Stage: London Calling
Steve North returns to a role that has brought him much acclaim in Paul Hodson’s Meeting Joe Strummer
Some of us can remember where we were when punk reared its head and changed the face of pop music and pop fashion forever. Some of us, the fans, will remember hearing of the death of Joe Strummer. Joe was the iconic lead singer, lyricist and rhythm guitarist of The Clash, the punk band that had a musicality that The Sex Pistols lacked.
It’s now ten years since the untimely death of Joe Strummer and an opportune moment for a revival of Brighton-based playwright Paul Hodson’s excellent play, Meeting Joe Strummer. This is a perceptive and witty yet hard-hitting comedy-drama spanning three decades, exploring male friendship and the bonds of shared history and idealism, paying tribute to the man who set the agenda for a generation.
As teens, Steve and Nick meet on the march to the legendary Rock Against Racism rally at Victoria Park in Hackney (East London) and, inspired by the performance of The Clash that day, subsequently start a band of their own. The play follows them as they part and re-connect many times in their lives – through divorce, the Thatcher years and class warfare, the comedy circuit, acid house and a brief flirtation with soap stardom the pair remain united by the mutual yearning for the anarchic idealism of their punk youth – their “inner Strummer” – that continues to burn inside them, along with the desire to meet their hero, Joe.
1977: 16 year olds Steve and Nick have their lives transformed by Joe Strummer and the Clash’s potent mix of soulful rock’n’roll, iconic imagery and rebel politics.
2002: 25 years on and the pair meet at the now-famed Acton Town Hall Fire Brigade Union benefit gig headlined by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. Nick has a backstage invite and ex Clash guitarist Mick Jones is in the audience”
The play was an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First winner in 2006 with the original cast of Steve North (Fever Pitch, London’s Burning) and Nick Miles (Emmerdale, The Bill), playing to packed houses at The Gilded Balloon for every show.
The play has subsequently toured the UK in Autumn 2007 with Steve North and Huw Higginson (The Bill) and in March/April 2010 with Steve North and Jason Pitt when they played 33 performances in 21 venues to nearly 4,000 people.
The punk era was about a whole lot more than just the music, and for many young males it was an opportunity to find their voice and express themselves whether it was on a stage or merely as a fan. The breaking down of rules and social expectations removed far more barriers than those seen on the surface.The non-sexual male friendships that we enjoy today, those strong male bonds have much to do with the changes brought about in society by the emergence of punk.
Hodson’s play explores the nature of male friendship through the bonding adoration of a punk icon. Steve North, most recently seen in an excellent staging of Great Expectations playing Joe Gargery, returns to a role that he has played to critical acclaim since the play’s premiere.
Meeting Joe Strummer, Latest Musicbar, Monday 17–Tuesday 18 December 2012, 8pm, £5
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