Background

Joe Strummer was born as John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey on 21st August 1952. His mother’s name was Anna Mackenzie and his father was Ronald Mellor. His father worked as a British diplomat. He had an older brother David.

Education

At that stage, 8 years old John, and his 10-year-old brother David, were placed in a British public boarding school in the City of London Freemen School, Ashtead Park, Surrey. Even if he describes himself as an inept student, John managed to get three A levels in English, History, and Art. He also spent most of his time reading and discovering music along with his friend Paul Buck (as known as Pablo LaBritain, later to drum for the punk band 999). The mid-'60s brought many outstanding rock 'n roll acts, from both sides of the Atlantic, but Britain was the focal point: Captain Beefheart, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Pretty Things, Yardbirds, Dr. Feelgood, Lou Reed and Bo Diddley were among the numerous acts that triggered John's future choice of career.

During school recess, he spent much of his time roaming the quarters of Teheran, Iran, and the various African cities where his father was stationed, for more musical inspirations: Vertical Movement (a Mozambican band) left a vivid memory, among others. But first and foremost, Blues was the main drive for John's kicks. At age 16, he gets his first guitar but only starts to practice seriously Chuck Berry's Sweet Little 16 at age 19.

In July 1970 John's brother, David Mellor, had become increasingly withdrawn and ill-adjusted and committed suicide in London's Regent's Park. Ronald passed away in early 1984, followed in 1986 by his wife who was diagnosed with cancer a year earlier.

John decides he wants to be a cartoonist and in 1970 registers at the London Central School of Art & Design. All fired up, he soon discovers what a "lousy set up" it was. LSD and Woody Guthrie songs help beat the boredom. Moving in with art school classmates, he meets a fiddler by the name of Tymon Dogg and follows him in his London Underground pitches as a busker. John's first-ever gig is down Green Park tube station: Johnny Be Good on ukulele he got for £1.99 down Shaftesbury Rd. After being expelled from art school and from a squat, John, now known as Woody Mellor, spends two years doing "absolutely nothing," working on a farm when necessity calls for it.

Following a girlfriend, who was studying at the Cardiff Art School, Joe Strummer heads for Wales and settles in Newport with some former London Central friends. He shares a flat with Mikey Foote, a future soundman, spending his time attending lectures at Newport College of Art, where he is seen as a talented artist.

Career

Joe Strummer moves in with bassist "Jiving" Alan Jones who had started a band with Rob Angelo (guitar), Bob "Blow" Jackson (sax), and Jeff Cooper (drums). They needed a drum kit and Woody has one. He lends the drum kit in exchange for the position as frontman. The Vultures played some disastrous gigs, and in May 1971, tired of working as a gravedigger for the local council, he gets homesick and moves back to London to his busking trade. After discovering the speakers fixed on the tube stations' ceilings were connected directly to the Transport Police shop where he was often dragged during his pitches, he quits busking and does several odd jobs, including garbage carrying at the English National Opera, until he is fired after his boss discovers him practicing his guitar in the orchestra pit. The £120 he got to clear off pays his AC30 amplifier.

Along with his mates of Maida Hill's squatting community, he forms his second band The 101ers (first billed El Huaso & The 101 All Stars) after the street address' squat on Walterton Road. The line up includes brothers Pat (bass) & Richard Dudanski, Nother (drums), Simon Cassell, and Alvaro Pene-Rojas (sax). Their first gig is Brixton Telegraph, on September 6, 1974. It is also around that time that Woody becomes Joe Strummer. Various shifts of personnel brought the line-up as Clive Temperly (lead guitar), replaced by Martin Stone, 'Mole' Chesterton (bass), and Dan Kelleher (bass/keyboard).

The band acquires a solid reputation as a live act and cuts two singles on Chiswick Records: “Keys To Your Heart/5 Star Rock'n'Roll Petrol” and “Sweet Revenge/Rabies (From The Dogs Of Love)” cool, sharp R&B numbers. In 1981, Joe and Richard Dudanski would release a vinyl testimony of the 101ers days titled Elgin Avenue Breakdown, on Virgin's small label Andalusia, in honor of Paloma Romano as known as Palmolive, drummer for The Slits and The Raincoats for whom Joe penned his first-ever song Keys To Your Heart.

Yet, Joe is more and more frustrated with the lack of response from the music press and with what he saw as an outdated musical style. But things are about to change. In North America, a new musical movement is slowly catching the attention of bored and angry punters. Not dubbed Punk yet, the new trend is led by bands like The Ramones, The Dead Boys, Blondie, Television, Richard Hell & Voidoids' Meanwhile, the youth of Great Britain is showing disturbing signs of frustration, turning its back to fat and overindulgent dinosaur bands and forming the nucleus of a wave that will soon change the face of popular music.

