"'Joe Strummer, founder of the Clash, dead at 50,' is not a headline I would have ever expected to read. How did Joe even get to be 50, only three years older than myself? He is fixed in my mind as the charismatic 25-year-old leader of one of punk rock’s greatest bands, that I witnessed firsthand in 1977, tearing up the stage in concert at Leeds University in northern England. Where the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten gave us a nihilistic worldview in "No Future," Strummer gave us fiery anthems such as "White Riot" an "I’m So Bored With USA," anthems that perfectly captured the fledgling punk-rock generation’s discontent and served as a call to action to youth- especially in the face of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s right wing Tory government and her harsh use of police force against striking coal miners.

Singer songwriter Billy Bragg told the BBC News in England, 'Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers. Instead, the incendiary lyrics of the Clash inspired 1,000 more bands on both sides of the Atlantic to spring up and challenge their elders, and the man we all looked to was Joe Stummer.

My band, Gang of Four, was one of those 1,000 bands that took Joe’s blueprint and took to the streets with our own brand of post-punk invective- from playing on the back of flatbed trucks in central London in support of Rock Against Racism to playing shows to raise money for the families of striking miners in northern England’s coal fields. And it is safe to say that had Joe Strummer and his band not opened the doors before us, we may not have had quite the success that we and many of the other bands were able to achieve.

His legacy lives on, but in a world of political apathy in which artists refuse to bite the hand that feeds, his message will be sorely missed."

- Dave Allen, Gang of Four

"What a horrible fucking year for the punk rock pioneers. Dee Dee Ramone and Joe Strummer taught me more about the world than all my high school teachers combined. I saw Joe and the Mescaleros last year and it was the best rock show I'd seen in a long while. He was entering that Neil Young/Johnny Cash/Tom Waits growing-old-gracefully period. Fuck. I was really looking forward to seeing him this summer."

- Jeff Ament, Pearl Jam

"Pete, Lou, Craig and myself are all very sorry to hear about Joe Strummer's passing. He was a man who kept it real no matter how the industry or the media reacted to his music, and his fame never touched on hollow celebrity. I wish more people treated the spotlight with his integrity. The passion he exuded in his performances and his courage to defy stereotypes with his songs will inspire musicians forever. We played a few shows with his band last year, and were honored to hear that he had become an avid Sick of it All fan. To gain the respect of a man of his background was incredible.

I prefer to celebrate someone's life when they pass, rather than focus on our depressingly fragile mortality, so please take a moment to thank Joe Strummer for what he started and what he gave of himself to the world."

- Armand, Sick of It All

"COMMANDANTE JOE

I guess in quite a lot of ways I grew up just like you
A bolshy kid who didn't think the way they told him to
You kicked over the statues, a roots rock rebel star
Who knew that punk was more than just the sound of a guitar
And I'll always remember that night at the Rainbow
When you wrote a soundtrack for my life, Commandante Joe.

So many bands back then were like too many bands today
A bunch of blokes who made a noise with bugger all to say
The Clash were always out in front, you put the rest to shame
Your words were calls to action, your music was a flame
You were our common Dante, and you raised an inferno
And you wrote a soundtrack for my life, Commandante Joe.

Reggae in the Palais
Midnight till six!
Rockin' Reds in Brockwell Park!
Sten guns in Knightsbridge!
Up and down the Westway
In and out the lights!
Clash City Rockers!
Know Your Rights!

I guess in quite a lot of ways I grew up just like you
A bolshy kid who didn't think the way they told him to
Like you I always knew that words and music held the key
As you did for so many, you showed the way to me
Although I never met you I'm so sad to see you go
'Cos you wrote a soundtrack for my life, Commandante Joe."

- Atilla the Stockbroker, Musician

"A tragedy, I saw Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros play a gig for the fire fighters a few weeks ago. They were great and a real return to form, a sad loss for music and the left."

- James Dean Bradfield, Manic Street Preachers

"The Clash turned punk into a proper political movement, and Joe Strummer showed recently that he still had much of value to say. It is a terrible tragedy to lose him at this early age."

- David Bowie

"The most profound voice of any musician I have ever heard, Joe took his message to the world and the world listened. He managed to influence more than one generation with his innovative and determined manner and I am not alone in repeatedly turning to his thoughts and lyrics when searching for inspiration.

The Clash was the greatest rock band.

They wrote the rule book for U2. Though I was always too much of a fan to get to know him well, we were due to meet in January to finish our Mandela song with Dave Stewart. It's such a shock."

- Bono

"The Clash were the greatest rebel rock band of all time. Their commitment to making political pop culture was the defining mark of the British punk movement. They were also a self-mythologizing, style-obsessed mass of contradictions. That's why they were called The Clash. They wanted desperately to be rock stars but they also wanted to make a difference. While Paul Simon flashed his glorious cheekbones and Mick Jones threw guitar hero shapes, no-one struggled more manfully with the gap between the myth and the reality of being a spokesman for your generation than Joe Strummer. All musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity.

Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans. Joe opened the back door of the theatre and let us in, he sneaked us back to the hotel for a beer, he too believed in the righteous power of rock'n'roll. And if he didn't change the world he changed our perception of it. He crossed the dynamicism of punk with Johnny Too Bad and started that punky-reggae party.

He drew us, thousands strong, onto the streets of London in support of Rock Against Racism. He sent us into the garage to crank up our electric guitars. He made me cut my hair. The ideals that still motivate me as an artist come not from punk, not even from the Clash, but from Joe Strummer. The first wave of punk bands had a rather ambivalent attitude to the politics of late 70s Britain. The Sex Pistols, The Damned, the Stranglers, none of them, not even the Jam, came close to the radicalism that informed everything the Clash did and said. The US punk scene was even less committed. The Ramones, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers and Blondie all were devoid of politics. Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers. Instead, the incendiary lyrics of the Clash inspired 1,000 more bands on both sides of the Atlantic to spring up and challenge their elders and the man that we all looked to was Joe Strummer.

He was the White Man in Hammersmith Palais who influenced the Two Tone Movement. He kept it real and inspired the Manic Street Preachers. And he never lost our respect. His recent albums with the Mescaleros found him on inspiring form once again, mixing and matching styles and rhythms in celebration of multi-culturalism. At his final gig, in November in London, Mick Jones got up with him and together they played a few old Clash tunes. It was a benefit concert for the firefighters union. One of the hardest things to do in rock'n'roll is walk it like you talk it.

Joe Strummer epitomized that ideal and I will miss him greatly."

- Billy Bragg

Another quote from Billy Bragg:

"Joe to me was a great political inspiration. The first political thing I ever did was to go a Rock Against Racism concert in Victoria Park, Hackney, in 1977.

I really went to see the Clash and it politicised me. I have a great admiration for the man. His most recent records are as political and edgy as anything he did with the Clash. His take on multi-cultural Britain in the 21st century is far ahead of anybody else.

This is a terrible tragedy, particularly for his family. If you look at the first rank of British punk bands, they weren't really that political. Their relationship to politics was rather ambivalent -- The Sex Pistols, the Damned and The Stranglers -- and the American punk bands had politics at all -- The Ramones, Blondie and Television. It was The Clash that struck the strong political stance that really inspired a lot of people, and within The Clash he was the political engine of the band.

