The Strummer Files continued: Joe Strummer - Earthquake Weather (Epic, 1989)

A belated fourth addition to the three-part Strummer Files, as Craig Stephen’s lockdown listening defaults to the tried and trusted …

It’s 1989, and, four years after the remnants of The Clash fizzled out like a dud sparkler, Joe Strummer was back in the driver’s seat for his first full solo album.

Six years previous, Strummer had lost his McCartney when Mick Jones was unceremoniously booted out of The Clash just as the movement towards a bona fide stadium band was taking place. In a year they could’ve been on a par with The Who. But, largely on his own, Strummer bundled together the hopelessly inept Cut the Crap. He really needed Jones’ spark to get it back together but Jones was firmly ensconced in Big Audio Dynamite, which reached for the sky and caught it with both hands.

Strummer’s life had been upturned after The Clash: both parents had died, and he had become a devoted father and family man. Acting, soundtracks and the what-have-you were part a way of exercising the ghost of The Clash and a way to forge a new path.

Earthquake Weather lacks a few basic things, not least a strong wingman. The line-up for the album was guitarist Zander Schloss, bassist Lonnie Marshall, and two drummers Jack Irons and Willie McNeill – this being the uncredited Latino Rockabilly War.  Other than Schloss, who Strummer knew from his soundtracks and acting, the others were located in jazz clubs and small-time clubs of LA.

There’s a lot to take in. The War immersed itself in everything it could find and Earthquake Weather straddles funk, rock, reggae and folk. The best three tracks are all at the start, leaving the album as a whole as a lopsided venture.

‘Gangsterville’, the first single, and ‘King of the Bayou’ are both rock stompers, with the former visiting a place few want to stay: “Down in Gangsterville/ Where any sane people already crawled under the house/ Yeah Gangsterville, the television is always thinking about/ Real people, especially when it's hungry.”

‘Gangsterville’ was re-released on 12” for 2016 Record Store Day with three variable B-sides; but the album itself has only ever been given a poorly designed and promoted re-release about a decade ago.

‘Slant Six’ is another three-minute rock’n’roll-fuelled fast mover, on the ways and methods of the record industry – perhaps a parable of The Clash itself. “Youth, money, success and power/ Expressing your soul to critical acclaim/ Now you're insatiable -- there's no stopping you/ If something lasts for a minute -- it's scored a hit with you/ What are you gonna do for an encore?/ C'mon baby after an act like that/ People are gonna scream for more.”

Elsewhere, it is a mixed bag. ‘Boogie With Your Children’ is reminiscent of what Prince was doing at the time, going as far as to have a backing singer with a Princely falsetto. The emotional ditty ‘Leopardskin Limousines’ is recorded at about the slowest pace that Strummer could go; ‘Highway One Zero Street’ sounds rush-recorded; ‘Ride Your Donkey’ is the obligatory reggae-infused contribution to a Strummer album, and certainly one of the highlights of an album that contains more standouts than it does lemons.

While I have come to appreciate it far more on these lockdown listens, Earthquake Weather wasn’t received well at the time. I can see how that was, it was neither commercial and has too much filler. It was followed by a fallow decade; but you can also see how it lead to a reappraisal of his career, which of course, would eventually lead to the Mescaleros.

Strummer’s other post-Clash, pre-Mescaleros LPs:

Sid and Nancy soundtrack (1986)

Strummer only contributed two tracks – the brilliant ‘Love Kills’, which was issued as a single, and ‘Dum Dum Club’, but it is said that he composed much of the other music.

Straight to Hell soundtrack (1987)

As well as starring in this spoof spaghetti western, Strummer contributed two new tracks, ‘Evil Darling’ and ‘Ambush at Mystery Rock’. The other contributors were familiar from the Sid and Nancy adventure: the Pogues and Pray for Rain while Zander Schloss, later to join Strummer’s band, provided ‘Salsa Y Ketchup’.

Walker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Alex Cox’s 1987 historical/satirical film starring Ed Harris in the eponymous role was based on the life of William Walker, the American filibuster who invaded and pronounced himself president of Nicaragua in the mid-19^th century with all the chaos and violence that is imaginable with such a scenario. Strummer, who had a cameo role in the film, composed the entire soundtrack – with 11 of the 14 tracks being instrumentals. It has a very Latin sound, as you’d expect, and is surprisingly engrossing.

