Audio Interviews Collection

Johnny Walker 00:02 on 1FM for a Saturday afternoon, six minutes to six the time. And Mick Jones is back in the country, right back this week. He'd flown from Los Angeles to New York and then from New York to London, which is anybody who's travelled...

Johnny Walker 00:16 across the Atlantic. It's not so bad going there, but you really get jet lag coming back. So with matchsticks propping up, opening his eyes, we had a little bit of a conversation. And we're talking about Bad 2, because the original members of Big Audio Dynamite are all off doing other things. So Bushy is a brand new band now. And Bad 2 have enjoyed a big hit single in America, a very successful tour too. But we started off talking about the early days.

Johnny Walker 00:39 And when he got out of school, and like lots of people did, they finished their school and they didn't really fancy doing a proper job. So what do you do? You go to art school. And a number of really good rock and roll bands have actually sort of formed at art school. So I was talking to Mick about that and asked him if at art school he met any like-minded musicians there. "No, I didn't. I rushed round to the toilets on the first day with my guitar in hand because I heard it all happening in the toilets and everybody was like..."

Mick Jones 01:08 "You know like blues clubs and things were being held in the toilets but I was like on my own there on me on my tilt and I stayed there for years so until they chucked me out in the end because I used to just get me grown and then buy a piece of equipment and starve for the rest of the term you know gradually built up my my stuff." And you just picked an award up in New York. Tell us about that. "Yeah well it's um..."

Mick Jones 01:36 "Billboard for the modern rock track of the year. What's good about it is if I voted by who got your record or requested your record, it's not like a phony thing that's chosen by MTV blokes or anything. Still, we may get the MTV award yet, but it isn't supposed to be about awards. Anyway, we only did it for the exposure."

Mick Jones 02:01 "Because we were like, all these other groups on it were really big groups, you know. And we say we do things before we know what we're letting ourselves in for."

Mick Jones 02:09 "And then all of a sudden we were in LA and we were going to go out and it was like LL Cool J and Whitney Houston. Whitney had an orchestra with her and LL had like a 10-piece band and 13 dancers because I suppose you've got to be like Hammer or something now if you're going to be a rap act, you know. And these guys were like... We were at a rehearsal and they were playing, you know, and it sounded massive and..."

Mick Jones 02:39 "Really impressive, you know, and really big. And we were going, wow, you know, we've had it here. We're going to be creamed, you know what I mean? Because we're not really... Like, all the other groups are proper groups, you know? And we were, like, having a laugh and..."

Mick Jones 02:56 "We were sitting in the green room, you know, and we were having tea and Dionne Warwick was sitting over there. A few members of Third Reich or Queens Reich or whatever they're called. And it sounded fantastic."

Mick Jones 03:13 "And then some of the members of the band started wandering back to have cups of tea and coffee and stuff it still sounded just as good you know and then everybody started coming in and the music was still flying and we were like oh it's gonna be all right after all you know and it was we went on and we played live and it really made the group look quite happening you know." I mean the the song in question isn't it is yeah the new single now at the moment.

Johnny Walker 03:43 Which seems to be your sort of version of Frank Sinatra's My Way. "My Way. Yeah. Well, it has been said, but it wasn't... It was by way of introduction of the new group. You know, having the band of the 90s now instead of the band of the 80s." Who is in the new group? "Well, all new guys. All new guys this time. It's Bad Two. Two guitars, you see."

Mick Jones 04:10 "And a bass player and a drummer, and a lot of stuff behind the amps that you don't see. So it looks like a traditional band, traditional band line-up, but it doesn't sound like it. And we've got a DJ as well who kind of cuts in, integrates other people's records between the numbers, also during the numbers. So sometimes we're like jamming with the Jungle Brothers or whoever, you know what I mean? Or they come in and they start rapping over what we're doing."