Without Joe there's no political Clash and without the Clash the whole political edge of punk would have been severely dulled. The thing about Strummer was he walked it like he talked it. He didn't cop out. He didn't show one face to the public and have a different face in himself. It's very difficult to play big stadiums in America and stay true to what you believe in. It's very difficult but I think the Clash stayed true to that."

"In 1978, I was playing drums with the Slits on the Clash's 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' tour of the UK. With the Clash's second album debuting at number two on the UK charts, the tour was a sell-out. Joe would leave the stage every night dripping with exhaustion, having given the audience his all in a selfless 'bleeding hand on guitar' alternative to the troubles & depression prominent in Britain at that time. Genuinely concerned for his followers, and there were many, he would leave the door to his hotel room open every night so that anyone without a place to stay could keep warm, share a joke, have a drink and a smoke. Didn't make Joe too popular with the hotels, but it was perhaps an early example of his genuine desire to make a difference that has earned him the respect, and praise of many over the years. Joe was a passionate musician and a true gentleman.

Our love & thoughts go out to his family & friends this Christmas."

- Budgie, Drummer - The Slits, The Banshees, The Creatures

"We played in Belfast two nights ago and I woke the following morning with a dreadful headache as a result of the 'End of Tour' party that is traditional with any touring band. However, my headache was about to get a lot worse. There were messages on my mobile phone to call the BBC to comment on the tragic news of Joe Strummer's death. Even through my sleep befuddled haze I thought I must have heard that wrong. But sadly, it was true.

I never really knew Joe. I only met him on about two occasions, but the simple fact is that I would not be doing now what I am (and have been doing for the last 26 years) if it hadn't been for Joe Strummer. He was the inspiration not just for the musical style I adopted but his attitude informed my own with regard to many aspects of the music business. Not least the respect you owe the people who buy your records and tickets etc. Although I found a lot of Joe's politics somewhat naive, there was no doubting the passion, sincerity and commitment he felt towards them. To ally that intensity of feeling with some of the most incendiary rock music ever written made The Clash the vitally important band they were (and still remain.)

I saw Joe's band, The Mescaleros, recently and they were sensational. It was obvious the man had re-discovered the joy of playing live and was revelling in it. It's a shame they'll never get to fulfill that potential now. So, while my thoughts (and those of everyone connected with Stiff Little Fingers) are with Joe's wife and family at this terrible time, I'd also like to take the chance to raise a glass and toast: Joe Strummer. He was the best.

- Jake Burns, Stiff Little Fingers

"First of all I would like to say how very sad it is that Joe has left us at such a young age and with so much more great music to share. I just had the opportunity to meet him this summer when The Cadillac Tramps played The Hootenanny with his band The Mescaleros. I am usually a bit apprehensive to meet people I have idolized, and since the whole goal of The Cadillac Tramps was to be the "American Clash", Joe was pretty high up on the idol list. But he, like the greatest of all great people, was nothing but kind, humble, and so worthy of my respect. It was truly a highlight of my music career to shake his hand and talk with him. Thanks Joe. For the inspiration and for never letting me down. You'll be missed.

- Brian Coakley, The Cadillac Tramps (co-perfomer at Hootenanny)

"I'm very, very sad at the news of Joe's death. I cannot pretend that we were that close but I am a great admirer of his songs and lyrics. The last time I saw Joe, we were driving through Notting Hill at 60mph in his Hot Rod VW. I think that this says a lot about him and his spirit. My thoughts are with his family and friends."

- Elvis Costello

"Last Sunday night I had wandered up to the attic on some pretext, and was going through a box of papers when a pile of tapes came crashing down. They were audio cassettes that had been sitting on a shelf full of film-related stuff : video masters, temporary versions of things, and tapes of temporary soundtrack music.

I picked the tapes up and put them back, stacking them differently to make them less likely to fall. They were all sample tracks for my film 'Walker', marked up in Joe Strummer's fair hand. I really should listen to them again some day, I thought.

Next morning, a friend called me at 8.30 in the morning to tell me Joe was dead. The phone rang a few times and I found I'd spoken to just about everyone centrally involved with 'Walker' - Rudy Wurlitzer, the writer; Lorenzo O'Brien, the producer; Richard Beggs, the sound designer; Ed Harris, the actor who played the mad hero; Luis Contreras, Miguel Sandoval, and Dick Rude, other actors in the film.

Some of them wanted Joe's address so as to send a letter of condolence. But the only address I had for him was that of his lawyers in Los Angeles, where the 'Straight to Hell' cheques went. I had a fax number in England, so I gave them that. We discussed whether faxes are an appropriate form of condolence. I think they are, and sent mine later in the week.

I hadn't seen Joe in several years - not since the Cannes Film Festival, where we'd attended a swell do in honour of some of Britain's top producers.

We both had the impression we'd been drafted in at the 11th hour because more A-list celebrities had dropped out. But we had a good old time. I met Joe's very nice wife, Lucy. He didn't seem to have changed. Not at all.

Oh, and I saw him and his band last year, of course. The Mescaleros. I was thick with Strummer for only a short time. A three or four year period in which I directed 'Sid & Nancy', 'Straight to Hell', and 'Walker'.

Strummer provided music for all three films, and acted in two of them. It was a year or so after the conclusion of the Clash, and, being at a bit of a loose end, Joe had decided to apply himself to the film thing.

He peppered 'Sid & Nancy' with witty bits of fake source music, all credited to imaginary composers since his record company didn't want him writing too many songs for films. He provided similar background stings in 'Straight to Hell', and was instrumental in all the other odd musical twists and turns of that film, including co-composing 'The Weiner Kid Theme', and proposing that The Pogues sing 'Danny Boy'. He was a decent actor in 'Straight to Hell' and 'Walker', too. But it was his score for 'Walker' that amazed me, and everyone elso who heard it. Strummer's music permeates the film. It sets the film's ironic tone with party music for a battle scene. Then - in the scene between Walker and his lover Ellen (Marlee Matlin) - it's 100% emotional and affecting, like real movieee music. Then, at the end, when Walker and his brother try to burn a city down, it's sweet, persistent, and insane.

When Strummer wasn't confident about what he was doing, he tended to mix his lyrics low. Listen to 'Cut the Crap', or 'Earthquake Weather'. You can barely hear his voice, such is his uncertainty.

On the two songs he sings in 'Walker', you can hear his voice - several Strummer voices, in fact - singing harmony, loud and clear. He knew what he was creating in the 'Walker' soundtrack was great. And it's his alone - there are other musicians involved, including the guitarist and arranger Zander Schloss, but no shared credit, no other bands or composers involved. 'Walker' is the 100% Joe Strummer Score.

Strummer lived in Nicaragua for six months while we shot and edited 'Walker'. He was the guy who named his album "Sandinista", and he was a happy man composing music there.

Richard Beggs recalled how, as he mixed his effects and dialogue with Joe's music, Strummer took up residence in a cupboard in the corridor outside the mixing room. It was something to keep the vacuum cleaner in, but Strummer made it his office, inhabited it, and kept his rolling papers, lighter, notebook, guitar, and other essentials there. It was the same in Nicaragua. No matter where we were, or what the difficulties, Strummer would always establish a little niche somewhere, in which to plot, and smoke, and dream.

