JOE STRUMMER

with

THE 101'ers & THE CLASH

1974 - 1976

 

http://www.uncut.co.uk/features/joe-strummer-the-early-years-even-then-he-has-this-charisma-70350
 

        " These previously unpublished documentary photographs provide a unique insight into the rise of Joe Strummer - from his early days fronting the legendary '101'ers through to the birth of The Clash and the explosion of punk.

Packed with over 65 superb black and white photographs, this new volume pre-dates existing available material and concentrates on the formative period of Strummer's career, prior to his gaining world-wide recognition with The Clash."    

(Quoted from the back cover of the above book which can be purchased by clicking on the book cover design)
 
 Joe Strummer, second son of a Foreign Office diplomat, was born John Graham Mellor on August 21, 1952 in Ankara, Turkey. From the age of eight, he attended boarding schools in London and Surrey. He was a model student and got O'Levels in Art, English and History and an A'Level in Art.
 

Joe Strummer's parents house:15, Court Farm Road, Warlington, Surrey CR6 9BL {Years of Residence: 1955 TO 1965}
 

 

(John Mellor, with his schoolfriend Ken Powell, concentrating on their work at City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead,Surrey)

In 1970, Joe was accepted onto a Foundation course at the Central School of Art & Design, Southampton Row (now part of Central St.Martin's School of Art) and he lived in a suburban street at 18, Ash Grove, Palmers Green, North London.

(July 1970 Joe at Cuckmere Haven Campsite aged 17 year old)
 

Southgate Underground is the nearest train station to Bourne Road which leads into Hedge Lane and onto the peaceful world of ASH GROVE Road.

 

Joe shared a house at 18 Ash Grove in the northern London suburb of Palmers Green with some other Central School of Art and Design students. Clive Timperley had a room in Ash Grove early in 1971.He brought along a friend, Tymon Dogg, who had spent the previous two months sleeping on the floor of his former flat.

 

Tymon Dogg - 1970's

 

Houses immediately opposite.

Nearby shops in Hedge Lane.

Joe decided to leave the Central School of Art and Design College at roughly the same time as the Ash Grove household broke up in mid-1971.
 
 

Exit Holborn Station and turn right, The Central School of Art and Design in Southampton Row, is on the right.
 

 Walking through the wooden front doors and down the corridor, it gradually opens up into the world of the Central School of Art & Design.

 

 

Joe next moved on to 34, Ridley road, Harlesden.
   

 

 In 1972 the Ridley road residents were evicted bodily. All their goods, and all Joe's records, were chucked out of an upstairs bedroom window into the garden.

 

“On 21st August 2022 Joe Strummer would have been 70 and to commemorate this, an exhibition of photographs will be shown in the hall in Newport, South Wales in which Joe played his first gig in October 1973. It was at the time the the Students Union on Stow Hill.
He arrived in Newport after leaving art college in London and having deciding that rock and roll was his future. At one point he worked as a gravedigger where one day had his photograph taken leaning on a shovel. This iconic photograph has been recreated by some of the local musicians who have been connected to Newport during the last 30 years.
He came to Newport to learn his trade, arriving as “Woody” and leaving as Joe Strummer.
The exhibition will open on Sunday 21st August 2022 and will run for one week only.“

 

 

“After following an ex girlfriend down to Cardiff Art College in 1972 and being told he wasn’t wanted, Woody called into Newport on his way back to London to see some old college friends. The bustling port town, a little down on its luck was never the less awash with art students whose presence was clearly visible. On his first night he was taken to the students union on Stow Hill where he stumbled across the college band rehearsing in a back room, liking what he saw and felt, he nipped back to his parents in Surrey where he knocked off a quick postcard to a friend.
> “I’m going down the M4 to Newport Wales, I’ve decided to settle down there for a while. The stinking press of humanity drives me from London. I’m playing the guitar a lot now and I’m going to Newport to practice and get shit hot. May take a year or two”.
> Joe crashed on the floor of a friend from college in London, now studying fine art in Newport, Forbes Leishman and in a letter to his mate from school he explains he’s going to spend all winter practicing playing his guitar. In 1973 he moved from sleeping on the floor to a room behind the railway station with the luxury of a bed and some bits of furniture rescued from skips.
> His stay at Pentonville were his most creative, and by the time 1973 was drawing to a close he was well on the road to rock and roll stardom.


