The counterfeit Clash

WHILE Paul McCartney acquired a coat of arms and Mick Jagger was pining for a knighthood, Joe Strummer stayed on the street and never lost his credibility. That's why the Clash, not the Beatles or the Stones,are for so many of today's young musicians The Only Band That Mattered Strummer's sweat-soaked performance at the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh a month ago revealed that age had not withered his passion and intensity. He was still a rebel outlaw with a cause. And that is what distinguished him from McCartney, Jagger or even the Sex Pistols. The Clash did not compromise. They were always idealistic and political.

The son of a diplomat with a public school education, he was unencumbered by the class aspirations of others. His itinerant upbringing in different parts of the world also exposed him to influences beyond the usual suburban milieu of British rock - something he was pursuing in his most recent album mixing R ‘n’ B, reggae, Latin and African beats with techno.

Strummer - born John Graham Mellor - also liked to think he had something of the Celtic bard in him, inherited from his mother, Anne McKenzie. But his most important legacy in the age of Pop Idol and Fame Academy is this: white boys can rock.

Scotsman Editorial 24/12/02  www.scotsman.com

e-mail: counterfeitclash@sky.com