Mark Andersen reading – We Are the Clash

An impassioned history of the final, turbulent years of The Clash under the dark shadow of Reagan and Thatcher, from the coauthor of Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital.

he Clash was a paradox of revolutionary conviction, musical ambition, and commercial drive. We Are The Clash is a gripping tale of the band’s struggle to reinvent itself as George Orwell’s 1984 loomed. This bold campaign crashed headlong into a wall of internal contradictions and rising right-wing power. While the world teetered on the edge of the nuclear abyss, British miners waged a life-or-death strike, and tens of thousands died from US guns in Central America, Clash cofounders Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, and Bernard Rhodes waged a desperate last stand after ejecting guitarist Mick Jones and drummer Topper Headon.

“The inside story of the last great British punk record.” —Jon Savage, author of England’s Dreaming