From one end of London comes The Swankers, later known as the Sex Pistols. On another corner, a talented lead guitarist named Mick Jones, who writes catchy tunes, teams, up with the aspiring art designer Paul Simonon, who he trains on the bass. Keith Levene completes the line of the London SS. But one element is still missing, a rhythm guitarist and frontman. Bernard Rhodes, who acts as manager and guidance to the burgeoning band is tipped off by Levene for a prospect. They both check out the 101ers at the 100 Club. Mick and Paul had already spotted Joe at the Red Cow pub and at the Lisson St. DHSS office a couple of times as well. Joe in the meantime has his Damascus illumination when the Sex Pistols opens for the 101ers April 3, 1976, at the Nashville. The planets are aligned and everything is in place for the great leap forward. The London SS and 101ers are scraped. Terry Chimes (later to be replaced by the more epic Nicky "Topper" Headon) gets behind the drum kit and The Clash is born.

Two months of rehearsing and songwriting later and the first gig happens on July 4, 1976, at the Black Swan in Sheffield. The Clash produced 6 albums (16 vinyl faces), numerous singles, and is still considered as one of the most powerful creative musical units of the last part of the 20th century.

The CD From Here to Eternity is a vivid testimony of the intensity the band displayed on stage. Another recommended item is Westway To The World, a documentary by longtime associate Don Letts. Johnny Green's book A Riot Of Our Own (Faber & Faber, 1996) gives a more personal insight into the band's dynamic.

When The Clash disbanded in 1986, acting and writing soundtracks will be Joe's main activity. He is Simms in Alex Cox's Straight To Hell (1987) and Faucet in Walker (1989) which was shot in Nicaragua. Jim Jarmusch wrote the part of Johnny, a rockabilly gun-slinging misfit for Mystery Train (1989). He plays the pilot Vince Taylor in F.J. Ossang's Doctor Chance (1997) and holds cameos in Candy Mountain by Robert Frank & Rudy Wurlitzer (1987), as known as KaurismŠki's I Hired a Contract Killer (1990) and Emir Kusturica's Super 8 Stories (2001), about the director's No Smoking Orchestra. Joe's acting career could have started sooner, although he had a taste of it during his Clash days in Martin Scorcese's The King Of Comedy (1983) when Stephen Frears offered the part of Myron in his 1984 thriller The Hit. He declined, clearing the way for Tim Roth's big-screen debut.

Joe also wrote many scores and soundtracks, for example, Alex Cox's 1986 Sid and Nancy (the song Love Kills will also feature in Larry Peerce's 1989 Wired), Straight To Hell and Walker, Marisa Silver's Permanent Record (1988) which features his band The Latino Rockabilly War, Sara Driver's When Pigs Fly (1993), and George Armitage's Grosse Pointe Blank (1997). Joe also dabbled with directing by producing a 16mm titled Hell WC10 (1983).

Even though Joe said the laboratory had gone bankrupt and destroyed both negatives and copies, Don Letts, however, found some rolls of film in Joe's attic and released it in 2001. Joe also makes a notable TV guest appearance in episode 2.14 'Chef Aid' of the American cartoon sitcom South Park (July 10, 1998). His song It's a Rockin' World is on the soundtrack released the same year.

His solo musical efforts aren't as successful though. The controversial 1988 Rock The Rich Tour, sponsored by the anarchist organization Class War, triggered many criticisms. After the failure of Earthquake Weather (1989), recorded in Los Angeles and the tour that followed which left Joe exhausted and in deep financial trouble, CBS stalled any attempt to go back to the studio, hoping for an improbable Clash reunion. Joe and Mick Jones did get back together, but to work on Big Audio Dynamite's second album #10 Upping Street (1986).

A stage hiatus started that was briefly interrupted in late 1991 when The Pogues asked him to step in for the band's unreliable frontman Shane MacGowan. Joe had already helped the band in 1987, replacing Phil Chevron who was suffering from a burst stomach ulcer. Joe did also turn to producing, most notoriously for The Pogues' Hell's Ditch (1990), and lesser-known acts like the rockabilly band The Red Roosters and Spain's 091.

