Strummer Honored With London Landmark

By Paul Sexton

Billboard

February 14, 2001

Hammersmith Palais, the west London club that lent its name to one of the most famous anthems of the punk era -- the Clash's "(White Man In) Hammersmith Palais" -- is to mark its demise by presenting the sign from the venue's entrance to Clash frontman Joe Strummer.

The Independent newspaper in the U.K. reports that Strummer is to be given the sign from the Palais, where the Clash and many other new wave acts played and which inspired the Clash's 1978 single, a No. 32 U.K. hit in June that year.

The Palais has occupied its site on Shepherd's Bush Road (a short distance from two other well-known London venues, Hammersmith Apollo and Shepherd's Bush Empire) for 82 years, but is to be succeeded by a new branch of the Po Na Na club chain, which bought the site last year. The venue also booked pop acts and more recently, as Le Palais, had hosted shows by the Lightning Seeds and the Mavericks.

Strummer, now fronting the Mescaleros, told the Independent, "It's sad that it's going, but at least it will keep going as a venue, as far as I know. It's such a lovely place inside... I used to go and see a lot of reggae bands there in the late Seventies. I saw every name in the reggae world that you could care to mention. I'd never have imagined that I'd end up being given the sign. I guess I'll have to send a man with a van round to pick it up."

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