Clash's Joe Strummer Changed From Hippie Squatter to Punk Icon

[Gerrard Winstanley]

Clash's Joe Strummer Changed From Hippie Squatter to Punk Icon 
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=ak4srrU.YBK0
By Michael White

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Watching the Clash take the stage at London's 
100 Club in 1976, film director Julien Temple was convinced that Joe 
Strummer's new band was doomed to fail. Temple was skeptical of 
Strummer's sudden switch from long- haired hippie squatter to short-
haired, peroxide-blond punk. 

The first few chords of ``London's Burning'' changed his mind. 

``It took about two seconds to realize he could totally pull it off,'' 
Temple said in a telephone interview from his home in Somerset, 
England. 

Strummer's journey to self-proclaimed ``punk rock warlord'' is one of 
many transformations noted in ``Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.
'' In the two-hour documentary, which opens tomorrow in New York and 
Los Angeles, Temple gives equal time to Strummer's virtues and 
weaknesses. 

Temple, 53, was familiar with both. He met Strummer, born John Mellor, 
in 1976 and filmed the band during its early days. Two decades later, 
the friendship was rekindled after both bought homes in Somerset. They 
were neighbors when Strummer died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart 
defect in 2002. 

``Joe was very flawed and ruthless and cowardly at times,'' Temple 
said. ``I couldn't have been his friend if his generosity and 
inspirational qualities hadn't hugely outweighed that.'' 

``The Future is Unwritten'' renews Temple's examination of Britain's 
punk movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He directed two films 
about the Sex Pistols, ``The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'' (1980) and 
``The Filth and the Fury'' (2000). 

Formed a few weeks before their appearance at the 100 Club, the Clash 
surpassed the Sex Pistols as punk's leading band. Hits including 
``White Riot,'' ``London Calling'' and ``Rock the Casbah'' made them 
international stars whose concerts filled stadiums around the world. 

Group's Decline 

Ultimately, success destroyed the Clash. Drummer Topper Headon was 
fired because of heroin addiction. Then Strummer, worried that the 
band had strayed from its political focus, kicked out his chief 
collaborator, guitarist Mick Jones, in 1983. Strummer re-formed the 
band with new personnel but the music failed to catch on. The group 
disbanded two years later. 

The film follows Strummer as he changes his name to Woody (an homage 
to folk singer Woody Guthrie), drops out of art school and works odd 
jobs, including a brief stint as a gravedigger. 

Switching identities again, Strummer grew his hair long and took up 
the name by which he became famous. He joined the squatter movement, 
hippies who illegally occupied abandoned houses in West London, and 
formed a band, the 101ers, that gained a following in London pubs. 

Accent, Hair Color 

Strummer's identity changed again in 1976 after the 101ers performed 
as the opening act for the Sex Pistols. Impressed by the band's energy 
and aura, he turned his back on the 101ers and within a month had cut 
his hair short, dyed it blond and joined the Clash as lead singer. 
Strummer kept his stage name, but adopted a cockney accident and 
shunned old friends to hide his middle-class background. He saw it as 
a threat to his new punk identity, Temple said. 

``When he did change, he changed everything,'' Temple said. ``He 
didn't just change his haircut. He changed how he lived, everyone he 
knew.'' 

Another switch for Strummer was his insistence on using the band's 
music as a platform to call for political and social change, Temple 
said. ``White Riot'' urged Britain's working and middle classes to 
rebel against what Strummer saw as repressive social and economic 
systems. ``London Calling'' focused on the danger of nuclear energy. 

Scorsese, Bono 

Temple tells the story through Strummer's own words, culled from 
interviews over two decades, and through the recollections of friends, 
wives, girlfriends and fellow musicians, including Jones, Headon and 
Sex Pistol Steve Jones. 

Fans Johnny Depp, Martin Scorsese and Bono appear on camera to discuss 
the band's influence on their careers. 

``Punk kind of finished off what had been started in the '60s, 
allowing young people to create and have their voices heard,'' Temple 
said. 

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at 
mwhite8 at bloomberg.net