Mick Jones: Stayin' In Tune - The Unauthorised Biography

by Mick O'Shea

  One has to wonder what Mick made of his being honoured by the magazine that had wilfully lambasted The Clash at every turn from Sandinista! onwards, but when explaining how the decision had been reached, the NME's Conor McNicholas – having declared Mick to be 'an innovator, a visionary, a class songwriter, a great singer and a demon guitarist' – said that although the Inspiration Award is usually hotly debated amongst the NME editors, the decision had been unanimous as 'Mick Jones is a true hero to NME.'

  Upon their return to London, Carbon/Silicon headed into Channel 4's Riverside Studios for an appearance on the station's new weekend music show, The Nokia Green Room. Aside from performing 'Why Do Men Fight' live in the studio, Mick and Tony were filmed larking about with the show's host Chris Needham in the backstage Green Room.

  July and August were taken up playing festivals such as Guilfest, the V Festival, and the Neapolis Festival in Naples, and in September Mick and Tony headed over to Paris for three days of TV, Radio and Press interviews – making the front cover of XRoads magazine's October issue. Although they were in the French capital primarily to promote the impending French 2xCD release of The Last Post and Carbon Casino, Mick was called on to field questions on the soon-tobe-released Clash live album: Live At Shea Stadium.

  Joe had supposedly happened upon the original masters whilst moving house, but the question remains why Sony didn't simply opt for releasing the Shea Stadium date instead of having Mick and Paul trawl through hours of tapes while compiling the set-list for From Here To Eternity?

  Carbon/Silicon brought their live commitments for the year to a rambunctious finale with two sell-out Carbon Casino shows at the Hammersmith Club in Rutland Grove on Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 December. Apart from giving several new tracks their first public airings, the second night saw them joined on stage by Fun Lovin' Criminal frontman Huey Morgan for a rendition of FLC's 1996 hit 'Scooby Snacks', and a cover of the seminal Stones' classic, 'Honky Tonk Woman'.

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  No sooner had the festive fug receded than Mick and Tony reconvened at their home studio to work on song ideas for a new Carbon/Silicon album. Such was the buzz surrounding the two ageing punks who were seemingly happy to give their music away for free, that Reuters sent along one of its field operatives to their Acton hideaway.

  'We grew like an Internet community; a worldwide community, sharing stuff and not charging people,' Mick revealed on being asked their long-term plan for Carbon/Silicon. '[We're] working in an immediate media, getting immediate feedback from people.'

  'We're in the middle of a revolution,' Tony added. 'People are not buying CDs. How are we going to get paid? Nobody knows, but creativity will flourish. It's a very exciting time, but it's also chaos.' Amidst the ongoing chaos Mick not only found time to collaborate with Lily Allen in re-recording 'Straight To Hell' for the War Child: Heroes charity album, but he and Tony also penned 'Mr Extraordinary', which was intended for the soundtrack to the forthcoming film Mr Nice based on the extraordinary adventures of Howard Marks, the author and former drug smuggler who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases.

  For those in the know, the Acton lock-up didn't only serve as Mick's home studio, it also housed the cornucopia of pop culture history that he'd been collecting since childhood: a jaw-dropping, shelf-buckling archive comprised of reams of pop magazines, stacks of rare comics, and piles of dog-eared paperbacks, newspaper supplements, vinyl albums, and kitsch slot machines – not to mention a plethora of memorabilia from his time with The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite.

  As part of his treasure trove was about to go on public display as 'The Rock & Roll Public Library' at the Chelsea College of Art And Design, Mick spoke with The Quietus' Jude Rogers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Rogers' opening gambit was to ask what had first set Mick off on his collecting compulsion? 'People say it's because I had a bit of a difficult childhood, and perhaps that's true. But I got so much pleasure out of it, I just kept going,' Mick revealed. 'Maybe it's in the genes because my mum did the same, too. When I first was in the Clash, she'd make scrapbooks of our tours, cut out pictures, hoard, hoard, hoard.' On being asked what he envisioned for the collection beyond the Chelsea exhibition Mick said that ideally he wanted to make it available as an educational resource. 'I imagine school parties coming to see this. That's what I dream of, really,' he explained; 'for them to learn something really exciting, as they see all this dirty, lovely stuff from the past. It hit me a while back when people coming in here would say, you know what? This is great. Cos when people come in, they go wow. Nah, they go WOW!