Johnny Walker 04:39 It's half live and half DJ collaborations. But you do have a very experienced drummer, of course. "Well, quite experienced, yeah. Chris was the only one who was in a band of note before he was in Sputniks. We try not to go on too much about it. He's gotten over it by now, I think. If I had my time again I would do the same."

Mick Jones 05:14 "Thank you."

Mick Jones 05:44 "Get myself right out of here. Now I'm fully grown. And I know where it's at. Somehow I stayed thin. While the other guys got fat. All the chances that I've blown."

Mick Jones 06:07 "And the times that I've been down. I didn't get too high. Kept my feet on the ground. Situational wind. Runs for the child."

Mick Jones 06:47 "You handsomely. Broken hearts are hearts of men. Know I had my share. And life just carries on. Even when I'm not there."

Mick Jones 07:06 "Situational win. Rush for a change of atmosphere. I can't go on so I give in. Gotta get myself right out of the head. Situational win."

Mick Jones 07:39 "Gotta get myself right. Gotta get myself right. Gotta get myself right. Out of here."

Johnny Walker 08:08 So one of the things you still keep reading about in the music papers is the possibility of a reunion of your old band. "Yeah, too much has been read into it really because what's been happening is we've been taking care of the business of the past. Because there's so many reissues and we've just been trying to take care that they come out the same quality as if the group was together."

Mick Jones 08:31 "And so by doing this, you know, we have to, like, communicate. But it does lead to people thinking there's more to it than that." It's good really to keep the possibility hanging in the air, though, isn't it? "Well, in these days of corporate rock, nobody breaks up anymore, you see. They always keep that possibility open. But we were never into that. I mean, I just think that should I stay or should I go, we're..."

Mick Jones 08:56 "It was my choice, and I think I made the right choice. But also, that record is good. It's a front for all the others that wouldn't be on a Levi's ad. You know, because it'd be funny if they had Washington Bullets, but they never would. You know, but if somebody got to the clash through that..."

Mick Jones 09:16 "They'd find out about Washington Bullets or Straight to Hell." There seems to be so much interest in the punk days. There's a lot of books coming out, TV programs, compilations of the music. But is that punk attitude completely dead now? Is there nothing in the 90s like it? This is Mick Jones live from Las Vegas trying to remember what it was like.

Mick Jones 09:43 "I think a lot of the attitudes remain the same, and I think you find that quite a lot of the people around doing stuff then are still doing stuff. Whoo! Darling, you've got to let me know. Should I stay or should I go?"

Mick Jones 10:14 "If you say that you are mine. I'll be here till the end of time. So you've got to let me know. Should I stay or should I go? It's always taste, taste, taste. You're happy when I'm on my knees. One day it's fine, the next it's black."

Mick Jones 10:43 "So if you want me off your back. Well come on and let me know. Should I stay or should I go? Should I stay or should I go now? Should I stay or should I go now?"

Mick Jones 11:18 "This indecision's bugging me. If you don't want me, set me free. Exactly whom I'm supposed to be. Don't you know which clothes even fit me? Come on and let me know. Should I cool it or should I blow?"

Mick Jones 11:51 "No. No."

Mick Jones 12:11 "Should I stay or should I go now? Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble. And if I stay it will be trouble. So you gotta let me know. Should I cool it or should I blow? Should I stay or should I go now?"

Mick Jones 12:49 "So you gotta let me know. Should I stay or should I go?"

Final Word Count: 4,512 words (22,107 characters)

NOT VERIFIED

Mick Jones 00:00 "It's kind of one, two, three, it's so easy, you know. I thought that was what life was all about. I went to school in Brixton and for the first two years or so I was really good at school, you know, I was really good at religious instruction and oral English and all things like that, you know, and then like music came along and there's a time when you make a choice between football or..."