Joe's 'Walker' score is out of print and hard to find today. It is inaudible, as the film - a very political film, about American foreign policy and imperial aspirations - is unseen. I saw little of Strummer after 'Walker'. The fallout from the film was intense. I made some trips to Mexico City, but could not lure Joe along. He remained in LA to record 'Earthquake Weather' with Zander. I moved to Mexico City and made some films there. Joe semi-retired to England for about a decade, then formed the Mescaleros, and did the recent things we know.

After the phone calls died away, I went back up to the attic and brought the tapes down. The ones Joe had marked up with titles for potential songs: 'Extra Seco', 'Aqui Fue Granada' - songs I had heard one time 15 years ago, perhaps, when Joe was trying things out. I played them. They all sounded entirely new. Songs Joe had thought about, back in 1987, taped a demo of, and then discarded. Hours of unused, undeveloped 'Walker' songs. Hadn't seen Strummer in a long time. Dick Rude saw him, when he was in LA. Dick told me Joe had finished a tour, and was recording another album. So there's more.

Given that Joe was a prolific taper of other people's music and of his own potential... possibilities... there might be much more.

I'm listening to those 'Walker' tapes again."

- Alex Cox, Director - Straight to Hell, Sid and Nancy, Walker

"It was with great sadness, literally days before Xmas, that I learnt of the death of Joe Strummer, (former singer and guitarist with one of the all-time great London bands, The Clash) at the age of 50.

A passionate, honest fella, he left his mark on a generation of music-lovers, myself very much included.

I first got the Clash bug in early '77. My introduction being the 200MPH rebel rock sound of their debut album. And to this day I can quote and sing large chunks of it unaccompanied and often do!

It wasn't long after that I was lucky enough to bump into Joe on the Edgeware Road, where he subsequently invited me and ten schoolfriends to their Camden rehearsal studio for an interview for our school mag-turned-punk fanzine 'The Modern World'. I guess that was one of the wonderful things about Punk. Apart from the back-to-basics, in-yer-face, life-affirming music - and those ever so cool clothes - there was a wonderful accessibility about the bands, and no one took that more seriously than Joe. I thought he and his band were simply fantastic and they, along with The Jam, provided the soundtrack to my teenage years.

But it's with regret that I think back to the last time I saw Joe. It would have been on an afternoon sometime in 1983 on Old Compton Street.

I'd just started presenting a show on Capital Radio. The Clash - remember? - had written a scathing attack on the station back in 1977 and Joe wasted no time in accusing me of 'selling out'. A row subsequently ensued with me trying to reason that I'd been given this show strictly because I'd be allowed to choose all the music that was played. Joe wouldn't have any of it.

"And what about The Clash signing to CBS in '77?", I argued. "You guys sold out, signing to a corporate!" I sloped off, hurt and disappointed. I really cared what he thought. In hindsight it all seems so silly, but I would dearly have loved to have had the opportunity of meeting up with him again. It obviously wasn't meant to be.

And his legacy? Well, he was someone who made you sit up, think and question things. He was someone who was very serious about what he did. Without him we wouldn't have the likes of Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, U2, the Manics and countless others. And without him and Mick and Paul and Topper, I wouldn't have the memories of all those extraordinary Clash shows I was lucky enough to attend - and those wonderful records and songs he left in his wake. RIP Joe."

- Lord Crowley, BBC Radio

"A true genius, a man of class and convictions. A personal hero. I can't believe he is gone. My heart goes out to his wife and children."

- Mike D, Beastie Boys

"Joe Strummer. First, last, and only true rock and roll hero. Straight to heaven, I presume."

More from Jakob: "Joe Strummer. I could never say enough. I haven't stopped thinking of him since I heard the news. Honestly, it has unexpectedly taken the wind out of me.

"There are very few leaders. Alot of the records I loved when I was younger no longer hold up as great records. They take you back, but they've lost the thrill. Not The Clash. Not Joe Strummer. I really believe they were the greatest band of them all. I met him twice when I was young, during Combat Rock. You may have heard this before, but i told him i liked his vest. He said "You do?" Then he gave it to me. I put it in a frame, as well as many posters. We played with The Mescaleros a year or two ago. I told him about the vest. He laughed. I laughed. I felt stupid. He looked cool. Seriously, he did look cool.

Here's an odd note. The week before he died, I went searching on ebay. Yes, I do that sometimes. I went looking for my Straight To Hell shirt. I lost it many yrs. ago. I found it, I won. I'm checking the mail everyday. I can't wait to wear it.

God bless Joe Strummer. You were not a punk. You played punk, but you were a king. As righteous an artist we'll ever see. I will not forget. I'm still listening, here in my 'garage, with my bullshit detector.'"

- Jakob Dylan, The Wallflowers (from thewallflowers.com bulletin board)

"I remember seeing The Clash at Sheffield Top Rank in 1977 & thinking ... Wow!!! ...compared to what was usually on at the Top Rank they couldn’t really play (in the sense of what was the norm back then) but the excitement that came off the stage was phenomenal !!! ...I went in a totally different direction music wise, but nevertheless, The Clash left a lasting impression on me to the point that every time I'm on tour I end up buying "The Clash" & "London Calling" over & over again because I left them at home !!!! What a shame we won't get to see the reunion that might just have happened next March when The Clash are inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame. Condolences to ALL his family, friends & fans .......RIP

- Joe Elliot, Def Leppard

""Strummer was a poet. He moved people in a political way because he was totally in tune with what was going on in the world."

- Joe Ely, Musician

"Joe Strummer checked out. When we were driving to the Fuji festival in Japan a few months ago we got into this conversation about Joe Strummer. It went like most conversations we have ever had about Joe something like this:

'Joe is the coolest guy with the most integrity'

'Remember that time Joe went out of his way to make someone feel good who was obviously uncomfortable?'

'How about when Joe was accosted by that fan who any other rock star in the world would have run from instantly but Joe gave him a hug and talked to him for 5 minutes because he was grateful that people cared about his music?'

'My favorite record is 'Sandinista', really you think 'London Calling'?'

and so on.

When we got to that festival all the bands were hanging out in the backstage area and it was fun but not Joe.....he was out camping with the people by a river whooping it up.

I didn't know him that well but hung out with him a few times through mutual friends.

Once I was hanging out in the studio when he was recording his record 'Earthquake Weather' and my girlfriend Loesha (now my xwife) was with me and she was just 17 years old and had come down from Canada and was shy and culture shocked. She sat there fidgeting and drew a picture on a piece of paper of a cat. Joe grabbed it and Thumbtacked it up on the wall saying "This is gonna make us play great!"......just to make her feel good.

Last time I saw him was at a rock show in L.A. and he hugged me and kissed me. I went home feeling great. He was a walking bundle of love.

The Clash are my favorite band. They never stopped growing and changing. Their music means so much to me. It makes me feel so good when I hear it. The sound of it. I know it is supposed to be political but that's not what it seems like to me. To me it is purely humanitarian, it is all love. To me Politics means playing games to get what you want. Joe sang about people he didn't think were getting a fair shake, it is obvious that he cared deeply about them.