  'When I used to go to the States with the Clash and BAD I'd get excited looking through all these thrift shops that had all this cool stuff. Because, at our age, you see, we'd grown up on American culture but had never really seen it. And that feeling was fantastic. That's why I want kids to feel the same excitement with what we're trying to do here. Get the same kind of "WOW!"'3

  During the interview Mick had said how he wanted to find a permanent home for the collection in its entirety. His dream location would have been the Commonwealth Institute in Holland Park as the once beautiful building was now in a state of disrepair, but that 'any old house would do' just so long as it was in West London.

  In July, Mick got his wish of sorts when the Rock & Roll Public Library – set within a 3,000 sq ft office space at 2 Acklam Road, Portobello Green – opened to the public for a five-week run. A delighted Mick described his 'civic endeavour' as a 'direct artistic challenge' to the corporate blandness of other music museums such as the O2's British Music Experience.

  The exhibition was certain to attract Clash fans, but Mick hoped that it would also have a wider appeal. 'These are relics of the last century; a part of British music history,' he said. 'It's a very personal collection, but I don't want the library to be only for Clash addicts. I hope it can be a resource and spark people's imaginations, create an idea of continual creativity.'4

  It was at the library that Mick got together with his old BAD muckers Dan Donovan and Gary Stonadge, Gaz Mayall, sculptor and occasional Alabama 3 harmonica man Nick Reynolds, actor Dudley Sutton, and a supporting cast too numerous to mention, to record the track 'Ronnie Biggs', which he'd co-written with Mayall. The idea was to release the song as a single to add support to the ongoing petition to get the ailing Great Train Robber released from prison on compassionate grounds. Biggs, who'd been on the run since his escape from Wandsworth Prison in July 1965, had returned to Britain under his own volition in May 2001. He'd promptly been rearrested and sent to HMP Belmarsh to serve the remainder of the 30-year sentence he received for his part in the robbery.

  Simon, who is perhaps best-known for penning The Wire, is also something of a mean guitar player, and according to Gary Stonadge, played better than anyone else on the day. The engineer, however, forgot to record his guitar part, and by the time the mistake was realised Simon had left and was en route to Heathrow. Thinking on his feet, the scriptwriter got out his guitar in the back of the cab and replayed his part down the phone.

  Somewhat ironically, Biggs was finally granted a pardon on 'compassionate grounds' on 7 August (his eightieth birthday) by the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, just as the single was going to press.

  Carbon/Silicon's continual creativity saw the release two albums in the space of four months. In November 2009, they released The Carbon Bubble, with all twelve tracks being made available for free download from the group's website, and the following February they released an updated version of The Crack-Up Suite. But even then there was no respite as having come up for air to appear at the Steve New benefit at the 100 Club, Mick and Tony threw themselves into kicking out the jams on a new studio album.

  However, the frenetic pace would ultimately prove too much for Leo, and he was replaced on bass by Ronnie Wood's son, Jesse.

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  Mick and Paul had stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the Waldorf-Astoria while accepting The Clash's in
duction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2003, but no one within The Clash cognoscenti ever thought they'd live to see the day where the two would be performing on stage together – despite Paul having dusted off his bass again to play with Damon Albarn's The Good, The Bad & The Queen. TGTB&TQ only released one eponymous-titled album (in January 2007), but Paul's relationship with Damon led to his being invited to make a guest appearance on 'Plastic Beach', the title track from the third album by the latter's 'virtual band', Gorillaz, which was released in March 2010.

