24) Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros Rock, Art and the X-Ray Style
Strummer was lost after The Clash split up, realising the huge mistake in sacking Mick Jones he begged him to come back but Mick was off on a new adventure with BAD.
His only solo album Earthquake Weather was poorly received and sold badly. He had also lost both parents towards the end of The Clash, and we were officially entering his wilderness years.
He would appear here and there, I saw him do an encore with The Pogues at the Barrowlands and he was fantastic but was he becoming a nostalgia act, the odd Clash song here and there?
Rumours surfaced he had formed a new band in 1999, eleven years of drifting over, I got a ticket for King Tuts, I was offered £100 for it, no chance. Up close with Joe Strummer who could refuse, he was wonderful, so is this album.
Ten songs of folk, rock, punk, techno, tribal and reggae.
Yalla Yalla was on TOTP2, and I was excited as I had been in years, one of my heroes was back.
Tony Adams, Techno D-day, and The Road to Rock n Roll added more classics to his extensive cannon and he was clearly rejuvenated. The album ends with the sublime Wilesden To Cricklewood, Joe in ballad mode. It was a magical return, better than I could have hoped for. We lost him three years later but there was more to come from The Mescaleros.
7/10
GIVE IT A STREAM: Techno D-day