> In 1974 he moved in with another earlier London friend Jill Calvert and her boyfriend Micky Foote. The deal for him being able to stay, was that he wrote Micky’s thesis, the subject ‘pop music’ presented Joe with no problem . In April 1974 Joe returned to London“

 

 

Cathy Cooper met Joe Strummer in Newport:

{Source: Ignore Alien Orders by Tony Beesley & Anthony Davie}

 

 

 

 

 

 

      Early in 1973, Joe drifted to Newport College of Art and Design with the intention of looking up another old Central School of Art & Design College friend, Forbes....at that time taking the Fine Art course.
   

When he first arrived in Newport, Joe lived in the basement at 16, Clyffard Crescent with Forbes (who also had an address Joe used known as : Wood c/o Sir Forbes Freshman, 18 North Street, Newport, Wales) and Mick Foote, a fine art student, who later went onto produce The Clash's self-title debut album.

 

 

By chance he met up with the College musicians in the Student Union; and in time became the vocalist for a band originally called Flaming Youth before renaming the band The Vultures. Most nights Joe would be found up at the Students Union on Stow Hill.
   

The main Student Union building was situated at 88, Stow Hill.

The Student Union included number 90, Stow Hill on the left and number 88, Stow Hill on the right of the photograph.

The Student Union with the cellar beneath.

The Student Union bar was situated to the left of the front door at 88, Stow Hill.

Whilst the Student Union Hall was situated down the corridor from behind the front door and was where The Vultures  appeared with Joe on vocals.

The Student Union Hall.

" During his first night in Newport he'd gone up the students Union on Stow Hill, a real dump of a place, but a hive of musical activity. Like all good art colleges there were at least a few bands bashing away, that night a rehearsal was in full swing with the band that was to become the Vultures. Not having anything better to do and liking the feel of the place, Joe decided to stay, having already spent some time in art college himself he fitted in perfectly."

 

The SILVER SANDS in Pill (Commercial Road) was a Night Club Joe visited on a Saturday night and was where he was introduced to a type of reggae that his fellow students had not heard before.

" Another popular place for us all to hang out in on a Saturday night was The Silver Sands club down in the docks of Newport. You paid your small entrance fee,bought a can of Colt 45 and headed off down into the dungeon where it was pitch black with air thick with dope and very loud West Indian music, which was new to us, it was a type of Reggae but the only singing came from those who got up and grabbed the mike, a sort of early karaoke come rap thing. The influence of this place can clearly be heard on a lot of the Clash's material, particularly on White Man in Hammersmith Palais.
I have no doubt that when Woody left in '74 that what he took away with him helped shape the forthcoming Punk Movement and probably one of the greatest rock bands ever - The Clash."

 
 

 

"Joe told me about drinking after hours in the basement of the Silver Sands Restaurant on Commercial Road and how the West Indian guys got 12 inch vinyl straight off the boat and toasted over it, rapping along live into a microphone like U.Roy or Prince Farai. The fact that Joe was exposed to that in my hometown and the way he brought reggae and rock together with The Clash a few years later is just amazing to me.”
 

 

The Murenger pub in the town centre was often a favourite drinking venue for Joe and his friends.

 

Woody at a Newport College of Art student party in 1973 taken by Cathy Cooper

{RAY HALL, Woody, VAL GRIFFITHS and JOHN GILLING}

 

 

52-53, High Street, Newport...