  Hearing of Paul's involvement with the Gorillaz didn't come as much of a surprise, but Clash fans everywhere were astonished to learn that Mick had not only made a guest appearance on the album, but had contributed additional guitar to the same track as Paul.

  Mick and Paul wouldn't necessarily have been required in the studio at the same time during the recording process, but when Gorillaz were invited to perform two songs from the album – 'On Melancholy Hill' and 'Clint Eastwood' – on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, they both accepted Damon's offer to accompany him into the BBC studio. Somewhat surprisingly, given Wossy's supposed love of punk rock, despite this being the first time in seventeen years that Mick and Paul had shared a stage, he made no mention of it during his introduction.

  Why Mick and Paul chose to dress like a couple of First World War U-boat commanders is anyone's guess, but those watching the Gorillaz' performance that were not aware of Mick and Paul's previous history could have been forgiven for thinking the two had never set eyes on each other before that night.

  The immediate thought that sprung to mind watching them ambling about the stage maintaining a steady distance while looking anywhere rather than at each other was that they'd had another of their occasional fallouts in recent months.

  This didn't appear to make sense, for whilst Mick and Paul had been forced to share a stage during The Clash's endgame, neither had any obligation to being on the studio stage that night. What made it all the more surprising was when they not only subsequently appeared with Gorillaz at Glastonbury, but also signed up for the Escape To Plastic Beach Tour later in the year.

  Mick and Paul would also make a contribution to the followup Gorillaz album, The Fall, which was recorded at various stopoff points whilst the group were traversing the globe on what was effectively their first world tour.

  Despite being part of history in the making, as the tour reached its climax in New Zealand on 21 December Paul was happy to get back to his painting, whereas having played arena dates for the first time in twenty years had left Mick with a taste for more.

  Of course, as yet, arena dates were way beyond Carbon/Silicon's play grade, but with the Legacy Edition of This Is Big Audio Dynamite having received favourable reviews following its release back in May, the door was open to a BAD reunion.

  Mick had already sounded out Don Letts with the idea of getting the original BAD line-up back together once his Gorillaz commitments were at an end at the time of the BAD Legacy release, and Damon Albarn and Jamie Howlett's constant bigging up of Big Audio Dynamite throughout the tour proved sufficient for him to make the idea a reality. Confirmation of this came on 25 January 2011 with the announcement of a nine-date UK tour commencing at the Liverpool O2 Academy on 29 March.

  'The great thing about doing Gorillaz was that all the responsibility was on Damon, not me. But that definitely gave me the appetite for doing bigger gigs again,' Mick explained in March 2011, whilst rehearsing in preparation for the BAD tour. '[It] helped me come out of myself. 'They (Damon and Jamie) were always saying, "We love BAD!" Through the second half of the year, everyone was saying, "You've got to do BAD." It feels timely.

  'People will ask: why is it okay to reform BAD, when it wasn't okay to reform The Clash?' he continued. 'Everybody knew the story of The Clash, so it always had that limitation to it, and, in the end, it's just like a beautiful memory to everybody. With BAD, we weren't overplayed back then, so we've got more of a chance as a present thing. It's about doing something that fits me as I am now. I don't want to be chasing some illusion continually into old age. That's not a good look.

  'The best reunion gig I've seen was Mott the Hoople (October 2009), because two of those guys hadn't played at all for thirty-five years. One (Overend Watts) had been an antiques dealer, so they came back with fire; with meaning!' 5

  Midway through the opening date at the Liverpool O2 Academy date Mick playfully said that Big Audio Dynamite were sounding better than the last time they'd been on Merseyside as they'd brought 'age and wisdom' to the proceedings. The Guardian's Dave Simpson was in agreement, and after saying how age had indeed 'withered a few group members,' he qualified it by adding how Mick still looked 'impossibly cool in his undertaker suit and gangster shades.'

  Having complimented Mick's voice and guitar, he lauded the 'exuberant pop thrill of [BAD's] sing-a-long hits, "Medicine Show", "E = MC2", a roof-removing "C'Mon Every Beatbox", and "The Bottom Line", before pondering why it was that – 'Gorillaz moonlighting notwithstanding' – Mick didn't 'occupy a stage more often.'

