London SS - History

History

The origin of the name, London SS, is disputed. Geir Wade claims to be the first to come up with it, however,

"Andrew Matheson begs to differ, even though every other band member insist that it was immediately following Geir's arrival, that the band's old name, "The Delinquients," was dropped. Brady confirms it was Geir who came up with the replacement name, but John insists it was the result of a general brainstorming session with a dicitonary and thesaurus. Obviously, the London prefix was a nod in the direction of The New York Dolls and The Hollywood Brats."

The London SS, at that time, was without a frontman. They eventually recruited Kelvin Cyril Blakelock from a band called Overtown. Kelvin's arrival caused simmering tensions to boil over and Geir was soon fired. Soon after, Mick was sacked on June 5. At that time, the band changed its name to Violent Luck.

"Even while still with Overtown, Kelvin had kept his options open by attending auditions for several other bands. One of The Melody Maker ads he answered had been placed by bassist Tony James. Tony was reading mathematics at Brunel University in Uxbridge, on the western outskirts of London and living in Twickenham, a few miles to the south."

"In a vague effort to soften the blow of Mick's sacking, Kelvin suggested that he team up with the now bandless Tony. In Pete Frame's Two Family Trees, the story of The London SS starts with this meeting....

Geir too is concerned that he should get full acknowledgement for his role in the pre-history of The Clash. He is familiar with Tony's account of The London SS as reported by Pete Frame and is understandably annoyed to have been written out of the picture by someone who was originally little more than a hanger on... "The first time that I saw Tony James, he came into the room and we said ,'That guy looks like he comes from the country somewhere', He just didn't fit the part!We were all very hip, a really stylish New York Dolls lookalike band, and here comes this hippy with jeans on that looked like Status Quo!" On the surface Brady and John seem less bitter about being omitted from The London SS story, but interviewed separately they express their contempt for the guilty party with a relish that is even more startling than Geir's coming as it does from two such generally easy going men..."

The second line up of London SS started as detailed above, with the meeting between Kelvin and Tony James. Even though Kelvin wasn't in the band to start with, he took it upon himself to use the name. This line up included bassist Tony James. The band spent most of their short history auditioning potential members. Besides Kelvin and James, however, guitarist Brian James (not related to Tony) was the only other semi-permanent member at this time. Other musicians who played with them included Matt Dangerfield and Casino Steel, then of The Hollywood Brats, who would later go on to play in The Boys.

Many other notable musicians tried out for the band but did not make the cut including future members of The Clash, Paul Simonon and Terry Chimes. Another future Clash member, Nicky "Topper" Headon, was asked to join but declined. Rat Scabies, future drummer for The Damned played with the band even though he was in his own protopunk band, Rot, at the time. Roland Hot also served as drummer. Punk poet Patrik Fitzgerald also claims to have auditioned for the band.

The London SS's only recording was a demo featuring James, Jones, James and Hot. Musically they played straightforward rock 'n' roll and covered 1960s R&B. An example of this is their leftover song "1-2 Crush On You", which was later recorded by the Clash.

After Roland Hot was kicked out in January 1976, he joined fellow musicians Kid Rogers and Doug McArthur to form Kid Rogers and the Henchmen. The band lasted less than two years but managed to sign with Chiswick Records and record a double A side single ("Getaway" b/w "Sensational"). "Sensational", penned by Hot and McArthur, was the more commercial number and was written after a chance meeting with Banshees vocalist Siouxsie Sioux. "Getaway", penned by Kid Rogers (a guitar instrumental), was featured on the album 100 Great Guitar Instrumentals. McArthur went on to join "Killerhertz", a Motorhead-like three piece outfit, with guitar wizard Hugo Mallet and drummer (later to join Chelsea) Marc Rathbone. Killerhertz had a strong following in London and were a regular feature at clubs like Dingwalls, the Marquee and the Music Machine. Notable recordings were "5 second wonders", "Heartbreak", "Nightmare", "All Along the Road".

Brian James left the London SS with Scabies to form The Subterraneans and later The Damned. The other James joined the band Chelsea with Billy Idol and the two later started Generation X. Chelsea drummer John Towe: "When Brian James played with London SS he wrote a song called "Why Won't She Talk" October kept the tune but put new words to the song and re-titled it "Get Out And Walk". When he discovered that the tune had been ripped off (early '77) he dropped it from Chelsea's set."

Jones, Simonon, and Chimes teamed up with Joe Strummer and founded The Clash. Chimes was later replaced by Headon and then Headon was replaced by Chimes again. Ultimately, the London SS were more famous for what their members did later on in life than they were for anything that happened during their existence.

The group's name caused disquiet in some quarters, because "SS" is generally understood to refer to the Schutzstaffel, an elite paramilitary force of Nazi Germany, some of whose members were convicted of war crimes. This came to haunt Mick Jones, when The Clash became Britain's premier left-wing political band. When questioned about the name Tony James stated:

We hadn't thought at all about the Nazi implications. It just seemed like a very anarchic, stylish thing to do.