In 1992 Joe's Wilderness Years began. His songwriting continued through Road To Rock'n'Roll, penned for but turned down by Johnny Cash for his American Recordings and two songs for Brian Setzer's album Guitar Slinger. Several attempts to restart his career crashed. His collaboration with techno musician Richard Norris with the acid-punk band Machine (Radar) and collaboration with Happy Mondays' Bez dubbed Strummerville didn't even take off. Some productions emerged, however, a piece for the Jack Kerouak's tribute Kicks Joy Darkness. His short-lived Electric Dog House, which also comprised Seuss (The Ruts) and Rat Scabies (The Damned) contributed the title song for the human rights compilation Generations (1998). He also appeared on Emmaus Mouvement, a benefit CD for this French charity 50th anniversary. Joe spent most of the late 90's DJing in raves and festivals.

Continuing CBS/Sony contract embodiments seemed to have brought Joe's career to a permanent stop. After realizing he could not possibly come up with the £5 million it would take to get him out of his contract, he went "on strike", boring the company out. He got his way and the contract was terminated at least as a solo artist, which allowed him to scout for a new deal. Hellcat Records, an independent label based in California, run by Rancid's Tim Armstrong, a huge Clash fan, was first on Joe's list and the deal was struck. Since 1998, Joe hosted several series on the BBC World Service including Joe Strummer's London Calling, where he displayed his wide and wild range of musical tastes from Dean Martin to Cumbia to Jimi Hendrix and Big Youth's reggae.

While playing in Fat Les, a loose conglomerate of artists, musicians, and actors, centered around comedian and satirist Keith Allen, he meets guitarist Anthony Genn, formerly from the Brit-pop band Elastica. Joe had already spotted Anthony's stage presence in 1995 when the later danced naked at the Glastonbury Festival. At Genn's instigation, Joe's new band The Mescaleros takes form. From Black Grape came Martin Slattery (with whom Joe collaborated on Stupid Stupid Stupid in 1996) who brought Scott Shields with him. Joe's friend and percussionist Pablo Cook, and a member of Machine, completed the lineup, as well as the drummer Steve 'Smiley' Barnard. On June 10, 1999, the band boarded a tour bus and hit the Road To Rock'n'Roll from Sheffield to Amsterdam, from Paris to New York and everywhere in between.

After the release of the album Rock Art & The X-Ray Style on November 1999, to critical acclaim over what is dubbed a brilliant resurrection of an almost forgotten Punk legend, the world tour continued, praised everywhere it went, both by the press and the fans, more than ecstatic at the invitation from Joe and his band to "Dig the New". The blend of R&B, reggae, Latin vibes, and African beats spiced with techno, combined with classic punk anthems from Joe Strummer's former bands gathers old as well as new fans. By the summer of 2000, life on the road takes its toll on Anthony Genn who leaves the band after the August 20th V2000 gig. Joe teams up with his old busking mate Tymon Dogg, who plays his first gig as a full-time member on October 27, 2000, at the famous 100 Club. Smiley left sometime after.

Meanwhile, Joe's talent as a songwriter and performer is finally recognized when he is presented with an Inspirational Award by Britain's Q Magazine (October 2000) and the Ivor Novello Award by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters for The Clash's outstanding contribution to British music (24th May 2001). It was the first time since 1982 that the legendary line up (Headon, Jones, Simonon & Strummer) was reunited on-stage. In the days previous to the 100 Club gig, Joe and the Mescaleros entered London's Battery Studio.

In August 2001, Global A Go-Go is released, again to critical and fans' acclaim. With its broad musical range of reggae, Celtic, Balkan, and African beats, the album shows again Joe's social and political and musical relevancy and the band's growing tightness. The tour that follows brings Joe and his revamped Meskys in North America, United Kingdom, Japan, and Europe for a handful of gigs. The new line up includes Simon Stafford on bass, filling in for Scott Shields, promoted to the position of lead guitarist, Luke Bullen on drums, and Tymon Dogg, along with the ever-versatile Martin Slattery. Percussionist Pablo Cook had left after the August 4th, 2001 Mescaleros / Brian Setzer Orchestra L.A double bill.

Achievements

• 

  Joe Strummer won many awards and accolades as a member of the Clash, including four NME Awards, a Grammy for Best Music Film, and a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
  
  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Future Is Unwritten: Joe Strummer 2007

• music

  • The Clash 1979
  • Give 'Em Enough Rope 1978
  • London Calling 1979
  • Sandinista! 1980
  • Combat Rock 1982
  • Cut The Crap 1985
  • On Broadway 1991
  • The Singles 2006
  • Sound System 2013
  • 5 Studio Album Set 2013
  • Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited 1981
  • Joe Strummer 001 2018

Religion

When Joe Strummer was asked point-blank "Do you believe in God?" he answered something along the lines of: "Well, I think it’s about time I believed in something, and sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll aren’t it. A lot of people used to think it was, but it’s not. If you’re not thinking about God, the law, and man then you’re not thinking about anything worthwhile." He also said once "I wake up and thank God for punk rock every day." But it's unknown if he was a follower of a certain kind of religious movement.

