101ERS
Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited
EMI
· Early recordings from Joe Strummer’s first band.
I had heard of the 101ers long before I ever managed to track them down, in mouldy old stacks of records and cassettes. I remember special ordering rare import singles and searching them out in used record stores. I envy kids today discovering the likes of The Clash for the first time. The Internet brings instant gratification. What took me years to find can now be had in minutes if not seconds.
I never managed to hear a clear and coherent album’s worth of songs from the 101ers, mentioned as a historical footnote in every story about Joe Strummer and the Clash. The songs on Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited were recorded in stages throughout 1975-76 and some were released as singles on Ace Records. It all abruptly ended, however, when Strummer heard the Sex Pistols and left the 101ers to become a part of something new.
In the liner notes, Allan Jones says that the 101ers were on the verge of something great when Strummer left, and the singles are good proof of that. "Keys To Your Heart" is a pop love song that burns and shimmies as well as anything by The Clash. "Letsagetabitarockin’" bursts out of the starting gate and explodes like something worthy of Chuck Berry. Would they have made it? That’s unlikely. The band is far too rough around the edges and their brand of retro-rockabilly didn’t move units in the age of Deep Purple and Yes. It sounds great now, though. The first half of the album combines the early singles and it’s clear that the boys have absorbed the lessons of their 1950s idols. With the second half, made up of alternate takes and live recordings, it becomes obvious that something was about to shake up the British music scene. The energy on covers like "Gloria" and "Maybelline" render them almost unrecognizable – a brilliant snapshot of life mere months before the punk explosion.
Flipping through the notes and photos, it is eerie to see just how much of the 101ers made its way into elements of the Clash. Strummer’s delivery is already dead-on for future songs like "Should I Stay or Should I Go." Photos of band members in ponchos foreshadow the covers to Black Market Clash and Give’em Enough Rope, while the posters crying "Andulucia!" speak to the passions that manifest themselves in "Spanish Bombs."
Finally, something the kids and I can discover together.
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