I love him. If anyone was ever my role model it is him.

The world has lost one of it's best humans.

When he played at the Troubador before he walked off the stage he said "It's a sad and beautiful world! Goodnight!"

- Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers

"He was a clear contemporary and we were rivals. I believed we had to get inside the pop culture -- he believed you should always stay outside and hurl things at it. He was a very important musician. The Clash will be endlessly influential. They will always be one of the deathless rock bands."

- Bob Geldof, former Boomtown Rats vocalist and Live Aid organizer

"He was one of the most important figures in modern British music, a powerful performer and a wordsmith on the same level as Bob Dylan. His music had compassion and vision, backed with an agenda to change the world for the better... I was shocked to hear of his death."

- Pat Gilbert, Editor of MOJO Magazine

''Blimey, Joe too. He really was a diamond geezer, and he always really cared. I don't think he ever really changed. We used to do a lot of gigs together back in '76 when he had the 101ers, mostly at the good old Nashville Rooms. He always used to turn up with a dog on a rope and a plentiful supply of cannibles raisins if I remember correctly, and he always played a blinder. Better make my will sharpish... God Bless ya Joe.''

- Paul Gray, Eddie & The Hot Rods, The Damned, UFO, C.I.A., Mischief,...-

"The greatest legacy he leaves is that he made a generation of people think for themselves. He didnt quite manage to change the world but he changed the way people looked at it. It's a sad day - but what a life."

- Johnny Green, Former Clash Road Manager

"I'm in shock over the sudden death of my friend Joe. He was the strongest of men, a real inspirational leader, a guy who never seemed to tire of listening to people and talking to them, learning and teaching all the time. He had true compassion for everyone he met. He was the nicest and also the most fun loving person I've known."

- Bob Gruen, Photographer

"It's taken Joe's death to make me realise just how big The Clash were. We were a political band and Joe was the one who wrote the lyrics. Joe was one of the truest guys you could ever meet. If he said 'I am behind you', then you knew he meant it 100 per cent."

- Topper Headon

"Regarding the other couple of things that've been news lately--George Bush and Joe Strummer--the first thing that comes to mind is that things'd be a whole lot better if they could have traded places. I don't want to be wishing even Bush dead but he has about the brains of a pop musician, whereas it would be cool to have Strummer in the White House. Never mind. I didn't know Strummer that well, though I was around him a lot for three weeks in 1977. Ivan, guitar player in the Voidoids at the time, was friendlier with those guys, though it was more with Mick Jones I think. Ivan played some on a record or two of theirs (as per "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" on Sandanista). Strummer did always seem like a solid guy, and he definitely had principals which is rare and he did his best to make his band's career consistent with those principals. That's a cool thing that originated for teenage music in that era and the Clash probably did more than any of those early bands to set an example."

- Richard Hell

"You changed our lives... god rest your soul"

- Mick Hucknall, Simply Red

"The Clash were innovative, radical and helped drive a change in music that was ground-breaking. In comparison to some of the music today they sounded like they meant it. I still listen to their music today to remind myself what music made with commitment sounds like."

Another Quote from Chrissie: "I went to his funeral and to the party afterward. I felt very lighthearted and really great and was wondering why. Obviously, it was a very sad day, but the reason I felt so up and good afterward was because Joe provided so much light, he had such a positive force. He had such good innings while he was here."

And another: "He was the great humanitarian to come out of punk."

- Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders

On the morning of December 23, I tuned in the car radio and happened to catch the tail end of a news item. Through the crackle of static came, '. . . and later we remember Joe Strummer of the Clash.' 'Remember'? Fuck!

There is a peculiar sort of emotional frisson that accompanies shocking news, especially a death. It is a weird kind of high that is quickly transmuted into a sickening come down. I had to wait another forty minutes, suffering the interminal whine of live on the air politicos duking it out with cant, until confirmation came.

Their voices reminded me of the time when I first saw Strummer play live. He held up a small transistor radio to the microphone, British politicians discussing the latest IRA outrage, followed by a news report detailing the carnage. '1, 2, 3, 4', and the band crashed in, three guitars like sonic razors cleaving the smoke. The Clash were playing their first gig in London, it was 1976, next up, The Sex Pistols in all their ragged glory.

I was nineteen and transfixed. This was IT! I had taken my little bother Kevin down to the 100 Club, driving the seventy miles south from Northampton down the M1. He too was gob smacked. We decided to form our own punk band there and then. To this day, that gig remains the single most exciting live event that I have ever witnessed and the band's future trajectory, soaring on the wings of passionate idealism, forged the standard for all time.

I saw the man several times following that incendiary event, with the Clash (always wildly exciting), as a sometime member of The Pogues and later, with his great band, The Mescaleros. The last occasion was in San Diego at the 2002 Hootenanny. I saw him in his trailer before he was about to go on. He was extremely sick with a heavy dose of the flu but still gracious, he waved me aboard whilst seated on the shotgun side like a pirate king in his pilfered quarters. What followed was an unbelievably spirited performance. Leg pumping and fist punching the sky, the bastard had me pogoing like it was 76 all over again. 'You've got a big heart, Joe!' I told him afterwards. He shrugged and grinned that lopsided greaser grin and then sat on the damp floor for over an hour signing record sleeves and posing for photos with the fans.

The first time we met was in 1989. He turned up, out of the blue, at the KCRW radio studio in Santa Monica, where I was recording a live session with Max Eider and Owen Jones (poached from The Jazz Butcher) Jones is a massive Clash fan and it was highly amusing to see his reaction as he turned around to face the sound proofed window only to be confronted by a maniacally gurning Strummer. This, seconds before the start of our set. Afterwards, we went out for some drinks with him and a great time was had by all. The following night we played at The Roxy Theater on Sunset Strip. Strummer was there again. Post show he invited us back to his hotel to meet with his cousin Jose' (neat tequila gold.) We became well acquainted and before long Strummer was imparting wise words of advice concerning instruments. He strongly objected to my choice of guitar, an Ovation acoustic with a plastic back.

'The thing is Dave, you've got no bassist so you really need that bottom end, yer know? All yer hear with that fuckin' Ovation is, thwackey, thwackey, thwackey' and that ain't no fuckin' good! What yer need is The Big Wood! Do yer know what that is? No? Well, I'll tell yer! The Big Wood is like a big old fuckin' Gibson or a Gretch or a Guild, something with a bit of soul to it, a big jumbo chunk of fuckin' wood and none of that fuckin' plastic shit! You look at any of yer serious guys, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Van fuckin' Morrison, they all got the Big Wood. Now Barry!' (our tour manager at the time.) At this point Stummer is literally on his knees. 'Barry, will you promise me something? Tomorrow morning I want yer to drive down to the fuckin' river, then I want yer to take those fuckin' shit Ovation guitars and throw em in it! Then take him down to Sunset and get him sorted with the Big Wood! Right!'

Right! We did and it made all the difference in the world.

That last time I saw him in San Diego, the first thing he said to me was, 'You got it, right? You got The Big Wood!' (I had'nt seen him since 89!) I gladly answered in the affirmative.

I also got it' and got it good, in a sweaty little cellar dive in Oxford Street in 1976 and I am never going to let it go.