 " The first time I met Joe was in The Murenger pub in 1973 a favourite haunt of us art students as it was the only pub in town you could smoke a joint in the back bar. Apparently John "Woody" Mellor had had enough of dosing around London and had decided to head down to Cardiff in pursuit of an old girl friend. It seemed she wasn't particularly keen on seeing him again and sent him packing. With no real plans he decide to call in on Newport looking for an old friend Martyn Forbes who he'd been at art college in London the previous year."
 

   Newport Cemetery is located at the top of Stow Hill. Bassaleg and Risca Roads skirt the Cemetery. This is where Joe took a job tending the graves.

   
   

  From the centre of Newport town, Stow Hill leads into Bassaleg Road.

 

      The Hand Post Pub is at the junction of Bassaleg Road and Risca Road. With Risca leading off to the right of the pub.

 

 

   Llanthewy Road joins Risca Road and leads down into Devon Place and Pentonville where Joe Strummer lived.

 

 

Corn Exchange in High Street, Newport...

 

36, Brewett Street, Newport...

 

Joe lived at Pentonville opposite NEWPORT Railway Station and appeared to be walking up Brewett Street towards 16, Clyffard House where his friend lived, Micky Foote who produced the first Clash LP record...

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

Caerau Road leads into Clytha Park Road which passes over the railway line and on into the Queensway where Newport Station (South Wales) is located.
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

      Being of slight build, Joe wasn't strong enough to actually dig the graves, so he just used to wheel the barrow around and collect the broken jam jars.

He spent a whole winter doing nothing but this in Newport.

He was paid £15.50 a week...

 

The bar manager in 'The Hand Post Hotel' where Joe drank after finishing work as a grave digger said Joe was a lovely polite gentleman, "...Joe changed the music scene in Newport in 1974 and he was something special. The guitarist in the Vultures was outstanding."

The Hand Post Hotel location, Risca Road, Newport, NP20 4HX...

 

Between the Queensway and Devon Place is located Newport Railway Station.

Pentonville is at the end of Devon Place with St.Marks Church nearby.

 

St Marks Church is in Gold Tops Road.

Gold Tops links with Serpentine Road, Stanley Road and Devon Place.

 

             A Newport College of Art musician by the name of Jiving Al was living in a flat at 12 Pentonville, behind the train station, and Joe was invited to move into the spare room for the remainder of his stay in Newport.
 

1 to 8 Pentonville

 

 

Opposite 1 to 8 Pentonville is SHIRE HALL which was Newport's County Hall but is now a block of Offices.

On the corner of Queens Hill stood a Police Station and the Law Courts.

The Newport Magistrates Court have been based here since the early 90's but were originally ESTATE OFFICES owned by Lord Tredegar which is situated at one end of Pentonville. 0ne to eight Pentonville are situated on the left with Queens Hill on the right.

View from Newport Magistrates Court down to the small hamlet of Pentonville.

    Although Joe knew a lot of people, he was not a great mixer, and much of his time was spent on his own, in his room. Joe would spend his time working on a variety of activities which involved painting, reading, writing and strumming his guitar.

 

During his stay in Newport, Joe Strummer was actually known as Woody (Guthrie) Mellor.

Situated between the News agency (10 & 11) and SERVU TAXI (13) is 12 Pentonville with a landlord and tenants.

Richard Frame remained in Newport after leaving the Art College and actually socialised with Joe before moving into his room when Joe moved out and back to London.

 

 

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/untold-story-punk-hero-joe-14847627
 

Joe's room was on the second floor on the right.

The left window was where the kitchen stood.                                             

 " Later he moved into a flat in Pentonville and it was here that he really got down to learning to play the guitar. He'd come down with his ukulele, which he'd already learnt a couple of tunes on and had even down a bit of busking with.".

" Woody was very serious when it came to music and would always be jotting things down in a little note book, it was whilst living in Pentonville that he recorded the first song he'd written, "Crummy Bum Blues" on an old reel to reel tape recorder."

