Cash not Clash

Originally posted May 19, 2010
“Punk died the day The Clash signed to CBS.” Mark Perry

Anti-Clash Flyer

“… this punk thing… said we ain't gonna become a part of this stinking industry, we're going to turn it all upside down, all the horrible rock'n'roll lifestyle, all the cocaine, the groupies, and the big fat record company cigar bastards. We're going to tell all those people to fuck off. Then, of course, when The Damned signed to a small label, Stiff Records, believing in what we were saying, what were the others doing? Singing to the biggest fucking fat cat labels they could possibly get their hands on. So, that was another bit of hypocrisy. I thought bloody hell.” Captain Sensible

“The Clash and Elvis Costello were a lot older than me. It was supposed to be people singing about anarchy and all that, but they didn't actually know what they were talking about, they were all public schoolboys – that's what I thought.” Mark E. Smith


The Clash – ‪Should I Stay Or Should I Go

“Even The Clash – who, I must admit, were very good when they started out, much better than The [Sex] Pistols – lost it spectacularly. After that first album there's really nothing there; and in a way, like a lot of these punk bands who wanted to be 'Punk' – not like us [The Fall] – they turned their backs on their real selves, embracing all the old rock postures and themes instead of keeping to what they did best.” Mark E. Smith

“The Boffo track was from a spoof of the 'Clash On 45' thing which I recorded onto cassette. I'd been a big Clash fan and was sad to see them getting into the whole cocaine/USA rock'n'roll lifestyle. The full recording I did went through a series of parodies of Clash songs where I vented my bitter spleen in a very angsty way against these rotters who seemed to be selling out my dream.” Allan 'Boff' Whalley (Chumbawamba)

VA Bullshit Detector Two 2LP (Crass Records, 1982)

Boffo – Garageland

“A rant against the commercialism of punk and the audience who where falling for it.” Messthetics #105 liner notes

Vertical Smiles The New Clash Single 7" (1980)

Vertical Smiles – The New Clash Single
Get it here.

The Clash @ Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, June 5, 1982

“They were demanding all this rock star crap for back stage. It was amazing and very disappointing to see. They were demanding china plates, silverware, table cloths, cognac, and massive amounts of special catered food and drink and who knows what. I thought, what a bunch of petty bourgeois crap! What a load of rock star posers! These arent punks anymore, sez I.” U-RON (Really Red) on The Clash gig at the Hofheinz Pavilion 

“It's prostitution
They got no content
They're just form
Rock stars!
Prostitution
Entertainment
It's just entertainment”

Really Red Teaching You The Fear LP (C.I.A. Records, 1981)

Really Red – Prostitution

“After Sandinista came out, many of the fans of the early Clash felt let down. […] They were really acting like rock stars then. They had the posse and the beatbox and the girls, especially Mick.” Dave Scott (Adrenalin O.D.)

“I used to listen to The Clash
Now they suck like all the trash
The Ramones used to be a hit
Now they're just a pile of shit”

Government Issue Legless Bull EP (Dischord Records, 1981)

Government Issue – Rock'n'Roll Bullshit

“It was terrible the way he [Joe Strummer] died, but it needs saying that he wasn’t the savviest cultural commentator. His politics were all over the place; bluster over substance, that’s what he represented. We [The Fall] supported The Clash in New York in 1981. Belting out naive generalizations in front of this backdrop that went from the Yorkshire Ripper to pictures of kids being coshed; all very clichéd. It was like watching the news in your living room with The Clash playing in the corner. Everybody knows it’s wrong. But coming at it from that angle is pointless, thoughtless even.
    The sad thing about it all is he distanced himself from his middle-class background and education, appropriated this tough heart-on-the-sleeve messenger stance so convincingly, but lacked the wit to take it anywhere fresh. He was preaching to the converted, and I don’t just mean his fans, but himself as well. He daren’t offend anybody, because they’d just charge him with being a phoney, and he daren’t look at it in a sceptical way, because then he’d be employing his privileged education. That was the crux of his problem.” Mark E. Smith 

   
The Clash – News Report about Bond's Casino Shows (June, 1981‬)