Thank you Joe. R.I.P."

- David J founding member of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets

"For another generation, Bob Dylan awoke some sense that you can sing songs that weren't just about crying in your beer. For us, it was Sandinista! A song like “Straight to Hell” remains totally ingrained of how you can create a whole other world, but another world that wasn't necessarily escapist. For me, he brought ferocity and relevance to music."

- Stephan Jenkins, Third Eye Blind

"Our friend and compadre is gone. God bless you, Joe."

- Mick Jones

"He wasn't some phony. He was a big part of the whole punk movement"

- Steve Jones, The Sex Pistols

"In a business populated by self-serving dullards, he shone out like a diamond."

- Phil Jupitus, Comedian

"Joe Strummer was a man who wasn't afraid to voice his beliefs. A passionate, vocal, sincere olde punk. The Clash produced a contrast to the nihilism of the Sex Pistols, and educated an audience about the realities of the state.

Music has lost one of its true rebels."

- Ken Livingston, London Mayor

"Joe was prepared to fight for workers rights from Nicaragua to Newcastle. It's a fitting tribute to him that one of his last UK shows was a firefighters benefit that he financed out of his own pocket."

- Geoff Martin, Representative for the Unison trade union in London

"Joe was not just a great bloke - he was also a great musician who wasn't afraid to take a chance and write lyrics that made a difference. His death is a very sad day for the music scene. Yet again it's one of the good guys who's died young."

- Glen Matlock, The Sex Pistols

"I was shocked to hear Joe Strummer had died. Seemed totally inappropriate somehow - not at all believable. There he was at the the Gorillas night at the Royal Opera House just a couple or three weeks ago, looking utterly normal and bouncy and strong - not overweight, seemingly as full of life as ever. I didn't actually even say hello that night, though I'd intended to - the dressing rooms were miles from the stage, and miles from each other, and I was pacing the floor trying to make sure I didn't forget the words of these songs that I never normally sing. So the moment never happened. I DID speak to his violinist when I bumped into him half-way through the show. I said, "You guys should come up and join us on "Crazy Little Thing" at the end of the show". I know Bryan Adams had sent the same message that night - it would have been a nice way to end the evening if it had happened. But probably we all thought of it too late - we should have rehearsed it really...

I didn't know Joe very well - Queen were hardly ever in the UK during the days of the Punk Glories - we were constantly on tour - you become quite distant from what is happening back home. So our paths never crossed at that time. Of the whole movement, I related to the Sex Pistols music very much, but didn't really take to the Clash in that instant - it was much later, in retrospect, that I began to enjoy their stuff. But a couple of years ago I found myself on a long plane journey with Joe. It took a few minutes to warm up - I think each of us thought the other guy wouldn't be interested in talking to us!!! But then we got on like a house on fire - we talked about recording, touring, living, families, fame, and moving on from fame - and found much to share and enjoy. He knew almost everyting about our band, to my surprise, and could quote from our lyrics - I had no idea he liked our music. And by that time I knew enough about the Clash to talk sensibly about his group too! I left the plane thinking we would stay in touch, and fully intended to, but life gets so overcrowded with stuff... I never did follow up....

He seemed such a nice, genuine, mature bloke on that journey, which is now a fond memory.

Happy journey on, Mr. Strummer. God Speed ya to the Better Place!"

- Brian May, Queen

"Sad to hear that the one of the most important songwriters of all time has passed. Joe was truly a visonary with passionate, political lyrics and incredible songs. His influence has helped many make sense of life."

- Mike McReady, Pearl Jam

"Like thousands of teenagers growing up in the 70s, punk and The Clash changed my life in a fundamental way. Their mixture of politics and music shaped my beliefs and tastes and made me the person I am today. Christmas is ruined."

- Moby

Excerpt from Moby's Journal 12-23-02:

Joe Strummer died today. The last time that i saw joe was in los angeles. we were dancing together in a nightclub and i kept rambling on about how important his music was to me. he had such a big heart and was withoutquestion one of the most important musicians of the last 50 years.

can you even imagine a world in which the clash hadn't existed? the clash were one of those bands who were so amazing and so wonderful that people are often tempted to take them for granted. but it's worth remembering that joe and the clash made music that was emotional and political and challenging and experimental and exciting and wonderful.

if i were to write his epitaph it would read: 'here lies joe strummer, he was a compassionate and wonderful man, he wrote some of the most important music of the 20th century, and his presence here made the world a better place.' thank you, joe, you will be sorely missed by all who knew you.

"The first time I heard of the Clash was in high school. I was working on the school newspaper, and one day a fellow named Dave Vogel came in with a copy of London Calling that he was showing off to anybody who was willing to listen. I thought the cover of the album was really cool, and asked him "is it heavy metal?" He said "no, but it's really great." I doubted him, but asked if I could borrow it, and I made myself a cassette copy. This low-grade Dolby-suffering cassette tape burned its way into my head, heart and soul, and the Clash soon became my favorite band.

At the time, I was playing in a punk rock band. Most of our songs were amusing, funny ditties with names like "She Eats Razors" and "Beat Me, Whip Me, Make Me Feel Cheap." A week after my first listen to London Calling, I penned the first political song of my life, a song called "Salvador Death Squad Blues," a rocking commentary on the Reagan administration's egregious practices in Central America. Shortly thereafter, there was a rebellion at the school paper. The conservative teacher didn't want us writing articles about apartheid, or U.S. support of death squads, or the fact that the dean was a dick. There was a mass exodus from the paper and a very popular underground paper was born called "The Student Pulse." The Clash pushed me into making political music and taking a political stand as a teenager.

Later that year, I got the chance to see the Clash at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, and was totally blown away. Not only were they the greatest live band of all time, but they also cured my musical inferiority complex. Before this show, I had thought that you had to have a $10,000 Les Paul and a huge wall of Marshall amplifiers in order to make "real" rock and roll music. But Joe Strummer had the same cheap little Music Man amp that I did. It was just sitting on a chair, much like my amp sat on a chair at my high school band's rehearsals. And yet they were making the most passionate and compelling music I had ever heard. A lot of kids left the hall that night knowing that they could do it too. The Axis of Justice motto, "the future is unwritten" is taken from a t-shirt I purchased that night.

On the early Rage Against the Machine tours, Clash tapes and bootlegs were always the most important part of my on-the-road music collection. They were a tremendous inspiration and consolation on those long, freezing European bus rides. And in listening to those crappy quality bootleg tapes, you could still always hear in Joe Strummer's voice that he did truly believe that the world could be changed with a three minute song, and that each night, he was up there not playing for ego, self-gratification, money or rock star glory. He was playing with the determination to save the soul of everybody in the room, his included.

The Sex Pistols were the flashpoint that made the world notice punk rock. The Clash, sewed politics into punk and rock and roll irreversibly. And Joe Strummer was the heart, the soul, and the conscience of the Clash.

No one had more of a true punk rock look than Joe Strummer. I always thought he had the greatest no-sell-out teeth in the business. The Clash were great because they realized that it did not in any way impinge their integrity to be a "performing" rock and roll band, and they looked, sounded and dressed the part of the rebel rockers they were.

