I noticed from the photo accompanying the article that Jivin' Alan Jones (above left) is pictured with Joe. Well....I hope you are sitting comfortably, and I'll begin the tale.

Alan was in The Vultures with 'Woody' and was also later a member of Newport band The Mirrors.

The Mirrors was a band put together by Garry Lloyd Thomas on guitar/vocals, who also wrote the songs. Andy Smith was on lead/backing vocals and Trevor Jones on drums. Alan played bass. Garry had been a close friend of 'Woody's back in their Newport days, since he was also at Newport Art College and lived in the Pentonville House. It was also Lloyd Thomas who taught 'Woody' to play guitar.

Back in 1977, the now defunct Melody Maker sent a reporter (I believe it was Steve Sutherland) to discover The Mirrors' phenomenon. The article began... "About 150 miles west of London is the worst place in the world. It is called Newport. But it is home to The Mirrors."

The two page article was a eulogy to the bright, energised, raw yet melodic sound that had been extemporised by the rigors of life in a small Welsh border town: once Victorian and rather posh, but which had been left to deteriorate and decline with the rise of early Thatcheristic policies which saw more than half the town unemployed due to closure of the major employer - the steel industry, and a desolate mind-set that replace the creative energy that once celebrated the landscape, local industry and the arts. The Mirrors were chomping at the bit.

However...not long after the Melody Maker piece ran, some other (hitherto totally unknown) English band loomed. They also called themselves The Mirrors, so when the article appeared this lot immediately renamed themselves The Original Mirrors.

Even though this band didn't sound anything like our boys, and even though The (Welsh) Mirrors had covered a lot of ground, including support slots with The Stranglers, X-Ray Spex, Sham 69, Siouxsie, The Damned, The Jam and a coterie of the top punk bands of the day, including major gigs at The Vortex, The Marquee and The Nashville Rooms, the struggle to maintain their own identity with the young pretenders was fraught with difficulties.

Releasing the seminal single "A Cure For Cancer" jettisoned them into the charts, but, still distanced from the London scene, and having exhausted their own Giro accounts, The (real, original) Mirrors disbanded.

Fast forward...I am working with the Chiefs of Relief, managed by Rusty Egan, at Trident Studios in Soho, London. Chiefs of Relief were fronted by Matthew Ashman (Bow Wow Wow, Adam and The Ants) and Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) on drums. Rusty left, I took over. We toured with Big Audio Dynamite (twice) and our mate, Mick Jones decided to record the follow up to "B.A.D". ("10 Upping Street") at Trident.

One night Mick rang upstairs to my office and called me into the studio. I knew Joe was with him, it had been the buzz of the studio all day, as it was the first time they had been together in a studio, or anywhere else for that matter since The Clash split. Mick and Joe were each working on a mix of a track that would appear on the album and Mick wanted my opinion of the two mixes. I think Steve Osborne was the engineer that night. Anyway, I sat between them at the console and without telling me who had done which they played both versions. I preferred Joe's. Mick was bummed.

An awkward moment perhaps. But because of the nature of this amazing experience (I knew it was a unique, historic occasion) I wanted to share something of my own. Breaking the momentary silence, I turned to Joe and said, "So, Woody...! Tell me. How is Jivin' Al?"

Joe's jaw dropped open and he promptly fell off his chair. Staggering back into his seat he spluttered..."Whaaaat?? How do you know Jivin' Al??"

As I explained my connection to Garry, Alan and The Mirrors, Joe, still kinda shocked, spluttered..."Garry Thomas is a genius. He's the most creative, amazing person I know, he taught me so much...".and stuff like that. At this point I could sense Mick was feeling a bit peeved (I had, after all, dissed his mix AND he was paying for the studio time) so I got up to leave with Joe's parting shot in my ears: "If you see them, give them my best."

The last time I saw Joe was on top of a mountain in San Bernardino, California, 1992. Rat Scabies (another old friend) was there too, and I admit it was a little incongruous to see these stalwarts of the '70s punk scene pushing prams and talking about their projects for Disney. Anyhoo, it was a big shindig with The Chemical Brothers, Underworld and Orbital, Meat Beat Manifesto, and a slew of the new great Brit hopes for the '90s. It was Snow Summit and it was a fantastic US introduction to the next wave of great (albeit electronically orientated) music groundbreakers.

Chrissie Wilson works for Bread & Buddah Music & Media in Venice, California

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Read Richard Frame's article

Vultures roadie Peter Haywood remembers Joe

Joe Strummer Obituary - 22 December 2002

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