STRUMMER TAPE DISCOVERED

     Although Joe was not himself a full-time student at Newport College of Art, he was living a life that was as full and stimulating as poverty would allow.

(Strummer in Newport)
 

   

The Red building use to be Lovell's Cafe, a debt collector building and a series of Second hand shops.

             The Mill Street Club use to be called The Aluminium Club.
 

A small row of shops are situated opposite 12 Pentonville. To the right is the entrance to the UNDER PATH leading under the railway line and directly into the heart of Newport town.

 A BRIDGE use to cross over the railway line and the entrance was to the left of the shop which was a Newsagent but is now the RAILWAY TANDOORI.

 

 

With the development of the Railway Station Area, the bridge was demolished during the early 80's and the UNDERPATH built.

 
 

The UNDER PATH is down a stepping ramp to the right of the photograph (below left).

 
 

            At the other end of Pentonville is the ROYAL MAIL pub and a cul de sac.                 

The pub use to be called The Old White Lion and a major through road existed but now a Royal Mail building stands and a series of bollards.

 

View looking back up to the small hamlet of Pentonville.
 

    On the opposite side to Newport Town Centre are the ruins of NEWPORT CASTLE. The DOME in the distance is the old and neglected NEWPORT SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN building in Clarence Place, which closed in the early 90's, and stands alongside the River USK. In the past, the Art College was an engineer college known as the NEWPORT TECHNICAL INSTITUTE.
   

NEWPORT CASTLE

Founded by the Earls of Stafford 1372-1386.

Re-fortified at the time of the rising led by Owain Glyndwr 1403-1457.

Renovated and remodelled by the Dukes of Buckingham 1424-1457. 

Acquired by Newport Corporation & Lord Tredegar 1891-1900.

Transferred into State Care 1930.

 Looking towards the TOWN CENTRE

from opposite Newport College of Art.

 
 
 
 
Part 1

After following an ex girlfriend down to Cardiff Art College in 1972 and being told he wasn’t wanted, Woody called into Newport on his way back to London to see some old college friends. The bustling port town, a little down on its luck was never the less awash with art students whose presence was clearly visible. On his first night he was taken to the students union on Stow Hill where he stumbled across the college band rehearsing in a back room, liking what he saw and felt, he nipped back to his parents in Surrey where he knocked off a quick postcard to a friend.
“I’m going down the M4 to Newport Wales, I’ve decided to settle down there for a while. The stinking press of humanity drives me from London. I’m playing the guitar a lot now and I’m going to Newport to practice and get shit hot. May take a year or two”.
Joe crashed on the floor of a friend from college in London, now studying fine art in Newport, Forbes Leishman and in a letter to his mate from school he explains he’s going to spend all winter practicing playing his guitar. In 1973 he moved from sleeping on the floor to a room behind the railway station with the luxury of a bed and some bits of furniture rescued from skips.
His stay at Pentonville were his most creative, and by the time 1973 was drawing to a close he was well on the road to rock and roll stardom.
In 1974 he moved in with another earlier London friend Jill Calvert and her boyfriend Micky Foote. The deal for him being able to stay, was that he wrote Micky’s thesis, the subject ‘pop music’ presented Joe with no problem . In April 1974 Joe returned to London
 
 
Part 2

Joe’s room was on the first floor of a three story dump and he had the magnificent view over the railway station. Jiving Al recalls.
“This place was very seedy, very basic. I remember the rent, £15 a month. Always trouble with the landlord, all the usual stuff. Not to sound boring, but we were seriously poor. I can recall coming home after going to see my parents , and Woody said he’d spent the whole weekend with no money, and there’d been great excitement because he’d found 50 pence down the back of a chair. I suppose we weren’t very clean, and weren’t hygienic and there was an awful lot of mice. Loads”.
Despite this Joe’s room was crammed full of musical equipment, some of it his, some borrowed, guitars, drums, amps, speakers and a reel to reel tape recorder, on which he recorded a song of his “Crummy Bum Blues” which features in Julien Temples 2007 film “the Future is Unwritten”.
 
