GLASTONBURYOFTHEMIND

There is an interesting - well as “interesting” as anything connected to Snow Patrol and Lightbody can be - story behind this piece and some of the back ground characters involved in it. Interesting in the way it illustrates how an Indie schmindie band has its image and utterances controlled, parsed and - lovely phrase this - “tidied up” in order to hit the big dont offend no-one American mega market. The piece below elicited the most response of any that I’ve written this year, many people providing unsolicited details both in person and by email after publication. Some of which add considerable intrigue to the story. As there seems to be an inexorable rise in Snow Patrol’s stateside fortunes I’ll be delving into my emails and memories to flesh out the tale in the days ahead. Run For Cover: Snow Patrol Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 21 July 2006 HE IS KNOWN as indie rock’s Mister Nice Guy. But despite selling two million albums, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody remains a charisma-free zone. Like members of the similar sounding Keane and Coldplay, Gary hails from a well-bred background having attended ultra-posh Campbell College, close to Northern Ireland’s so-called Gold Coast, just 10 miles from his home in Bangor. But his schooldays and privileged background turn out to be just two of the subjects that Gary won’t talk about. Maybe he is scared of drawing attention away from the band’s music. Or, God forbid, add a bit of colour to their dull and anonymous image. Formed with Lightbody’s pals Jonny Quinn and Mark McClelland while at Dundee University in 1994, Snow Patrol laboured in obscurity until, by 2001, they were considered also-rans after releasing two flop albums. But that all changed with their third outing, Final Straw, and its crowd pleasing anthems ‘Run’ and ‘Chocolate’. “It was called Final Straw because in some ways it was the final throw of the dice,” admits Lightbody, 30, on the phone from his Glasgow home. “But the title was also taking the piss out of people who thought we were really over. A lot of them didn’t give us much of a chance. When we wanted to release the third album, we came up against many obstacles. To most record companies we were considered failures.” Obviously with ‘Run’ you designed a song to attract the masses. “It was an epic track,” he agrees. “It was an experiment for us. When we recorded it we made it gigantic – we’d never really attempted a song like it before. It could have been an albatross because it stood out so much, but fortunately people bought the album not the song. “It’s important to us that no song is bigger than the album although, obviously, when we play it live it goes down better than anything else. I’ve got so many emails from people about Run and how it applies to different situations – births, deaths, tragedies, joys and everything else. It seems to have a life of its own.” Indeed, but what about Gary? Does he have a life or a personality of his own? Making music bigger than what you are used to can cause problems. Jazz Summers had managed Snow Patrol’s move into the mainstream, a man who previously masterminded, among others, the early career of Wham! as well as the Verve during their Urban Hymns success. But Summers’ role in Snow Patrol’s history is another subject Gary avoids. Also out of bounds is any discussion regarding former bassist Mark McClelland. A founder member and vital part of the band during their wilderness years, McClelland was shocked to receive his marching orders as soon as the money from Final Straw started rolling in. At the time he was sacked, McClelland claimed that Snow Patrol had been turned into a solo project for Lightbody, suggesting they faced the same fate as Summers’ last success story, the Verve. Gary denies this charge politely, of course, and insists the band is a democratic set-up. “We are mates as much as we are band mates,” he says, “and the big decisions are made by all of us. We spend so much time together and talk about things all the time.” But Gary is now firmly at the centre of the band and his unfaithfulness to an old girlfriend reportedly triggered several songs on the band’s new album Eyes Open. “They aren’t all about the same person,” he says. “There’s not that many songs about her and I’d rather not talk about that.” Just as I am beginning to think that Gary should change the name of the band to Just Say No Patrol, he tells me his mind isn’t on the interview and says he has to rush off to an urgent engagement. So we arrange to speak later in the week, but at the appointed time the call never comes. I am assured it is no fault of Gary’s and his record company explains that now, because of his “well-documented throat problem” (he’s suffered from polyps on his vocal cords) he has to rest his voice for the band’s upcoming dates and can only answer further questions by email. Even stranger, I am informed that his email replies will be “tidied up” by his record company press office before I receive them. So, he can’t speak and he’s not trusted to answer his own emails. If Gary Lightbody was in a boy band, people would think he was a puppet. But as an indie rocker he is considered his own man. As I wait for Gary’s replies to arrive, I wonder if someone has also “tidied up” the twee and tedious ramblings he contributes to the band’s website about his fears, foibles and that “well documented throat problem”. If so, a new broom might be in order. In 25 years of interviewing pop stars, this has been one of the most curious I’ve ever conducted. Getting to talk to Madonna was a picnic in comparison. It is suggested that Snow Patrol pose a severe image problem for their marketing department. But will the band – even slightly tubby keyboard player Tom Simpson, who is always holding his gut in at the back of group photos - storm the battlements of rock city and join the all-time greats. Mmm… maybe not. What does Gary think? “I’ve always been in bands, from the time I picked up a guitar,” he muses. “I don’t think I ever thought about what to do if it hadn’t worked out. I’m lucky it has.” You said it Mister Lightweight. The new single ‘Chasing Cars’ is out on Monday. How exciting. (c) Gavin Martin, 2006

