The Clash’s London Calling memorabilia
The Clash commemorate their finest hour
Beatrice Behlen suspected she was onto a winner when they worked out her email. “I mean, it’s not that hard to do, but I’m baffled by the devotion of their fans,” the senior curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of London says. “I’m not sure there’s another band like it. People emailing saying, ‘Can you get me into the opening?’”
Behlen is the co-curator of The Clash: London Calling, an exhibition of more than 100 items associated with the group, celebrating the 40th anniversary of its double album and drawing on the personal archives of guitarist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, photographer Pennie Smith, on-tour designer Ray Lowry, DJ Barry “Scratchy” Myers, roadie Johnny Green and intimate Robin Banks. It is co-curated by Robert Gordon McHarg III, Canadian-born artist, gallerist, friend of the band and custodian of their archive. “I’m not gonna say it!” McHarg says, asked to name the rarest of the never-before-seen items. “There are secrets in there, and that’s the fun of it.”
We can confirm one of late frontman Joe Strummer’s notebooks from 1979, open at “Ice Age”, words that would become lyrics to the title track. Also the handwritten album running order by Jones. Drumsticks from Nicky “Topper” Headon and a shattered Fender Precision bass, smashed on stage at The New York Palladium on 20 September 1979 by Simonon, an act captured by Smith and used for arguably rock’s most iconic cover.
“They were a global band,” says McHarg. “A global sound. London plays a huge role. We’re also trying to tell the story of ’79: what was happening in the band, in London and the world. Because all those things are the subject matter of the record.”
A shortlist of those subjects would include generational conflict (“Rudie Can’t Fail”), racial divide (“The Guns of Brixton”), institutional oppression (“Clampdown”) and a rallying cry to action (“London Calling”). “It all still seems to have so much relevance, you can still feel and hear the same issues,” says McHarg. “It’s a timeless call of awareness.”
It is the first music show for the museum, which opened three years before London Calling. “It’s quite different for us,” Behlen says. In fact, it wouldn’t have happened without them.
“It’s happening because we’re doing it with the Museum of London, and it’s free,” says McHarg. “So if you have money for a donation to the museum, great. But if you don’t have anything, you’re still welcome. That’s always been a part of The Clash. Like folklore history. All welcoming, for all.”
○ The Clash: London Calling, The Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y, now until 19 April 2020