A Tale of Two Punks

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we all going direct the other way – in short the period was so far like the present period that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on it’s being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens  London 1859.

So there we were – seven years in the bunker, chipping away at the relentless face of an industry that doesn’t even want to listen once you get past 35 and when they do,  they just want you to play all the old hits….

Mick and I were always going to be different this time around, a bit more radical, a bit more couldn’t care less about what has gone before, embrace this exciting time we live in and… and we just wanted to make great music.

Because after all it’s JUST about the music.

There was a lot a adversity against this band, even in the early days, all coming from different levels, but all loaded with the ability to wear you down and remind you of how hard it is to still be out there in this industry, at this time of our life.

But we believed we had something special and best of all it was all new songs – I’ve said before about how easy it is to just go out and play all the old hits – although I’m not denigrating anyone who does take that route – shit, it’s hard enough to make a living and both me and Mick have enough of a back catalogue to sell out a venue if we chose to make things easy – but we were determined to do it our way – cross new frontiers and find a new way.

I can’t deny we were both thrilled when we found the management of our dreams and there were some wonderful dreams fulfilled during the time we spent with them, but inevitably, when the artists have such a strong sense of identity, there came the parting of the ways, the time when the vision of where we were going differed to where the management wanted us to be.

And this caused both Mick and me a lot of pain and heartache….. it fucked with us personally and creatively which is why we appear to have disappeared and it’s why I’m writing this now.

The great Billy Holiday wrote “Don’t Explain”.

And I won’t…. but I will say that we are closer than we ever were, more determined to do it our way, to keep on doing what we do, with nothing to prove to the outside and everything to prove to our fans and the people that believe this group can make great music.

So here we go.  And what I really want to say – what WE wanted to say –  is just give us a few more days and then you can see and hear what we’ve been up to this past year.

We’re going to put the whole new album out there for free, complete with artwork, all in one go.  We both know it’s not the album we intended to make, it carries the scars of recent upheavals, but it got made and it deserves to be heard – not least because it’s for real.

We look forward to hearing what you think….

It’s good to be back.

Tony James and Mick Jones
October 30 2009

P.S For Leo and Dominic too, thanks for your love and patience….