THIS PIECE never made it into the Mirror as planned, its a compilation of the book’s buzzy buzz points, written as a hook to attract readers to the real depth and compassion within the tome. A tome which is both a labour of love and reckoning on several levels, for and by the many friends and fans and associates of Gentleman Joe. That was the plan anyway. But as is often the way other priorities intervened. PUNK ICON Joe Strummer’s lustful appetite bordered on sex addiction according to one pal. Gaby Salter, the Clash star’s former partner and mother of his two daughters, describes him as the most unfaithful person she had ever met. Strummer, who died suddenly from a heart defect in December 2002, was also a heavy drinker and habitual drug user who could fly into alcoholic rages or sink into deep depressions, according to a new book published this month.  But Gaby, and many of Strummer’ s friends and associates, believe his character traits can be traced to the death of his elder brother David who committed suicide in 1970 when Strummer was 17. Joe first asked Gaby, a tall beautiful blonde he called his “20th century girl”, on a date when they met at his record company offices at a reception for The Clash’s second album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope. She was 17 and retaking her O Levels, Strummer was 26 and on the brink of becoming one of the biggest rock stars in the world. Even the couple’s children Jazz, now 22, and Lola, now 20, were shocked by the age difference.        ”I suppose the fact that Joe was 26 sounds shocking: our kids say he was a child molester. It sounds shocking to them but it didn’t seem it,” she recalls. Soon after they met Strummer told Gaby “I’ve been to bed with over 100 women but you’re the one.” In the years that followed as a series of one nightstands and affairs on the road, including a relationship with actress Danielle Von Zerneck mounted, Gaby realized that  ”Joe was one of the most unfaithful people I could ever have met.” Shortly after they met Joe moved into a Chelsea flat with Gaby, her mother and her two brothers - they also briefly lived in Joe’s flat, a central London squat. “Joe tidied up in my honor, it was quite decent: there was hot running water and electricity.” The son of British diplomat Ron Mellor, Strummer, real name John Graham Mellor, was born in Ankara in Turkey. But the singer never forgave his parents for sending him and his brother David to City Of London Freeman boarding school after the family moved back to England in 1959. Gaby recalls that he continued to rage at his mother Anna for making the decision to send him and David enroll them as boarders as she lay in hospital, dying from bone cancer in 1987.  Gaby, whose own studies fell by the wayside as she accompanied Strummer on Clash tours, discovered that although Strummer had been an appalling pupil, boarding school had a much worse effect on the withdrawn, solitary David. “He had a deep depression and sense of paranoia, ” she says, “there was depression in the family. I know Joe suffered from it.” Strummer was already into a sex, drugs and rock n roll lifestyle when David, then living in a homeless hostel, and following the far right National Front, was found dead from an overdose on a park bench in London’s Regent’s Park in July 1970. Years later, when The Clash became famous, Joe rented a flat which looked out directly onto the bench where David’s body was found. Although he seldom spoke about the affect the death had on him Strummer told a friend that identifying the body, which had lain undiscovered for 3 days, was the worst day of his life. The first guitar Strummer owned was an acoustic that had been used by The Who’s Pete Townshend (a childhood friend of his cousin). To develop his distinctive style he used to burn matches and piss on his fingertips to make them hard them tough enough to get his distinctive style. He purchased his first PA system with £120 he received for marrying a South African woman who wanted British citizenship. Before hitting the big-time with The Clash he had worked as a toilet cleaner at the National Opera and a gravedigger. He claimed that Native Americans inspired his philosophy on life “I read that when a Cherokee is faced with a decision he takes the reckless alternative. I thought, what life’s for but to make reckless decisions.” Fittingly an adult his dark moods lead to him being nicknamed Big Chief Thundercloud. But his reckless  attitude to life almost cost him dearly on several occasions. When Strummer was hospitalized with Hepatitis during The Clash’s early career, the  the group’s publicist claimed he had contracted the disease from a fan gobbing in his mouth. But Strummer actually picked up the infection from using a dirty needle to inject either heroin or cocaine. Months later he recorded what he and many believe to be his greatest song White Man In The Hammersmith Palais while under the influence of antibiotics to treat glandular fever. Soon after his recovery he appeared on stage in London, before what was then The Clash’s largest ever audience in Hackney’s Victoria Park wearing T Shirt advertising Italian terrorist organization The Red Brigade.  