Tributes to Strummer

Gigs to mark 5th anniversary of his death

22 Dec 2007 - Friends have paid tribute to Joe Strummer, who died five years ago today. Strummer suffered a heart attack and it later emerged he had a heart defect. He was 50.

Various tribute gigs are also being staged tonight (Saturday) to celebrate the life of The Clash frontman. Brixton's JAMM club will host London Calling - Remembering Joe Strummer, featuring members of Primal Scream, Carter USM, Oasis (Bonehead), The Happy Mondays, The Smiths and Paul Weller's band. The night has been organised by Geoff Martin, director of the Glastonbury Leftfield Stage, and money raised will go to the Strummerville Foundation, Jail Guitar Doors and Rock Against Racism '08.

Chris Salewicz, author of the definitive Strummer biography Redemption Song, will be co-hosting a tribute gig in LA at the Key Club. Love and Rockets are on the bill for the show tonight.

Anthony Genn of The Hours was in Strummer's band The Mescaleros. He told 6 Music: "He was always a man who had a solution to a problem. It was usually to have a drink and listen to some tunes - but it was quite often a good solution I found!"

Film-maker Julien Temple was another friend of The Clash frontman and he recently released his documentary The Future Is Unwritten on DVD. He told 6 Music that Strummer's enduring appeal is down to his character as well as his musical legacy: "Well, I think he was an amazing communicator and listener to other people as well.

"I think he did go out of his way to sit down with people and here what they had to say - even if he knew he was going to disagree with it, he was interested in how they got to where they were. That informed his lyrics and his music, the sense that he had an awareness of a lot of opinions of people. Uniquely, people who were fans of The Clash felt they had this very intimate relationship with Joe."

"Fans of The Clash felt they had this very intimate relationship with Joe"
Julien Temple

Temple added: "He was a very complicated man but he did manage to create very simple and direct lyrics. No one really boiled down more powerfully what they had to say than Joe."

He described the prospect of a night with Strummer as knowing "you were in for a fantastic evening's ride - mental, humour, just an off the wall take on things and fantastic music, you knew you were going to enjoy living those next few hours, that's what I remember best."

Chris Salewicz added that Strummer's boyhood as the son of a diplomat living all over the world contributed to his sociable nature. "Joe and his brother David would operate as waiters at diplomatic social affairs and you can see later in life, Joe's very good, he's always the perfect host," he said. "Very good at making sure people have got a glass full, finding somewhere for people to sit. You can see where this all comes from."

The Redemption Song biography has been praised for its complete portrait of Strummer's life. "It isn't really Saint Joe," Salewicz told 6 Music. "He has a very broad life and I think he had struggles with himself and his behaviour could be extremely baffling to himself.

"For example, the peculiar action of kicking Mick Jones out of the group, which led to Joe's fall, essentially, because it led to the end of The Clash and him plunging into depression."

Salewicz described the response to Strummer's death on 22 December 2002: "There was a globally collective grief. People from all political creeds suddenly revealed themselves as always having love Joe, from Martin Scorsese, which people may have known already, to Boris Johnson for example."

Geoff Martin said of tonight's Brixton show: "We wanted to mark the fifth anniversary of Joe Strummer's death with a unique event that marks the positive impact that his life had on so many of us."

Andre Paine