Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros

Joe Strummer's career's been pretty well documented. It's gone down many different avenues and alleyways so I was intrigued as to what he considered to be the defining moment. The answer emphasised a lot about why he's survived when so many others have fallen by the wayside or continue touring as a pastiche of themselves.

"Tonight, because we needed a triumph tonight. We couldn't afford another disaster like it was at the Fleadh. If it had been like that, I'd have been tempted to put my head under one of those bulldozers.

When you've done gigs to pretty much empty rooms, you really like any kind of audience. You don't look a gift horse in the mouth. You try to please whoever's in the room. We've performed pretty much to three men and a dog.

The struggle now is trying to keep it together. There's a lot of different musicians and styles and that creates tensions as well as harmonies. I don't know what we're going to do next, but life changes, one of the guys has just got a new kid, life changes.

What with me being a West Country lad and Joe making sure that the first thing he had when he came off stage was a hot one, inevitably the conversation turned to cider.

That guy on the hot cider tent, he's a great guy. He worked ten years on my favourite cider farm picking apples to get to do things like this. In Somerset, we take our cider seriously. I've got a book on apples a couple of inches thick. I didn't realise what a deep subject it was, I had no idea how much there was to learn, but it's going to be fun.

With that it was time for Joe and the team to head off. It wrapped up what had been a very interesting day for me and taking the cue we left for base camp.

I hope Joe gets to come back on stage or off, 'cause you just know he's got the Cambridge thing.

JOE STRUMMER 1952-2002

On the 23rd of December, Joe's death was announced. He died quietly at home of a heart attack. I was fortunate that I'd met him a couple of times briefly during his life. I was inspired by his music and I shared his love of cider. Joe Strummer made sure that music was relevent, that songs could still matter and maybe make a difference. Write on Joe, right on.