| Van Driver-Anonymous, Sheffield In about 1975/76 I used to work in a record shop on Portobello Road. Joe Strummer was a regular, although he never used to buy much. We became friendly and after he found out I was a transit driver he often used to ask me to pick equipment up for him locally around West London. One day he asked me to drive The 101'ers to a gig in Cardiff as their regular van (hearse?) was off the road. I don't recall the name of the venue or much about the trip, other than the fee they got from the gig barely paid for the van hire and there was a lot of moaning about having to pay me. They used to play a mid-week gig at my local pub The Elgin on Ladbroke Grove. I recall 20 minute versions of Gloria but not much else-except Joe was obviously the star of the band. He had so much stage presence compared to the rest of them.... Brixton Debut-Dean, Brixton The Telegraph, hasnt changed that much since the 101'ers were there with Matumbi if I remember ( I remember the night, as I went past the Telegraph and wondered why there were so many people (the bands) hanging around outside, which in those days more than 3 people on a street corner was worrying). The only thing that's changed is the seating & fence outside which is new (last 6 yrs) before then there was just asphalt , which is kinda why I remember the lorry parked up on the front with dreads & white folk hanging around with guitars & drums, the pub is pretty much how it was. Penultimate gig, Fulham-Joly, ex Pink Fairies roadie and founder of Better Badges I was there yes, because my buddy Martin Stone was playing in the band. I was as shocked as anybody when Joe announced he was off to join The Clash.I have a clear memory of standing outside with him by the bus-stop and agreeing, like "So this is it, then.." I knew Joe because I had briefly squatted at 99 Walterton Road. I also saw The 101'ers play at some hippie festival, Windsor or Stonehenge. 101'ers Nashville Rooms debut, supporting The Troggs-Gary, Canada-Link While the Clash were hardly the only band that ever mattered to ME, I personally sure owe a tip-o-the ol' snout to the one, the only Joe Strummer for most vividly helping me see The Light back in that dark, dank cultural wasteland known as the mid-Seventies. It was my first night in London, August of 1975, and a friend took me to see The Troggs at the Nashville Room. Opening was a young band called The 101'ers who, I was most amazed to discover, performed almost the precise same set (beginning with the Stones' roll down "Route 66") as did my own high school combo, Martin & The E-Chords, back there in the Toronto suburbs! Upon approaching what appeared to be this group's fearless leader at the bar as the final ocarina'd "Wild Thing" melted into the sweat and smoke overhead, I found myself ear to ear with an intense young man named Joe who most patiently proceeded to listen to me beat both gums, carefully quizzed my knowledge of obscure beat n' soul B-sides, then having made his grade enthusiastically directed me crosstown the very next morning to visit a grand new record etc. shoppe sometimes called Let It Rock, other times dba Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, and currently operating beneath the simple nom-de-anarchie of Sex. "Ask for my mate Malcolm when you go in," Joe said. "And keep YOUR band going too!" Alas however, the E-Chords never did become Canada's Kings of Pub (as opposed to Punk) Rock a quarter century ago, but I DID get my fanzine "The Pig Paper" off the ground shortly after arriving home, again as Joe had implored, and one of the very first records reviewed therein was "Keys To Your Heart" by those very same 101'ers. Great li'l disc it was and is too. Joe certainly could put across a mean three-minutes-nine whenever push came to strum. So if I never got the chance to say it way back then, lemme just thank Joe right here and now for his long-ago but seldom forgotten Guinness-soaked encouragement, his most astute and visionary indeed advice, and the flawless directions over to Malcolm McLaren's to boot. The next round'll be on me then, okay? 101 Walterton Road-Bernard The weirdest thing I remember is december 1975. We were sitting upstairs in 101 walterton road, my fellow squatters and me, smoking fly agaric mushrooms, when a bunch of young hoodlums charged in and started robbing and smashing things up. We were too stoned to do much until my collection of pipes and hookahs got attacked, then we had a confrontation on the stairs and it got ugly. We sent out a wee scots guy to run to 'that tea room' for help. Anyhow, we forced these youths into the street and they cleared off. Seconds later a weird sight presented itself - ten or fifteen hippies and squatters running up the road to come save us like the bloody cavalry! And who was leading the charge? Woody (Joe) of course. We sat round the squat drinking tea out of milk bottles. Mr Metal Man-The man on the cover of Elgin Avenue Breakdown (1981 and 2005 versions)-101Walterton I remember he was a big west indian guy with massive hands. I'm sure for a while he had a bike with stuff hanging off it, I think he had a ladder too. Kids used to tease him and then run away when he looked at them, he was a big bloke. I think they called him Metal Mickey or something but that wasnt his real name (Mickey / Micky not the metal bit). You'd see him going up and down Walterton Road, Shirland Road, Elgin Avenue. I think he lived in Bravington Road or somewhere in the Mozart Estate at the end of Shirland Road. I can really only remember him sitting on the wall outside the Shabeen on the corner of Elgin Ave and Walterton Road. People would give him drinks. Hat trick of 101'ers gigs-Pete 16th November 1975-The Red Cow, Hammersmith The first time I saw Joe Strummer. This is one of those pivotal gigs as far as its effect on me is concerned. Albeit in hindsight, I noted against this "Rock concerts will never be the same again". What I was getting at was that the roots of good music were to be found in sweaty pubs like The Red Cow, with sweaty bands like the 101'ers, doing fast, aggressive stuff. Of course this pre-dated Punk, but not by much, and both these and Dr. Feelgood had helped lay the foundations of what was to come the next year. 23rd November 1975-The Red Cow, Hammersmith The 101'ers gig was good: drummer Richard Dudanski collapsed heroically, and rather theatrically, at the end of the set! What a true pro, eh? 13th February 1976-Hampstead Town Hall with Roger Ruskin Spear & His Giant Kinetic Wardrobe, and Martha's Vineyard The Hampstead gig was meant to be Viv Stanshall, and true to form, he did not appear. I think Roger Ruskin Spear stepped in for him. Now he was bizarre, surrounded by all his weird Heath Robinson machinery! I remember passing Joe Strummer on the stairs, and getting a kind of vague nod of recognition! Tithe Farm House-Martin-Link It was a long time ago, all I can remember is that I was there in December 1975. II have many memories of the 101'ers as I was in their west London contemporaries, the Derelicts. We were playing the same venues around the same time, sometimes with the 101'ers, mostly without. It was us who actually discovered both the Chippenham and the Elgin. We set up and played at a squatters benefit at the Chippenham and subsequently the 101'ers moved in with their weekly Pig Dog club. Similarly we had a residency at the Elgin but when we took a two week summer break, the 101'ers moved in and we never got our residency back! We played with the 101ers at the 'Squatted School' on the Harrow Road and I remember Joe Strummer (Woody at the time) admiring the long wheel base transit minibus with aeroplane seats which we had just bought. The 101ers were driving around in an old hearse at the time. I think we also played with them at an open air benefit for 'The Point' community centre on Tavistock Road, W11. Both these gigs would probably have been in 1975. Not Impressed-Tommy, Scotland My brother used to be in a band called Big Licks when ther 101'ers were around. He saw The 101'ers play but wasn't impressed with their rough and ready approach. He did think Joe was a good frontman though, who came across as a 1950's Elvis. Also please have a look at the article 'Less Rotten than reasonable: Joe Strummer and my punk Damascus' by Simon Warner who saw The 101'ers play and would later meet Joe Strummer when he was in The Clash |