Mick Jones: Stayin' In Tune - The Unauthorised Biography

by Mick O'Shea

  When reviewing the album, Q magazine's Ian McMillan said that Kool-Aid was 'a refreshing auditory experience', before going on to add that the common denominator between the tracks was oddly enough The Clash with 'echoes of, in particular, London Calling all over this album.'

  What McMillan failed to pick up on wasn't so much that the songs were mindful of The Clash, but rather Mick's way of exorcising the ghosts surrounding his sacking from The Clash, as well as documenting the break-up of BAD. Kool-Aid is the closest Mick has ever come to penning an autobiography, which makes it all the more strange that his new paymasters at Sony/Columbia would choose to release the album as a limited-pressing confined to the UK market.

  Thankfully, however, the majority of the songs would reappear in different guises on the group's follow-up album, The Globe.

  ♪♪♪

  Mick was in the process of putting BAD II together when the ex-Housemartin, and self-confessed Clash fan, Norman Cook, scored a massive UK number one hit with 'Dub Be Good To Me', under his dance music collective umbrella, Beats International. The track melded the SOS Band's 'Just Be Good To Me' (featuring revised lyrics sung by the SOS Band's Lindy Layton), over the instantly-recognisable bass line from The Clash's 'Guns Of Brixton'.

  When blowing his own trumpet in the media, the bassist turned bedroom DJ readily admitted to having sampled the bass line as an 'affectionate tribute' to The Clash for their having been a 'huge influence on my growing up, both musically and politically. However, when Paul Simonon went a kicking at Norman's front door for what he believed to be a rightful share of the royalties, the latter shamefacedly backtracked by saying he'd actually lifted the bass line from an obscure ska track. But the future Fatboy Slim was fooling nobody, least of all Paul, and the dispute was eventually settled out of court.

  In the meantime, Paul had approached Norman's fellow dance DJ Jeremy Healy to remix 'Guns Of Brixton', but with 'Dub Be Good To Me' having been danced to death, the resulting single 'Return To Brixton' (which also featured the original Clash track on certain formats) stalled at number 57 following its June release.

  The entrepreneurial Norman had lifted the bass line to 'Guns Of Brixton' to line his own pockets, but 'Dub Be Good To Me', coupled with the publicity arising over Paul's plagiarism claim, served to bring The Clash back into the public consciousness.

  This, however, was merely a tempting hors d'œuvre to the entrée that came the following February owing to jeans giants Levi Strauss & Co. selecting 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' to serve as a backdrop to the latest TV commercial in the American company's long-running advertising campaign to promote the perennially-popular shrink-to-fit 501s.

  The first commercial, featuring Sam Cooke's original 1960 hit 'Wonderful World', was aired back in 1986, and proved an instant hit with the public. So much so, that by February 1991, the 'Levi 501 ads' as they were known, had become almost as popular as the product they were promoting with people playfully second-guessing which rock 'n' roll hit of yesteryear might feature next. The record companies were equally anxious to discover which artists Levi's were considering as with the exception of Eddie Cochran's 'C'Mon Everybody' (1988), every other song used in the ads had scored a Top 10 hit upon rerelease, with Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me' (1987), and the Steve Miller Band's 'The Joker' (1990), claiming the coveted number one slot.

  The news that 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' would feature in the latest Levi's ad was greeted with a certain amount of consternation amongst Clash fans; the surprise stemming from the group's hitherto reticence to having their music used as a marketing tool. As with previous approaches from Dr Pepper and British Telecom, Levi's initial approach had been to The Clash, but as the song was Mick's, Joe, Paul, and Topper allowed him the final say.

  Mick was painfully aware that their detractors of old would be sharpening their knives in anticipation of The Clash setting aside their principles in return for a fast buck, but he reasoned that Levi's were considered as much a bona fide rock 'n' roll accoutrement as Brylcream and beetle-crushers. A rather less altruistic reason for Mick giving Levi's the green light, of course, was that the cash influx would enable him to keep Big Audio Dynamite II in the black.

