Out of Control: The Last Days of "The Clash" - Softcover

White, Vince

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0955503809 ISBN 13: 9780955503801

Publisher: Moving Target Books, 2006

Synopsis

In 1983 Vince White was auditioned and recruited as one of two guitarists to replace Mick Jones in The Clash. In this highly personal, frank and often darkly funny account Vince tells his own 'Story of the Clash' through the last two years of the band's history. From the 'OUT OF CONTROL' touring of the U.S.A. and Europe, the busking tour of England to the recording of the band's final album 'Cut the Crap', Vince delivers a bare knuckled behind the scenes look at the good, the bad and the ugly side of the 'band that matters'.

About this title

Review

8 out of 10 ******** CLASSIC ROCK review August 2007 by Chris Knowles. "DANGEROUS LIASON". How The Clash s new guitarist caused a real White riot in the band. Seeking to inject a little danger into the post-Mick Jones Clash, manager Bernie Rhodes hired an intimidating young guitarist from Finsbury Park, London, named Gregory White- renamed Vince by Joe Strummer. But the Clash got more danger than they bargained for when White kicked Strummer s ass in Italy, pummelled drummer Pete Howard on stage in Denver and shagged Bernie s teenaged girlfriend in a loo while the band were having dinner in Stockholm. Rhodes had his revenge by erasing most of White s guitar playing from the disastrous Cut The Crap sessions in Munich, yet still tarring his reputation forever by listing White in the album s credits. Twenty two years on, White sets the record straight in this powerfully lucid memoir, detailing the mind games, double-dealings and debauchery of the 1984-5 Out Of Control Clash. White perfectly captures the voices and personas of his subjects: a tyrannical yet incoherent Rhodes, a solicitous yet disengaged Paul Simonon, and Joe Strummer in the midst of a slow-motion nervous breakdown, his already fragile will shattered by the pressure of leading The Clash on his own. White chronicles his own sex and booze addictions in lurid detail, capturing the overall Viking-rampage spirit of the last Clash line-up both on-stage and off. 'Out Of Control: The Last Days of The Clash' is a fascinating book, of interest not only to fans of The Clash but to all rock fans. White s confessional yet bare-knuckled prose style shows the influence of writers like Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski and Henry Miller, and the journalistic eye for detail of a Tom Wolfe. If this powerful memoir is any indication, in Vince White Britain may well have a dangerous new writer on its hands. Highly recommended. (www.vincewhite.com) --Classic Rock Magazine

Edition details

• Publisher: Moving Target Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0955503809
• ISBN 13: 9780955503801
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 350