Permanent Record (1987)

Joe Strummer and the Latino Rockabilly War contributed most of the soundtrack – namely ‘Trash City’ which was good enough to be a standalone single, ‘Baby the Trans’, ‘Nefertiti Rock’, ‘Nothin’ Bout Nothin’’ and (credited to Strummer alone) ‘Theme From Permanent Record’. This grim movie starred Keanu Reeves and it isn’t regarded as his finest hour and a half. The other half of the record included Lou Reed, The Stranglers, the Bodeans, The Godfathers, and J.D. Souther.

Joe Strummer vs the Rich: when anarchy met The Clash hero

Craig Stephen presents an overview of 1988’s Rock Against The Rich tour …

*** 

Apparently, it happened like this. A drunken, mouthy anarchist approached Joe Strummer in a London pub, chewed his ear for a bit and within a few pints had the former Clash man down for a full-on national tour. It would be called Rock Against the Rich. 

As the planning took place the organisers craftily added a Welsh language band to the tour schedule, without asking for their permission, and pulled it off. 

So began the route to a tour that inspired Strummer and, while not giving the world’s rich-listers a boot in the bollocks, at least raised the issue of how wealth inequality creates an unstable society.

The drunken, mouthy anarchist was Ian Bone, who had form in the shape of Bash The Rich marches, disrupting the boat race for toffs, Henley Regatta, and organising campaigns against yuppies, in his own inimitable manner. He was the public face of Class War. 

According to one of the protagonists, Darren Ryan, the conversation in March 1988 at Notting Hill boozer the Warwick Castle, initially centred on a one-off benefit gig for Class War, the anarchist group that loathed the upper classes and loved violence – its newspaper contained a regular section called ‘Hospitalised Coppers’. 

As the pints flowed, it somehow became a full-blown tour.

“We presented the idea to Strummer that it was going to make his return to his Clash roots – back to Garageland, back to the streets. I think that he thought he would get some kind of political street cred from associating with us,” says Ryan. 

“Throughout this table-banging tirade from me and Ian, Strummer became totally animated. He was like a cadaver that got electrocuted back to life and wanted to live it all now – all at once. He fuckin’ loved it.” 

As everyone knows, grand ideas fuelled by plentiful supplies of drink tend to be met with a ‘did I really say that?’ in the hangover hours, but Strummer was committed even as he pissed out the pints. 

With the former Clash man promising to help fund it, the details were thrashed out. 

The tour started badly, with the free concert on the Isle of Dogs, in London’s East End, falling through late on. The Mudchute Farm Committee, on whose land it was to be held, got cold feet. The gig was transferred to the Brixton Fridge; a warm-up act was another mouthy anarchist, Class War’s candidate for the Kensington by-election, John Duignan (he got 60 votes, 0.25%). 

However, there is a doubt over whether this was actually part of the tour. Ryan insists it was but it also has been claimed that this was a benefit gig in support of the Nicaraguan rebel group turned government the FSLN. 

Ryan again: “Strummer came out looking like a punk Johnny Cash, and he fucking rocked the Fridge with what everyone wanted to hear – a combination of old and new material. We were happy with the result – we sold loads of Class War papers and T-shirts, and our name was up in the lights again.” 

The Latino Rockabilly War was a curious combination comprised of musicians with diverse backgrounds in punk, jazz and traditional Colombian music: Zander Schloss (Circle Jerks) on guitar, Roberto Pla on percussion, Jim Donica on bass, and Willie McNeil (ex-Untouchables) on drums.

The Latino Rockabilly War

From London, Strummer and Class War went onwards on a “fucking huge tour bus” paid for by Strummer. There was booze, booze and more booze. 

The singer wasn’t short of money thanks to The Clash and there was a certain irony perhaps in him rocking against the rich. But not his commitment, as he told music journalist Sheila Rogers on the eve of the tour: “Every gig goes to some needy local fund. For example, in one town some people were caught stealing coal off trains during the winter. The proceeds from this would go to their defence fund.” 

The tour visited Leeds, Liverpool, Doncaster, Sheffield, Bristol, Merthyr Tydfil, Exeter, Poole, Southampton, Brighton, Swansea, Northampton, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Bradford, Glasgow (Barrowlands), Hull, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and finally, Hultsfred in Sweden. 

