Townehouse show an all-star tribute to the late Joe Strummer
By LARA BRADLEY,
THE SUDBURY STAR
26 Feb 2009
Full URL
When you read Smiley's quotes, imagine them with a cockney accent.
To back up a bit, Smiley (who wouldn't tell me his real name) played with Joe Strummer for two years in his final band, the Mescaleros. Strummer, of course, was the iconic frontman of legendary punk band The Clash, who passed away in 2002 from an undiagnosed heart defect.
"He rightfully got his place in the hall of fame. I think there is different ways of looking at the influence people in music have," Smiley said.
"Technically, some politically, some mythically ... I think Joe crossed over. He had a long career and a very clever career. His songs stand up today as they did then in a very kind of aggressive era. You still hear Clash tunes on the radio as you did then."
Like Smiley, Strummer's name was also a fabrication. Born John Mellor, he adopted Strummer in the early 1970s, while he was with the 101ers (just before forming The Clash).
The name came from the fact that his friend taught him to play guitar right handed, despite the fact he was a leftie. As you can imagine, this hampered his playing somewhat and meant he had to stick to strumming chords.
The Clash, which crashed into the London music scene of 1976 opening for the Sex Pistols, were the part of that initial wedge that drove punk from the grimy underground into the mainstream. Their songs tackled social decay, unemployment, racism, police brutality and political and social repression. Strummer was the voice and rhythm guitarist behind singles like I Fought the Law, London Calling, Should I Stay or Should I Go Now, and so many others.
When The Clash imploded in the 1980s, he toured for a while with the Pogues and later wrote soundtracks for movies like Sid and Nancy and Grosse Point Blank. Then, in the late 1990s, Strummer put a band together called the Mescaleros.
"I was in his band for two years. We went around the world twice. I did 88 shows with him. I carried on keeping in contact. He was my friend as well, until he sadly left us," said Smiley.
By the time Strummer formed the Mescaleros, he interests had expanded beyond punk.
"There was a lot of ethnic kind of influences -- Colombian music, and Mexican music and stuff I never even heard of," he said. "He had all these cassettes of mad Madagascan, Mexican, whatever they were, married up with New York or Africa. His mind seemed to be in so many areas."
It was during a chat with a former Mescalero Pablo Cook, that the idea for the band Los Mondo Bongo, a celebration of Strummer's music in all its various forms, came together.
"It's actually 10 years since Pablo and I were in the Mescaleros ... Pablo and I have done a few guest appearances at a few tribute concerts," Smiley said. "There's so many people who want to be part of what Joe was. We're just that little bit closer in the equation."
No one out there actually doing Strummer's music, he said, over his cellphone, from his home in England.
"Between us, I thought we could grab an A-list of celebrity friends."
"I knew people who would be seriously interested and people who would be inspired by him," said Smiley. "For instance, Derek Forbes of Simple Minds. That New Wave thing was around in the punk era. Mike Peters, obviously, from The Alarm. He lives and breathes Strummer."
The Alarm, a Welsh band that came out in the early 1980s combining punk, folk, new wave, and classic rock, had opened for acts such as U2 and Bob Dylan.
"I didn't think we'd get Mike, actually. I went cap in hand and said 'Do you fancy doing it?' " Smiley added.
He did. So did the others. The lure of playing and reconnecting with Strummer's music was impossible to resist.
Strummer has achieved almost a mythic status in popular culture, but he was also a regular, non-violent (except with that episode of hitting a fan with his guitar in Germany) kind of person.
"When I explain this to people, I don't think they believe me. He was extremely gentle," said Smiley. "The most intelligent man I ever met. What always stood in my mind for many years, which I always picked up on, he was always interested, if not more interested, in everybody that he met than they were in him."
When they played festivals, Smiley said, Strummer was a magnet for celebrities. However, often Smiley would find him hanging out with the caterers, the hotel clerks, or fans in the bar. Not in a superficial way, either.
"You'd look over an hour later and he'd still be there. He'd find out all about them -- their parents, their lives, what they do, their hobbies, their interests," he said.
With the Mondo Bongo, the band has chosen to devote two-thirds of its sets to Strummer's Clash tunes and the rest to his Mescaleros period.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how Mike portrays Joe. Having seen the Alarm recently, he is Strummer in so many ways ... In the way he shuts his eyes and envelops the spirit of '76," he said.
The band's first show will be on March 12 in Montreal, followed by Ottawa and then Sunday on March 14 at The Townehouse Tavern in Sudbury. Opening for them will be Sudbury punk phenom The Statues. Don't wait to buy your tickets at the door as the show will sell out. Soon. That's why it's in the paper today.
- - -
MONDO BONGO
Los Mondo Bongo -- Joe Strummer's Mescaleros:
* With Opening Band:The Statues;
* When:March 14;
* Where: Townehouse Tavern, Elgin St., Sudbury, Ontario;
* Tickets:$20. Get your tickets now, as it will sell out.
* Los Mondo Bongo band members:Mike Peters (The Alarm); Pablo Cook (The Mescaleros); Smiley (The Mescaleros); Derek Forbes (Simple Minds); Steve Harris (Gary Numan); and Ray Gange -star of The Clash movie "Rude Boy" as tour DJ.
