THE Y-FILES
ISSUE 5 - Table Of Contents
CLUB K.Y.THE Y-FILES
ISSUE 5 - Table Of Contents
CLUB K.Y. |
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By Annie Toone
Joe Strummer has played a pivotal and catalytic role in this Punk Rock
Drag King's life in three cities on three key occasions. Today I found myself
crying real, loud, sniveling, fuck-off tears over losing him. He'd a been
proud. It's time for me to honor his memory by testing my own.
Joe immediately offered to do a free concert for RAR at the Temple
Beautiful for all us real punx who couldn't afford the other one. Word
of mouth spread like wildfire and the Temple was heaving by the time The
Clash arrived.They rocked so hard. I still have my RAR USA t-shirt. Joe often
said, "not above me or below me, always with me". He meant it. He
NEVER changed. The second and most important time was when The Clash were doing their now
infamous BONDs shows in Times Square in May/June 1981 during the heyday of
the NY rockscene. I turned 23 on May 29th. By that time my all-butch punkfunk
band The Bloods as well as the nearly-all-girl Bush Tetras were
riding high and getting noticed.
I think Joe heard about us from Richard Hell who'd had The Bloods
open for him a coupla times at The Peppermint Lounge n Max's and
cbgbs that spring.(that's me on the keyboards at left with my Bryan
Gregory hair and singer Adele Bertei in the fedora.) Joe invited us two downtown white-girl bands to open for them on the last
night of the run. We were over the marquee moon, I can tell you. Especially because, on all the other nights The Clash were introducing their
crowd to Rap with then unknown opening acts like Grandmaster Flash, The
Treacherous 3 & The Sugarhill Gang (this was years before MTV
& the Run DMC/Aerosmith remake of "Walk this Way").
Us and the BTs were the only girls AND (except for our bass player Brenda
Alderman) the only white acts on the bill and we were fucking well
honored. It did help that both bands could play. I can't remember if we played well that night however. I think we did. I
remember that Bonds was cavernous and dark and packed. In the entry way was a
xylophone-type staircase that sounded a tone as you went up each step sorta
like in the Tom Hanks movie "BIG". I remember that we hung
with The Clash upstairs in their huge dressing room afterwards and I had such
a crush on Paul Simenon. I know, I'm a hardcore femme-lovin' daddy-o
and I was one then. All I can say is - it was 1981. I do remember that Joe was completely nonplussed about how butch Kathy
Rey (Bloods guitarist), Adele & I were. Not threatened, enamored. We
wanted to be the girl Clash, or the girl Rolling Stones or something
and looked it. We were bad boyz. He understood and encouraged us. At the time
other boy bands and even some girl bands like The Go-Gos and the Delta
5 were afraid to be in the dressing room when they shared bills with us.
Really. Not that we minded.;-> I remember we all wore those outlaw bandanas and
black pointy roach killers boots. So did the BTs, so did The Clash. I
remember Kozmo Vinyl, their manager strutting around like he was in
charge of the only band that mattered...cuz he was. They played like they were an army marching on you. On a do or die mission
from anarchist headquarters.They leaned towards the crowd like they were
leaning into the wind of oppresion and truly incited us all to be call-ups on
their path to righteous classless punkrock glory. Incendiary. Absolutely no one to this day can touch The Clash live. Like a suprematist
poster come to life before your eyes. The third time we met was when I was living in London which I did from
85-92. Tho I'd seen him onstage with The Pogues a few times, the
meaningful moment was in 1988 when I'd just joined a band of Scottish
punkdykes called The Well-Oiled Sisters. We were busking our brand of
psychokuntry on the Portobello Road in his Ladbroke Grove neighborhood when
who should appear but Joe Strummer and mate Gaz Mayall (son of John and club
promoter). Joe remembered me from The Bloods and dug the WOS sound (which at
the time was a jangly concoction of barebones
instrumentation+close3partHarmony: stand-up rockabilly snare; home-made
gut-bucket bass; gritty harmonica and acoustic thrash rhythm guitar). But the other gigs took us to the next level as a band. He reached out his
hand and gave me a leg up, again. That kind of generosity came naturally to
him. That's just how he was. He walked the talk like Billy Bragg said to
the BBC. He was the only man who mattered. The real punk proselytizer.
Determined to make a difference. An authentic, uncompromising and ever
inspirational Firestarter. A, dare I say it in these cynical times:
Revolutionary. May his DIY, stand-for-something legacy burn on and give strength to all
those who remain to fight the good fight he gave his big heart to. The Clash
were meant to reunite to play live at their induction into The RnR Hall of
Fame in Cleveland this year. Hopefully they will do him proper justice at the
ceremony. In the meanwhile his wife and record company have requested that we plant
a tree in his name as part of a project called Future Forests. It's one of the best ideas I've heard for
a longtime. Do it for Joe! -A
(mournful) Toone |