One thing I always admired about the Clash was their great attention to what it meant to be a band, outside of the music. They would have countless meetings where they would discuss their lives, their opinions, their political views, what they meant to each other, and what it was important for them to say in their songs and how to maintain the highest level of integrity and commitment to continuing to be 'the only band that matters.'

Joe was also insistent on choosing singles not based necessarily on their potential hit value, but rather based on their relevance. The Clash wrote and released "The Call Up" as a single in response to the reinstitution of draft registration in the United States. It was a huge issue at the time and with the shadows of Vietnam creeping across Central America, a song like "The Call Up," with its poetic and brutally true lyrics helped a lot of young people make up their minds about what they would do if a draft actually came.

I've always been really pissed at the way that the British press turned its back on the Clash. There seemed to be a real petty jealousy that British publications had towards the Clash after their debut album. Once the rest of the world caught on to their hometown little secret, they stomped their feet like spoiled brats and turned their backs on such amazing albums as London Calling and Sandinista ( The London Calling album, by the way, was voted the album of the decade by Rolling Stone magazine).

The Clash always resisted the temptation to reunite for the big money. And their reasons spoke to the greatness of the band and the people in it. It wasn't out of some elitist pomposity that they dare not reconvene for fear of besmirching their "legend," but rather because their friend and drummer Topper Headon, a heroin addict, wasn't healthy enough to do it. And as Joe says near the end of the great Clash documentary "Westway to the World," a band's chemistry is everything. Joe gives a tearful speech lamenting the dismissing of first Topper Headon and then Mick Jones. It's a speech worth listening to, because it truly is a band chemistry that matters. There is a potency to that classic Clash line-up that, had they stayed the course, it is likely that to this day, U2 might still be opening for them.

Throughout my time in Rage Against the Machine, journalists would always ask the question, "what the hell is a band with the politics of Rage doing on Epic Records?" I would often answer with long and flowery sermons about spreading an important message around the globe. But I really could have answered with two words: The Clash. I was energized and politicized and changed by the Clash. And the reason I heard about them was because Dave Vogel bought London Calling at Musicland Records at the local Hawthorne Mall in tiny Libertyville, Illinios. And the reason Dave could get his hands on this album at a nearby mall was because the band was on Epic Records. If in the history of Rage Against the Machine we were able to energize or politicize one person in the same way that the Clash effected me, the decision to sign with Epic Records was not just well worth it, but was crucial.

A couple years ago, I had the opportunity to play on a Joe Strummer record. He was doing a song for the South Park soundtrack, and Rick Rubin asked me to come down and play guitar, because the guy that they had doing it (who incidentally plays in a very popular rock-rap band) just couldn't cut it. I had never been more nervous in my life as I drove up in my 1971 muscle car to the studio and was introduced to the great Joe Strummer. Joe did not disappoint. While the song was not the best, he certainly was. It seemed like very little recording got done, but a lot of storytelling over quickly ingested bottles of red wine did. Joe told us the story of how he used to always travel with an enormous flight case filled with all his music. Everywhere he went, he carried every cassette and album he owned, so they would always be at the ready for him to listen to. After a couple of decades of doing this, he had grown very weary of having to show countless customs agents his entire reggae collection. So he had boiled it all down to one scratchy 30-minute cassette of an obscure Mexican band that he played for us. He absolutely loved it, and it was the only tape he brought with him from then on. I sat there listening and beaming like an idiot.

Joe was fascinated with my muscle car. It's a 1971 hemi-orange Dodge Demon. It was a bizarre site for me to see my greatest rock and roll hero crawling around the front seat of my car marveling over the original Demon-designed floormats with his unique and unchanged accent.

At the studio, he would disappear for hours at a time into his ancient Cadillac, where he would work on lyrics for the song, and listen to the latest mixes that were coming out of the control room. Rick Rubin and I would sit in the control room waiting as a gofer would shuttle notes back and forth from Joe that would read like "I think there could be more treble" or "I've almost got the second verse." Or sometimes they'd be obscure quotations or ramblings that kept us in stitches as we waited for Joe to come back in the room. I took one of these opportunities when Joe was in his Caddy to pick up and strum for myself his famous Telecaster with the "Ignore All Aliens" sticker on it. Joe was of course the reason why I play a Telecaster, and holding this amazing, historic guitar that had written and performed my favorite songs through the years was a sublime moment. And don't think I didn't bring my camera to preserve that moment. Taped to the guitar was an ancient Clash setlist, and I marveled over it and wrote the setlist down to keep for posterity, although Joe couldn't remember what show it was from.

The last time I saw Joe Strummer was when he and his band The Mescaleros played at the Troubadour a year and a half ago. I was truly impressed. Joe played with all the passion and intensity that he had in the Clash's heyday. And his new music and lyrics were forward-looking and challenging. He was clearly a vital artist to the end. And when he threw in the Clash gems Bank Robber and London's Burning, the place went absolutely nuts. I yelled so loud I lost my voice for about a week.

In the song "White Riot," Joe sang:

'Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?'

Write those four lines down, put them on your refrigerator, and answer those four questions for yourself every day. I do.

Joe Strummer was my greatest inspiration, my favorite singer of all time, and my hero. His passing came as such a shock and surprise, and I am deeply saddened by it. I already miss him so much, and I am grateful to have the tremendous legacy of music he left behind. The Clash was one of those bands that even their most remote b-sides are far superior to anything on the radio today. If you haven't checked out this great band, run don't walk to all the Clash albums. I am certain that Joe Strummer and the Clash will continue to inspire and agitate well into the future. God bless you, Joe."

- Tom Morello, Audioslave and former Rage Against the Machine

"Joe Strummer dead of a heart attack at the age of 50. The horrible news arrived on Monday. For a generation in their middle years, it meant more than the death of John Lennon, Elvis and Princess Diana rolled into one.

The general public would have needed some gentle reminding. Joe who exactly? Because although The Clash had some big hit singles - including Rock The Casbah and Should I Stay Or Should I Go - that's not what they were about. Even at their peak, around the time of London Calling, The Clash never appeared on Top Of The Pops, never had celebrity romances, and never played a concert for royalty.

But if you came of age in the late Seventies, then you needed no reminding. Joe Strummer was one of the most charismatic, electrifying and committed performers to ever grace a British stage.

The Clash emerged during the iconoclastic punk years, which means they were obliged to slag off any band who had ever come before. 'No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones in 1977!' they bawled, and I am stunned beyond belief that it was all a quarter of a century ago. But for all their jeering about boring old farts, The Clash were part of a long, rich heritage that stretched back to the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Kinks, The Who, and forward to The Smiths, the Stone Roses and Oasis. The Clash on stage and on record were a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. Joe Strummer - and his partners Mick Jones and Paul Simonon - did more than entertain us. They changed lives.

They certainly changed mine.

Because they made me believe that, with passion and commitment and a bit of fire in your belly, you could be exactly the person you wanted to be.

I met The Clash in 1976. I was a young journalist on the NME and they were an unsigned band. I did their first big interview for an NME cover story in early 1977. I thought they were the greatest band I had ever seen. And half a lifetime on, in a large part of my soul, I still do.

