Joe Strummer

Kathy Burke meets Joe Strummer in Little Crackers’ Better Than Christmas

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By Johnny Foreigner

I knew actress Kathy Burke mainly for her brilliant performance in the 1997 film Nil By Mouth, when she played a battered woman terrorized by her brutish husband (played with equal brilliance by actor Ray Winstone.) As comedienne, Bates also played “Magda” on  AbFab, and delivered a hilarious line in Sid and Nancy – “John got beaten up by fascists.” (wonderful!)

When I came across this great short biopic from 2010 about a young London schoolgirl (Ami Metcalf portraying a teenaged Kathy Burke) meeting her rock n’ roll hero Joe Strummer – it left me wanting to see the rest of the series. IMDB describes Little Crackers as “a series of short comedy-dramas with a Christmas theme, written by British artists recalling moments from their childhoods.”

Here’s how Kathy Burke the Writer sums up her Little Crackers “Better Than Christmas” mini biopic:

Kathy Burke turns 16 in two days and is about to leave school after sitting one final exam. Kathy’s passion is music and she dreams of being a writer for the NME where she’ll interview the likes of Paul Weller and Johnny Rotten. As Kath and her friend Mary celebrate their freedom, they’re stopped in their tracks by an almost unbelievable vision. There, in front of them, are The Clash. While an awestruck Kathy clutches her now-autographed NME, her hero, Joe Strummer, offers her some life-changing advice.

Kathy Burke meets Joe Strummer in Little Crackers’ Better Than Christmas

by

By Johnny Foreigner

I knew actress Kathy Burke mainly for her brilliant performance in the 1997 film Nil By Mouth, when she played a battered woman terrorized by her brutish husband (played with equal brilliance by actor Ray Winstone.) As comedienne, Bates also played “Magda” on  AbFab, and delivered a hilarious line in Sid and Nancy – “John got beaten up by fascists.” (wonderful!)

When I came across this great short biopic from 2010 about a young London schoolgirl (Ami Metcalf portraying a teenaged Kathy Burke) meeting her rock n’ roll hero Joe Strummer – it left me wanting to see the rest of the series. IMDB describes Little Crackers as “a series of short comedy-dramas with a Christmas theme, written by British artists recalling moments from their childhoods.”

Here’s how Kathy Burke the Writer sums up her Little Crackers “Better Than Christmas” mini biopic:

Kathy Burke turns 16 in two days and is about to leave school after sitting one final exam. Kathy’s passion is music and she dreams of being a writer for the NME where she’ll interview the likes of Paul Weller and Johnny Rotten. As Kath and her friend Mary celebrate their freedom, they’re stopped in their tracks by an almost unbelievable vision. There, in front of them, are The Clash. While an awestruck Kathy clutches her now-autographed NME, her hero, Joe Strummer, offers her some life-changing advice.

 

 

The Siren Sound of the Clash’s ‘London Calling,’ 40 Years Later

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Released in 1979, the Clash’s third album changed everything—punk rock, the band that made it, and the fans who worshiped it. Decades later, its rich, eclectic, propulsive sound hasn’t aged a minute, and its messages are as urgent as ever.

By Elizabeth Nelson

“Every Cheap Hood / Strikes a Bargain With the World”

Guy Stevens, the Clash’s hand-picked producer for their pivotal third LP, a double album titled London Calling, was not happy with how the band was performing. So he applied the Guy Stevens method: He charged out of the control room and began a violent assault on the space where the group was attempting to get through the song—thrashing his limbs, dancing wildly, and screaming in their faces. They reacted with a combination of rage and horror and disbelief: Imagine trying to cut a track while some fully hysterical nutter is 5 inches in front of you, all brandy breath, spit, and bile. After all this was done, Stevens announced: “It’s a take!”

The Clash’s first two LPs, 1977’s self-titled debut and 1978’s Give ’Em Enough Rope, thrilled critics and galvanized a large and loyal following. Now it was up to them to consecrate their standing as the biggest band in the world, or at least “The Only Band That Matters,” a nickname they had self-applied. Brimming with talent, energy, and esprit de corps, the Clash sensed they were close to something monumental—a commercial breakthrough and a masterpiece. They had material to spare and an unbreakable date with destiny. They just needed someone to bring it all together, to bring it out of them. They sorted through their options. And then they hired Guy Stevens.

“I’m So Grateful / To Be Nowhere”

It starts in Camden, by the Thames, waters rising, alarms at full blaze. It starts at the end. An apocalyptic event, another kind of destiny. World War II and the bombing of Britain and the economic shudder of the empire through its shaky postwar years and the rise of the right and the shadow of the Cold War and the memory of the Aberfan disaster. Everything, it seems, is in those two chords. London is drowning and the Clash are … ambivalent? Stalwart? Maybe the word is prepared. Prepared for death or the feral future of life in the aftermath of utter catastrophe.

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