  The Independent's Simon Price felt compelled to make mention of the BAD boys having 'dated very badly', while also poking fun at Mick's 'Leonard Rossiter/Campari ad comb-over,' and one cannot help but wonder what barbs a reconstituted Clash might have had to endure had they reformed on the back of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

  As with his opposite number at The Guardian, Price had the grace to admit that 'for all the clunky shortcomings of their Eighties recordings, the (modern) live versions achieve some sort of alchemy.'

  With BAD set to play a few dates stateside in the coming weeks, CNN's Peter Wilkinson, was in attendance at the first of their two sellout shows at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on Sunday, 2 April.

  Unlike his British counterparts, however, Wilkinson made no mention of wrinkled skin, or receding hairlines, but this was hardly surprising as Americans tend to appreciate a musician's talents regardless of their age. As with anyone else who had even a passing interest in Mick's post-Clash career, he knew there was no Dorian Gray-esque portrait lurking in Mick's attic.

  Although much of Wilkinson's prose were dedicated to Mick – such as his being 'greeted like a conquering hero as BAD take to the stage' – he was careful to praise Greg and Leo for playing their respective parts in the 'exceptionally tight set', while complimenting Don's energy as he 'bound[ed] around the stage energetically, occasionally rapping alongside Jones.'

  After the final UK date at the Bristol O2 Academy on 9 April, BAD took a welcome break before heading out to Indio, California, for the Coachella Festival.

  The Empire Polo Club had become something of a home from home for Mick in recent years as this was his third festival appearance in as many years. Indeed, it was Gorillaz' headlining the previous year's festival that had served as the catalyst in his decision to reform BAD, with the final nudge seemingly coming from the event's co-founder, Paul Tollett, as Mick revealed in a pre-festival interview: 'He [Tollett] said, "Mick, tell me when you want to come back and play. We will always have you."'

  The Coachella organisers may have been happy to have Mick on the bill under any pretext, but his returning with the reconstituted BAD left him open to accusations of trying to cash in on former glories. When one reporter asked whether BAD might be tempted to squeeze the odd Clash song into their set, Mick retorted: 'If I were you, I wouldn't expect that to happen, no.'

  In a further attempt to clarify his reasoning for reforming BAD Mick gave an interview to the LA Times. 'What we've done is try to carry on with the original spirit with which we did it,' he explained. 'I like things to jump out. The way they sample these days, it's all the same things put through a process. It's pushed down. That's what you hear on the radio now. Samples don't jump out and challenge you and hit you over the head. So we're trying to carry on from what we did then, as if that whole period hadn't happened.'

  Three days later the BAD medicine show breezed into New Yor
k for a show at the Roseland Theatre, but if Mick was hoping for the Big Apple bonhomie that he'd enjoyed in days gone by he was in for a rude awakening.

  The New York Times' Jon Pareles started off his critique by saying that although BAD's coming to town had 'inspired some nostalgia for the days of cassette boomboxes and rare 12-inch vinyl,' before dismissing the once-pioneering hipsters as sounding 'like a standard rock band,' whilst the songs – 'without their once-futuristic metamorphoses, stood revealed as singsong mid-tempo rockers, far less ambitious than their lyrics or production.'

  But Pareles' desultory chiding didn't end there as he went on to cite Mick's 'milquetoasty voice' as being BAD's 'main shortcoming' on the night. 'On the albums, it's genial and good-humoured,' he derided, '[while] onstage, it's just weak and inexpressive; even with other band members singing along.'

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  BAD were booked to appear at many of 2011's major musical festivals, starting with an appearance on Glastonbury's Park Stage on Friday, 24 June. America's media may have been sluggish in its appreciation of the group, but with the UK tour having been deemed an unqualified success by reviewers and audiences alike, Mick, Don, Leo and Greg could look forward to a summer of festival fun and frolics.