(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais









Joe Strummer would have been 54 today, had he not died four years ago. Strummer was responsible for writing the lyrics to the one song I can honestly say changed my life '(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais. I remember hearing it one night in 1978 on John Peel's show and going into Uptown Records in Bournemouth the next morning to buy it, only to find out that it wasn't released for another week.

The story behind the lyrics are well known, Strummer went to a reggae concert at the Hammersmith Palais believing it was going to be some sort of road to Damascus experience. Instead of the bass-line driven reggae he was expecting he compared the show to an evening with the Four Tops. The song includes references to a number of reggae acts, has a line about the face of British politics at the time ('If Adolf Hitler flew in today, they'd send a limousine anyway') , political apathy among The Clash's contemporaries (the verse that begins with the line 'Punk Rockers In The UK') and closes with a reference to Keith Richards ('The all night drug prowling wolf who looks so sick in the sun').

It was the record that politicised me. I joined the Labour party, the Anti-Nazi League, I bought a record of Martin Luther King's speeches (I still carry the 'I Have A Dream' speech with me on my mp3), I did voluntary work on Saturday mornings - all because of Joe Strummer. I'd been a fan of reggae since 1971, when as an 11 year old I'd swapped Dave and Ansil Collins Double Barrel for a Slade single, but this song name checked so many reggae stars that my interest was widened.

For me Strummer was beyond admiration he was one of the four or five people in my life I have actually envied beyond simple admiration. Bobby Moore because he was cool, John Lennon because he was witty and clever with words, Morrissey because he's always been his own man and Strummer because he had the ability to articulate many social problems of Britain in the seventies and because he had the music media in the palm of his hand.

I know about his background, the private schooling etc but the White Man in Hammersmith Palais spoke to me as an eighteen year old and it is still my favourite song of all time.

Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator

Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands sound systems
And if they've got anything to say
There's many black ears here to listen

But it was Four Tops all night with encores from stage right
Charging from the bass knives to the treble
But onstage they ain't got no roots rock rebel
Onstage they ain't got no...roots rock rebel

Dress back jump back this is a bluebeat attack
'Cos it won't get you anywhere
Fooling with your guns
The British Army is waiting out there
An' it weighs fifteen hundred tons

White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution

Punk Rockers in the UK
They won't notice anyway
They're all too busy fighting
For a good place under the lighting

The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha you think it's funny
Turning rebellion into money

All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They'd send a limousine anyway

I'm the all night drug-prowling wolf
Who looks so sick in the sun
I'm the white man in the Palais
Just lookin' for fun

I'm only
Looking for fun