Part 3

In 2005 a plaque, paid for by Newport City Council, was unveiled below the window of Joe’s room in Pentonville, by his widow Lucinda. A small group of people gathered round whilst Richard Frame said a few words about the house in which an unknown number of art students had resided in those early days of the 1970’s. He then went to play a recording of the song that Joe had made in the room above them, “Crummy Bum Blues”. It was from this house that Joe would have set off to work in the nearby cemetery of St Woolos and where he had had the iconic photograph of him leaning of the shovel taken.
 
 
 
Part 4

In 1971 Terry Earl Taylor arrived in town and moved into a flat with Allan Jones, who later became a music journalist, writing for the Melody Maker before becoming its editor and eventually ending up as editor of Uncut. It was thanks to a few lines in the Melody Maker in 1975 in which Jones compares Joe’s band the 101ers with proto punk American band ‘Television' that their bookings were transformed overnight.
Terry and some friends got together and formed a band rehearsing in the art college. He became the college entertainment officer and armed with a cheque book and cash from a grant from the local council started putting on bands in the canteen, which included Nik Lowe, Medicine Head and Arthur Brown. Following a meeting with the council he was given the keys to 88 Stow Hill which became the ‘ nion' providing them with a place to put on dances and disco’s.Terry ’s band became Rip off Park Rock and Roll Allstars, included Neil Irons, T Gwyn Williams, Adrian Sleeman, Bob Jackson, Clive Ablett together with Bob Jackson and right at the end Rob Hamer, Jiving Al and Joe joined them, however they didn’t play any gigs with them.
 
 
Part 5

The union.
By the time Joe arrived in 1972 the Union was in full swing and its claimed that on his first visit he came upon the “Allstars” rehearsing upstairs which sealed his move to Newport.
The bar boasted of a fine juke box but the same couldn’t be said of the beer, the best coming from bottles, and Newcastle.
Once a week the front room upstairs would be packed with students to see Top of the Pops, a much smaller and discerning group would also gather weekly to watch Whistling Bob Harris’ Old Grey Whistle Test and it was in 1973 that The New York Dolls appeared. Joe recalls that appearance.
“I remember all the musicians and the students in the Union watching it ..and it just wiped everybody out, the attitude, the clothing, it was different from all this earnest music worshipping nonsense that had come with progressive rock”.
Rip off Park Rock and Roll Allstars broke up in 1973 and from its ashes a new band formed called Deux Ex Machina, but this wasn’t Joe’s, he still had a while to go for that. He was still learning his trade and the more experienced Bob Hamer took charge on guitar with Jiving Al playing bass, mortician Jeff Cooper on drums and Joe initially singing, as he couldn’t move his fingers fast enough. Writing to his old schoolfriend he said.
“We’ve got a new band together which might be ok if I don’t get thrown out for my voice. It's so futuristic”.
In October that year to the same friend he wrote.
“We did four gigs last week. The first one was playing at the students union disco which we played good, although I was shitting myself because it was my first gig but I learnt much there”.

Joe at Student Union
Dance at union. Gary Thomas on guitar. © Terry Evans
Gill Calvert in centre talking to Richard Frame right with Micky Foote far left.
Extract from Joe’s Letter
 
