We Are The Clash

The Clash was an incendiary paradox of revolutionary conviction, musical ambition, and commercial drive. We Are The Clash is a gripping tale of how the band--fractured by its Top 10 success--fought to reinvent and purify itself as George Orwell's 1984 loomed. This extraordinary effort crashed headlong into a wall of internal contradictions, personal tragedy, and rising right-wing power as personified by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. While the world teetered on the nuclear abyss, British miners waged a life-or-death strike, and tens of thousands died from US guns in Central America, Clash cofounders Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon set out to rebuild the band after ejecting guitarist Mick Jones and drummer Topper Headon. Bolstered by coconspirators Bernard Rhodes and Kosmo Vinyl, and three twentysomething recruits--drummer Peter Howard and guitarists Nick Sheppard and Vince White--The Clash launched a desperate last stand, shattering the band just as its controversial final album, Cut the Crap, was emerging. Authors Andersen and Heibutzki weave together extensive archival research and in-depth original interviews with virtually all of the key players involved to tell a moving story of idealism undone by human frailty amid a climatic turning point for our world.