PUNK ROCK HEART - Joe Strummer 1952-2003
By Annie Toone

The first time I met Joe was late '78 in San Francisco. I was 20 years old. The Clash were in town to play an actual paying gig at Kezar Stadium when they heard we'd set up a Rock Against Racism chapter in SF.

Joe immediately offered to do a free concert for RAR at the Temple Beautiful for all us real punx who couldn't afford the other one. Word of mouth spread like wildfire and the Temple was heaving by the time The Clash arrived.They rocked so hard. I still have my RAR USA t-shirt. Joe often said, "not above me or below me, always with me". He meant it. He NEVER changed.

The second and most important time was when The Clash were doing their now infamous BONDs shows in Times Square in May/June 1981 during the heyday of the NY rockscene. I turned 23 on May 29th. By that time my all-butch punkfunk band The Bloods as well as the nearly-all-girl Bush Tetras were riding high and getting noticed.

I think Joe heard about us from Richard Hell who'd had The Bloods open for him a coupla times at The Peppermint Lounge n Max's and cbgbs that spring.(that's me on the keyboards at left with my Bryan Gregory hair and singer Adele Bertei in the fedora.)

Joe invited us two downtown white-girl bands to open for them on the last night of the run. We were over the marquee moon, I can tell you.

Especially because, on all the other nights The Clash were introducing their crowd to Rap with then unknown opening acts like Grandmaster Flash, The Treacherous 3 & The Sugarhill Gang (this was years before MTV & the Run DMC/Aerosmith remake of "Walk this Way"). Us and the BTs were the only girls AND (except for our bass player Brenda Alderman) the only white acts on the bill and we were fucking well honored. It did help that both bands could play.

I can't remember if we played well that night however. I think we did. I remember that Bonds was cavernous and dark and packed. In the entry way was a xylophone-type staircase that sounded a tone as you went up each step sorta like in the Tom Hanks movie "BIG". I remember that we hung with The Clash upstairs in their huge dressing room afterwards and I had such a crush on Paul Simenon. I know, I'm a hardcore femme-lovin' daddy-o and I was one then. All I can say is - it was 1981.

I do remember that Joe was completely nonplussed about how butch Kathy Rey (Bloods guitarist), Adele & I were. Not threatened, enamored. We wanted to be the girl Clash, or the girl Rolling Stones or something and looked it. We were bad boyz. He understood and encouraged us. At the time other boy bands and even some girl bands like The Go-Gos and the Delta 5 were afraid to be in the dressing room when they shared bills with us. Really.

Not that we minded.;-> I remember we all wore those outlaw bandanas and black pointy roach killers boots. So did the BTs, so did The Clash. I remember Kozmo Vinyl, their manager strutting around like he was in charge of the only band that mattered...cuz he was.

They played like they were an army marching on you. On a do or die mission from anarchist headquarters.They leaned towards the crowd like they were leaning into the wind of oppresion and truly incited us all to be call-ups on their path to righteous classless punkrock glory. Incendiary.

Absolutely no one to this day can touch The Clash live. Like a suprematist poster come to life before your eyes.