Meeting Joe Strummer

Paul Hodson
Gilded Balloon Teviot

Presided over by the iconic Julian Yewdall photo of their hero and accompanied by a Clash sountrack, two men idolise (or is that fetishise?) Joe Strummer.

We see Nick and Steve (Nick Miles and Steve North) progressing from teenagers to their forties but never losing their blind devotion to a man whom they see as more like a God than a pop star.

Nick is right on politically and claims to know Joe as a close friend. As a teen, he is the mature one but as the years pass by and the two men live according to The Thoughts of Chairman Joe, it is Steve who becomes a more rounded human being with a wife and family. However, he is the one who still goes to the gigs even long after The Clash have given way to the Mescaleros as Strummer's band.

Nick can't stick marriage but is an Eastenders star and retains his political values throughout the Thatcher years, only selling out when work makes this necessary.

The problem with these two men is that they are totally unexceptional and therefore, while the music is great and Strummer fiends will cackle in embarrassed recognition, their personal journeys do not really justify a 75-minute play.

Reviewer: Philip Fisher

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