Mick Jones 00:28 "music or you just do what everybody does you know i mean you ain't gonna get out and you're just like no you ain't gonna get out or you have to make yourself get away you know and it was like a lightning bolt would hit me and said do you have to go and do music you know you have to be in a group that was it really being a group"

Mick Jones 01:14 "There is a rose that I want to live for Although God knows I may not have met her There is a dawn that I should be with her"

Mick Jones 01:43 "There is a town unlike any other. I was in the right state in those days. The only groups that I really liked were things like the Stooges and the New York Dolls. And what was in those days, that was punk music. And it was like garage music. And they were the things that really excited me. And there was so little information we got in this country on this sort of thing. So I had kind of a weird viewpoint of where it was at."

Mick Jones 02:15 "Who shall fly up in the sky faster than any boy could ever describe? Who's got a love so deep with everything alive? I said Jet Boy fly, Jet Boy go, Jet Boy snow, my baby. Flying around New York City so high like he was my baby. My baby."

Mick Jones 02:50 "So I used to wear women's high-heeled shoes, and a sex shop was going at that time, and they used to have their t-shirt on. So it was that kind of mixture. In my mind, it was to do with the New York Dolls. And I worked like that, and everybody used to take the mickey out of me. But it didn't used to bother me, because I just didn't care in those days."

Mick Jones 03:14 "I wanted to get a portfolio together in order to go to art school, because I thought that was what you did, you know, how you got in a group was you go to art school, like Pete Townshend had done that, and Keith Richards and John Lennon and I think Ray Davies too, you know, they'd all been to art school, so I thought that was what it was all about, you know."

Mick Jones 03:31 "He went to art school and met other people who was like-minded and you'd form groups of them, you know, and that you'd be practicing in the toilets. You know, so I was like, first day I rushed to the toilets and see who was there. And it was like, you know, two guys having a fag. It was really disappointing. But I stayed there for four years while I tried to get my work, you know. Because you get a grant, don't you?"

Mick Jones 03:56 "I was on the painting course, but I painted everything. We used to paint our amplifiers, we used to paint our shirts, the wall behind us, the floor, our ties, everything we used to paint. And so, like, my art school teachers used to say, have you done any paintings recently? And I'd go, and I'd show them my shirt, you know, but it wasn't sort of acceptable. So I got chucked out in the end, and I went back for the last day, you know, when they have the show."

Mick Jones 04:22 "for when you go out and get your diploma or what have you and it was like a space instead of my stuff. So I never got to have that. I moved in with my nan to a council flat and I lived there right up until I was 21 or something. I used to go off at times and live elsewhere, you know, there was a squat"

Mick Jones 04:44 "just round about the time when the clash was starting in Shepherd's Bush and we used to all live there you know and things like that but that was like my spiritual centre it was the 18th floor up on the Harrow Road and you know I mean not that we should make a big deal about you know because that's how most people live you know they live in council flats they don't live in flash pads like I've got now you know that's no big deal but what it had was a great view of London"

Mick Jones 05:12 "you know, because I was so high up, and we wrote a lot of songs out there, you know, London's Burning. We used to be our lookout over the Westway, and all the lights would shine, and that sort of was London's Burning, you know. London's Burning! London's Burning!"

Mick Jones 05:43 "And I always used to come back there, you know."

Mick Jones 06:00 "to my nan I don't know why but because I loved her so much I think but also I didn't feel ready to live on my own or something it was like I was a like a bloody rock star you know and I was still living in this council flat I was like 21 the most happening group in the country if not the world you know and most nights I'd be up there"

Mick Jones 06:27 "just sitting there watching the telly or just doing regular stuff, you know. Like in the garage, holding these bags up"

Mick Jones 06:54 "Well, I've got a friend He comes from Carolina"

Mick Jones 07:25 "tony james was like i was i was illegal he was my best best pal at the time and we were sort of learning together you know and uh we played in a group together for a long time and all the guys at that time because we put an ad in the paper about anybody who's into the new york dolls or iggy pop and the stooges or the mc5 should get in touch with us because at that time there wasn't anybody in the whole country who knew about this music you know i mean it must be a handful of people and"

Mick Jones 07:53 "We put this ad in the Melody Maker week after week, in the Monotony Maker. It was really boring. And we heard from incredible people, you know, that have done stuff since. I remember Morrissey used to write to me, this guy from Manchester, Stephen Morrissey, you know, who was really into the New York Dolls. And he probably doesn't even know this, but he wrote to me, and I always remember, I've got the letters, you know."

