Joe Strummer photo

The groove machine from Bush House: Joe Strummer’s London Calling

As this is still a popular post to this day (2018 – NINE years later!) – can I also plug my own podcast and show Radio Clash which tries to continue to fly the musical flag as Joe Strummer and John Peel did. It’s been going since 2004 (with a 3 year gap but now restarted) with a similar look at music from around the world regardless of era, genre or status.

Joe Strummer

Thanks to Steve Holy13Nation I found out that in America last summer 8 shows (plus an intro documentary) were broadcast featuring 14 episodes of Joe Strummer’s London Calling – the show he did for many years on the World Service before he died, and as featured in the film ‘The Future is Unwritten‘ as links – you can find them on iTunes for free as podcasts (which I’ve uploaded here as a mirror in case they go down or people don’t have iTunes).

Only downside is as Steve pointed out, is the need and desire for such things is to tell you how great Joe Strummer was and constantly reminding you who he was through fairly obscure and tangentially related people  cf. a  ‘I met him once at a bus stop! type’ popping up before the 1st show.

So if you want to hear some of the other Strummer London Calling shows without the waffle, you’ve come to the right place. Posted some of these here before such as the 2007 repeats and Don Letts show, but most of these were obtained from the wonderful alphish and his Multiply page which is always worth checking out for new ones if they turn up – but they’re all Megaupload, which can be a right arse, so here they are all in one place…most are MP3 but some are OGG files EDIT: I’ve uploaded the converted MP3 files, aren’t I nice?. 😀 And also the Don Letts show.

Also I’ve checked the podcasts linked above versus these original radio recordings – it’s weird, some are duplicated here and some are not (none of the 2002 shows are there) and all in the wrong order. So you might be best listening to the podcast as a few of these are terrible hissy quality, compared to the lovely clean podcasts.

As a side note, the blurb around the ‘Summer of Strummer’ seems to suggest there were only 14 shows – not true from what I’ve read on ClashCity (sadly the thread isn’t there anymore) and others – there were quite a few shows esp. in  2000 – and the fact they missed the last 4 shows doesn’t really inspire confidence.

Anyone know for certain how many shows were created and their TX dates? And if you have anything not listed here – gimme! I’ll add it.

As Joe said once ‘If that was no toe tapper or no body shaker, boy you need to see the undertaker!’

  • 1998 Show 1 * low quality, duplicated by the  podcasts
  • 1998 Show 2 * low quality, duplicated by the  podcasts
  • 1998 Show 3 * low quality, duplicated by the  podcasts
  • 1998 Show 4 * low quality, duplicated by the  podcasts

And may I remind you, This One’s For Joe, the Strummer mashup album from a few years back is available – including my Orb vs Joe Strummer & Bonzo Dog mashup Willesden Blue which also takes samples from London Calling, and is still one of my best.

Oh and after a few question – it’s nice to be asked but – feel free to repost, spread the links, repost the files, torrent, twitter, send to all your friends, burn to CD etc. spread these far and wild – these files are on an old server and is dedicated to this, and has been up for years with some of these files with no problem, but in the rare event it does get pulled or go down I want these files to be out there – for ever. For future generations to hear – for the future is unwritten.

Joe Strummer’s love was the music and getting it heard, and this show deserves to be preserved and heard again – still surprised the BBC hasn’t repeated the whole series, or released them as discs – that’s a shocking omission, I’d far prefer to listen to these in high quality complete…I think there are many shows missing – let me know if you have any more.

Also some naughty person might’ve uploaded the podcasts for those without iTunes, with tracklists in the comments, tags and cover art, but as Shaggy once said ‘It wasn’t me’ 😉

Please let me know ASAP if any of these links are broken – I want to make sure these stay up permanently for as long as possible, for everyone to hear these great shows. Joe deserves that.

Comments

43 responses to “The groove machine from Bush House: Joe Strummer’s London Calling”

  1. Ian avatar
    Ian

    Thanks, mate!

  2. TheClashBlog avatar

    You are a diamond for posting these – thank you more deeply then my keyboard permits.

    I’d like to link out from my blog if I may – you’re providing a service getting these all in one place.

    Cheers
    Tim

  3. Pete avatar

    Typical Strummer comentary & song selections. Bringing home the bacon! Legendary

  4. Cathey avatar

    Many thanks! You’ve made so many people so happy…

    1. timbearcub avatar

      Glad you like them! I hope to keep them online as long as I can, can’t promise forever but they deserve that. I’ll also mirror the podcasts when/if they go down.

  5. Liz Moody avatar
    Liz Moody

    These priceless recordings are a huge comfort to me and many others I’m sure. I am listening slowly to make them last. THANKYOU so VERY much for making this possible.XXXXXXX

    1. timbearcub avatar

      Glad you like them! I hope to keep them online as long as I can, can’t promise forever but I’ll try. They really deserve that.

  6. Gav avatar
    Gav

    Thank you so much for uploading these, timbearcub. It is nigh on impossible to find the shows in their original broadcast versions so you’ve provided an invaluable service here…Joe would be pleased! However I should point out that the four episodes listed as being from 2002 are in fact just from 2000 – they are episodes 2, 3, 5 and 6 respectively. Cheers.

