The counterfeit Clash
Final Tour – A Night to Remember
Anyone privileged enough to witness Joe Strummer’s last Scottish performance would be staggered to learn yesterday of his death at the age of 50. His gig last month at the liquid rooms in Edinburgh was shot through with such dynamism and energy it could have been delivered by a man of half his age.
While it was inevitable that Strummer’s post Clash career would not burn as brightly as the incendiary years he spent fronting the group, there was now signs that he was utterly content with his status as one of the doyens of British Music.His new band, The Mescaleros, performed a mix of their own songs and Clash standards, and it was a combination which went down a storm at the Liquid Rooms.
Able to dip into a catalogue of self penned classics, Strummer roared his way through Rudie Can’t Fail, Bank Robber and Whiteman in Hammersmith Palais. He also paid tribute to The Clash’s rockabilly and reggae influences by stirring renditions of I Fought the Law, Police and Thieves, and Police on My Back, tracks written by other artists, but now inexorably linked to the punk pioneers.
He ended the show with White Riot, an unashamed blast of nostalgia which was The Clash’s debut call to arms in 1977. A quick scan of bobbing heads in the venue revealed a umber of youthful faces in the inevitable clutches of ageing, balding ex-punks. It was proof, as if any were needed, that Strummer’s music truly straddled the generations and is as vital now as it was 25 years ago.
Graham Bean in The Scotsman 24/12/02 www.scotsman.com
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