Mick Jones 08:17 "Brian James came to us, the guy who got the dam together. We gave Rat Scabies his name, because a mouse came in the studio, the rehearsal studio, and he had Scabies on that day, so we said, Rat Scabies, you know. It stuck. One day, it just all clicked, you know. We were walking down Portobello Road, and we bought these ladies' car coats. They were 50p each, down the..."

Mick Jones 08:44 "the khaki end. And three of us, Keith Levine, Paul Simon and myself, we put these ladies, bright blue, bright pink, and beige. You know, these three car coats on, 50 pence each. I just looked around and thought, wow, this is a group. This is what a group looks like. You know, and that was it. And"

Mick Jones 09:05 "Joe Strong was around playing the pubs in the 101ers, you know, and we met him in the street and after we, we used to go see him play and he's obviously showed potential, you know, and so we said we like you but we don't like your group, why don't you join us?"

Mick Jones 10:30 "Bernie, the manager, was really responsible for a lot of the way that we thought about how we put ourselves across, you know. He never gave us any money though."

Mick Jones 10:53 "That was the big problem. So we were still, like, living, subsisting, you know. It was a big joke, even in the music papers and that, that 50 quid a week, that was our wages, you know what I mean? And it was, like, it was a well-known fact what we earned was 50 quid a week, you know. And it was, like, it was a main bone of contention in the group a lot of the time, apart from food."

Mick Jones 11:14 "You know, we used to argue about food. I remember one time we spent an evening fly-postering round Camden Town. You know that paste that you make up yourself with flour and water? And we had a bit left over when we finished and Paul was really starving. So he got this saw, an old saw, and he put the paste on the saw and he heated it up over an electric grill. And you know what? He ate it afterwards."

Mick Jones 11:42 "And I didn't do that. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that. But he did that, you know. So that was kind of like, we really learned to be like, I thought it was going to be all girls and, you know, fast cars and stuff. And it wasn't. Nothing like that, especially with our group. And there was none of that."

Mick Jones 12:01 "none of that groupie business or nothing, you know, it was like, we missed it. Well, when we played at Bonds, we played for like, I don't know, 17 or 18 nights on Times Square, and it was, it caused a big fuss, you know, and they had like people spilling out into the street, and they hadn't had that since Frank Sinatra and the Bobby Soxers, and we caused a real sensation going into the heart of New York. This is Radio Cat from Pirates of the Light, orbiting your"

Mick Jones 12:30 "Cashin' in the Bill of Rights Human army surplus Or refusing all the lights This is Radio Clash on Pirates Alight The Sounders might subscribe To the International Plan"

Mick Jones 13:01 "shadow of the white right hand then that's the ghetto ology is an urban vietnam given daily exhibitions of murder"

Mick Jones 13:33 "Bonds is an old department store, you know, and they've converted it into a kind of a Studio 54 type nightclub, you know, and we had the huge Clash banner and it was like dropped over the front of this Bonds sign, you know, and it was on Times Square and the people were going mad and the police were on their horses and all that and they were cancelling it because of fire hazards and we had to come back and play other nights and"

Mick Jones 14:02 "It was a really wild time, and we were trying to do something, you know, like trying to get a foot in the door, and the groups were like boring, and real dinosaurs, and I know they're around still, you know, and they're still, it's kind of the same thing now, what it's like, what it was like then, you know what I mean, and it just needed that push, and it came, and it was great, we all flooded through, you know. Once you had a foot in the door, it was just a matter of pushing."

Mick Jones 14:28 "We were very intense as a band, you know, we used to cry together and we used to fight each other. And we were that passionate about it and we all believed in it, you know, and we would have died for it. By honour of the Prophet, we burn that foolish sound. Degenerate the faithful with that crazy cat-boss."

