One of the most interesting Punk characters of all. Founder member of the original Clash but did not follow their vision and found his place in Post Punk and PiL.
'I grew up in North London. Southgate and Finsbury Park, just around the corner from John Lydon. I always loved music. I remember being so into The Beatles when I was just a kid: Sergeant Pepers and The Wite Album. I also loved classical music - this big mental impression and dark sound landscape. I was very close to my Mum, and she really worried about me, because I was so fascinated by music, right from when I was just a little boy.I was intigued by the valves heating up in the dusty amplifier; this little dansette with a bass cone. I'd watch the records spin around - The Beatles 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf'.I'd just sit there, watching the vinyl and not speaking. Sitting there in the cold in North London, listening to 'Peter and the Wolf'. That was where it was at as far as I was concerned - I didn't care about the rest of the shit. I was just this weird kid, but in these sounds I sensed a strange vocabulary I could understand. This sound emanating from the speakers was what it was all about.'
About The Clash:
'Anyway my heart wasn't in The Clash sound at all - I remember going to rehearsals and just being so depressed about their sound. They got it so wrong man, they thought I was depressed because I was having a bad amphetamine come down. So it happened like this: one day, I get to the rehearsal room which is this dark, damp room - the band are sitting around, playing tunes from The Stooges and The MC5 and King Tubby's Hi Fi on their little cassette machine, waiting for me to arrive because I'm late as usual. We plug in and start playing, and I remember joe Strummer poking me in the arm and going 'Look Keith, just what is wrong with you man, are you into this or not?' I'm not into it, so I just leave my guitar against the amp, feedback howling like mad, like white noise, and I just walk out.'
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