The exhibition opened just before Xmas and ended early in the new year 2011. It was an exhibition based around 3 important 1977 photo-sessions with some live and backstage bits and pieces added to the mix. The theme favoured by The Proud Gallery was u201cLondon Callingu201d the Clash in London. Not strictly true, since one of the 3 important photo-sessions was The Clash in Belfast. The other two main sections were The Clash at the Camden Rehearsal Studios and The Clash under Londonu2019s A40 Westway. Maybe it should have been called u201cUK Calling. The Proud Gallery in Camden is located at more or less the same location as the original Clash rehearsal studios. Aptly named u201cRehearsal Rehearsalsu201d it was also my first encounter with The Clash.

October 1977 The Clash "Get Out Of Control" tour was supposed to start in Belfast and I was sent along by CBS to cover the opening night and to grab some off stage shots of the band in Belfast. The gig at Belfasts Ulster Hall was cancelled at the last minute, befor even a sound check could take place. Officially it was because of insurance problems. However rumours were circulating suggesting that Joe Strummer had received a death threat. Either way the cancellation resulted in heavy handed police enforcement which left the disappointed fans and the band angry, sad, confused and helpless.%0ASo instead of a sound check I was to do a photo-session with the clash, a simple walk about, black and white, location photo-session. Here we are, so lets make the most of it. The day was a typical overcast grey autumn day, with a slow drizzle in the air. Stepping out of the fortified Europa hotel, then the most bombed hotel in Europe, with the band and friend artist and activist Caroline Coon. We climbed into a car, a taxi, with the intention of finding a suitable urban landscape for the photosession. Over breakfast that morning I was strongly advised that it might be dangerous to take the band out into the city for what I described would be a wander. Belfast was in the midst of the troubles and anything could happen, it was dangerous so go somewhere safe, the High Street or the Park or perhaps the hotel lobby would do. This was the advice.%0AI was young then, and inifinitely more cavalier than I am today. So when someone in the group asked where the falls road was and why can't we go and look, nobody in the car so much as blinked. The driver oblivious to the value of his passengers, treating us like any other fare did a U-turn and headed off towards the Falls road. The exact opposite to the advice I was given, and I didn't try to insist otherwise. In mitigation, at the time I only had a vague idea of the importance of the Falls Road as a location for "The Troubles" rather than a Cllash photo-session.%0AAnyway the photo-session proceeded without any hint of trouble, no bad vibes, nothing. The locals we met we're friendly, even the British Army lads on duty at every street corner were friendly. We wandered around climbed back into the car, found another war zone location, and another and then returned to the Europa our scalps intact.%0AThe following week the images graced the covers of all three weekly music papers, The N.M.E. The Melody Maker and Sounds. CBS were thrilled, they even forgave me for putting one of their top acts at risk.

Up on London's Chalk Farm road and inside todays bustling trendy Camden Lock market, the old stables can still be seen tastefully integrated into the Proud Gallery's club and bar. Back in early 1977 it was all very different. The disused and dilapidated two-storey end terrace railway storage shed that housed infamous Rehearsal Rehearsals has now been completely integrated into a continuously redeveloping market with tourists as the target market. What remained of the original market was burnt to the ground during the 2008 Camden Market fire. A fire that also destroyed the famous Hawley Arms a favorite haunt and inspiration to the late Amy Winehouse.%0AOn a cold grey 1977 punky London afternoon I arrived at Rehearsal Rehearsals, an urban squat littered with old barbers chairs, collapsed sofas, empty beer cans and food containers, bits of wire everywhere, piles of rubbish, a jukebox and Paul Simonon tearing from room to room firing his bb gun at anything or anyone that moved. It was in this hazardous environment, inside this urban war zone, I found myself with instructions to take some photographs of The Clash.%0AIt was the first time I had met the band. Described to me by the press officer at the CBS Soho square headquaters, as a "Punk" band and as such difficult and unpredictable. Apparently I had been asked because of my Jamaica track record and possibly because of my generally dishevelled and scruffy appearance. Perhaps they thought I would blend in more. At the time I didn't quite understand why Jamaica was relevant. This bunch of council-estate art-student angry white boys. What connection could they possibly have with tropical sunny colourful Jamaica, with their aggressive raw power punkrock, their urban anarchy and drab black combat gear. But of course, as I was later to discover, the Clash and Jamaican Music had always been deeply intertwined.%0ASo .. the photosession went ahead, bullets flying, with none of the band prepared to sit in any one place for more than a few seconds, charging around, revolution for the hell of it, more anarchy. It was like I was holed up in this bombed out building with a lightly armed bunch of musicians waiting for world war three to start on the streets of London. It was all over in 30 minutes, and i was safely out of this surreal war zone. %0AMaybe London's Burning didn't happen then, but it certainly did decades later. Early in 2011 not long after the Clash exhibition at the Proud Gallery had closed, fires and riots unfolded all over London. Anarchy was back in fashion. I guess not much has changed. The bands message seems as valid now as it was then, just with a new more savvy generation of young, disenfranchised, jobless, ripped off, betrayed young people.