Mick Jones 14:59 "As soon as the Sherry hit the square, they began to wave. The Sherry, we don't like it. Rockin' the Casbah, rockin'."

Mick Jones 15:28 "It all started to go wrong, actually, when Topper left. Right? Topper left and it was never really the same. But we could have carried on, but then I got fired, so... But we'd really stopped communicating by that time. We'd just managed to just maintain a grunting level of civility, you know, before. But it was kind of all set up as well, you know. I was kind of set up."

Mick Jones 15:58 "really. And that was the kind of political behind the back, you know, people were moving and like trying to be influential on different people and coming between members of the group, you know, things like that. All the start, all the things that start happening, you know, when you become really successful, you know, you can, you become a different kind of asshole. I turned up the day I was fired and got my guitar out, you know, and, uh,"

Mick Jones 16:25 "I think it was Joe it was who managed to muster up the courage to say that he didn't want to play with me anymore. And when somebody says that to you, you know, I just pack my guitar up and just, well, hey, you know, okay, bye. And that was it. And I walked. And Bernie come running out after me with a check in his hand, you know, like a gold watch or something, you know, which added insult to injury. But I took it anyway."

Mick Jones 16:58 "and about two days morning, and then I started on the next group. Big Audio Dynamite was formed on a dance floor, if you like. That's how I saw it. I saw it the same as how I saw it in the first days. I saw Don and Leo standing in a club, the two dreads in the band, right, and then my friends anyway, right back from the punk days, right, where Don was the DJ in the Roxy Club and Leo worked behind the bar. And I saw them and I went over and put myself in between them"

Mick Jones 17:28 "You know, they were both standing there with dark glasses looking really cool. And I went and sort of said, you know, kind of, let me get in there, fellas. And I kind of stood in between them and I looked again at both sides and thought, hey, I've got a group. There's a new dawn star"

Mick Jones 17:58 "That's going around When the hits start to fly You've gotta get down All these younger people Don't sound a square The old-time groove Is really not well So when you reach the bottom line The only thing you'll do is smile Pick yourself up off the floor You're gonna want your"

Mick Jones 18:37 "I think that when we first did our first LP, there was quite, like, people thought, what's this? You know, they kind of think, they saw the cover and people thought, oh, he's got some dreads in the group, he's going to make reggae records, you know. So he used to come out and I used to have, like, a funny kind of Paddington bear hat and a really long shirt and sort of,"

Mick Jones 19:02 "sneakers, you know. They looked really ridiculous. And when we came out and we were playing this music, this is even before we had the record out, we did some gigs, you know. And we just made a horrendous racket. And we were like the first people in this country to have samplers, you know. Move my feet and touch my soul. Bass, sound, drum, beat, rock and roll. Just play that music."

Mick Jones 19:29 "I don't care what key it's in, where it's come from, where it's been, just play that music. I don't need to see your face, I don't need no autographs, I can't play your interviews, can't hear your photographs. You don't need to be profound, the fact don't speak, just play that sound, just play that music."

Mick Jones 19:54 "I turn on my radio, you've got a great live show, just play that music. If it's him you make it stick, do your job, just play music. Critic mags and interviews, who cares about bad views? Does it have to be so tame? Do I have to twist and shout? Do we have to play this game? I'll be down in an hour, it's done."

Mick Jones 20:20 "Don't have to look the same, I keep trying to tell them. Don't have to walk some lane, I'll sing the song you sang. Don't have to walk some lane, I'll sing the song you sang. Don't have to walk some lane, I'll sing the song you sang. Don't have to walk some lane, I'll sing the song you sang. Don't have to walk some lane, I'll sing the song you sang. Don't have to walk some lane, I'll sing the song you sang."

Mick Jones 20:51 "Yeah, well, if I hadn't been involved in Big Audio Dynamite, no one would have probably heard of them, you know, because it gave us an advantage, me being in The Clash and that, obviously, because I got to get off at a later starting point, you know. I was in the lead anyway, so I didn't have to do that work again."

