Passion is a Fashion: The Real Story of the "Clash" - Tapa dura

The only internationally successful, million-selling group to emerge from the late seventies London punk scene, the Clash set out to change the world with a potent mix of politics, blazing rock?n?roll and iconic imagery. The band?s interest in social issues - unemployment, racism, police oppression - and fascination with international events - terrorism, CIA-backed coups, the shadow of nuclear war - reflected the turmoil of an era when the great cultural revolution of the sixties appeared to have failed. It was an agenda mirrored in the Clash?s music, which swiftly evolved from ferocious punk rock to incorporate reggae, ska, funk, jazz, soul and hip hop. Passion is a Fashion draws on over 70 interviews with the key participants in the story ? roadies, producers, friends and fans - and above all conversations with the band members themselves, to give the first real insight into what went on behind the scenes during the Clash?s ten-year career. With a superb sense of place, from the streets of south London and the grimy bedsits of Notting Hill to the dislocated luxury of Los Angeles, it charts the Clash?s picaresque progress through the penurious days of the early punk scene and their groundbreaking Rock Against Racism gigs, to the arduous touring to break America and the making of the classic London Calling album, all the way to the band? s eventual dissolution and the untimely death of Joe Strummer. The book sheds new and unexpected light on the early lives of the Clash?s classic line-up - Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon - and examines the complex tensions that led to the dramatic ousting of first drummer Headon and then founder-member Jones. It also examines the often-overlooked contribution of the band?s extraordinary, larger-than-life manager, Bernard Rhodes ? one of the great rock band impresarios of all time. Gritty, independent-minded, compelling and above all authoritative, Passion Is A Fashion is the biography the Clash have long deserved.

Pat Gilbert was editor of Mojo until 2003, and continues to write major features for the magazine as a contributing editor. This is his first book.