Questions for Vince White

First off, it was great finally reading a first hand account of such a nebulous period of a band I enjoy so much. Thank you for stepping up and doing it and doing it well.

Random questions that would be awesome if you could answer:
1. Did you play all leads on the boots I hear? For example the solo on Pouring Rain and the fills on Straight to Hell?
2. What songs did you love playing and what songs did you hate playing?
3. Did you keep in touch with ANYONE related to your Clash experience? The Italian girl, Bernie's lady, Kosmo???

Thanks again.

Few of mine. I'll keep them related to the music since I'm still saving up my spare change to order the book.

1. How did you and Nick divide up guitar parts? I know Nick doubled-up on the bassline more often than not...was that a set rule where you sort of stuck to your roles or did you approach each song case-by-case based on who/what sounded better. I'm curious since a lot of the older songs weren't arranged for 3 guitars.

2. Which of the older songs were really hard to play? Any Mick leads that were especially difficult to replicate? Were there any songs you felt just didn't mesh well with your guitar style (I bring this up because Mick was more textures/FX/"bigness"-of-sound driven whereas you guys seemed a little more precision-of-playing focused)?

3. We heard a lot about how Bernie was hellbent on having you and Nick play Les Pauls to replicate the Pistols' guitar sound. Did you and Nick have any leeway as the guys who had to actually play the notes as to the sound you wanted and the equipment you used. Would you have personally gone for that direction or did you have different ideas of what equipment you wanted to use, sound you wanted to have, style you wanted to play in The Clash?

4. You'd mentioned on another thread that you thought the lead-backing vocal melodies were an absolutely essential part of The Clash's sound that had to be preserved in the new lineup (and obviously wasn't). If they had actually tried to do that instead of going for terrace chants ( ), do you think that could've worked with the available personnel? Nick was more serviceable than Paul on backing, but that's about it...and there was no one who could do the high-low harmonies like Mick. Would you have been the guy to step up instead? (I really don't know what your singing voice sounds like beyond a couple snippets from the Roskilde show).

5. Any older tracks that you would've liked to have played live but couldn't because of the orders to stick heavily to the first album-type stuff? I really liked hearing the band's take on Mag 7 and some of the rarer material like Broadway, Pressure Drop, and Straight to Hell that got trotted out in later on...seemed like you guys got to flex your styles a little more when you veered outside the P-U-N-K constraints. Was there any more where that came from, such as other songs you worked up in rehearsal that sounded really good?

6. (semi-related question) The core older songs in the set (first-album material, the core tracks from GEER and LC) obviously had to sound completely faithful to the originals, whereas you guys did get a little more leeway to make alterations to the rarer material to fit Clash II's style. Were there any of those core setlist songs in particular where you really would've preferred to tweak something or approach differently to recast them in the new lineup's personality?

7. Most of the new tour material was already written and mostly arranged before you even joined the band. How much input did you have in finishing them off? Which song did you have the most writing input in (for example, did you have a big hand in the mid-tour rewrite of Pouring Rain?)? Did you have a lot of songwriting ideas ready to contribute which, for obvious reasons, you weren't allowed to? What kind of role would you have been best-suited for had you been allowed to contribute to songwriting, and how would you have influenced the band's musical direction from it?

8. Have you listened to very many of the shows from your time in the band within the last 20 years (either from old tapes you kept or boots traded online on sites like this). Curious as to how you'd critique the band's and also your own performances years later. Any shows in particular where you think you/the band really nailed it spot on? We spend a lot of time debating "quintessential" bootlegs here, so very curious to hear the insider's pick of the pinnacle '84-85 show(s).

First off, it was great finally reading a first hand account of such a nebulous period of a band I enjoy so much. Thank you for stepping up and doing it and doing it well.

Random questions that would be awesome if you could answer:
1. Did you play all leads on the boots I hear? For example the solo on Pouring Rain and the fills on Straight to Hell?
2. What songs did you love playing and what songs did you hate playing?
3. Did you keep in touch with ANYONE related to your Clash experience? The Italian girl, Bernie's lady, Kosmo???

Thanks again.

Thanks to you matedog and respect.

