Chiswick Records The 101ers

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Tell us about the 101'ers and Joe Strummer
I had been at the Elgin one night seeing some old friends from Belfast and there was a very strange band playing in the background, with a weird line up that included trumpet. This was the 101ers. Next I heard of them was Ted coming into the stall saying he had seen a great band at Dingwalls the night before – the 101ers. We went to their next gig in a college bar. It was one of those places that did not even have a stage. There were a handful of mainly disinterested students there and Ted & I. Regardless Strummer (or Woody then) played like his life depended on it. Anyway we signed them and cut a session at Pathway Studio, which is about the size of a large cupboard. When it came time for Joe to do overdubs we couldn’t find him. We eventually located him bunkering down behind his amp.

Years later when I was in Studio 2 at Wessex finishing Machine Gun Etiquette, The Clash were in Studio 1 doing London’s Calling and by then Joe’s bunkering instinct had expanded to a small room made of flight cases. Anyway they cut more sessions with Vic Maile, and did some sides for the BBC and I think a self produced session. In the end, probably because I owned the record company the Pathway version of Keys To My Heart came out as the A-side. All the studio sides appeared on a short lived vinyl in the ‘80s that the drummer Dudanski put together. In negotiating the rights to the Pathway sides for it we got agreement to issue Sweet Revenge and Rabies from The Dogs of Love as a 2^nd single.

So we were about to put out the first 101ers single and I was at the Red Cow in Hammersmith meeting someone a bit early. I think the Jam were on that night and they were sound checking. I was at the bar getting them in, when I got a tap on the shoulder and turned round to face Joe saying ‘Have I done the right thing?’ Behind him was a skinny kid who Joe informed me he was forming a band with. So what can you say – great – we’re about to put a record out and you go and break up the band!!!??? To be fair it turned out well in the end.