The Last Gang in Town

by Marcus Gray

Michael Geoffrey Jones was born on 26th June 1955.When his parents divorced Mick, aged 8 years old, lived with Stella, his grandmother, at 61,Christchurch House on the busy Christchurch Road, Streatham, South London.

Top left is 61, Christchurch House.

A Friend Remembers...

The Courtyard entrance is to the side of the Christchurch House building and through the white porch way.

The Courtyard was well-maintained with a private entrance to flats 35-64

The " CROWN AND SCEPTRE " pub is directly opposite to the Christchurch House flats on Brixton Hill.

" And if you're in the Crown tonight have a drink on me. "

        In September 1966, Mick Jones and I attended Strand Grammar School in Elm Park road, just off Brixton Hill and near to  Christchurch House. It was an old-fashioned, boys-only grammar school with over 450 pupils.

      Edgware Road Station leads off to Lisson Grove, Daventry Street, Praed Street and the Edgware Road.

   In 1968, Mick and Stella moved to a flat at 90, Park West, Edgware road between Kendal Street and Burwood Place, close to Hyde Park.

Park West was a nine-storey, private mansion block near Hyde Park.

In September 1973, Mick commenced the Art Foundation course at Hammersmith School of Art and Building at 40, Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush.

I just know this boy's going to be my friend; even though my look isn't as extreme as his, I like his bravery and style, he's my kind of person. I make eye contact with him and burst out laughing. I laugh with a mixture of recognition and relief because I know our friendship is inevitable, we're obviously like-minded people so we may as well get straight to it and dispense with the slow polite phase of getting to know each other. But I've offended him and my laughter is met with a wounded expression.

So I say, 'Hello, I'm Viv.'

In a soft voice with a South London accent, the boy replies: 'Mick Jones.'

(pp.77 - 78 Viv Albertine: Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys)

Mick gives the reason most budding musicians of his generation chose this educational path:

'I only went to Art School to join a group anyway. I thought, Pete Townsend, Ray Davies, Keith Richards - they all went to Art School...'

However, he soon became dissatisfied, and found he could only muster the enthusiasm to attend on grant day.

SHEPHERDS BUSH UNDERGROUND STATION / Goldhawk road with the famous Empire nearby.

         The station is just down from Lime Grove and Davis road.

Before starting Art College, Mick, aged 17 years, worked at the DHSS as a clerical assistant in the Benefit Office at 5,Praed Street, Paddington.

Praed Street, W2 - Edgware Road Underground Station

Mick Jones worked here during the IRA's letter bombing campaign. As the most junior employee, he was required to open all incoming mail, which explains the line 'and I won't open letter bombs for you' in the song 'Career Opportunities.'

                 Mick and his 73 year old nan, Stella, moved to the 18th floor of a high-rise at 111, Wilmcote House, on the large Warwick Estate near Harrow road, during the first half of 1973.

He lived at Wilmcote House between 1975 & 1980.

Mick spent a year playing along to records in his bedroom.

Mick Jones used to live on the 18th floor of this towerblock overlooking the Westway with his Grandma in early 1976, he still had shoulder-length hair like his idole, Mott the Hoople, when he started to hang around with Chrissie Hynde:

'I persuaded him that he should at least have the ends trimmed. I showed him how they were all split and horrible. So we were round to his Gran's and...I was pretty sneaky about it as a matter of fact. He was standing up so it was hard for him to see what I was doing. But eventually he started to see how all over him there were these pieces of hair about four or five inches long and... I can still remember how he reacted when he realised what I was doing. He clutched his stomach and was groaning 'Oooo, I've got to sit down, I've got butterflies...' But anyway, I finished it off and turned it into a good Keith Richards.'

Mick went to a Royal College of Art concert that night, and the NME write-up mentioned a perfect Keith Richards lookalike in the front row; Chrissie was soon forgiven, but wasn't included in the line-up when Mick formed his new band, The Clash. However, she did contribute: Warwick Avenue tube station is on the Bakerloo line, explaining the line, 'Standing in the carnage of a Bakerloo' in The Clash's song 'Protex Blue,' the lyric of which - although uncredited - Chrissie claims she wrote.