Leads were swapped between Nick and myself. His are usually the tight funkier things and mine were the more looser long bendy note bluesy rock style things with echo. I loved playing just about all of it, frankly. The live stuff, I mean and all the songs and the early group rehearsals where we all played in the rehearsal space together as a band. There was a lot of freedom there and creativity at that point. Pouring Rain, Glue Zombie, The Three Card Trick were being freely rehearsed and were my favourites and my favourite point in time for the band. I felt they suited Joe's voice better than a lot of the 'up beat' things that ended up on cut the crap like 'life is wild' and 'movers and shakers'. His voice is a bit melancholic and I liked that and suited it better and things were going spontaneously in that direction by themselves early on.
The studio recording sessions were the exact opposite. It was like having a machine gun pointed at your head by a SWAT team.
'Now, you punk! CREATE SOMETHING OR ELSE!!!!'
By that point all the good melancholic songs had disappeared and this kind of 'positive thinking' music had appeared which was stuggling against the tide. I dunno though, some of those songs like 'Cool Under Heat','movers and shakers' felt good to play on the busking tour where they seemed to take on a life of their own out on the streets and 'North and South' too. I have mixed feelings because it's hard for me to separate that from what they eventually became in the studio. But the busking tour had a really good effect on the band and looking at the Roskilde show I can see a kind of camaraderie had begun to develop between us from that.
As far as the older songs go it was 'Complete Control' which will always stand as my favourite Clash song and the one I always forced Joe to put into the set simply because I enjoyed playing it so much. For me, 'Complete Control' IS the Clash!!!!!!!!!
The Italian girl, Paola I went out with and lived with on and off for about thirteen years after that!!!! It was one long, chaotic and mad story of drink, fighting, orgies and debauchery!!
Nick's coming to London soon and we'll probably hook up and have a beer.
I haven't seen Kosmo or Wendy since but I hope they're doing good.

Were you approached about a post-Joe Strummer Clash, and if so, were any names mentioned as possible Joe successors?

this is an awesome thread - keep it going!!

Few of mine. I'll keep them related to the music since I'm still saving up my spare change to order the book.

1. How did you and Nick divide up guitar parts? I know Nick doubled-up on the bassline more often than not...was that a set rule where you sort of stuck to your roles or did you approach each song case-by-case based on who/what sounded better. I'm curious since a lot of the older songs weren't arranged for 3 guitars.

2. Which of the older songs were really hard to play? Any Mick leads that were especially difficult to replicate? Were there any songs you felt just didn't mesh well with your guitar style (I bring this up because Mick was more textures/FX/"bigness"-of-sound driven whereas you guys seemed a little more precision-of-playing focused)?

3. We heard a lot about how Bernie was hellbent on having you and Nick play Les Pauls to replicate the Pistols' guitar sound. Did you and Nick have any leeway as the guys who had to actually play the notes as to the sound you wanted and the equipment you used. Would you have personally gone for that direction or did you have different ideas of what equipment you wanted to use, sound you wanted to have, style you wanted to play in The Clash?

4. You'd mentioned on another thread that you thought the lead-backing vocal melodies were an absolutely essential part of The Clash's sound that had to be preserved in the new lineup (and obviously wasn't). If they had actually tried to do that instead of going for terrace chants ( ), do you think that could've worked with the available personnel? Nick was more serviceable than Paul on backing, but that's about it...and there was no one who could do the high-low harmonies like Mick. Would you have been the guy to step up instead? (I really don't know what your singing voice sounds like beyond a couple snippets from the Roskilde show).

5. Any older tracks that you would've liked to have played live but couldn't because of the orders to stick heavily to the first album-type stuff? I really liked hearing the band's take on Mag 7 and some of the rarer material like Broadway, Pressure Drop, and Straight to Hell that got trotted out in later on...seemed like you guys got to flex your styles a little more when you veered outside the P-U-N-K constraints. Was there any more where that came from, such as other songs you worked up in rehearsal that sounded really good?

6. (semi-related question) The core older songs in the set (first-album material, the core tracks from GEER and LC) obviously had to sound completely faithful to the originals, whereas you guys did get a little more leeway to make alterations to the rarer material to fit Clash II's style. Were there any of those core setlist songs in particular where you really would've preferred to tweak something or approach differently to recast them in the new lineup's personality?

7. Most of the new tour material was already written and mostly arranged before you even joined the band. How much input did you have in finishing them off? Which song did you have the most writing input in (for example, did you have a big hand in the mid-tour rewrite of Pouring Rain?)? Did you have a lot of songwriting ideas ready to contribute which, for obvious reasons, you weren't allowed to? What kind of role would you have been best-suited for had you been allowed to contribute to songwriting, and how would you have influenced the band's musical direction from it?

8. Have you listened to very many of the shows from your time in the band within the last 20 years (either from old tapes you kept or boots traded online on sites like this). Curious as to how you'd critique the band's and also your own performances years later. Any shows in particular where you think you/the band really nailed it spot on? We spend a lot of time debating "quintessential" bootlegs here, so very curious to hear the insider's pick of the pinnacle '84-85 show(s).

