The 101ers Elgin Avenue Breakdown: Revisited
Promo-CD, 2005, Re-Release, Remastered

andalucia! | ASTRALWERKS ® | Music from EMI // (c)/(p) 2005 EMI Records Ltd

released 1981 Andalucia / AND 101 (around 2,000 copies were made)
- recorded November 28, 1975 - April 18, 1976
- Andalucia! 59b Sinclair Road, London, W14 0NRZ founded 1981 by Joe Strummer, Richard Dudanski

REVISITED: Remastered reissue of this 1981 album (minus 'Monkey Business') with 9 previously unreleased tracks.


released June 14, 2005 Astralwerks as Compilation (P) 2005 EMI Records The 101ers featuring Joe Strummer


Pub Rock, Proto-Punk
Rock & Roll



Personnel:
* John "Woody" Mellor aka Joe Strummer - vocals, guitar

* Clive Timperley - guitar, backing vocals

* Dan Kelleher (bass, keyboards, vocals, guitar, 1975-76) - backing vocals, vocals on "Keep Taking the Tablets" and "Surf City"

* John Marwood Chesterton aka "Mole" – Bass guitar (until Oct. 1975)

* Richard Dudanski - drums, backing vocals
*Julian Yewdall – Vocals, harmonica
* Simon Cassell aka "Big John" – Saxophone
* Alvaro Peña-Rojas (saxophone, 1974-75)
* Antonio Narvaez – Drums
* Patrick Nother – Bass (1st gig)
* Martin Stone – Lead guitar (final gig)
* Tymon Dogg – Fiddle, vocals

* Roger Armstrong - producer
* Simon Jeffes - producer
* Vic Maile - producer



Elgin Avenue Breakdown is the only album by The 101ers, Joe Strummer's band before he joined The Clash.
1981 Tracklisting:
1. Letsagetabitarockin'
2. Silent Telephone
3. Monkey Business
4. Shake Your Hips
5. Junco Partner
6. Don't Let Go
7. Motor Boys Motor
8. Sweety Of The St Moritz
9. Surf City
10. Keys To Your Heart
11. Sweet Revenge
12. Gloria
Tracks 1, 2, 7, 8 recorded 28/11/75, Jacksons Studio
Track 11 recorded 04/03/76, Pathway Studios
Tracks 9,10 recorded 10/04/76, BBC Studios, Maida Vale
Tracks 3-6, 12 recorded 18/04/76, The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm on a cassette by Micky Foot

2005 Tracklisting:
1- Jackson's Studio's November 1975
2 - Jackson's Studio's November 1975
3 - Pathway Studio's March 1976
4 - Pathway Studio's March 1976
5 - Pathway Studio's March 1976
6 - Jackson's Studio's November 1975
7 - Jackson's Studio's November 1975
8 - BBC Studio's March/April 1976
9 - BBC Studio's March/April 1976
10 - BBC Studio's March/April 1976
11 - Jackson's Studio's November 1975
12 - Jackson's Studio's November 1975
13 - Live At Camberwell Art School 21/5/76
14 - Live At Camberwell Art School 21/5/76
15 - Live At The Roundhouse 18/4/76
16 - Live At Camberwell Art School 21/5/76
17 - Live At Camberwell Art School 21/5/76
18 - Live at Wandsworth Prison 21/3/76
19 - Live At Camberwell Art School 21/5/76
20 - Live At Bracknell Cellar Club 22/5/76



detailed notes on each track by Richard Dudanski:
1. Letsagetabitarockin'
One of six songs we recorded during the Jackson's sessions in autumn '75. Written while we were still living in our squat in 101 Walterton Rd, it was one of Joe's first songs and became almost the clarion call of the band..... An out and out rocker, live versions would be played so fast Joe could hardly get the words out.

2. Silent Telephone
One of my favourites, again from Jackson's. It was the first time we'd ever been in a studio, and we were well chuffed to have been invited by Vic Maile, well known to us as the producer of Dr.Feelgood's first album. Of all the gigging bands around London in '74, The Feelgoods, and especially Wilko Johnson, were just about our biggest influence at the start of The 101'ers.

3. Keys to Your Heart (V.1)
From the Pathway sessions with Roger Armstrong, earmarked for the single that Chiswick were to release in summer '76. We could hardly believe it when Ted Carroll and Roger came up to us after a benefit gig in South London with the offer to make a record!

4. Rabies (from the dogs of love)
Also recorded at Pathway. At gigs Joe would often introduce the song as a "social service announcement", after all it was a reflection on the evils of the "Clap" and the inconvenience of a consequent visit to the Praed Street Clinic....

