Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, The Future Is Unwritten (Motion Picture Soundtrack), Joe Strummer
All Music Guide:
Primarily known as the band Joe Strummer was in before he joined the Clash, the 101'ers were part of the last wave of British pub rock bands of the mid-'70s. The group never released any recordings while they were together, yet they were among the important transitional figures in the metamorphosis of pub rock into punk rock.
Joe Strummer formed the 101'ers in May of 1974, recruiting guitarist Clive Timperley, bassist Dan Kelleher, and drummer Richard Dudanski; according to legend, the group either named themselves after the torture room in George Orwell's 1984 or the building where they lived. By the end of the summer, the group had performed their first concert, playing Brixton's Telegraph pub. For the next year and a half, the 101'ers worked the pub rock circuit. During 1975 and early 1976, the group laid down some demos. In the first half of 1976, the 101'ers had been opening for the Sex Pistols on selected dates. Inspired by the Pistols and the burgeoning punk movement, Strummer decided to quit the 101'ers in June 1976 and form the Clash. Within a month, the group's only single, "Keys to Your Heart," was released on Chiswick Records.
Following the demise of the 101'ers, Dudanski played with the Raincoats and, later, Public Image Limited; Timperley joined the Passions; and Kelleher became a member of the Derelicts. In 1981, after the Clash had become stars, Strummer allowed a 101'ers compilation called Elgin Avenue Breakdown to be released.
Wikipedia:
The 101ers were a pub rock band from the 1970s, notable as being the band that Joe Strummer left to join The Clash. Formed in London in May 1974, the 101ers made their performing debut on 7 September at the Telegraph pub in Brixton, under the name El Huaso and the 101 All Stars. The name would later be shortened to the 101 All Stars and finally just the 101ers. The group played at free festivals such as Stonehenge, and established itself on the London pub rock circuit prior to the advent of punk.
History
The group was named for the squat where they lived together: 101 Walterton Road, Maida Vale, although it was for a time rumoured that they were named for "Room 101", the infamous torture room in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The 101ers were supported by the Sex Pistols at the Nashville Room on 3 April 1976, and this is when Strummer claimed he saw the light and got involved in the punk scene.
Joe Strummer commented on this event in the Don Letts documentary Westway to the World on the end of the 101ers by saying "5 seconds into their (the Pistols') first song, I knew we were like yesterday's paper, we were over."
By the time their debut single, "Keys to Your Heart", was released, Joe Strummer was in The Clash and the band were no more. Clive Timperley later joined The Passions, Dan Kelleher went to Martian Schoolgirls and The Derelicts. Richard Dudanski went on to work with The Raincoats, Basement 5 and Public Image Ltd. Tymon Dogg worked with Strummer briefly in The Clash, playing fiddle and singing his original song, "Lose This Skin," on Sandinista!, and later in The Mescaleros.
I know the 101'ers were good. In fact, as far as sound and excitement went we were much better than Eddie and the Hot Rods. The other guys in the group were twenty-five and twenty-six and they played good because they'd spent a few years getting that far. But they were just too old. What I really wanted was to get in with some young yobbo's who I was more in tune with.—Joe StrummerThe 101ers' recorded output was initially limited to one single. However, by 1981, interest in The Clash was at its height and a second single and a compilation album Elgin Avenue Breakdown was released. Several of the tracks on the latter album were live recordings, and there is no evidence that the band ever conceived of these recordings as a full length album.
Until his death in 2002, Joe Strummer had been planning to re-release Elgin Avenue Breakdown, complete with previously unreleased tracks that would encompass everything the band ever recorded. The project was completed with the help of Strummer's widow Lucinda Tait and former drummer Richard Dudanski, and released in May 2005 as Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited via Astralwerks in the US and EMI in Europe.
Covers
The Clash have played "Keys to Your Heart" live at around the same time it was reissued as a single. The Hypertonics have also covered this song.
