Dark Horse Records is reissuing Joe Strummer’s London benefit show for firefighters on strike with the physical release of Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros: Live at Acton Town Hall on CD and special edition 2LP Clear vinyl. They will arrive on August 18th, 2023.
The show saw Strummer reunite on stage with Mick Jones of The Clash for the first time in almost two decades. As well as being the closest The Clash ever came to reuniting, this show was also Strummer’s final London appearance, one of his last ever live performances before his passing in 2002.
The vinyl is packaged in a gatefold sleeve featuring unreleased photos from the show, plus new liner notes. This will be the first time the concert has been widely released, having previously appeared as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2012 featuring a DIY-inspired clear sleeve, and the first time it has ever been released on CD.
The concert was an unplanned reunion of Strummer and Jones as Jones spontaneously jumped on stage and joined Strummer and the band for the last three songs of the set for The Clash songs, “Bankrobber,” “White Riot” and “London’s Burning”.
Remastered by three-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Paul Hicks (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison), other highlights of the show include early versions of “Coma Girl” and “Get Down Moses”, which later appeared on the posthumous Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros album, Streetcore, and as previously unreleased outtakes from Strummer’s final recording sessions on last year’s Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years box set release.
