Mick Jones always wanted to re-form The Clash. He and Strummer came very close to doing it too. Negotiations were approaching a conclusion when Joe simply said ‘Let’s not bother’. It was probably a good decision - and with Joe now absent, one that will be permanent. But I hope Mick doesn’t feel his next band proper - Big Audio Dynamite - were in any way a substitute for a re-united Clash, because they were far more important than that.
When Jones and his former punk colleagues parted company amid no little bitterness in 1984, they were already exploring the unfamiliar music they’d heard in New York: the nascent hip-hop and electro scenes. In fact, they’d gone as far as to have Futura 2000 appear on stage with them at Bonds Casino and incorporate raps into tracks on Sandinista and Combat Rock. But Jones’ departure led to a marked fissure – Joe and traditional rock on one side, Mick and the new electronic territories on the other.
I’m sure it felt very different at the time, but this was an unintended parting gift from the band. As his former comrades descended into the compromised, disowned disaster that was Cut The Crap, Mick Jones was free to recruit a likeminded posse and cut loose with a blend of rockabilly guitars, dub, electro, hip-hop and sampling. After a brief false start with TRAC, Mick formed a new band. This was B.A.D. and their debut album was intriguing, adventurous, fresh and clever in just the way that Cut The Crap was not. They sported a terrific line up too: former Roxy DJ and London Calling video director Don Letts, keyboard ace (and first husband to Patsy Kensit) Dan Donovan, reggae bassist Leo Williams and drummer Greg Roberts. As with The Clash, they looked fantastic too – a blend of sharp young punks and cool rastas led by Jones, often in an outsized titfer.
More importantly, B.A.D. were opening doors and exploring possibilities, the effects of which are still very much seen and heard today.
Sampling is now taken for granted, but the first time I heard snippets from other songs and classic movie dialogue in a track was on early Big Audio Dynamite releases. And I don’t recall having the slightest inclination to discover breakbeats until Mick and his crew introduced them to the ever eclectic B.A.D. sound.
Pleasingly, the second Dynamite album - ‘No.10 Upping Street’ - was co-produced and co-written by Joe Strummer and it started to dawn on those of us who cared, that this was the music The Clash would have created had they managed to hold it together.
I saw Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War around this time (Mick was dangerously ill with pneumonia) and he not only praised Jones and his band but covered B.A.D.’s Sightsee MC. Joe clearly liked B.A.D. a great deal, but loved Mick even more. Regretting his rash decision to fire Jones years before, he was now contrite and possibly even meditating on a means to restore their working relationship.
But I guess it was more than just logistics and money that prevented these two friends and brothers in music coming together again. Could Joe join B.A.D. without it becoming a quasi-Clash? Not really. Would Mick split his band in order to work with Joe? Of course not.
Effectively, Big Audio Dynamite were so good they put the kibosh on any further Strummer/Jones/ Clash adventures.
Fortunately, a number of excellent albums from the band (Tighten Up Vol. 88, Megatop Phoenix) followed and the burgeoning acid house scene was absorbed into their later work. But eventually members left, inspiration faded and subsequent releases brought diminishing returns. Name changes (BADII and Big Audio) did little to boost their fortunes and in 1994 the band called it a day.
Now rapid wind to the present and Mick Jones, fresh from a world tour with Gorillaz no less, has announced the reformation of the original Big Audio Dynamite line-up and a UK tour. I, for one, am delighted. I sincerely hope this outing will draw attention to a truly original and unmistakable act, who were never properly recognised for their influence and pioneering spirit. But more than that, I hope Mick Jones is reminded of the fact that he fronted not one, but two stupendous, legendary bands, that he feels rightly proud and I am there to see it.
Magnus Shaw, February 2011
When Jones and his former punk colleagues parted company amid no little bitterness in 1984, they were already exploring the unfamiliar music they’d heard in New York: the nascent hip-hop and electro scenes. In fact, they’d gone as far as to have Futura 2000 appear on stage with them at Bonds Casino and incorporate raps into tracks on Sandinista and Combat Rock. But Jones’ departure led to a marked fissure – Joe and traditional rock on one side, Mick and the new electronic territories on the other.
I’m sure it felt very different at the time, but this was an unintended parting gift from the band. As his former comrades descended into the compromised, disowned disaster that was Cut The Crap, Mick Jones was free to recruit a likeminded posse and cut loose with a blend of rockabilly guitars, dub, electro, hip-hop and sampling. After a brief false start with TRAC, Mick formed a new band. This was B.A.D. and their debut album was intriguing, adventurous, fresh and clever in just the way that Cut The Crap was not. They sported a terrific line up too: former Roxy DJ and London Calling video director Don Letts, keyboard ace (and first husband to Patsy Kensit) Dan Donovan, reggae bassist Leo Williams and drummer Greg Roberts. As with The Clash, they looked fantastic too – a blend of sharp young punks and cool rastas led by Jones, often in an outsized titfer.
More importantly, B.A.D. were opening doors and exploring possibilities, the effects of which are still very much seen and heard today.
Sampling is now taken for granted, but the first time I heard snippets from other songs and classic movie dialogue in a track was on early Big Audio Dynamite releases. And I don’t recall having the slightest inclination to discover breakbeats until Mick and his crew introduced them to the ever eclectic B.A.D. sound.
Pleasingly, the second Dynamite album - ‘No.10 Upping Street’ - was co-produced and co-written by Joe Strummer and it started to dawn on those of us who cared, that this was the music The Clash would have created had they managed to hold it together.
I saw Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War around this time (Mick was dangerously ill with pneumonia) and he not only praised Jones and his band but covered B.A.D.’s Sightsee MC. Joe clearly liked B.A.D. a great deal, but loved Mick even more. Regretting his rash decision to fire Jones years before, he was now contrite and possibly even meditating on a means to restore their working relationship.
But I guess it was more than just logistics and money that prevented these two friends and brothers in music coming together again. Could Joe join B.A.D. without it becoming a quasi-Clash? Not really. Would Mick split his band in order to work with Joe? Of course not.
Effectively, Big Audio Dynamite were so good they put the kibosh on any further Strummer/Jones/ Clash adventures.
Fortunately, a number of excellent albums from the band (Tighten Up Vol. 88, Megatop Phoenix) followed and the burgeoning acid house scene was absorbed into their later work. But eventually members left, inspiration faded and subsequent releases brought diminishing returns. Name changes (BADII and Big Audio) did little to boost their fortunes and in 1994 the band called it a day.
Now rapid wind to the present and Mick Jones, fresh from a world tour with Gorillaz no less, has announced the reformation of the original Big Audio Dynamite line-up and a UK tour. I, for one, am delighted. I sincerely hope this outing will draw attention to a truly original and unmistakable act, who were never properly recognised for their influence and pioneering spirit. But more than that, I hope Mick Jones is reminded of the fact that he fronted not one, but two stupendous, legendary bands, that he feels rightly proud and I am there to see it.
Magnus Shaw, February 2011
