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THE MAN SPIES ON THE BAND: Following on from the release of the CIA's secret papers on John Lennon (we've not seen them, but we're guessing "terrible bore" and "unlikely to indulge in any activity that would harm property prices" features heavily), The Clash are worrying about what information the British Government holds on them:
London Calling legends Mick Jones and Paul Simonon believe the British government were so frightened by their actions in their late '70s heyday that they instructed MI5 to compile a dossier about the band.
Simonon says of the existence of the MI5 file: "There probably is, yes, alongside the file of the Sex Pistols.
"It's hard to fully appreciate now, but we certainly stood out back then, we really made a noise.
"It wasn't just us, it was every punk - anyone, in fact, who wasn't wearing flares was making a big political noise that terrified the government."
You'll note, of course, that there's no actual indication that there is a file, just the belief of the relaxed radical that there must be. Wouldn't they be crushed if it turned out there was nothing?
Thursday, October 07, 2004
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and, of course, there was also the Economic League, a subscription based service who'd cut letters out of local papers complaining about, say, poor services and add the writer's name to a file of subversives that companies may wish to not employ.
Made more or less redundant by the usenet archive, I suppose...
Robin, when are you going to make that link into something we can use? I'll just have to assume you're Robin Ramsay in the meantime.
--Alan Connor
That's a quote from the Cash For Questions section of the latest issue of Q Magazine. It's a pretty light-hearted response to the question, actually. They weren't being serious. It just sounds that way when taken out of context.
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