Clash member, Strummer’s songwriting partner Mick Jones (later Pete Doherty’s producer) was appalled and Special Branch opened what would become a substantial file on the singer. After Strummer wore another T-shirt - showing his support for H Block hunger strikers  - the security services also verified that a handwritten note sent to NME was a genuine death threat from Northern Irish Loyalist Terrorist group The Red Hand Commandoes. But this did not prevent making a speech later in honor of hunger striker Bobby Sands in Madrid a week before he died. Then, true to form, directly after the speech was completed Strummer returned to his hotel with one of Kid Creole’s Coconuts using the far from subtle chat up line “you’re a woman, I’m a man, you know what I want.” Throughout his life Strummer presented a mass of contradictions, despite his near legendary marijuana intake he was able to complete two London and one Paris marathon.  Yet on their first Japanese  tour he and Jones burst into tears when the promoter arrived to tell them that their expected delivery of marijuana had not arrived. On Clash tours Strummer’s hotel rooms were often filled with fans given a free lodging for night but he also loved the Gideon Bible provided in each room describing it as “a great book to read”. As a teenager Joe decided never to clean his teeth because, he told pals, “it wastes time” but Clash recording sessions later had to be held up as he underwent expensive dental treatment. At his one and only appearance at his beloved Glastonbury Festival - which he attended many times as a spectator - millions of television viewers saw him kick an onstage camera. But Strummer himself was far from impressed by this act of aging punk rock rebellion, sickened by his own action he immediately threw up after leaving the stage. He later sent a long groveling letter of apology to the cameraman concerned. Dealing with band colleagues he was often ruthless but after dismissing Clash’s heroin addicted drummer Topper Headon from the band he was full of remorse. Mere weeks after dismissing him Strummer even gave the drummer £30,000 - to pay off a debt to a drug dealer who was threatening to break his legs. The Clash made millions but also lost money - £28,000 of the £100,000 they received for their first recording contract was immediately given to the management of London’s Rainbow Theatre after fans wrecked the seating at a notorious punk concert. Years later, when he formed his last ever band The Mescaleros, he chose Anthony Genn as his musical director, despite knowing that Genn, who he had first seen running onstage naked during a Glastonbury performance by Elastica, was a full blown heroin addict. . Strummer undoubtedly met his match when he told Clash bassist Paul Simonon that he had to divorce his then wife Pearl Harbour - or leave the band. Singer Pearl was at London’s Heathrow airport to meet Strummer when he arrived back from American tour. To the amusement of an onlooking policewoman she set about kicking Strummer with her cowboy boots. But the next day Joe took her out on a pub-crawl, proudly showing anyone who cared to look, the scars she had inflicted. “Then he took off my high heel shoes, poured champagne and drank it,” says Pearl. Although Strummer went to some length to conceal his affair with actress Danielle Von Zerneck  he was less cautious about other flings. He boasted to regulars at a West London pub that he had had sex with an estate agent who had come to value the flat he shared with Gaby and the children “Estate agents always f**k us, I bet you’ve never met anyone who has f**ked an estate agent, ” he boasted.  Strummer and Gaby finally split in 1993 but the real end to their relationship came with   drunken tirade on holiday in Italy 2 years before. “He came out with so much venom, he told me I was a dreadful mother, that I was terrifying the kids. He was projecting onto me about his childhood and his relationship with his mother and it was the final straw. We came back and lived in separate rooms as complete strangers,” she says. Yet Strummer was to finish his life in matrimonial bliss, moving to Somerset after marrying Lucinda Tait in 1995. But his reckless attitude to life continued. He was delighted when a journalist who had given an early Clash show a bad review vomited violently after he gave him a Mickey Finn (pure dope) joint. “I’ve been waiting to get him for 20 years,” he laughed. Despite having briefly attended AA after his mother’s death Strummer remained a heavy drinker and smoker until he died - supplementing his intake with ecstasy, magic mushrooms and LSD. In his final years he discovered a new passion – becoming an avid builder of all night campfires, on one occasion in the car park of hotel where he was staying while on tour. He told friends such as comedian Keith Allen of a plan to form a new county   called Rebel Wessex. He had even designed a red and black flag with a burning skull and crossbones in the centre and declared it would be a place “full of rave parks, where Marijuana for personal use would be decriminalized and people drink cider all night and plot revolution.”  Strummer died 2002 December 22, Lucinda found him slumped in the chair of their Somerset home, after he had returned from a walk with the family dogs. A post mortem discovered the cause of death wasn’t a heart attack. The reckless rock idol had a congenital heart defect, which meant he could have died at any time during his 50 years. A stone circle in his honour was erected behind the family home and a permanent monument the Glastonbury  festival site.  But Joe’s ashes - and the urn that carried them - were blown into the sea near his holiday home in Spain. Please credit Redemption Song The Authorised Biography Of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz (Harper & Collins £20)