Culture Clash

Hunter on punk, The Clash and Bowie’s stolen mics

“MICK Jones is a lovely chap. He was a Mott fan back in the day – you always recognised him in the crowd, he was a good dresser even when he was a kid. We had an army of fans, with lieutenants and stuff like that, and him and his mates went a lot of different places, jumping off the train before it got in the station. I thought punk was pretty awful when it started – to me, punk was Gene Vincent – but I see now that some great stuff came out of it. That was some band, The Clash. Somebody from Columbia Records took me up to Whitfield Street Studios one night to hear them. I didn’t know them, but I saw Mick and realised he was in a band now, he wasn’t just a fan any more. Somebody said, ‘Play him the track.’ It finished and they all looked at me and said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s great, you know.’ Somebody said, ‘It’s the blessing…’ I’m like, ‘What?’ I did not want that mantle at all!

“This was before they worked with [ Mott manager/producer] Guy Stevens on London Calling. I don’t know if they were quite prepared for Guy – I did warn Mick! It’s a unique way of producing, what Guy did, because he had no knowledge of music whatsoever. What he did was he enlarged your inner ego. You know, ‘You’re better than The Beatles, you’re better than the Stones’, screaming at you from an inch away just before a take. It would last about 40 minutes, this winding-up process, while you’re paying for the studio and you haven’t played a note. In the end you’d be like, ‘For fuck’s sake, shut up. Let’s do it.’ That was the whole idea.

“Steve Jones supported me and Mick Ronson on tour in 1989. This is typical Ronson, about halfway through the tour he goes, ‘Steve stole all Bowie’s mics once.’ I’m saying, ‘Mick, what’s he doing opening for us? He’s gonna nick all our stuff!’ Mick goes, ‘Nah, he won’t nick our stuff, he likes us.’ ‘Why not tell me this before, not halfway through the tour?!’ Typical Ronson.”