A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day with the Clash

Green was road manager for the Clash in the late 1970s and his account of the band's life reads like a training manual for his current job as a sex and drug education adviser. Green's tale, coauthored with freelance journalist Barker, documents the period preceding London Calling, an album many consider the band's masterpiece. The authors cheerfully relate tales of the Clash's alcohol and drug abuse, violence and general punk rock hijinks as if they were proudly recounting battle stories over coffee at the conclusion of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The book's amiable, chatty tone is at times befuddling. For one thing, the writers pepper their book with unintelligible English slang. Another cause for confusion is the omission of dates and places. Green's love of the Clash and thrilled recounting of the band's anecdotes compensates for the lack of what is conventionally considered history. Instead, his gleeful put-downs--of punk icons (Siouxsie Sioux, Richard Hell), record company suits (""They would have applauded a fart down a flute"") and the band itself (particularly Mick Jones, who always had the ego of a rock star, even while he was living with his grandmother)--are consistently amusing. Ray Lowry (cartoonist for NME) has illustrated the book, giving it a fanzine feel that complements the casual prose. The descriptions of concerts and recording sessions should enchant anyone interested in the history of punk, and make this book a must for Clash fans. 16 b&w photos. (Jan.)