Find of the day: Rareish(?) interview with the late Joe Strummer

Good evening from what's been a very summery Belfast (for once!). I've been doing a lot of Clash related stuff today between watching assorted videos and trying to decide whether or not its worth £13 for a second hand copy of Pennie Smith's book of Clash photography Before and After. Alias I still haven't made up my mind, although if I do decide to purchase it at all it certainly won't be for a while - It's not going to be long before September rolls around and there's a certain Clash boxset I'm planning on purchasing then...

Now that I've got that out of the way I can move on to what the actual proper subject of this (admittedly insignificant) post is. One interview I watched of Joe was this one: filmed in 1988 for Channel 4's Night Network show. It's primary aim was to promote the then newly released compilation The Story of The Clash Vol 1. Although at approximately 23 minutes long there's a lot of other topics discussed in the interview, most notably Joe's soundtrack work and film work in general, not to mention the Rock Against The Rich tour. It's a good interview, Joe as is interesting to listen to as ever. What did put me off the interview a bit - and judging by various youtube comments I'm far from alone in expressing this sentiment - is the interviewer himself. He's always chirpy but yet seems to fluctuate between comments that suggest he's a big fan or comments that are just downright rude. Making jokes that nobody will have heard the soundtrack for Walker for instance being just one of quite a few examples. Joe remains calm and collected for the duration of the interview, although he does get a little sly dig of his own in near the end He also talks a lot over Joe too which gets annoying because when Joe is given the chance, he's very interesting to listen to when he talks at length. One thing that was quite interesting though was the interviewer asking what Joe made of the claims that he was somehow deeply hypocritical considering his supposed "privileged" background. I absolutely hate people using that argument to belittle Joe, it's well documented that he didn't have nearly as privileged an upbringing as many seem to think... that's for another post though. For now, I hope you all like this interview, even though the interviewer may grate Joe himself is always great to hear!