Punk & Hardcore
“Joe Strummer 003: The 101’ers Years (1974-1976)” comes out on 20 November through Dark Horse Records. The three-CD edition carries forty-eight tracks inside a forty-eight-page hardback book with a slipcase, and collects Strummer’s earliest known recordings, those of the band he had before The Clash.
The first disc is the studio material, some of it newly mixed this year. The second is the basement tapes and demos, with fifteen unreleased pieces; among them is “Full Moon”, which Strummer recorded alone at the West London squat the band took its name from, 101 Walterton Road. The third is twenty-one live recordings, with the earliest known performances of “Junco Partner” —which he would sing again years later with The Clash— and with “Jail Guitar Doors” still titled “Lonely Mother’s Son”.
The book carries a foreword by Glen Matlock, bassist of the Sex Pistols, and a history of the band written by Richard “Dudanski” Nother, who was a member, along with illustrations and writings by Strummer himself. In one of them he explains how it worked: “The Labour government introduced the Rent Act in 1965… We ran a club every Wednesday in the upstairs room of a pub. Entry fee: 10p.”
It was produced by David Zonshine and remastered by Paul Hicks, who has worked on the Beatles, David Bowie and Rolling Stones archives, with art direction by Spencer Ramsey. A double-LP edition is also being released: the first record carries the complete studio recordings and the second a selection from the basement tapes and demos.
Text by Marçal Bonastre