Punk & Hardcore
Dark Horse Records release “Joe Strummer 003: The 101’ers Years (1974–1976)” on 20 November, collecting the first known recordings of Joe Strummer, made with the band he had before The Clash. The deluxe edition is three CDs with 48 tracks inside a 48-page hardback book with slipcase; there is also a double LP.
The first disc gathers the studio recordings, some of them newly mixed in 2026. The second holds basement tapes and demos, among them “Full Moon”, which Strummer recorded alone at the band’s West London squat. The third is live: it carries the first known version of “Junco Partner”, which he would later do with The Clash, and an early “Jail Guitar Doors” still titled “Lonely Mother’s Son”.
Paul Hicks — who has worked with The Beatles, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones — has restored the demos and the live tracks from the original cassette tapes, including performances taken straight off the soundboard. David Zonshine produces. The book has a foreword by Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and a history of the band written by drummer Richard “Nother” Dudanski.
The 101’ers were named after the address of the house they squatted, 101 Walterton Road in Maida Vale. “Now being homeless, I ran into some old friends who were squatting on West 9,” Strummer recalled. “Within about a year I had formed a band in a squat. It was named ‘THE 101’ERS’ after our address. We ran a club every Wednesday in the upstairs room of a pub. Entry fee: 10p.”
In April 1976 they shared the bill with the Sex Pistols for two shows at London’s Nashville Rooms. The 101’ers played their last concert on 5 June that year, with Mick Jones and Paul Simonon in the audience: a month later Strummer was playing with both of them in The Clash, who made their debut on 4 July at the Black Swan in Sheffield, also supporting the Sex Pistols. He died on 22 December 2002, aged fifty, of an undiagnosed heart defect.
Text by Marçal Bonastre