FILTER REISSUES
Jungle warfare
It’s early 1982, Mick wants a funky double, Topper’s off his nut and Joe’s about to do a bunk. Herald the valedictor y Combat Rock, now with extras.
By Pat Gilbert.
The Clash
★★★★★
Combat Rock /The People’s Hall
SONY. CD/DL/LP
THEY S AY A week is a long time in politics, but in the world of The Clash it could be an eternity. Take the seven days commencing May 14, 1982, the date Combat Rock, the group’s fifth album, was released. At the time, singer Joe Strummer was AWOL, having dramatically vanished three weeks previously on the eve of a UK tour. His disappearance generated grave concern – and chaos – but on May 17, thanks to the efforts of band aide Kosmo Vinyl and a private detective, he was finally discovered hiding out in Paris. The following day he was back in London and just 48 hours after that, on May 20, The Clash headlined a festival in Holland. Yet that very night, their gifted drummer of five years, Topper Headon, was sensationally sacked for his drug addictions. Joe’s bunk had not been unrelated.
“The line-up ended on a high.”
While these dramas unfolded, Combat Rock was climbing the charts. Over the next six months, the record would become a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic, selling a million copies and, paradoxically, making The Clash’s troubles even worse, as they tried desperately to square their newfound wealth and success with being, at heart, an anti-materialistic rebel punk band. Indeed, if you were looking for scapegoats for The Clash’s downfall, Combat Rock might rank high on the list – not least because it wasn’t the album at least one of the band – guitarist Mick Jones – wanted released. Which brings us to the one he did want released: the near-mythical Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg, which this expanded 40th anniversary reissue takes pains to acknowledge, without actually coughing up the long-awaited goods.
Combat Rock began life in late summer 1981, at a rehearsal place called Ear Studios near Notting Hill, where The Clash had hired the Stones’ mobile studio to begin work on a follow-up to 1980’s 3-LP Sandinista!. It had only been three months since the group’s triumphant two-week residency at Bond’s Casino in New York made The Clash headline news Stateside, and deepened their interest in rap, hip-hop, graffiti art and, crucially, US current affairs. The depth of The Clash’s immersion in American culture was signalled by their autumn single This Is Radio Clash, a funk/rap number promoted by Don Letts’s video of them skanking with beatboxes on NYC’s streets. The bonus disc here – called The People’s