not have occurred. Jones said: There were a few moments at the time I was up for it (Hall of Fame reunion in 2003), Joe was up for it. Paul wasn't. And neither, probably, was Topper, who didn't wind up even coming in the end. It didn't look like a performance was going to happen anyway. I mean, you usually play at that ceremony when you get in. Joe had passed by that point, so we didn't. We were never in agreement. It was never at a point where all of us wanted to do it at the same time. Most importantly for us, we became friends again after the group broke up, and continued that way for the rest of the time. That was more important to us than the band. Jones also stated the
Sound System box set was the last time he would be involved in the band's releases: "I'm not even thinking about any more Clash releases. This is it for me, and I say that with an exclamation mark". In an October 2013 interview with BBC 6 Music, Jones said Strummer did have intentions of a Clash reunion and that new music was being written for a possible album. In the months before Strummer's death, Jones and Strummer began working on new music for what he thought would be the next Mescaleros album. Jones said: We wrote a batch – we didn't used to write one, we used to write a batch at a time – like gumbo. The idea was he was going to go into the studio with the Mescaleros during the day and then send them all home. I'd come in all night and we'd all work all night. According to Jones, months after their work together, he ran into Strummer at an event; Strummer informed him the songs were going to be used for the next Clash album. On 6 April 2022, the Clash announced the re-release of
Combat Rock, including demos with
Ranking Roger's vocals, titled 'Combat Rock / The People's Hall'. "Rock the Casbah (Ranking Roger)" and "Red Angel Dragnet (Ranking Roger)" were released as supporting singles. The re-release occurred on 20 May 2022 to mixed reviews. On 11 November 2022, a month before the 20th anniversary of Strummer's death, founding member
Keith Levene died in
Norfolk, England. ==Politics==