Mick's hair grew shorter, and, influenced by The Sex Pistols and Clash manager Bernie Rhodes, he and Joe Strummer began to write songs about their environment. The Sound of the Westway was born, the best example (lyrically speaking) of which is 'London Burning': 'Can't think of a better way to spend the night / Than speeding around underneath the yellow lights.' Those twin cliches of punk's subject matter, dole queue and towerblocks, actually evolved directly from The Clash's experiences.

When the band got their advance from CBS, Mick sent his Gran off to the States to visit relatives, and moved his friend Tony James (Generation X) into the flat. One day, his Gran phoned up unexpectedly to say she was homeward bound, and Tony had to go. However, he and Mick got a flat together soon afterwards.

Mick Jones' front room in Wilmcote House....

The Clash Literature included J.G.Ballard's  Concrete Island (the Westway novel), Crash and High Rise.

    Mick's music interest included the Flamin' Groovies, Iggy Pop & the Stooges, MC5, the Fugs, the Standells, the Sharks and the New York Dolls.

         Most Saturdays, Mick could be found down the Portobello Road and around the Notting Hill scene in the Duke of Clarence, and Hennekey's (now the Earl of Lonsdale on the corner with Westbourne Grove).

      Mick started visiting the "Speakeasy" at 48, Margaret Street, off Oxford Circus at the age of 17 years.

     He was aware that the Speakeasy was the " in-place " to be seen in, if you wanted to be a future rock star.

Now an office building.

       For a short while, Mick worked  at the Economists' Bookshop, 106 Hampstead Road, before commencing his Painting course in September.

 Now known as Myriad.

   In January 1975 the College became known as the :                      

     Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Warrington Crescent is situated to the right of Warwick Avenue tube station.

  The Warrington musical scene was a basement flat at 47A Warrington Crescent where like-minded musicians met.

To the left of Warwick Avenue tube station, Wilmcote House was only a few hundred yards from Warrington Crescent.

 It became a convenient hang-out and meeting place for the youthful Mick Jones.

Mick met Bernard Rhodes for the first time at the Nashville in West Kensington.

 Bernie worked at Malcolm McLaren's shop Sex, 430 King's Road, Chelsea.

       Mick had visited the shop and bought a T-shirt bearing the legend that had also been the shop's previous name:       

'Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die '

The initial conversation started up due to the fact that Mick was wearing this T-shirt when he first met Bernie at the Nashville gig.

It was here that musicians performed for Mick's London SS band.

               The rehearsal room was next to the Fountains Abbey pub on the corner of Norfolk Place and just down the road from Park West where Mick Jones lived.

Paul Simonson visited Paddington Kitchen and was said to have the " look " but not the vocals they were looking for.

Towards the end of 1975, Paul Simonon had a chance street meeting with Mick Jones and they stayed in casual contact over the next few months.

 Terry Chimes tried out as drummer, but was not called back. Nick Headon was offered the job, took it, but left after a week.

      At the popular skin-head stomping venue, the Locarno on Streatham Hill, Paul enjoyed listening to and dancing to the music of ska.

It closed down for a while and then reopened as the more adult-oriented Cat's Whiskers.

Now known as CAESARS.

In late March 1976, after the London SS had split up, Mick got in touch with Paul and suggested that he consider learning an instrument in order to join Mick's new band.

 Mick and Paul saw the Sex Pistols on 3 April at the Nashville and it was here that Paul was won over to the idea of punk.

 Mick became friends with fellow art students Viv Albertine and Alan Drake who lived at 22 Davis Road, Shepherd's Bush, a few hundred yards along the Uxbridge Road from the art school's Lime Grove site.

Another regular visitor to the Davis Road squat was Alan's old friend, Keith Levene.

   22, Davis Road became the focus of Mick Jones life.

 Paul Simonon soon moved into the Davis Road squat's small front bedroom.