  With all the attention focused on 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go', no one within the Clash camp stopped to consider which track Mick might select for the single's B-side. Joe, Paul, and Topper probably expected Mick to knock up a remix of the A-side. What they didn't anticipate was Mick – having recognised a gilt-edged opportunity to promote BAD II's forthcoming album – to co-opt 'Rush'*, the lead track on The Globe. Paul, who'd been the least receptive to Levi's overtures in the first instance, was said to be particularly incensed at what he saw a flagrant opportunistic tactic on Mick's part, and the ensuing arguments resulted in the opening of old wounds. Of course, one cannot help but wonder why Paul hadn't voiced similar concerns back in June 1982 when 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' was released with three alternate B-sides?

  Mick's opportunism would end up paying dividends as 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' – accompanied by Don Letts' video of The Clash playing the song at Shea Stadium – climbed to the top of the UK singles chart and held the position for three weeks. Sad though it was that it took a jeans commercial to put The Clash at the top of the charts, the resulting exposure did at least bring the group to the attention of a new audience, as well as serve as a wistful reminder to their fans of old.

  Sony/Columbia was eager to see how much cash might be extracted from The Clash cow and re-released The Story of The Clash, Volume 1. The album had made the Top 10 back in 1988, and although it stalled at number 13 at the second time of asking, it remained on the charts for two months; plenty enough time to allow further executive exploitation. 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' was still in the chart when Sony/Columbia released 'Rock The Casbah'. On the back of the single reaching number 15, the label not only reissued the parent album Combat Rock in May, but also put out 'London Calling' and 'I Fought The Law', just as it had done at the time of The Story Of The Clash, Volume 1's original release.

  That the latter track failed to trouble the chart compilers should have served as ample warning that the rotting carcass had been sufficiently flogged, and it was only when 'Train In Vain' also withered on the vine that the whip was returned to its hook.

  Sony's shameless raids on The Clash cookie jar had prompted fresh reunion rumours, and according to said rumours serious money was being tabled to tempt The Clash back onto the stage. What the promoters failed to take into consideration when tabling their offers, however, was that it was Sony/Columbia doing the cashing in and not the group members themselves. As far as they were concerned, The Clash most definitely weren't for sale. 'I don't think any of us would do it for the money,' Mick told Vox magazine's Mal Peachey that April. 'I don't think we'd do anything just for the money.'

  ♪♪♪

  Having already used Clash product to promote The Globe, Mick borrowed an idea from the ghost of Clash past to mark the album's release by teaming up with the NME. As with The Clash back in April 1977, a sticker was enclosed within the first pressing of The Globe, in conjunction with the NME printing a coupon in its 10 August issue. The first 2,000 fans to send sticker and coupon to the paper would receive a copy of Ally Pally Paradiso, a nine-track live album taken from BAD II's appearance at the Alexandra Palace the previous August.

  With buoyant toe-tappers such as 'Can't Wait/Live', and the title track, 'The Globe' (which featured a sneaky-cheeky sampling of 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go', coupled with more poignant tracks such as the Mott The Hoople-esque 'Innocent Child', the new album appeared to have something for everyone. When reviewing the album Pulse's self-confessed BADophile, Andrew Goodwin, noted how the group's new incarnation had 'shifted its invocations of blackness from dancehall toasting to straight-out rap,' while All Music's Tom Demalon – having praised Mick's songwriting as 'some of his strongest in some time' – went on to say how the album was possibly the strongest effort of Big Audio Dynam
ite (in any incarnation) and certainly their best work since their debut.'

  Mick had good reason to be pleased with himself as BAD II embarked on a UK tour that August. Yet despite all the hard work and critique kudos, The Globe stalled on its axis at a desultory number 63 on the UK chart.

