1983 Timeline

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YoungParisians
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1983 Timeline

Post by YoungParisians »

I recently went through all the chapters about 1983 from the various Clash books I have (plus any '83 references I could find on this board). I wanted to make sense of this "final" year. There seemed to be a lot of foggy memories in these books so some entries may be inaccurate.

More so, I was hoping to find anything definitive in terms of sessions, recordings, or song titles. Specifically,
- Mick's Hell W10 rejected soundtrack
- Music created by Mick in March, June, July or August of '83
- Other Strummer/Simonon/Howard demos from August '83
- How often the four of them were together at the rehearsal room

If anyone can add, expand or correct what's here, that'd be great.

JANUARY
  • End of January - Strummer/Clash produce Hell W10

FEBRUARY
  • Strummer/Clash produce Hell W10
  • Mick creates soundtrack for Hell W10 but it's rejected by Joe
  • Paul's father and step-mother in car accident. Paul spends next few months visiting father.


MARCH
  • Joe pays off Topper's drug dealer approx $30,000.
  • Joe produces Tymon Dogg's solo album which remains unreleased.
  • March 17: Joe appears in the Sun to promote his marathon team's charity cause (Leukemia research)
  • The Clash move back to building that housed Rehearsal Rehearsals and rename it Lucky 8 Studios. The intent to begin practicing for new album. By the time the studio is ready they receive the April offer to go to US Festival.



APRIL
  • Early April: The Clash offered headlining spot for US Festival
  • April 17: Joe runs London marathon
  • April 23: Clash place ad in Melody Maker for drummer



MAY
  • Early May: The Clash practice with Pete Howard for the tour?
  • May 16/17: Paul marries Pearl Harbour in NYC stop-over en route to warm up tour
  • May 18-28: US mini-tour and US Festival
  • May 29/30: Clash in Las Vegas (post tour vacation)



JUNE
  • The Baker recalls telephoning Bernie, Kosmo, Joe and Mick periodically through June and July to check in about preparing the rehearsal space but "Nobody knew anything. Would be surprised if they got in a full rehearsal in August."
  • Pete Howard says he hadn't heard from anyone in the band for 4 months after the US Festival.
  • Mid June: Clash reconvenes to practice at rehearsal space on Freston Rd.
  • Joe slips lyrics into mail slot for Mick to add music. Mick would bring them to rehearsal?



JULY
  • Bernie presents contract to Joe, Paul and Mick. Mick says he'll have his lawyer look it over.
  • Joe slips lyrics into mail slot for Mick to add music. Mick would bring them to rehearsal?



AUGUST
  • Early-to-Mid August: Recording Czechoslovak Song/Where Is England?, Pouring Rain, Before We Go Forward (Strummer, Simonon, Howard)
  • Mid August: In a pub near the rehearsal room, Nick Sheppard overhears Kosmo say to Bernie and Joe that "He's gotta go, he's gotta go."
  • Last week of August: Topper shows up to rehearsal room to check in on the guys, finds Mick there and jams with Mick.
  • August 29: Mick Jones fired from band



SEPTEMBER
  • September 10: Clash release "a terse statement to the press: “It is felt that Jones had drifted away from the original idea of the Clash"
  • September 10: Jones issues a statement denying as much and asserting: "In the future I’ll be carrying on in the same way as in the beginning. By the time of the announcement, he has already formed Big Audio Dynamite"
  • Mick forms Top Risk Action Company (TRAC)?
  • Mick freezes Clash assets?
  • Mick records with General Public?
  • Mick does live mixing for Sigue Sigue Sputnik (at a gig opening for New Model Army) and Spear of Destiny shows?

OCTOBER
  • October 1: Clash place ad looking for new guitarists
  • End of October: Nick Sheppard chosen as guitarist.


NOVEMBER
  • Demos for Top Risk Action Company (TRAC)
  • Demos for The Clash at Lucky 8 Studio
  • November 18: Gaby Salter gives birth to Jazz Domino Holly Mellor
  • Rehearsals for January 1984 California tour?

DECEMBER
  • December 10: Vince White added as lead guitarist
  • Rehearsals for January 1984 California tour?
  • December 25: Vince goes to Joe's house for Xmas
Hello? Go ahead, man. Yeah I'd just like to say, um, lets have some music now, huh? Ok, ok...thank you.