Fuck that's a lot of questions!!!
Ok, one at a time and my answers are MINE! I'm sure Nick may disagree or anyone else. But you've pushed a button that's lay dormant for a long time.

Answer: 1. Nick had technically better chops than me and he was regarded by Bernie as the better guitarist. I thought that technical ability didn't matter and the emotive thing was more important. I fought tooth and nail to get all the lead parts I could. Lead was where I could express myself better but it was un uphill struggle in the beginning.

2. Nah not really. I played a lot less bum notes! I had a problem with the funkier things like 'Radio Clash'. That sort of tight, dampened rythm, James Brown thing wasn't my style. I never listened to music like that. It was around the time of that record I lost interest in the Clash. It no longer spoke my language. But Nick was good at that and so he did it while i just chopped out a chord or something and thought of what I might have for dinner later!!!!

3. No, I had no problem with the big guitar sound. The Pistols. That was always my thing. Rock guitar. Safe European Home. A Les Paul banged through a Marshall whacked up to no. 11 and fucking beyond !!!!! The sound of World War Three!!! The sound of the coming Apocalypse!

4. Uhm, well, all due respect to Nick but I don't like his singing. It's deep and throaty. I could easily have done it ( the backing, with a bit of echo) but I was being kept in my place. I expressed what I thought but I didn't get a chance. Bernie kept me down. And Joe to a large extent. It would've given me too much 'spotlight' if I was the 'backing singer' and they didn't want me becoming too 'important' in the overall scheme of things.

5. I was ok with playing the early stuff. It was the most fun and for the new band it was the right thing to do in the beginning. Look, man, I was 23 years old. In the beginning I just wanted to RAAAAAAWWWWKKKK OUT!!! I didn't want to play fiddly old men's music. But that stuff was coming through in songs like Pouring Rain. Things like 'one more time' I liked. More of a dub thing like 'Armagideon Time' I was very at home experimenting with. I just don't like 'funky chicken'. Know what I mean? i like 'atmoshere'.

6.No not really. Why try and fix something that's not broken?

7.Well that is a big bone of contention for me and my biggest piss off about the whole thing. As far as I understood it Mick (Jones) had grown bored of playing guitar. At least Kosmo said that and it seems he did. I loved his early style from the first two albums and after all his 'style' was just a punk, amped up rehash of early '70's rock: Bad Co., Rolling Stones, Mott the Hoople, the Who, Mick Ronson, some Chuck Berry and all that was what Iwas heavily into. I wanted to keep all that plus I would've added a bit more droney type things like the Velvets, Stooges and a bit more wild guitar a la Hendrix, feedback and more madness and atmosphere.
I was in a straightjacket. No one else liked Rock guitar or even Rock music and I was sort of outvoted without the opportunity to vote. Joe liked his pub rock thing, Nick his rythm'n'blues and funk, Paul was sort of there but not there with some dub bits, and Bernie wanted to be Malcom Maclaren and do his duck rock and be 'modern'. And it was only a year later the Cult started rocking out and that opened the field for Guns'n'Roses and we could've wiped the floor with those cunts.

8. I've listened to some of the shows recently of course to keep some of my facts straight in my book. I don't have all the shows. It's hard to be objective. What you feel when you play is not always the same as the recording. Like Ammunition or Jericho or whatever it is. When I was playing it I just thought; 'Oh, god, here we go. Another one of Stummers pub rock little ditties' but now it's one of my favorite!!!! It's really catchy, i really like it and I often find myself humming it.
Of course Pouring Rain is the great unrecorded track and Glue Zombie too.
Glasgow Barrowlands was the most exciting show I played and Athens ( the last) was the best show I played. I have 'Revisited' which I think is a good showcase. I've been sent a whole pile of Cd's, tons of the fucking things so I'll report on them at some later date!

Hope this has been useful.

Love to you all
~Vince

http://www.vincewhite.com

Wow! Thanks, Vince, for answering everything. I probably learned more in that one post than I have devouring book after book about the band.


Athens is one of those holy grail recordings that's yet to surface. Unfortunately that was the only time any incarnation of the band ever played in Greece so it's been tough to tease a recording out of the woodwork from the locals even though 40,000 or so people were in the audience. Graham from the blackmarketclash site, who has bar none got the best connections in the world for finding and cataloguing tapes and accounts of gigs, has been trying for years to locate one for years...a possible recording surfaced earlier this year, but turned out to be a false alarm. The Cure's set from that festival is widely traded and had several tracks broadcast on TV (also traded), so there's hope of a soundboard and even some pro-shot video to come out of that gig.