Politics

The punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s seized the power of rock-and-roll back from the corporate conglomerates that had warped the music into a flabby, over-produced, stadium-rocking mess. But it was Joe Strummer who made punk rock more than just an anarchic flail against the dying of the light. With The Clash, Strummer gave punk a militant, internationalist, pro-Black edge that made it matter not just as a musical statement but as a political one. "It was The Clash that struck the strong political stance that really inspired a lot of people, and within The Clash, he was the political engine of the band," explained British singer Billy Bragg.

Even on his first single "White Riot," Strummer displayed the sensibilities that would come to define The Clash’s music: a reverence for radicalism, a faith in the power of direct action, an unyielding honesty and bluntness, a call to arms and respect for rhythm that distinguished his band from most its contemporaries.

Written by Strummer and Jones at a time when British cities were experiencing a wave of urban riots, "White Riot" celebrated the revolt of the Caribbean and African immigrants against the genteel racism of the British upper classes and asked why working-class whites didn’t join the fight.

The Clash helped to define the punk and new wave movements as explicitly anti-racist - working with ska and reggae bands to build the late-1970s Rock Against Racism movement in Britain.

Clash albums were infused with reggae, ska, funk, and African rhythms, as well as with radical ideas about race, class, and politics. Socialist, internationalist, and angry, Strummer and The Clash started out by savaging British policies (especially those of a rising Tory politician named Margaret Thatcher) but they quickly found a bigger target in US foreign policy. The band’s epic, three-album 1980 release, "Sandinista!" - which was inspired by the Nicaraguan revolution of 1979 - was a fierce indictment of United States policy in Latin American.

Strummer argued, it was impossible to avoid the reality of economic, racial and social injustice: "The politics were on the street in front of us, man," he said, explaining that The Clash was forged in a moment when London was the home to refugees from Chile, as well as South Africans, Namibians, and Zimbabweans who had fled white racist regimes in AfricaMore than any other punk star, Strummer argued that the movement itself needed to be remembered as a radical break not just from increasingly pompous musical norms of the early 1970s but from a conservative mindset. "I will always believe in punk rock because it’s about creating something for yourself," he said in July, 2002, interview. "Part of it was: ‘Stop being a sap! Lift your head up and see what is really going on in the political, social, and religious situations, and try to see through the smoke screens."

Views

It was Strummer’s politically charged lyrics that helped bring punk to the masses. Calling out social injustices and giving a voice to the struggles of the working class, his lyrics struck a chord with legions of fans and the press alike, with Rolling Stone calling The Clash "the greatest rock & roll band in the world." He once famously said, "People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world." And through his art, Strummer played his part in shaping the musical landscape of the world and with it left an unrivaled and timeless legacy.

Quotations: "The way you get a better world is, you don’t put up with substandard anything."

"I don't want to look back. I want to keep going forward. I still have something to say to people."

"Without people, you're nothing."

"I don't have any other message than don't forget you are alive."

"Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one."

"If I had five million pounds I'd start a radio station because something needs to be done. It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that didn't make you feel like smashing up the kitchen and strangling the cat."

"People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world."

"Strummer's Law: No input, no output."

"It is fun to be alive. It's a hell of a lot better than being dead."

"Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed."

"If they can't hear it, they're not supposed to hear it. It's not for them if they can't understand it."

"Don't forget you're alive. 'Cause sometimes when you walk around the city and you're in a bad mood, you can think, hey, wait a minute, we're alive! We don't know what the next second will bring and what a fantastic thing this is. This can get easily forgotten in the routine of life, and that's something I'm trying to bring to my attention at all times. Don't forget you're alive. We're not dead, you know. This is the greatest thing."

"Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth."

Personality

In 1971 Joe Strummer decided to become a vegetarian and remained one until his death.

His friends found him unassuming, gentle, and passionate.

He helped set up Future Forests – now known as The Carbon Neutral Company – an organization dedicated to planting trees in various parts of the world in order to combat global warming.

He was the first artist to make the production of his records carbon neutral.

