#128: Train In Vain by the Clash

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: May 1980
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “Train In Vain”
Lyrics: “Train In Vain”

The Clash is a band that formed in London (UK) in 1976. John Graham Mellor “Joe Strummer” was born in 1952 in Ankara, Turkey. He began attending a boarding school in London, England, in 1962. He told a reporter years later, “[A]t the age of nine I had to say good-bye to them because they went abroad to Africa or something. I went to boarding school and only saw them once a year after that – the Government paid for me to see my parents once a year. I was left on my own, and went to this school where thick rich people sent their thick rich kids. Another perk of my father’s job – it was a job with a lot of perks – all the fees were paid by the Government.” His brother, David, who also attended the boarding school committed suicide in 1970. This deeply impacted John Mellor. By this time he had been going by the moniker Woody Mellor, with “Woody” a tribute to his hero Woody Guthrie. He was part of a band called the 101ers. By 1975 he took the stage name Joe Strummer.
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