The Generalist

It’s been 20 years since I last saw Julien and suddenly there we are yakking away again on the balcony of the Duke of York’s cinema in Brighton. The sky is a beautiful blue and, as the beers go down, he visibly relaxes. He is in the third week of promotion for his new and splendid documentary ‘Strummer’ and is here to do a Q&A session with the audience, moderated by Ian Haydn Smith, after they have seen the film.

He had been editing a pop video until 5am that morning and was wearing wraparound shades as a result. He was heading back to his home in Somerset that night and then was off to the Cannes Film Festival, followed by the Berlin Festival, then flying direct to Australia, where he is filming an opera on-stage as well as on the streets. Then on to Seattle and New York I think he said. No rest for this man. Meanwhile he is laying plans for his next major project – ‘Kinkdom Come’, a full length documentary on the Kinks.

I had been chasing Julien for weeks and this was the only opportunity we could snatch for a chat, in the cinema’s café, which means there is a lot of ambient atmosphere on this recording – people coming and going, sirens in the street, the sound of the bar staff in action. But Julien’s voice cuts through the clatter and what he has to say is, as ever, interesting and thoughtful.

‘Strummer’, now out on a general release with a DVD package with added extras to follow, is his celebratory tribute to his friend Joe Strummer, who is still sadly missed.  It is a brilliant piece of work which follows his equally stunning and valuable documentaries on the Sex Pistols. (‘The Filth and Fury’) and on the history of the Glastonbury Festival. All three will stand for all time as important records of these major cultural figures and events. It’s about time he was recognised and celebrated as one of Britain’s most innovative and hard-working filmmakers.

See official film site
www.joestrummerthemovie.com

Files
Interview, MP3 size: 21.8mb, Length: 00:41:17

CDN Link - Direct Link

We are sitting in Chris Salewicz’s basement, somewhere in South London, surrounded by precarious stacks of cds, sustained by tea and a toasted sardine sandwich, talking ‘bout Joe Strummer.

Chris was waiting for his 650pp uberbiography of Joe to come out when we talked – the result of some 3 1/2 years research and some 300 interviews. Chris had been a longtime buddy of Joe’s anyway, having met, interviewed and befriended him over many years. So the book, which the first flush of reviews suggest is a five-star job, is pierced by Chris’s love and respect for John Mellor, the real man behind the giant public persona of Joe Strummer.

What is great about Chris is his energy and humour which comes across so vividly in this interview and which makes him such a brilliant music journalist. Since his days at the punk and post-punk NME in the 1970s, he has written ‘copiously’ for mainstream papers and mags, published 14 books, including a major work on Bob Marley, and crafted the screenplay for ‘Third World Cop’, still one of the most successful films in the Caribbean ever.

He tells me: ‘”I’ve never known a band that cried as much as the Clash.” For this and a hundred other insights and revelations, sit back and enjoy the Strummer saga straight from the mouth of the man who knows.

Files
Interview Part 1, MP3 Size: 36.8MB, Length: 80:20

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Interview Part 2, MP3 Size: 13.4MB, Length: 29:23

CDN Link - Direct Link