By the beginning of June 1976, Bernie Rhodes was the Davis Road band's manager, and took it upon himself to find a more suitable rehearsal space.

After Joe Strummer had met Bernie Rhodes, twenty-four hours later on 1st June, 1976, he showed up on the doorstep of the squat where Mick and Paul were living and told them that he wanted to join the new band that would be known as  The Clash. 

(Billy Watts, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Alan Drake & Keith Levene)

Viv Albertine (The Slits) walking down Davis road with Keith Levine and Mick Jones, in 1975 - reference page 103 Viv Albertine 'Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys'

     The Clash on Broadway three-CD box set has a superb informative booklet with a picture on page 22 showing Mick and Paul with a group of friends posing with guitars in front of the 22,Davis road squat, Shepherds Bush, London during mid-May 1976. Just down the road is the Chelsea College of Art & Design where Mick studied.

June, 1976: Rehearsal Rehearsals was situated just inside the gates of the British Rail Yard, on Chalk Farm Road, halfway between Dingwalls and the Roundhouse.

It is the building in the distance.

   It was a disused and dilapidated two-storey end-terrace railway storage shed.

          Bernie found what he considered to be the ideal place right under his nose: not too far from his flat at 268 Camden Road.

Bernie had a Renault garage in Chalk Farm Road, Camden just a few yards away from Rehearsal Rehearsals.

By mid-June, Terry Chimes had become the new drummer.

 The Sex Pistols' image was based on Malcolm McLaren's SEX shop in King's Road whilst the Clash was based on their original basic Oxfam Mod look and the individualised Pollock style - after action painter Jackson Pollock, famous for his splash- and drip-painted abstracts giving way to Pop-Art/Lettrism and urban-guerrilla looks.  

Paul had noticed how often the word 'Clash' appeared in London's Evening Standard newspaper one day and as a result the band soon became known as The Clash.

The Official Ramones Site.

The Clash were influenced by the high-energy MC5 and by the first Ramones album which lead to their desire to be an explosion coming off the stage.

Their first gig was to support the Sex Pistols at the Black Swan Pub in Sheffield on Sunday 4th July 1976.

Their second gig on Friday, 13th August 1976 was a showcase based at Rehearsal Rehearsals.

The room was tiny but all the gear was laid out as if onstage and it seemed natural to rehearse at full speed.

The Clash's first London gig was to support the Sex Pistols at the 'Screen on the Green' cinema, 83 Upper Street, Islington,N1 on Sunday, 29th August, 1976 

    Charles Shaar Murray's New Musical Express review of The Clash at Screen On The Green was to become the most famous of their career.    

https://youtu.be/S0v29O_Kmnc
 

On Tuesday, 31st August 1976, following the Notting Hill Riot, the Clash were booked to support the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club.

On Sunday, 5th September the Clash made their first venture without the Sex Pistols at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm Road. Mick had visited the venue while still at school and played by Joe when with the 101ers. It was to be the last Clash gig for Keith Levene, who was sacked within a week of it.

The Clash did fund-raising gigs at the Hope And Anchor, 207 Upper Street, Islington, N1 1984.

".............at the Hope and Anchor, Islington, between the Clash shows......it didn't take much persuasion....to stick a couple of guitars in cases and drive Mick and Joe up there."

(A Riot of Our Own, p.226)

In time the impact of their gigs would be seen in terms of playing with frightening conviction and intensity.

By mid-November 1976, The Clash recorded their first demos of five songs at Polydor's own studio at 17-19 Stratford Place, just off Oxford Street : '1977'    'Career Opportunities', 'Janie Jones', 'London's Burning' and  'White Riot.'

The building is now made up of a variety of different departments.

Terry Chimes left the band in November, 1976 because he found the Clash regime restricting; rehearsing seven nights a week meant you never got involved with much else.

Strummer at the start of The Clash era, November 1976

The Anarchy Tour opens Friday,3rd December 1976.

The Clash agreed to headline the official 1st January 1977 Roxy opening night in Neal Street.