To back up a bit, Smiley (who wouldn't tell me his real name) played with Joe Strummer for two years in his final band, the Mescaleros. Strummer, of course, was the iconic frontman of legendary punk band The Clash, who passed away in 2002 from an undiagnosed heart defect.
"He rightfully got his place in the hall of fame. I think there is different ways of looking at the influence people in music have," Smiley said.
"Technically, some politically, some mythically ... I think Joe crossed over. He had a long career and a very clever career. His songs stand up today as they did then in a very kind of aggressive era. You still hear Clash tunes on the radio as you did then."
Like Smiley, Strummer's name was also a fabrication. Born John Mellor, he adopted Strummer in the early 1970s, while he was with the 101ers (just before forming The Clash).
The name came from the fact that his friend taught him to play guitar right handed, despite the fact he was a leftie. As you can imagine, this hampered his playing somewhat and meant he had to stick to strumming chords.
The Clash, which crashed into the London music scene of 1976 opening for the Sex Pistols, were the part of that initial wedge that drove punk from the grimy underground into the mainstream. Their songs tackled social decay, unemployment, racism, police brutality and political and social repression. Strummer was the voice and rhythm guitarist behind singles like I Fought the Law, London Calling, Should I Stay or Should I Go Now, and so many others.
When The Clash imploded in the 1980s, he toured for a while with the Pogues and later wrote soundtracks for movies like Sid and Nancy and Grosse Point Blank. Then, in the late 1990s, Strummer put a band together called the Mescaleros.
"I was in his band for two years. We went around the world twice. I did 88 shows with him. I carried on keeping in contact. He was my friend as well, until he sadly left us," said Smiley.
By the time Strummer formed the Mescaleros, he interests had expanded beyond punk.
"There was a lot of ethnic kind of influences -- Colombian music, and Mexican music and stuff I never even heard of," he said. "He had all these cassettes of mad Madagascan, Mexican, whatever they were, married up with New York or Africa. His mind seemed to be in so many areas."
It was during a chat with a former Mescalero Pablo Cook, that the idea for the band Los Mondo Bongo, a celebration of Strummer's music in all its various forms, came together.
"It's actually 10 years since Pablo and I were in the Mescaleros ... Pablo and I have done a few guest appearances at a few tribute concerts," Smiley said. "There's so many people who want to be part of what Joe was. We're just that little bit closer in the equation."
No one out there actually doing Strummer's music, he said, over his cellphone, from his home in England.
"Between us, I thought we could grab an A-list of celebrity friends."
"I knew people who would be seriously interested and people who would be inspired by him," said Smiley. "For instance, Derek Forbes of Simple Minds. That New Wave thing was around in the punk era. Mike Peters, obviously, from The Alarm. He lives and breathes Strummer."
The Alarm, a Welsh band that came out in the early 1980s combining punk, folk, new wave, and classic rock, had opened for acts such as U2 and Bob Dylan.
"I didn't think we'd get Mike, actually. I went cap in hand and said 'Do you fancy doing it?' " Smiley added.
He did. So did the others. The lure of playing and reconnecting with Strummer's music was impossible to resist.
Strummer has achieved almost a mythic status in popular culture, but he was also a regular, non-violent (except with that episode of hitting a fan with his guitar in Germany) kind of person.
"When I explain this to people, I don't think they believe me. He was extremely gentle," said Smiley. "The most intelligent man I ever met. What always stood in my mind for many years, which I always picked up on, he was always interested, if not more interested, in everybody that he met than they were in him."
When they played festivals, Smiley said, Strummer was a magnet for celebrities. However, often Smiley would find him hanging out with the caterers, the hotel clerks, or fans in the bar. Not in a superficial way, either.
"You'd look over an hour later and he'd still be there. He'd find out all about them -- their parents, their lives, what they do, their hobbies, their interests," he said.
With the Mondo Bongo, the band has chosen to devote two-thirds of its sets to Strummer's Clash tunes and the rest to his Mescaleros period.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how Mike portrays Joe. Having seen the Alarm recently, he is Strummer in so many ways ... In the way he shuts his eyes and envelops the spirit of '76," he said.
The band's first show will be on March 12 in Montreal, followed by Ottawa and then Sunday on March 14 at The Townehouse Tavern in Sudbury. Opening for them will be Sudbury punk phenom The Statues. Don't wait to buy your tickets at the door as the show will sell out. Soon. That's why it's in the paper today.
- - -
MONDO BONGO
Los Mondo Bongo -- Joe Strummer's Mescaleros:
* With Opening Band:The Statues;
* When:March 14;
* Where: Townehouse Tavern, Elgin St., Sudbury, Ontario;
* Tickets:$20. Get your tickets now, as it will sell out.
* Los Mondo Bongo band members:Mike Peters (The Alarm); Pablo Cook (The Mescaleros); Smiley (The Mescaleros); Derek Forbes (Simple Minds); Steve Harris (Gary Numan); and Ray Gange -star of The Clash movie "Rude Boy" as tour DJ.