There is a charity set up by his family and friends after his death - The Joe Strummer Foundation. The mission is to provide opportunities to musicians and support projects around the world that create empowerment through music. They also support Billy Bragg's charity Jail Guitar Doors, which takes its name from the B-side of the Clash's 1978 single, Clash City Rockers. It provides instruments for inmates, helping them use music as a means of rehabilitation - and also functions as a platform when they get out of prison, with a number of former prisoners playing at their SXSW gig.

Joe was known for his sense of humor, even in some of the band’s political songs. At the end of "Magnificent Seven," Joe throws in "vacuum cleaner sucks up budgie" as an aside in the recording after reading the headline of a newspaper on the studio floor.

Physical Characteristics: On Strummer's driving license he had down 5ft 8 inches (about 173 cm) as his height.

Quotes from others about the person

• "On-stage Strummer wires himself up into an inhuman dynamo of sweaty, trembling flesh, fearful enough to have one wondering when the ambulance brigade will rush to his rescue with a straitjacket. While he tilts his bullet head at acute angles, his agonising face screwed into an open wound, he wields his Telecaster like a chain saw. His magnetism is totally original - more like an Olympic strong man imploding all his energy into a final record-breaking lift than anything seen on a rock'n'roll stage before. Off-stage, he's the Clash member with the lowest profile." - Caroline Coon.
  
  "The thing about Strummer was he walked it like he talked it." - Billy Bragg.

Interests

• Politicians

  Nelson Mandela

• Music & Bands

  Little Richard, Beach Boys, Woody Guthrie, Dean Martin, Cumbia, Jimi Hendrix, Big Youth

Connections

In early 1979, Joe Strummer asked Gabrielle Salter, a young attractive blonde for an evening at the movies. She accepted out of politeness' and a relationship begins. Two daughters were born of that union. They are Jazz Domino Holly (1984) and Lola Maybellene (1986). The relationship came to an end in 1992, when Joe, concerned with his girls' moved the family from their Notting Hill Gatehouse to Hampshire County.

From the moment they were born, both Jazz and Lola accompanied their father on his annual pilgrimage to Glastonbury. "We grew up going to all sorts of festivals," says Jazz. "Every year at Glastonbury, Dad would create this kind of impromptu camp where people would just gather."

In 1995 he married Lucinda Tait, after obtaining his divorce from Pamela Moolman, a South African woman he married 1975, in exchange for money and British citizenship. His famous black Telecaster was the sole "offspring" of that brief union. Joe, Lucinda, and their stepdaughter had lived in a farmhouse in Somerset, where they moved in 1997.

Father:

John Graham Mellor

Mother:

Anna Mackenzie

Spouse:

Lucinda Tait

Lucinda met Joe in 1993, when she was staying with a friend, and they were introduced on a trip to a Hampshire funfair. "We pottered around this rather dismal little fair as Joe successfully won an assortment of cuddly toys," she says. "We laughed and laughed, and I was bowled over by his charm and sense of fun. I was madly in love by the time we came home."

Daughter:

Jazz Domino Holly Mellor

Daughter:

Lola Maybellene Mellor

stepdaughter:

Eliza Mellor

Brother:

David Mellor

David, who was eighteen months older than Joe, traveled on a tumultuous path in his short life. In 1970, he died after a massive overdose of aspirin. Before that, he dabbled in the occult and became a member of Britain’s nazi group, the National Front. Joe had a distant relationship with his brother because of his beliefs, but was still haunted by having to help identify his brother’s dead body which had gone undiscovered for three days. Joe had mentioned later in life that his relationship with David was one of the reasons that he wanted to help end racism through various charitable campaigns.

girlfriend:

Gabrielle Salter

Joe Strummer and Gaby Salter were partners until 1993.

Acquaintance:

Bono (Paul Hewson)

Bono told about Joe Strummer: "I met him a few times. He was very nice to me, and nice about me, though it must have been irritating for him-we were a really young, gauche, unsauced group when we started off. With U2, I always felt like we had a lot going wrong, but ultimately, we had something special. Lots of bands around us were much better looking, better players, better songwriters - they had everything. But we had the "it"-whatever "it" might be - and we built around that. That idea comes from the Clash - that you could come out of the audience, get up onstage, grab the microphone, and if you had something to say, then you have a valid reason for being there. That idea changed my life: It's the reason U2 exists today."

colleague:

Emir Kusturica

colleague:

Jim Jarmusch

colleague:

Mick Jones

colleague:

Paul Simonon

References

• We Are The Clash
  2018
• Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer
  2008
• Let Fury Have the Hour: Joe Strummer, Punk, and the Movement that Shook the World
  2012
• Joe Strummer and the Legend of The Clash
  2005
• Redemption Song: The Authorised Biography of Joe Strummer
  2005