Mick Jones 21:10 "But it was a disadvantage as well because people didn't really think that I was capable of anything else other than what they knew me for. You know what I mean? And we had to like, you know, people would come and they would shout for the old songs and stuff, you know. And I was like, well, we don't do those ones anymore. We're doing this now, you know. I'm here today."

Mick Jones 21:52 "I think all groups need to be some kind of dictatorship or you need to have a leader, you know, and I'm the leader now."

Mick Jones 22:14 "And it's a benign dictatorship, if you like. And we like to think it's a democracy, really, and anybody can say what they like, you know. And everybody tries to join in and contribute as much as possible, really, to everything, every aspect of it. You know, if I can't write a lyric, Don will write it. Or, you know, if I can't figure out one bit..."

Mick Jones 22:37 "somebody else is going to come up with it. You know, it's back down to that thing of being a group and depending on the other members of your group. ¶¶ ¶¶"

Mick Jones 23:08 "Bulldog cool, don't need no provocation Got it straight inside, inside the country's circulation B-A-D-N-L-C-O, help keep the peace, don't need no lubricant No one can stop the show The promoter didn't put no understatement The money box is here"

Mick Jones 23:34 "I guess I don't really see myself as working in the medium of pop music, as you like. I mean, I know I make popular music, but I don't... It's not about a formula to me, you know? Say I've had a hit record, right?"

Mick Jones 23:49 "then I don't try and do this, you know like people do the follow-ups and it sounds the same you know, I don't like to do that, I don't like to stick to one thing it's about, to me it's about breaking the limitations, you know what I mean, it's about breaking the barriers, trying to go forward trying out new things and sometimes they don't work and sometimes you look like an idiot, you know I've been really like influenced like"

Mick Jones 24:13 "even though i wasn't even there by the what's been happening acid house now you know it's like but it's not like you know all the groups say you can't make an acid house record right which i'm not anyway but they don't want me to because they think that it everybody will laugh at us you know i mean for jumping on last year's bandwagon you know it's like flaccid but that's not what i'm interested in i'm interested in the next bit along"

Mick Jones 24:41 "He's 18 now, but he blocks that sun. Used to be the shade for things to come."

Mick Jones 24:49 "The children running ragged and breaking the glass. Smashing the lights in the undercar. No, you need no flag when it's 17. We're waiting on someone who looks like a queen. I've been in Chinatown. I've been in embassy. I'm the guy for the rides I see and sing. You see, I'm thinking of the roulette lane. Oh, no, my name ain't back again. Please search for Corbin."

Mick Jones 25:25 "We're making an LP now. It's our fourth LP, so we're having the fourth album, Crisis, at the moment. You see, I have a crisis with every LP. But hopefully we're going to try some kind of new approach, you know. I'm always going on about the scene, the scene, and I really want to make it happen, and maybe I'm dreaming, you know, but I'm really going to stop talking about it and try and do it this year, you know, and..."

Mick Jones 25:54 "You know, our records, right, the amount of our output of our little studio where we come from, that's our output for where the group's at at the time when we make it, you know, it's like that's where we're at and so this time we want to do it a bit differently. I mean I can already see that they're trying to get me back on the treadmill and I don't want to be there, you know, I want to"

Mick Jones 26:18 "try and create these events go places and stay a few days you know make something happen and uh i'm gonna just like stick by it this time and really try and do it and the record i i hope is going to be i think we've been through enough now that it's going to be a really great record this time well we hope so i don't earn enough money to be a tax exile in the virgin islands yet"

Mick Jones 26:42 "than I am going to be. But I do expect everybody to still think of me the same way. Say when I'm in a big pink Cadillac and I'm driving down Notting Hill Gate, I want everybody not to act any differently towards me. I think it's really important that I can lean out of the limo and just say hi."

Final Word Count: 4,512 words (22,107 characters)