Part 6

The music
In the 1970’s hundreds of men were still signing up in Newport for the Merchant Navy, the docks and quaysides were still busy with vessels from all around the world. Boats from the Soviet Union were regular visitors and the only place the crew were allowed to drink was the “Communist bar” tucked away in a backroom of the docklands Alexandra Inn. Bars, clubs and working men’s joints were to be found all over the town. A huge number providing live music. The Silver Sands was a dockland Jamaican resturant but on Saturday evenings the basement was home to a unique sound. It was here that Joe and those students who dared to venture that far down town, first experienced `Toasting’ . You had the choice of making your own, or purchasing a crisply rolled joint. All that was required was 20p admission and the purchase of a tin of Colt 45.
The favourite working mens clubs to see bands was the ‘Black Clawsons’ and the Labour Club both on Stow Hill, there was even a folk club and Jazz club, . Newport Rugby Club in the early 70s had been the place to go where the likes of Status Quo and Slade had played, now bands were playing in the ‘Union’ . The Kensington was another popular haunt and it had been there that Amen Corner had played in the 60’s and some years later Roxy Music, apart from visiting the club, Joe wrote in 1973
“We played the famed Kensington Club which is a big club where people like Dr John play on tours and on Monday nights, where they have a crud night, and where they only charge 15p admission, they put on bands trying to make it. We were the only band and there was 776 people there. The manager said after it was great ……we came on looking dead rough and went straight into ‘Tobacco Road’ and ‘Can’t Explain’. I was sweating like a pig and had black nail varnish on with me leathers”.
 
Part 7

Pentonville
Unbeknown to those of us living in the three story building in Pentonville, and there were a lot of us, the whole place was being held up with props in the basement. One night after a drunken night in the ‘Newfoundout’ drinking rough cider we broke into the basement. Revealing why the floor in Joe’s room in the front of the building on the first floor was slightly higher than that of 'Jiving Al’s' at the back. Joe’s room overlooked the railway station and had become an early home recording studio. In there, apart from the essential things like a bed and table, Joe had accumulated a whole array of musical instruments and equipment including drums and various guitars. There was even a reel to reel tape recorder and it was on this that Joe recorded his first documented song, “Crummy Bum Blues” which features in Julien Temple’s film “The future is Unwritten”. He was joined on the recording by ‘Jiving Al’ and another art student, Martin. It was thanks to this tape recorder that the only other college band at that time 'The Gaydogs' recorded their musical endeavours which were certainly punk in both sound and attitude. Musicial influences at that time were coming from the likes of Dr Feelgood and across the pond, with no internet, You Tube or dedicated TV channels for music, the NME and Melody Maker were essential reading.
In 2005 just three years after the death of Joe a plaque, paid for by Newport City Council was unveiled on the building by his widow Lucinda at which the recording of ‘Crummy Bum Blues’ was played.
 
Part 8

Days before what would have been Joe’s 70th birthday a group of family, friends and admirers gathered outside the old students union on Stow Hill in Newport on Thursday 4th August to watch the unveiling of a plaque to mark the location of the the place where Joe played his first gig in 1973. Two of his grandchildren assisted by their grandmother Gabby and mum Lola pulled the cords to reveal the blue plaque on the building which is now the Share Centre at 88 Stow Hill.
Richard Frame who had arrived in Newport, at the same time as Joe, in 1972 to study at the art college explained to those assembled, that Joe had called in at Newport on route home to London from a visit to Cardiff. Stopping at a friends bedsit for the night, he was brought up to the the students union where he stumbled on the college band, Rip off Park Rock n’ Roll All Stars playing in a back room. Having made up his mind that being an illustrator was not his thing and that rock and roll was the way forward he decided to move down the M4, to pursue his dream, and get ‘shit hot’. In 1973 he finally joined a student band, but he was concerned that they may think his voice was ‘too futuristic.’ After weeks of rehearsals in the union they played their first gig there in October and afterwards Joe wrote to a friend in London revealing that he had been very nervous but that had learnt a lot from it. They went onto to play regularly as the Vultures and during that time he went from strength to strength, gaining confidence all the time. But in 1974 the band was coming to an end so having achieved what he wanted from his time in Newport he returned to London. Good bye Vultures and hello 101ers.
Thanks to Gaby and Lola and to all their friends and family who came to Newport to unveil the plaque and visit the ‘old union’, and thanks to Winding Snake Productions for paying for the plaque, to Pobl Housing and The Share Centre for hosting it and providing everyone with drinks and cake and toys.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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