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by Silent Majority »

Nothing to add, but thanks for the above. Good read.
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Heston
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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by Heston »

You are correct, TRAC were formed immediately after Mick's sacking, John Boy Lennard told me about this in an email exchange I had with him.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by matedog »

Cool list. I just cross referenced the few things from our 1983 sessionography and it checks out. Only edit would be that I don't think they specifically hired Vince as the "lead" guitar player, but I could be wrong.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Heston
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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by Heston »

I don't know if you have the book "We Are the Clash" but it's the most in-depth book on that era.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by Flex »

it's really fascinating to see it all laid out like that, thanks for the hard work piecing it together.
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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by oliver »

YoungParisians wrote:
10 Feb 2021, 3:03pm
  • September 10: Jones issues a statement denying as much and asserting: "In the future I’ll be carrying on in the same way as in the beginning. By the time of the announcement, he has already formed Big Audio Dynamite"
  • Mick forms Top Risk Action Company (TRAC)?
I kind of wish this was the actual statement instead of a misplaced closing quote mark :)

Were BAD and TRAC two projects MJ was working on simultaneously? If not, TRAC must be before BAD, right?
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YoungParisians
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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by YoungParisians »

No, just TRAC then renamed BAD. That full quote was either from Passion or Last Gang (?) I think the author was just taking a journalistic shortcut to the 'next Mick Jones project'.
Hello? Go ahead, man. Yeah I'd just like to say, um, lets have some music now, huh? Ok, ok...thank you.

Heston
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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by Heston »

TRAC got together the minute Mick was sacked according to John Boy Lennard...
TRAC came about when I was at Mick Jones place. He got up to phone the press to confirm he was leaving the Clash.
He came back, rolled a spliff and said he wanted to start a band with Topper and I.
We added Leo and rehearsed for six months.

I thought it was a great band. Topper was then back into his habit and Mick’s girlfriend was having a baby. I think he didn’t feel confident Topper could hold it together and was feeling overwhelmed and closed it down.
I thought it was a creative period for him but Mick is slow to bring it up. Great memories
By my reckoning that would mean TRAC finished in early spring 84. Don Letts and Greg Roberts were recruited and BAD were together by the summer. Their first gigs were in October 84.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by white man »

Good work mate.

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by WestwayKid »

December 10th. A day which will forever live in infamy.
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by WestwayKid »

matedog wrote:
10 Feb 2021, 4:15pm
Cool list. I just cross referenced the few things from our 1983 sessionography and it checks out. Only edit would be that I don't think they specifically hired Vince as the "lead" guitar player, but I could be wrong.
I agree about Vince. I thought he was added because Bernie thought they needed someone with a bit more street cred. They already had "replaced" Mick when they added Nick.
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by Dr. Medulla »

WestwayKid wrote:
11 Feb 2021, 9:25am
matedog wrote:
10 Feb 2021, 4:15pm
Cool list. I just cross referenced the few things from our 1983 sessionography and it checks out. Only edit would be that I don't think they specifically hired Vince as the "lead" guitar player, but I could be wrong.
I agree about Vince. I thought he was added because Bernie thought they needed someone with a bit more street cred. They already had "replaced" Mick when they added Nick.
Nick's appraisal of Vince is quite apt—when you hire someone for their attitude, you're getting their attitude.
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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by WestwayKid »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
11 Feb 2021, 10:08am
WestwayKid wrote:
11 Feb 2021, 9:25am
matedog wrote:
10 Feb 2021, 4:15pm
Cool list. I just cross referenced the few things from our 1983 sessionography and it checks out. Only edit would be that I don't think they specifically hired Vince as the "lead" guitar player, but I could be wrong.
I agree about Vince. I thought he was added because Bernie thought they needed someone with a bit more street cred. They already had "replaced" Mick when they added Nick.
Nick's appraisal of Vince is quite apt—when you hire someone for their attitude, you're getting their attitude.
Good decisions were few and far between in Clashville in 1983...
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

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Re: 1983 Timeline

Post by Toppers Boppers »

Great work, the only thing I came up with was...

May
Futura 2000 - The Escapades Of Futura 2000 (UK 7" and 12"; probably 1982 US release?)

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