  Thanks to the unswerving loyalty towards BAD on the US college radio circuit, the album would fair much better in America. Not only did it hit the top spot on the college radio chart, it also climbed twelve places higher than Megatop Phoenix on the Billboard chart shifting in excess of 250,000 copies in the process. Meanwhile, 'Rush' reached number 32 on the singles chart, and was also voted Billboard's 'Best Modern Rock Track' of the year. The single also performed well in Australasia, hitting the number one spot in both Australia and New Zealand.

  The Globe also featured 'When The Time Comes', and Mick's time almost came again during the group's US September tour when the car he was travelling in was forced off the highway and rolled over several times. Thankfully, however, both he and the driver walked away from the smash. If anything, Mick was left more shaken and stirred by a report in the NME claiming that he'd been approached by an American promoter who was supposedly offering The Clash £10 million for a one-off US tour.

  Although it was true he'd told Rolling Stone that he wouldn't necessarily rule out a Clash reunion at some point in the future, Mick was as yet still fully committed to BAD II. That The Clash were still held in the highest regard in America was beyond dispute, but the idea that someone was willing to table £10 million for a one-off tour was ludicrous. Tricia Ronane was so incensed by the NME's claim that she called their offices and said that if the American promoter did indeed exist then the paper should have him call her. Unsurprisingly, Tricia never heard another word about the mooted deal.

  What the latest 'will-they-or-won't they' reformation rumours did do, however, was alert Mick to what he perceived to be Sony/ Columbia's apathetic attitude towards BAD II compared to the label's ongoing endeavours regarding The Clash.

  Hoping to cash in on The Clash's enduring popularity on the Christmas market, Sony were shamefacedly set to rush-release an A-side compilation CD, the unimaginatively entitled Singles (with 'This Is England' having seemingly been airbrushed from the group's history again). Over in New York Kosmo Vinyl was busy collating a bumper consortium – including obscure demos, live recordings, and several previously unreleased songs – for the 64-track, 3xCD boxed set, Clash On Broadway* (which also chose to ignore anything from Cut The Crap) principally for the US market. 'I think they (Sony) want BAD II to fail so maybe I'll have to do The Clash again,' a disillusioned Mick grumbled to the NME that same autumn.

  In December, 'The Globe' (in a variety of edits and guest remixes by Danny Rampling, and The Orb) was released as a single in the US. Though they would have to settle for number 72 on the mainstream chart, BAD II once again proved their worth on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart by scoring a number three hit.

  After several months of relative inactivity, BAD II appeared on the bill at U2's 'Stop Sellafield' show at Manchester's GMEX Centre to protest the operation of a second reactor at the nuclear reprocessing plant. The show was the last date on the European indoor leg of the Irish rockers' mammoth Zoo TV Tour to primarily promote Achtung Baby, and in September, the BAD II U2 connection was renewed when Mick and the boys accompanied Bono and co across America on the North American leg of the tour, with further Zoo TV appearances coming in Mexico City in November.

  According to the tour programme, the concept for the Zoo TV Tour was inspired by the desensitising effect of mass media, and the stage featured dozens of large video screens showing a range of visual effects, video cut-ups, and flashing text phrases; yet it's worth remembering that BAD were doing something similar – albeit on a reduced 'Flintstones' scale – long before Bono got on his information overload soapbox. So while BAD II's being invited onto the tour could be construed as merely a continuance of U2 paying their dues to The Clash, it could also that be they were acknowledging a more recent Mick Jones influence.

  BAD II were out and about around America with U2 when Columbia issued a five-track extended play US-only release CD entitled On The Road Live '92. However, although the opening track 'Kool-Aid' was recorded at BAD II's show at The Ritz in New York in April, the others were in fact lifted from a WXRT radio broadcast from a show at Chicago's Riviera Theatre the previous October.

  Following their final Zoo TV support slot at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on 25 November, BAD II slipped into an extended siesta, and nothing more would be seen of the group until the following August when they once again served as main support at U2's two Wembley Stadium dates.

  In the interim an even more fanciful yarn than that of two years earlier suggesting The Clash were to reform for £10 million was spun by the Daily Mirror's pop columnist Rick Sky, who announced that 'Punk kings The Clash are getting back together for a massive £50 million world tour after a ten year break.'