What can I tell you about Joe Strummer? There was an intelligence about him that allowed his band to change and evolve, just as Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols were disappearing up their own bondage trousers. And there was a generosity about Strummer, too, a warmth and humanity about the guy, a generosity of spirit. He was a brilliant musician, a beautiful man, and a charismatic artist. There is a part of me that bitterly resents the fact that The Clash never replaced the Rolling Stones in rock music's hall of heroes.

But The Clash were not about milking it for a lifetime. Their music was more than a pension plan.

Strummer was a working musician. The last time I saw Joe was a couple of months ago. It was the middle of the day in a Soho club and for some reason he was there collecting a guitar. I thought he still looked 23.

'How you doing, Joe?' 'I'll be better when I've had a hug from you,' he smiled, and embraced me, for the first time in my life, and also the last.

Then he was gone. And I am now one of those sad middle-aged blokes who gets all choked up at the thought of Joe Strummer dead from a heart attack at the age of 50.

This is all I know about Joe Strummer.

He was a diamond.

And they don't make them like that any more.

- Tony Parsons, Music Journalist

"God Bless him. He brought me many good times, happy moments and adrenalin rushes. London Calling will be the lasting testament to his muse and through that he and the rest of the band shall achieve immortality. One of the finest albums of the Twentieth Century and one of the most influential musicians of his generation."

- John Peel, BBC Radio

"I can't believe it. Joe was as huge an inspiration to me now as he was in 1977. He combined cool with an uncompromising stance, infused reggae into punk and taught a whole generation of us more about politics than any number of teachers or politicians. I desperately wish news of his death was untrue.

Joe - you were the best."

- Iggy Pop

"They were unique because, here they are, breaking up at the peak of their popularity and having plenty of offers to come back, and not doing it. While other bands always come back for the money, they had a belief in what they were doing, and even though they could've used it, they never really cared about the money."

- Johnny Ramone

"Numb, gutted & shocked - 3 words that sum up how I feel. Passionate, principled, genius - 3 words that sum up Joe Strummer."

- Martin Scorcese

"He had a very gruff singing voice but there was lots of passion. The Clash played a crucial role in punk."

- Pete Shelley, The Buzzcocks

"The Clash were a major influence on my own music, they were the best rock n roll band. Thanks Joe!!"

- Bruce Springsteen

"Shocking news - The Clash had a massive influence on me in my teenage years and even now, 25 years later, hardly a week goes by without one of their albums featuring on my CD player. In the week that yet another dreadful, manufactured 'band' hits the charts Joe is a reminder of what music really should be like. One of the greatest songwriters and musicians of our time, he will be greatly missed."

- Neil Tennant, Pet Shop Boys

"It is with great sadness that we heard the news about Joe Strummer's death today. The Damned wish to offer sincere condolences to his wife and family at this sad time."

- The Damned

"The EELS are very sad to hear the news of Joe Strummer's sudden and unexpected death. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family." Click here for a picture of the EELS with Joe.

- The EELS

"On December 23 (sic), 2002, Joe Strummer suffered a fatal heart attack. Joe was a long-time friend, collaborator, sometimes front-man, producer, co-star, and part-time live musician with the Pogues. He was a pillar of the music industry and has influenced more than twenty-five years of music and musicians. His influence on the world will be missed.

With great sadness I extend my most sincere condolences to the friends and family of Joe."

- The Pogues

"It's been confirmed that Joe Strummer died of cardiac arrest, shortly after returning home from a walk with his dogs. As expected, it's also been confirmed that his death was not drug-related. After all the senseless loss witnessed recently, it is no small comfort that Joe at least died naturally, going out as he had lived: uncompromised.

Joe's death will not muster proper acknowledgement in our plastic world. He wasn't a sickly-sweet popmeister, his music isn't for teenagers fucking on warm summer nights. No sentiment nor affectation, no bullshit, the brand he will forever be associated with says it all: Clash. The UK DIY movement was seemingly dismissed once fakers jumped aboard for cash, but raping brilliance is simply part of business. Joe's name has been tarnished as a result (indeed, he didn't come from the slums to front what was admittedly a partly-fabricated band). But Joe wasn't a fake, and he certainly wasn't business as usual. Woody Mellor, aka Joe Strummer, was his own man.

His wife, Lucinda, and three daughters have stressed their wishes that fans show their grief by contributing to the Nelson Mandela SOS charity. Joe was to play at the February fundraising concert, meant to help the virtually ignored battle against AIDS currently raging throughout Africa (and the world).

.... He had been touring as recently as last month with his band, the Mescaleros, and was kicking ass wherever he played. Joe had most recently been recording their third album. I'm still too stunned by his sudden death to wax eloquent about him, but he'd probably want to tell me to "put a sock in it", anyway. Suffice it to say, this guy was the real deal.

- The Small Faces

"Thank you for the being that was Joe Strummer

Thank you for the life-force that came through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the potency, the excitement, the passion, the fire that were expressed through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the conviction and commitement that were expressed through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the music, lyric and song that came through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the explosive and all time great band led by Joe Strummer

Thank you for the sense of community that was expressed through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the democracy and inclusiveness that was expressed through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the idealism that was expressed through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the nobility that was expressed through Joe Strummer

Thank you for the inspiration I recieved through Joe Strummer and his music

Thank you Joe Strummer "

- Mike Scott, The Waterboys

"As 2002 drew to a close, the most horrible and unexpected event occurred. Brian lost a very dear friend and the world lost a musical icon. Joe Strummer succumbed to a heart-related ailment at his home in England on December 22nd. Nothing I could type here could come close to properly memorializing Joe. Clever adjectives to describe him and music related accolades would ring hollow because words alone could not do justice to this wonderful man. His passion and consistent warmth touched so many people in so many countries and in so many walks of life. From squatter to rock icon, Joe never lost the plot. With his passing only days old, the reality of this loss is still too fresh to be absorbed.

I'll end this the way that Joe once toasted Brian and I in a bar in London...

'Never above you, never below you, always with you. Cheers.'

- From Tommy at Brian Setzer's Website

"Joe had moved to the country. He rented my basement to keep a base in London. We spent many an evening spinning everything from Lee Hazlewood to Anthony Newley, only to be found asleep in the morning by my wife, with the table still turning."

- Paul Simonon

"Joe Strummer was one of the greatest stars of the last 30 years Rock is a smaller, less interesting place today."

- Anthony Thornton, NME Internet editor

"Just heard from Matt Kent that my old pal Joe Strummer has died of a heart-attack at just 50 years old. That heart of his always worked too hard........ he's been making great music lately, I will really miss him."

- Pete Townshend, The Who

"What a shock - old punks never die they just stand at the back."

- Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers

"Obviously I was very sad to hear the news about Joe Strummer. I’ve taken some time before putting anything about it on the site because I didn’t trust myself not to come out with a lot of maudlin shit like some of the email "tributes" that have been going around. I had one that said that music was crap now (apart from Strummer and the Mescaleros of course). But that was never Joe’s attitude. The Clash were one of those rare bands like Led Zeppelin who were ready to embrace and absorb all forms of music. That’s the attitude that has kept Strummer vibrant, relevent and happening while other artists that came out of the punk thing have turned into fat old dinosaurs just like the ones they professed to despise in the first place.

