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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

14. Hateful by The Clash 1979

In 1979 I was in England on holiday trying to take in everything that was going on at the time in particular all things Mod. However the Clash were pretty big in my life too and on my first record spend I went to WH Smith and bought The Jam "Setting Sons" and The Clash "London Calling". I took it back to my cousin's house and he had an entertainment centre, incredibly popular in the UK at the time. He had his speakers mounted high and when we played The Clash album it leapt out of the speakers. Especially this song! The Bo Diddey beat. The call and response.
(actually if you have the Little Murders "We Should Be Home By Now " album that's a picture of his house.)
It's just so exciting to listen to. My cousin Neil wasn't too impressed being a big Status Quo fan.
My girlfriend and I managed to get tickets to see the Clash at Lancaster University and we drove there through a cold  snowy night in a rent a bomb. The band were magnificent and we managed to get right up near the front. At one stage Mick Jones was playing guitar with a lit cigarette and glowing embers flew over the crowd. I bought a poster at the front door. For a short while it was in the Missing Link window when they borrowed it for a window display. Now it hangs proudly on my wall.


1 comment:

  1. great story.
    I remember i was still a teen working in my dad's record stall at Victoria market when this came out.. I would play it over and over when unpacking and packing the truck, on a ghetto-blaster. I still love that song about cocaine that starts with "elevator going up!".
    Such a great album. Strummer did it despite he was going thru major root canal at the time, and each track was only given 2 takes (for vocals) and thats it.. They didnt even stick around to mix it..

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