  The article also claimed that the group's classic line-up – Strummer/ Jones/Simonon/Headon – had signed up with a 'top American manager' (Gary Kurfirst), and that they were in the process of 'lining up a string of dates: starting with a huge stadium tour of the US.' Somewhat surprisingly for the Mirror there was at least a kernel of truth in the tale, as one-time Clash security guy Ray Jordan (who was now occupying a similar role with BAD II) said the tabled figure was actually £1.5 million.

  Ray would subsequently tell DISCoveries' Ralph Heibutski that while The Clash had got together at the table to discuss the offer, only three of the four were actually keen to proceed. As to whom poopooed the proposal, the tactful Ray declined to say, but Joe would later admit to dragging his heels as he couldn't contemplate The Clash reforming with Kurfirst calling the shots.

  BAD II seemed to be in suspended animation, but Mick had kept himself busy lending a hand to the musical score for Rob Weiss' new mobster movie, Amongst Friends. Aside from BAD II's 'Innocent Child', he also contributed three instrumentals – 'Long Island', 'No Ennio', and 'I Don't Know' – to the accompanying soundtrack, all of which were credited under his own name. It was the first occasion in a sixteen-year-and-counting career that Mick had been credited as a solo artist, but there were no plans to strike out on his own and in November BAD II flew out to Australia and once again clambered aboard the U2 bandwagon for the last leg of the Zoo TV Tour.

  In an attempt to cash in on BAD II's Down Under dates, Sony rush-released The Lost Treasure Of Big Audio Dynamite 1 & II, an Australasia-only 2xdisc compilation featuring various remixes of songs from both incarnations of the group. The final track on CD 2 was a brand new composition called 'Looking For A Song', which Mick had penned with Italian trio Sergio Portaluri, David Sion, and Fulvio Zafret.

  * * *

  * A remixed version of 'The Bottom Line' was used as the title track for Flashback, but wasn't included on the soundtrack. (BACK)

  * 'Rush' was a reworking of 'Change Of Atmosphere', which had appeared on Kool-Aid. (BACK)

  * Clash On Broadway wouldn't receive a UK release until June 1994. (BACK)

  – CHAPTER SEVENTEEN –

  ENTERING A NEW RIDE

  'The thing about guitar playing is that you have to do it all the time. That's how you get good at something – by doing it every day. I do music every day. There's a work ethic to it, and also it is very mathematical. You just keep going at it, and going at it, and then suddenly it'll all fall into place and it's wonderful. Like a puzzle you solve.'

  – Mick Jones

  WHEN SPEAKING ON THE www.gibson.com website in 2006, Mick said that of all the great late-Sixties and early-Seventies guitarists he'd come to appreciate whilst practising daily in his room, Mick Ronson had been his particular favourite. Ronson sadly lost his battle against liver cancer on 29 April 1993, but twelve months on BAD II were among the acts invited to honour the man who'd given the Spiders From Mars their distinctive bite at the Hammersmith Apollo. A week or so a
fter the Mick Ronson Memorial Concert, MTV News reported that Mick would be requiring a memorial concert of his own after supposedly succumbing to a bout of pneumonia.

  What had given rise to the spurious rumour of Mick's demise was never established, but to paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of his death had been greatly exaggerated. Indeed, at the time of the report Mick was in the recording studio putting the finishing touches to the group's new album, Higher Power, which they'd been working on sporadically for several months. Although The Lost Treasure Of Big Audio Dynamite I & II had probably served as notification of his intentions, when the album was released it was under the snappiersounding 'Big Audio'.

  To augment Big Audio's sound, Mick's cousin Andre Shapps joined on keyboards, while Mickey 'DJ Zonka' Custance was brought in to provide Deejay-style toasting and backing vocals. As he had done on The Globe, Mick shared the production chair with Andre, while their pal, Boston-born producer Arthur Baker served as co-producer on the track 'Modern Stoneage Blues'.