The Clash’s name is as much a noble statement as it is the name of one of the most famous rock bands in history. The term represents the political tensions taking place in the 1970s in the band’s native England.
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In the decade they spent together from 1976 to 1986, lead singer Joe Strummer, bassist Paul Simonon, guitarist Mick Jones and drummer Nicky Headon, along with a rotating cast of musicians who were part of the band, created a pathway to the post-punk and new wave movements. Their hits included “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” “London Calling” and “Rock the Casbah.”
Prior to becoming The Clash, the band also toyed with the names Weak Heartdrops and Psychotic Negatives. Simonon is the one who suggested the name The Clash, as the word “clash” was frequently showing up in media around the time the band was formed in 1976.
“It really came to my head when I start reading the newspapers and a word that kept reoccurring was the word ‘clash,’ so I thought, ‘the Clash, what about that,’ to the others, and they and [manager Bernard Rhodes] went for it,” Simonon explained to MTV in 2001.
Expanding on that point in a 2013 interview with BBC Radio 2, Simonon said the name also stemmed from the uprisings taking place in England, such as the UK dockers’ strike in 1970 when dock workers staged mostly peaceful protests after the government wouldn’t give them a pay raise. “It really [came] about, I suppose, because of the period of the time that we were living in and as when the band started,” he explained (quote via Far Out Magazine). “I suppose in our childhoods, there was a lot of strikes going on in the ’70s. The country was in quite a serious economic depression.”
Throughout their career, the band wasn’t shy about their left-wing political beliefs, while Strummer was a self-proclaimed socialist. The Clash performed at the Rock Against Racism concert in London in 1978, as well as supported the Anti-Nazi League.
“We used to have these conversations with Bernie Rhodes and he would instigate a discussion about the political period that we were living in,” Simonon continued. “So there was a lot of friction outside in general if we walked out on the streets there would be members of the public that [were] quite antagonistic towards anyone that looked like a Punk or even looked different.
“So, in a way, the word ‘The Clash’ became quite appropriate. There is a lot of references in the headlines of the day or various strikes, battles between the strikers and the police. The word ‘clash, clash, clash’ kept coming up. So it seemed apt.”
In 2003, The Clash was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Strummer passed away in 2002 while founding member Keith Levene followed 20 years later when he passed in November 2022.
(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)
