- by Jon Tobutt
- Thursday, October 23, 2003
If you’re a music journalist, unemployed or a student (same difference) you tend to find an appreciation for activities that will alleviate boredom and cost as little money as possible. Which is why at the moment I have great fondness in Teletext and Ceefax. I am a relative newcomer to this invention and think that it is one of the greatest things ever created, as at the touch of a button you can check up on news and sport without watching some grubby newsreader scrabbling for the Dyke/Murdoch dollar. I’m also fascinated by these faceless hacks who may be writing the articles from Millbank, Parliament, or as I suspect, some broom cupboard in White City. One page in particular that I’m rather partial to, is The Void on Channel 4 (p.352 if you’re interested). This page is devoted entirely to comments on music and I like to think of it as a pub toilet wall being beamed into your living room. Usually the standard fare runs something like this: “I hate The Darkness, they look like girls.” “I love The Darkness, they don’t look like girls.” Then finally some irritating ‘third way’ person will pop up and say, “Why can’t we just all accept that everyone has their own taste in music and whoever you like is of no greater or lesser value than any other group.” END OF DEBATE (on the subject of The Darkness, I think they should be buried alive in a mountain of cocaine so that their demise is an ‘ironic’ eighties death.) RIGHT DEFINITLY END OF DEBATE; sorry I just had to get my two pennyworths in.
Anyway, one letter that did catch my eye the other week was some rather odd individual who wanted to see the reformation of various groups such as the Stone Roses, Smiths and confusingly The Clash. Before Joe Strummer’s rather untimely and unfortunate death, he had got back on good terms with Mick Jones and the pair had played together on a couple of times sparking rumours of a reunion. If any good can actually come from Joe’s death, it surely must be that The Clash can now never ever reform – at least not fully. First of all, if Joe had not died and they did reform, surely this would’ve undermined everything that The Clash ever stood for. For example when they released the giant album Sandinista! it was proclaimed by Joe that “No Clash album would ever cost more than six quid” so that “The Kids” would never be ripped off. Following a wrangle with Columbia who agreed to this as long as the band waived royalties on the first 200,000 copies, West London's finest kidnapped the master tapes and held them to ransom. I’m sure you’ll agree this sort of cheek and defiance against the people who effectively pay your wages is brilliant and principled, and I for one certainly can’t see Chris Martin and those other ‘sensitive’ creeps that make up Coldplay doing anything comparable so they don’t rip off “The Kids”. However surely this would’ve been undermined by any reunion. Imagine a thirty-date UK tour visiting all the major cities and while the band might sing 'Know Your Rights', 'Koka Kola', 'Lost in the Supermarket' and 'Career Opportunities'. Songs which excellently point out problems such as prejudice, poverty, alienation and disillusionment caused by rampant western capitalism, they would probably be thinking about the swelling of wallets, three holidays a year for life and a shiny new 4x4. The second problem with any Clash reunion is simply how horrific it would look. Four middle-aged, saggy-arsed blokes leaping about, shouting about youth culture and oppressive politics. While other saggy-arsed middle-aged blokes (who are by now well established in the world of middle management and who arrived in their Volvos) pogo about drinking bitter and worrying about their prostate gland and the traffic on the way out. Suddenly a very dangerous band that caused many parents, local counsellors and teachers to worry about the corruption of the nation’s youth’s moral fibre, are playing to an audience that are worried about whether 50 Cent is corrupting their son/daughter.
I would have dearly loved to see The Clash in their full glory. Imagine being part of the crowd when Paul Simonon trashed his Bass at the New York Palladium in 1979 to create arguably the best Rock and Roll photograph ever. Or seeing them when they were still quite small in the 100 Club, and rioting while they played 'White Riot'. Certainly no reunion tour would ever have come close to these frenzied heights. The Clash still sound incredible and what they stood for is highly laudable, but they’ll forever remain at their best between 1977 and 1982 and while we may never be able to see them, there is still a terrific legacy of albums to enjoy. On a final note, I hope and feel that Joe Strummer would have been decent enough to put the kibosh on any ‘serious’ reformation – and maybe his heart (both spiritually and physically) has done that. LONG LIVE THE CLASH! 
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