The artist and short-lived former manager of The Clash, Caroline Coon, has said one of the reasons the legendary punk pioneers never reformed after their disintegration in the early Eighties was because the Sex Pistols always got there first.
Speaking to NME this week shortly before what would have been Joe Strummer’s 60th birthday, Coon claims the former Clash frontman’s per-occupation with the press’ thoughts on his band proved to a stumbling block in any emotional reformation before his sad death in 2002.
“On some level, Joe was too dependent on what the press thought about him,” she has said. “They always said that rock’n’roll was for the young, and that The Clash should never reform. And just when Joe would get his confidence together together and say, ‘Fuck the press, we’re going to get together again!’, do you know what happened? The Sex Pistols would reform!”
“It happened a number of times. Joe – insecure as he was – had quite a big ego, and he just couldn’t reform The Clash on the tail of the Sex Pistols.”