Last year, twenty-five years and a couple of months after I first saw the Clash, I had the absolute pleasure of doing a gig with Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros. It was a great night – we played loads of new stuff and so did he. While we were playing I suddenly realized that he was watching us from the side of the stage. He came round to our dressing room afterwards, specifically to tell me how much he liked it and to thank me for playing Reconnez Cherie which was one of his old favourites. Most people wouldn’t bother, but he did and I’ll never forget that.

Their set was utterly fantastic, and after the first hour or so nobody was bothering to shout for old Clash numbers anymore. It’s rare to see somebody who’s so genuinely into what they’re doing – who can put themselves so completely into an actual moment in time – so that for a moment, this moment, this event is the most important thing in the world.

I said I didn’t want to get maudlin so I’m not going to say how much I’ll miss him because Joe Strummer was unmissable - unique and irreplaceable.

I first saw the Clash in September 1976, a few weeks before I signed to Stiff and made my first record. They left a deep impression. Here’s an extract from my book. It’s not a plug for the book, it’s meant as an illustration of the kind of impact the Clash, and particularly Strummer, had at the time. I’ve left some stuff around either side of the Clash event to give a bit of social context or whatever:

LONDON 1976

We didn’t know anybody in London and the projected nightly visits to hip, groovy places like the Marquee, the Nashville, Dingwalls and the legendary home of pub rock, the Hope ‘n’ Anchor, just hadn’t materialised. The Nashville was about the nearest place so that’s where we usually went. We had to think in terms of proximity because last buses to Wandsworth seemed to leave about half an hour before the pubs shut. We usually had to walk home. Sometimes we got a District line tube to East Putney and walked from there, or, if we were lucky there was a 28 bus as far as Wandsworth Bridge. Taxis were out of the question - they seemed to cost an awful lot of money, and anyway you’d be lucky to find a driver who was willing to go all the way out to Wandsworth at closing time.

We’d never been to Dingwalls or the Hope ‘n’ Anchor - Dingwalls might as well have been in another town, and the bands didn’t go on till about midnight. It wasn’t possible if you had to attend a bottling plant at seven o’clock the next morning. But we did see the Clash at the Roundhouse, supporting the Kursaal Flyers. Why we went to see the Kursaal Flyers I don’t know - probably because they came from Southend which gave them a tenuous Dr Feelgood connection. The Clash were a life-changing experience. Most of the bands I saw around that time were totally harmless, but not the Clash. It was one of their first gigs - September 5th 1976. Keith Levine was still in the band, so there were three guitar players. They were the most confrontational thing I’d ever seen. They looked like stick insects in their tight, straight-legged jeans and short, home-made haircuts. Strummer wore a black shirt with the legend Chuck Berry Is Dead bleached into the back of it. From the moment they came on there were adverse comments and snide remarks about the regular Sunday At The Roundhouse audience sitting on the floor in their smart seventies apparel, smug in their cosmopolitan self-complacency:

‘I like your jeans - didja get them at the Jean Machine?’

After a few numbers Joe Strummer said, ‘I suppose you think you can pay your one pound fifty and just come in here and sit down like it was a fucking TV set…I mean, you could get off your denims in case you wear ‘em out’

Then they played a song that I later found out was called Janie Jones. Their sound was an aggressive cacophany of slightly out of tune guitars and ragged vocal chants. I wasn’t sure that I liked it but I found it very attractive. They weren’t going down at all well, and after a few more numbers Strummer addressed the audience again:

‘…well now it’s time for audience participation, right? I want you all to tell me what exactly you’re doing here.’

Somebody shouted, ‘…to drink beer.’

There was a silence. You could hear the amplifiers buzzing...

‘Well listen,’ replied Strummer, ‘I don’t know what size you are around the waist but I guess it’s in advance of thirty-six, so if you want to carry your corpulent body out to the bar and stuff it with a few barrels of whatever you fancy then go ahead.’

I was impressed, even though it was only about five o’clock and the bar didn’t actually open until seven, and despite the fact that I could’ve done with drinking some beer myself. I had a moment of difficulty reconciling my need for beer with the messages that the Clash were sending out, but when seven o’clock rolled round I saw Joe Strummer propping up the bar with a dangerous looking individual who I later realised was Sid Vicious. I would have liked to have talked to Strummer but I was too shy. I almost felt that I should make some pledge of allegiance - there was something going on. I wasn’t sure what it was, but this air of dissatisfaction was something I could identify with.

‘Get on with it!’

‘Get on with what, you big twit – haven’t you got any brains at all? All right then, so you might’ve got five A levels - what do I care? That’s just a dirty trick.’

I answered an advert in the Melody Maker. The Flying Tigers needed a rhythm guitar player - that could be me, I like tigers. The bloke on the other end of the phone was an American pretending to be a Cockney. He sounded like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins - cor blimey mate. The number was a Kebab shop in Clapham. The American was the singer in the group, and that was where he worked, in the Kebab shop.

The Flying Tigers played garage music - the Standells, the Chocolate Watch Band, and threw in a mixture of R ‘n’ B and Chicago blues - Hoochie Coochie Man by Muddy Waters and Killing Floor by Howling Wolf. The singer was called Mike. He liked the sound of me, said I should come to an audition they were holding on Sunday in Baddersea - I should bring my Axe, and an Amp.

I went there on the bus with my Hohner Orgaphon 40 watt accordian amplifier with jukebox speakers, and my Top Twenty guitar in a floppy blue plastic case. Their lead guitarist arrived with a brand new Selmer combo in red vinyl finish, and unpacked a Gibson from a professional looking hard case. He had a gingery beard and long blonde hair. He was wearing a green velvet jacket with enormous lapels and high waisted denim flares. I found out later that he was a school teacher in real life. He looked somewhat dismayed when he saw me - my hair was very short, badly cut, and I was wearing an ancient pair of straight Tesco jeans, old plimsoles with no socks, and a blue and white striped long sleeved T-shirt. I was thin, spotty and very possibly drunk. As I said hello a speaker fell out of the front of my amplifier, as though it was winking at him. I was just what they weren’t looking for.

- Wreckless Eric, Musician

"I can't say how life changing London Calling was for me. I'll never forget the day I bought it while on a trip to NYC in 1980. My parents took my brother and I to see a musical and I was lucky to find a copy that didn't have an (pre-Tipper) advisory sticker while browsing through a store that sold sheet music. It was a fairly long train/subway/car ride back to rural PA and I spent the entire time looking at Pennie Smith's black and white photos which adorned the inner sleeves. I got home and listened to the entire album start to finish. After finding "Train In Vain" (the one song I'd heard from it -"TIV" was a super-last minute addition to the record and the sleeves had already been printed, hence no mention of it anywhere in the package) I sat there thinking how good the rest of the album was. That record was the soundtrack of my life for the next couple years and is still my favorite album of all time.

I got to see the Clash in '83 and Strummer solo at the Palladium in NYC (where the cover photo of "LC" was taken) in '89. The latter still stands as one of the top five best live shows I've ever seen. I never met him but he was by all accounts a great guy. On par with Dylan as a lyricist in my humble opinion. Don't know what else to say.

- Jon Wurster, Superchunk