The Clash to reunite for BBC 6Music
Iconic punk rockers The Clash will reunite for a Q&A with the British public, Cerys Mathews announced today
Speaking on her BBC Radio 6 Music radio show, Matthews revealed that she will be bringing together bassist Paul Simonon, drummer Topper Headon and guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones for an intimate show at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios on September 6th.
Matthews says, “I am thrilled to be talking with Mick, Paul and Topper at length on 6 Music and will be asking them about their early years, their inspirations and where life has taken them since. Out of the smouldering wreckage of the late Seventies The Clash broke onto the scene with a searing honesty that cut a clear message through the smoke. Their music questioned and defined the world around them and with a folk troubadour mentality and a boom box aloft they created a potent soundtrack for the times.”
The band, whose third album London Calling was voted Rolling Stone’s ‘best album of the 80s’, dissolved between 1983-86 in a turbulent break-up, in which lead singer Joe Strummer fired his co-writer Jones for allegedly behaving like a “prima donna”. There were rumours of a possible Clash reunion shortly before Strummer’s death in 2002. Speaking to The Guardian in 2012, Strummer’s daughter Jazz said, “I think if Dad hadn't died, it would have happened. It felt like it was in the air." The band have not performed together since 1986, but many fans might see this reunion as the first step towards future live performances.
The show will be pre-recorded on Friday 6th September and broadcast soon after on 6 Music. The public can apply for tickets to attend the show from now until midday on Sunday 25 August via the BBC 6Music website.
Headon, Simonon and Jones also appeared together on 9 August for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, where they told John Wilson about the difficulties of preparing the band’s new re-mastered box-set, Sound System.
“There was stuff that even I don’t remember,” says Jones. “The tapes were literally rotting […] you have to take the tapes and bake them in an oven, then you can only play it about once or twice.” Sound System is released on 9 September.
