The Clash in Notting Hill
The Clash were said to have been formed in Portobello market when Mick, Paul and Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols bumped into Joe and told him they didn’t like a band called 101ers but thought they had potential. Joe recollected on this Clash album ‘Give ’Em Enough Rope’, in the Mott the Hoople homage ‘All The Young Punks’: The lyrics went ‘I was hanging about down the market street when I met some passing yobbos and we did chance to speak.’ However it was said that in other versions the pivotal meeting took place on Ladbroke Grove, Westbourne Grove, Golborne Road or the Lisson Grove dole office or it could have been a total fabrication to cover up the premeditated poaching of Strummer. By then Matlock, the only truly hereditary punk local, had remarked as the Clash being ‘4 square Portobello Road boys’. It was also noted that in Pat Gilbert’s ‘Passion is a Fashion’, Paul recalls Joe and Mick being laughed at by rudeboys on Golborne Road, for his paint-splattered Jackson Pollock dress style.
Culture Clash as punk hero Mick Jones turns librarian
It may not seem the most obvious job choice for a man who fought the law, even if the law won. But Mick Jones, of the Clash, has decided more recently on a side line career – by becoming a librarian. The Clash lead guitarist, who was at the cored of the punk movement, opened his personal rock'n'roll library to the public in July 2009, saying he hoped it would inspire and educate music lovers from around the world.
The exhibition can be found at 2 Acklam Road, Portobello Green, Notting Hill, W10 5XL and runs from the 18th July to 23rd August 2009, 11am-7pm. Wednesday-Sunday (free entry). Mick Jones can still be heard playing locally in the Rotten Hill Gang.
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