  7. jjazz avatar
    jjazz

    thanks bro! it gets difficult to access this stuff from argentina otherwise 😉

  8. J.J. avatar
    J.J.

    Thanks so much for these. Fantastic, and much appreciated. Is there a complete track list somewhere? Mr. Strummer always did a great job of letting you know what he was playing, but I’m trying to make a Pandora station that features all of the artists from these shows and I’d love to have a handy reference. Thanks again for keeping the legacy alive!

    1. Tim avatar

      Well they should have tracklists in the ID3 comments field here: http://radioclash.myzen.co.uk/londoncalling/ if not then look at the itunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-strummer-london-calling/id285877923 – sure there is a site somewhere with the tracklists for selling the podcasts other radio stations (Strummer programs are the second show in each epsiode) http://s3.amazonaws.com/production.mediajoint.prx.org/public/series_files/176/joestrummerplaylistsfinal.doc and at alphish’s site http://alphish.multiply.com/music/item/245/Joe_Strummer_-_London_Calling_BBC_World_Service_

      It’s a shame you haven’t got Spotify yet, I’d love a Spotify playlist. Can you export in a list format?

      1. J.J. avatar
        J.J.

        Excellent! Thanks for all your help with finding all the track list info Tim, very helpful. Unfortunately Spotify isn’t available in the US yet, but thanks for pointing it out to me (never heard of it, lol). If it DOES become available here, I will definitely work on that. Is Pandora not available to you in the UK? It’s different than Spotify as far as I can tell, in that with Pandora, you add tracks/artists, and based on you choices it creates playlists based on similar artists and styles. It pulls info from the Music Genome Project, and is really cool, except for some reason it thinks all I ever want to hear is The Ramones, lol.

        1. Tim avatar

          Pandora was available in the UK, I used to use it – but music licensing and the silly record companies forced it to block access from the UK many years ago. I loved it…same with sites like Hulu, MTV, etc. I think people in the US don’t realise how many sites push out that pesky ‘not available in your country’ message because they don’t get it that often.

          Same issue is with Spotify but the other way round. Nice to have it the other way round, for once.

  9. johnny avatar

    Thanks for the fantastic job of preserving this (and your blog and podcast as well!).

    I took the freedom of trying to let some people know in Germany, at the end of the article there’s a link to all MP3 versions as a zipped packet. http://www.spreeblick.com/2010/11/25/joe-strummers-london-calling/

    1. Tim avatar

      Thanks! And cool – more the merrier! 😀

  10. Jenny avatar
    Jenny

    WOHOOOOO!!!

  11. Gay avatar
    Gay

    Thank so much. A joy to hear Joe again.

  12. mike avatar
    mike

    Thought to myself that finding recording these would be hard to find and they probably don’t even exist – but in seconds I found here. Thanks for baking the fruitcake by highlighting them here; now time for some coolin out.

  13. Scrub avatar
    Scrub

    Good to hear you’re enjoying the shows. I produced two of these series with Joe and am chuffed as he would be too that people around the world have enjoyed them so much. Love, peace and all the rest of the good stuff.

    SB

  14. thomas evans avatar
    thomas evans

    i have had so much fun listening to these recordings. its great to hear his voice again. “let it roll!”

  15. Kirsti avatar
    Kirsti

    Thank you for these. I am prone to life-stopping nervous breakdowns that can last for years. The one constant that keeps me going through these are Joe with The Mescaleros and The Clash. My collection, though incomplete, is wonderful with the crackle-pop of a record. I just hit another low the other day. No idea how long it will last, but thank you so much. His voice is so soothing like a medicine. I will listen to these until I heal. “Without people, you’re nothing” . He is my people.

  16. Agustin avatar
    Agustin

    Guys thank you so much for uploading this. Joe´s show is truly a relique, as much as his music is. I will spread it through my facebook and twitter so my friends can get to listen to this amazing music as well. Thanks again!

  17. immanuel avatar
    immanuel

    there is a couple shows on PRX in very good quality! all streaming though

    enjoy

    http://www.prx.org/pieces/27175-joe-strummer-s-london-calling-episode-1

    1. Tim avatar

      Thanks! Those look to be the same as the ‘podcasts’ that Joyride media put out, they’re linked above.

    2. Tim avatar

      Yes I just checked it’s the same as the iTunes podcasts – you can download those here http://radioclash.myzen.co.uk/londoncalling/ or subscribe to them in iTunes if you use that above – it’s the ones called ‘Podcast 1.1’ etc

  18. murci avatar

    DESDE BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.
    Thanks, man. This is beautiful.
    Que el universo te tenga en la gloria, Joe!

  19. Jonathan E. avatar
    Jonathan E.

    Fabulous! Thanks for putting up THE ORIGINALS! Sorry, but those iTunes re-dos are pretty irritating. I want to hear the MAN, not what all those other geezers want to say about Joe. And I want to hear the music, of course!!!

  20. WakeMeUp avatar
    WakeMeUp

    Thank you so much ! (From France… Merci :-))

  21. Giorgio avatar
    Giorgio

    Thanks you so much fot this treasure, greetings from Chile!.

  22. Dave P avatar

    Wonderful, thanks! I downloaded the podcasts through iTunes years ago and only recently discovered that they were accidentally deleted at some point. Great to find them here — they give me much joy and comfort. Cheers!

    1. Tim B avatar

      Glad to be of service!

  23. easyandy avatar
    easyandy

    nice up! muchas gracias amigo!

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