Category: 101’ers

 

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#069: The 101’ers– ‘Keys To Your Heart’ (Big Beat Records’76)

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Hello friends,

those of you who have followed this series from scratch may or may not remember that the main rule is: only one single per band. And those of you who already were around when sexyloser, my former blog, was still up and going (which would make you very old indeed, it must be said), might remember that The Clash have always been my # 1 band. Now, as The Clash have already featured with ‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’ @ No. 15), I was in a bit of a dilemma … but luckily Joe Strummer had a musical life before The Clash.

Whether it is worthwhile to delve much deeper into this life is questionable – there is a sort of compilation of this era called ‘Elgin Avenue Breakdown’. Now, as a Clash-completist, I have of course listened to it in its entirety, even to the ‘revisited’ issue with extra tracks on it …. I didn’t like most of it though.

Strummer had spent some time in Newport, South Wales and returned to London in the mid-70’s where he fell into the squatting lifestyle, ending up at 101 Walterton Rd. – hence the name of the band he sang for at the that time: The 101’ers, earlier line ups of which were low on talent but high on saxophones. At an early gig for Chilean refugees they were booed off stage not because of their musical incompetence but because of their choice of rock and roll classics which represented the worst of American imperialism to the refugees.

But, a few months later, and the band had solidified and improved – so much so that they started to accumulate interest from the press and venues throughout the Capital. They remained a pub rock band, but in his heart Strummer yearned for better things than just being the best pub band in West London. With his rocker’s haircut, rotting teeth and a suit appropriated from his conservative father, he was cutting quite a dash as the band’s front man and getting quite a bit of notoriety in the places that mattered.

And as a big player on such a small circuit they were being supported by up-and-coming bands which included The Sex Pistols. Apparently after seeing Lydon’s mob Strummer realized the writing was on the wall for a bunch of drop outs playing Rock and Roll. The band had just recorded the brilliant single ‘Keys To Your Heart’ but Strummer wasn’t going to hang around to promote it. He tried to no avail to persuade the band to go more in a punk direction, following this failure he was open to negotiations with Bernie Rhodes about starting a band with one of Rhode’s proteges: Mick Jones.

And so the Clash were born. But without the 101ers however there probably wouldn’t have been a Joe Strummer and without Joe Strummer punk would have been a lot poorer.

I mean, let’s face it: perhaps ‘Keys To Your Heart’ is all you ever need to know by The 101’ers. But one thing is certain – if you never heard this tune and you skip it now instead of listening to it, you do miss a treat indeed – it’s absolutely stunning:

mp3: The 101’ers – Keys To Your Heart

Take good care and enjoy, 

Dirk

Last time out in the occasional series, I featured the one song I have by Nightmares In Wax, courtesy of it being on the compilation CD Indie Scene 80.

Today, I’m leaning on another CD from that particular family:-

mp3: The 101’ers – Keys To Your Heart

Originally released on Chiswick Records in 1976, it was included on Indie Scene 77.

I probably don’t need to tell the backstory, but maybe there’s some who don’t know. The 101’ers were a London pub band, formed in 1974, whose main form of music was rockabilly covers alongside a few originals.  Keys To Your Heart was their debut single, but by the time it was released, they had spilt as their lead singer and main songwriter had left to join another band.  His name was Joe Strummer and his new band were called The Clash.

JC