The gig in Derby was cancelled due to poor ticket sales while a second gig in Brighton was pulled due to police concerns about two gigs over two nights in one small venue (the Concord) so the gigs were united as one at the Dome. 

As well as the gigs Class War arranged for the band to meet activists on housing estates, such as Jimmi Walker, in Liverpool, who was battling smack dealers. 

Clash fan Joe Swinford was at the Bristol gig and wasn’t convinced by the new band. 

“Joe’s backing band, The Latino Rockabilly War, were lacking in the image stakes, and for someone who was an integral part of a high profile, image conscious band like The Clash, it was thought Joe would have hired musicians who not only played well, but also fitted the bill in the threads department. I’m sure Joe had his reasons, but on this occasion, ability was preferred over image. In certain circumstances this isn’t a bad thing, however, in this instance, The Latino Rockabilly War looked inappropriate, alongside Strummer’s unmistakable cool. Stepping into Mick Jones’ shoes must be a daunting task, but bespectacled Latino’s guitarist Zander Schloss was on a hiding to nothing from the off. He wasn’t a bad guitarist, but endless over-played guitar fills drew obvious comparisons to Mick’s work. Sadly, Zander’s playing was messy and overworked. Drummer Willie McNeil was OK, but rudimentary compared to Topper. Naming the band the Latino Rockabilly War was appropriate, as it was indeed a collision of musical styles. But it must have been difficult for Joe to assemble a credible outfit equalling The Clash’s legacy.”

One of the support bands, Welsh language punk band Anhrefn, were snared through a somewhat unusual tactic. As Rhys Mwyn explains they found out about their backing through a musical newspaper while on tour. 

“We’d check out NME for any reviews or whatever and on this particular day a tour by Joe Strummer had just been announced under the banner of Rock Against The Rich. Being huge Strummer fans we immediately checked this article out to find that we were listed as one of the support bands on the tour. First we’d heard. The tour was being organised by Class War and at the end of the piece they gave a London number for more details. On the other end of the line was a bloke called Matt Runacre who said ‘I was hoping you’d phone’. So it was true, they did want us to support and he’d used the NME as a way of getting us to contact him.” 

Soundcheck issues meant Anhrefn couldn’t play in Newcastle, but got the opener in Edinburgh, playing just three songs to the early birds. They also played Bristol, before One Style, a reggae band from London. 

Anhrefn’s Sion: “We were quite surprised with Joe Strummer, he could have been a bloody pop star if he'd wanted to, but he wasn't, he was totally OK, totally down to Earth, no shit at all. The tour was good, there was good audiences, but I don't know how many of the actual audience knew what the whole thing was about. There was one guy (Ray Jones) who introduced the bands, who would sometimes try to explain what it was all about, but the crowd would just be going ‘Strummer, Strummer, Strummer’. So I think a lot of the crowd were just there to see Joe Strummer because he used to be in the Clash, and didn't really know what was going on, even though they gave out leaflets, most of the leaflets would be on the floor by the end of the night.” 

Setlists will undoubtedly abound around the net, but the one at Nottingham Rock City on 3 August is likely to have been replicated elsewhere. 

Shouting Street/ Keys to Your Heart/ Somebody Got Murdered/ Oye Coma Va!/ Spanish Bombs/ Armagideon Time/ Sightsee MC/ This is England/ Junco Partner/ Police and Thieves/ V Thirteen/ Nothin About Nothin/ Straight to Hell/ If I Should Fall from Grace/ I Fought the Law/ Ubangi Stomp/ Brand New Cadillac/ Police on My Back/ Tropic of No Return/ Trash City/ Ride Your Donkey/ Love of the Common People/ Love Kills. 

It’s quite a mix of stuff, Clash classics, solo material, notable covers, a couple of Big Audio Dynamite songs (surprising given Mick and Joe weren’t apparently on good terms by then) and The Pogues’ 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God'. 

Was it worth it? This is what Darren Ryan made of the tour: 

“It may not have been how we originally intended it, but it was moderately successful in some ways. And it was a lot of fun. But I look back in anger at it, as we had such great ideas for it, and it still gets my blood boiling the way it was turned from potentially dangerous to pleasantly adventurous by people who used it as their ticket into the music industry.”