BTW...your high guitar blasts on the attached version of This Is England from Atlanta are probably my fave Vince guitar moment. Adds a whole fuck lot of life to the song.

Thanks for the great input, Vince, and for the lovely attachment with the chords to CC and Pouring Rain, one of my favourite songs of the post-Mick era.

Thanks for all the replies, Vince.

Here're a few more: you and Nick were both in one of Koozie Johns's things (at different times, I think, though) -- how did that happen/what was all that about?

Are you still playing with a band or in the music game at all?

What's your favourite Clash album?

Thanks for posting this great information here, Vince. It's very liberating to know just how hopeless the whole situation was. I think it's very interesting to realize that the only guys who loved real Rock and Roll in that band- you and Pete- were the ones shut out of the recording sessions.

Wow! Thanks, Vince, for answering everything. I probably learned more in that one post than I have devouring book after book about the band.


Athens is one of those holy grail recordings that's yet to surface. Unfortunately that was the only time any incarnation of the band ever played in Greece so it's been tough to tease a recording out of the woodwork from the locals even though 40,000 or so people were in the audience. Graham from the blackmarketclash site, who has bar none got the best connections in the world for finding and cataloguing tapes and accounts of gigs, has been trying for years to locate one for years...a possible recording surfaced earlier this year, but turned out to be a false alarm. The Cure's set from that festival is widely traded and had several tracks broadcast on TV (also traded), so there's hope of a soundboard and even some pro-shot video to come out of that gig.


BTW...your high guitar blasts on the attached version of This Is England from Atlanta are probably my fave Vince guitar moment. Adds a whole fuck lot of life to the song.

Yeah, sounds pretty good to me, thanks for that Mr Rat.
I vividly remember the Athens show 'cause I walked out on my own and started it with the 'Complete Control' riff in the dark with all the lighted matches. It was an awesome moment I'll never forget. It built slowly from that and was a cool start from the usual 'London Calling' explosion. And a far cry from the mess of my first Clash gig in Santa Barbara. So if it turns up that would be the indicator of an original recording. Also it was the only show I played completely sober!!! I'd love to hear it. I really had my shit together on that one.

Wow....this is a really interesting thread. I was wondering what the answers were to those questions posted above as well....thanks Vince

Hope this has been useful.

Love to you all
~Vince

http://www.vincewhite.com

Yeah Wow indeed!

This thread is so incredibly interesting. It is very cool of you to post here on this Forum Vince. Very much appreciated. So much of this has just been cloaked for two decades.

I really hope Athens turns up some day in spectacular quality.

Athens ( the last) was the best show I played.

Of course. Barring a handful of exceptions, the best performances of the Clash always seem to be either AWOL or in the worse recording possible.

But, rest assured, if it was an off night, a pristine soundboard is in circulation...

This is great! I really appreciate you taking the time and answering some questions with some true fans.

I will say that I haven't read your book (YET at least, I really plan on doing it soon; just can't find a copy around here). So if this question is answered in your book, I apologize. But...

It seems whenever the Clash is discussed in the real world (outside of the die-hard fans) that anything past Combat Rock is dismissed. Especially in the documentary Westway to the World. What's your feeling on that? That to many historians, your importance the Clash was almost non-existent.

Note: I LOVE the live gigs you played in, so please don't take the question the wrong way.

Thanks so much Vince. I'm looking forward to reading your book (ordered it the other day) and I always enjoy hearing you play (love the GEED).

Thanks for answering all these questions. It is appreciated very much. If you don't mind, I have one of my own.

Did you guys ever play Movers and Shakers and Cool Under Heat outside of the busking shows?

Thanks for this reply Vince.
This is one of the most important threads on this Forum.

Play in The Clash, as you wrote in your book, made of you one of the luckiest guy in the world, (a million of people dreamt to play in The Clash in 1983...) turning this one of your hardest parts.

Using Mick Jones lyrics (just by case...), there goes my question:
If you had your time again, Would You do it all the same?

One more additional, probably touchy question: What song off of Cut the Crap best represents your artistic contribution?

ALSO, once and for all, who is the other bloke on Play to Win. I always guessed it was Fayne.

Thanks again for the insight.

Let me add to the thanks being poured on VInce.

Thanks, mate, for shedding some light on a period of the band's history that has been a great mystery.

I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the book, so I'll hold off on asking questions right now just in case the answers are in the part of the book I've not read yet.

Carry on!