According to NME.com, The Clash frontman Mick Jones told BBC 6Music that he was writing songs with Joe Strummer just prior to his death in 2002. He said the songs he wrote with Strummer were due to be recorded by Strummer’s band The Mescaleros, claiming that he worked on tracks in small batches during overnight recording sessions. Jones recalls:
“We did write some more songs together and he was going to do them with The Mescaleros,” said Jones. “We wrote a batch – we didn’t used to write one, we used to write a batch at a time – like gumbo. The idea was he was going to go into the studio with The Mescaleros during the day and then send them all home. I’d come in all night and we’d all work all night.”
About the songs, Jones hinted that Strummer may have made a new Clash album, which would have been their first since 1985’s Cut the Crap and with Jones on vocals since 1982’s Combat Rock. He states, “That didn’t come to nothing because that wasn’t going to work, we knew that but it was a nice idea. Later on, a few months later we were at some opening or something and I said, ‘What happened to those songs?!’ If you didn’t do them straight away and get them back straight away, it was like, ‘What’s wrong with them?!’ So, I went, ‘What happened to the songs?!’ He went, ‘Oh man, they’re the next Clash album’.”
The Clash broke up in 1986 after a ten year run, which spanned six critically-acclaimed albums, including London Calling (1979) and Sandinista! (1980). The band recently released the box set Sound System.