5. Sweet Revenge
The last track from Roger's session, with a sweet acoustic guitar solo from Clive. Joe had a heavy cold the day he put down his vocal, but the gruff growl it gave to his voice I think suits the song perfectly. I love the words. No macho rock strut here, when "any stain upon the floor, the blood was always mine".

6. Motor Boys Motor
Another of the early songs recorded with Vic Maile. Based around Clive's country-style guitar lick, which starts the song, it never left the set list at live gigs. We would later pair it up with Bo Diddley's "Don't Let It Go", as you can hear at the end of track nº 15 on this disc.

7. Steamgauge 99
The six originals that we recorded with Vic were all put down in just two or three hours. All tracks were recorded live, in mono, on the 1st or 2nd takes. Even some of Joe's "guide" vocals were used, the only overdub being a tambourine!

8. 5 Star R'n'R
This is one of the three songs we recorded in the last stages of the band, with the help of Simon Jeffes and Mike Robinson at the controls. For the middle section of the song Dan made the most of a Hammond organ he had spied in the corner of the BBC's Maida Vale studios. I was more than happy to add a Latin feel to the same section of the song.

9. Surf City
Very much Dan's song, this surfing pastiche in fact owes little more than the name to Jan & Dean's original. It would often be included in the set list at live gigs, and with Dan taking the vocals, give Joe a breather before the final onslaught.

10. Keys to Your Heart (V.2)
We re-recorded this slightly faster version of Keys at the BBC. This had been Joe's first self-penned song written in early '75 in honour of his girl at the time - Palmolive.

"The worst thing in the world is to play someone the first song you've ever written." Joe later commented. "I played it to Mole and he went 'Oh, that's bloody good that is'. That gave me the confidence to try and write another one. If Mole had said, 'That stinks', I would have packed it in right there!"

11. Sweety of the St. Moritz
Another of the Jackson recordings, "Sweety" was dedicated to the manager of an awful Soho club we played in mid-'75. As in all the early songs, Clive's input was crucial to moulding Joe's original idea in to its final form.

12. Hideaway
On this track, as on all the Jackson recordings, Mole was on bass. He had been the bass player during the early months of the band at the "Charlie Pig Dog Club" and throughout '75, including the lengthy residency we had at "The Elgin" on Ladbroke Grove.

13. Shake Your Hips
This version of a Slim Harpo song is the first of eight live recordings on this album. Micky Foote, our manager/soundman, recorded most of the gigs on cassette, and we've chosen some of the best. The sound is most certainly rough, but I think you get more than a hint of the excitement the band generated when playing live.

14. Lonely Mother's Son
Clash fans out there will recognize this! Written at the time of the George Davis furore in early '76, one of Joe's first overtly "political" lyrics.

15. Don't Let It Go
The only live track taken from the '81 release of "Elgin Avenue Breakdown", we've chosen this for two reasons. Firstly, Joe always thought this one of the best tracks on the album. Secondly, it's by Bo Diddley whose music had such an influence on us.

16. Keep Taking The Tablets
Dan took over from Mole on bass at the beginning of '76, and had an immediate influence on the song writing of the band. This tune, sung by Dan, was to be our last original, and only exists as a live recording. We dubbed it "psychedelic" for the strange feedback effect Clive got from his guitar in the last few bars...

17. Junco Partner
We were avid scavengers in the boxes of second-hand discs down the markets. Joe unearthed this James Wayne original on a scratchy R'n'B compilation from just such a source, and our version remained in the set list till the end.

18. Out of Time
Not a regular tune in our set list, the venue where this was recorded was the main reason for its inclusion. We did a couple of gigs at Wandsworth Prison and they were amongst the most memorable. 400 eager faces crammed in to the prison chapel as we tore through our music on a stage set up over the chapel altar.

19. Maybelline
We felt we must include a Chuck Berry song! What an influence his music was, especially at the start of the band. There must have been a dozen of his tunes, at different times, in the early gig set lists!

20. Gloria
Introduced by Simon "Big John" Cassell for the first gig in September '74, the song became our tour de force, blockbuster finale. I loved playing it, as there was always an element of improvisation and freedom that didn't exist with other numbers. Joe would use the middle section, when we would bring the volume right down to a whisper, to go off in to what could be a surreal world of images, before we'd crash back in for the race to a cacophonous ending. This recording made two weeks before the band split.


The 101ers aka The 101'ers | 101'ers | 101ers | The 101ers | Joe Strummer's 101'ers | Joe Strummer's 101ers | The 101ers featuring Joe Strummer