If you keep walking all the way down London's Portobello road, way past the tourists, the bric-a-brac stalls and antique shops and you will eventually find yourself under the A40 Westway. These days most of the arches under this motorway flyover form part of a West London urban cultural complex, with an impressive collection of cool restaurants, trendy clubs, art galleries and boutiques. Once a year the shops and restaurants are boarded up, roads are blocked off and the area reverts to a former urban self as the focal point of the infamous Notting Hill Carnival. During this august bank holiday carnival the real heat of the event will be found under and around these motorway arches. It is here you can find the coolest sound systems, the best jerk chicken stalls, and as always, it's the place where trouble starts.%0ATowards the end of 1977 the Westway boasted none of its present day urban beautification. Instead it was just another post war depressed, undeveloped, graffiti covered wasteland with a grey 60's concrete elevated urban freeway overshadowing the neighborhood. The previous year the area was host to the infamous 1976 Notting Hill Carnival riots. Tempers had reached boiling point among young black men over police use of the "sus" law, under which anybody could be stopped, searched and held. A refined version of the law still angers locals today in 2012. Windows were smashed, fires were lit and ill-equipped police officers picked up dustbin lids and milk crates to charge the rioters. More than 100 officers and 60 other people were taken to hospital. A year later the post riot debris was still in evidence. This was surely the ideal inner city location for a Clash photo-session. Most of the band only had to take a short stroll from home to the location. It was a bright sunny day and everyone was in a great mood the band were own home turf. After one hour we had finished, with no makeup, no stylists or art directors or press officers to delay things. Simple and fast, organic and relaxed, the best way to take photographs.

Should I stay or should I go ... Backstage and Offstage all over the UK with The Clash.

Joe Strummer described how seriously the band devoted itself to forging a distinct identity: "We were almost Stalinist in the way that you had to shed all your friends, or everything that you'd known, or every way that you'd played before." Strummer and Jones shared most of the writing dutiesu2014"Joe would give me the words and I would make a song out of them", Jones later said. Sometimes they would meet in the office over their Camden rehearsal studio to collaborate directly. According to a later description of Strummer's, "Bernie [Rhodes] would say, 'An issue, an issue. Don't write about love, write about what's affecting you, what's important." Strummer took the lead vocals on the majority of songs; in some cases he and Jones shared the lead. Once the band began recording, Jones would rarely have a solo lead on more than one song per album, though he would be responsible for two of the group's biggest hits. On 13 August, the Clashu2014sporting a paint-spattered "Jackson Pollock" looku2014played before a small, invitation-only audience in their Camden studio. Among those in attendance was Sounds critic Giovanni Dadamo. His review described the band as a "runaway train...so powerful, they're the first new group to come along who can really scare the Sex Pistols shitless". - Wikipedia

Big Audio Dynamite (later known as Big Audio Dynamite II and Big Audio, and often abbreviated BAD) is a British musical group formed in 1984 by the ex-guitarist and singer of the Clash, Mick Jones. The group is noted for its effective mixture of varied musical styles, incorporating elements of punk rock, dance music, hip hop, reggae, and funk. BAD's one constant throughout frequent shifts in membership and musical direction is the vocals provided by Mick Jones. After releasing a number of well received albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Big Audio Dynamite disbanded in 1997, but had a reunion tour in 2011. Thankyou - wikipedia.org

"Straight to Hell" is a song by The Clash, from Combat Rock. Straight to Hell is also a 1987 film directed by Alex Cox, starring Sy Richardson, and a rock star cast including: Joe Strummer, Dick Rude, Courtney Love, Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello, The Pogues, Amazulu, and The Circle Jerks.

The Clash - Soho London west end late night photosession - 1976