Passion is a Fashion (Pat Gilbert)

Pat Gilbert

Passion is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash

An insider story of The Clash which has lots of interviews with those in and close to the band carried out recently (i.e. this century) plus references to others' contemporary interviews and reports. Makes an excellent story and gives a deep insight in the workings of a punk band, their crew, management (under the extraordinary Bernie Rhodes, who apparently got John Rotten / Lydon to audition with the Sex Pistols whilst McLaren was in NYC, which is my only story spoiler) and the rest of the music industry. I say "the rest" as The Clash seem to have had a gang mentality of us against the rest. Gives a potted history of the band before they came together and references the rest of the punk scene. It's comprehensive going from when the catalyst of Rhodes formed the band through to the various fallings out and departures until the end after the, in my opinion, terrible Combat Rock. In many ways the story is inevitable but I along with many others do wonder what if...  Topper hadn't gotten into hard drugs and the foursome who were undoubtedly some of the best musicians around had continued as such. Maybe the outcome would have been the same. Not many groups churn out more than a few decent albums. Some notable exceptions of course including those The Clash had a stand off with in Camden Lock.

Having said it's a great story it does seem as if written by a real fan and although it's warts and all regarding the individuals The Clash as a band comes out as real trailblazers. In some ways they were but one thing missing is much context. From their beginnings, sure the music scene as we saw on TOTP (which The Clash refused to play) was crap except for a few disco tracks that slipped through, but the scene wasn't completely devoid of talent or energy. Throughout the story a bit of context would have been good whether the 70s underground psychedelia (Gong, Hawkwind), where punk went (it didn't end in 1977 - Crass, Exploited, and the diversions of Damned, Stranglers and the seemingly hated Jam / Weller), the 2-Tone Ska story or indeed who else jumped onto rap music (Blondie for one).

So not sure it gives the full picture of The Life and Times (particularty) of The Clash. I guess it isn't billed as that though. But nevertheless a Great Rock n Roll Story (to paraphrase Bernie's collaborator / rival McLaren). Probably entertaining enough as a story whether you like The Clash or not. A must read if you are a Clash fan and especially if you caught their extraordinary live performances it brings back a bit of excitement. I was lucky enough to see them at Bath Pavillion in December 78. Simon's diary confirms that is was on December "12, with the Innocents (?). We got wet waiting outside but it was worth it....  all mates who went to Clash concert knackered out."  Knackered out indeed. I'm damn sure we were after 90 minutes of pure punk power. I'm sure we leapt about like banshees. Now, that's another band bio I should track down. Birthday coming up....?