The Roxy became the core, the centre of the whole Punk scene. The Clash were friends of Don Letts. They would come down to listen to the reggae and just hang out and drink until the club closed at one o'clock.

 Bernie held a meeting in the Ship in Wardour Street during which he told the Clash he wanted 'complete control.' Joe's and Paul's immediate response was to burst into hysterical laughter.

 The Clash signed for CBS, Soho Square on January 27, 1977 and booked themselves into CBS Studio 3 to record the album over three consecutive Thursday-to-Sunday sessions, beginning on 10 February 1977.

               On 24 March, the band went to see the Kinks at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park. Mick bumped into Nick Headon, one of the few successful applicants for the London SS's drummer vacancy, and invited him along to audition for The Clash.

April, 1977 Topper Headon joins The Clash.

After auditioning over 200 drummers, they finally found a replacement in Nicky "Topper" Headon. Then aged 21, he was a wiry little man from Dover who practised Tae Kwon Doe martial arts and had been drumming professionally since he was 15.

The Clash appeared at The Rainbow on 9th May, 1977.

  The infamous 'Pigeon Shooting Incident' on 30 March 1978, Paul and Topper went up on the roof of Rehearsal Rehearsals to try out an air rifle and shot and killed what they thought were three ordinary pigeons, but were in fact expensive racing birds. They were arrested and sent to Brixton Prison. 

   " I walked back to the prison gates to meet Topper, Paul and Crocker as they came out. We milled about outside in the bleak morning air."     

( A Riot of Our Own, p.55)

 Topper and Paul were sent to CLERKENWELL Magistrates Courts for sentencing. They pleaded guilty to "criminal damage" and were fined £30 each. Paul had to pay £20 towards his legal aid and Topper £10 towards his legal aid. They also had to compensate the owner £700 (from £1500) for the lost of his pigeons.

The Rude Boy video has film clips of the above images.

There's a scene in Rude Boy when a cab pulls up to meet Topper and Paul outside the court that day. Some people get out and walk to the court : Tony James, Robin Banks, Mick Jones and Kris Needs is seen paying for it........

The Prince Albert pub in Acton Street is located opposite the Clerkenwell Courts.

Turn right out of the station into Whitechapel High Street, and turn left into Osborn Street.

The band recorded 'Pressure Drop' and 'Complete Control' at Sarm East studios, 9-13 Osborn Street, Whitechapel.

Sarm East Studio, Whitechapel is much smaller than the Sarm West studio in Basing Street.

Near the end of 1977, the Clash were put under pressure to record their second album. Mick and Joe went on holiday to Jamaica to write some new material. They based themselves at The Pegasus Hotel, Jamaica.

(Joe Strummer was hospitalised at Saint Stephens Hospital on Fulham Road in Chelsea when he allegedly contracted Hepatitis B in January, 1978 from swallowing a gob from the audience)

Between April and May 1978, they worked with their producer, Sandy Pearlman at Basing Street studios  , just off Ladbroke Grove.

                   " After all that time at Basing Street, CBS and Pearlman still weren't satisfied with the mix of Give 'Em Enough Rope. CBS had put so much money into the recording...asked Joe and Mick to go to San Francisco for overdubbing, and then New York for mixing."

(A Riot of Our Own, p.103)

            During the recording of Give 'Em Enough Rope, The Clash parted company with manager Bernie Rhodes on 21 October 1978 and decided to move out of Rehearsal Rehearsals.

The Rude Boy was defined as a film about racial and political tensions in the UK.

 Johnny Green and the Baker found Vanilla studios, a dingy low key rehearsal room in Causton Street, Pimlico. In March 1979, the Clash moved in with all their musical equipment.

In Spring 1979, Joe was living in a high-rise flat        31, Whistler's Walk on Chelsea's World's End estate, where the King's Road runs closest to the Thames.

 'London is drowning and I live by the river.'

Back stage at San Francisco with

Bo Diddly, 1979

            By late August 1980, Joe moved again to living just off Ladbroke Grove in a tiny rented flat. Joe thought it was also time to bring back Bernie Rhodes.

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