Joe Strummer

John Graham MellorAugust 1952 December 2002, known by his stage name Joe Strummer, was a British musician, singer, actor and songwriter who was the cofounder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of The Clash, a punk rock band that was formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Their music also incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, and rockabilly. The Clash were one of the most prominent of the emerging bands in the UK punk rock scene, with their second album, Give Em Enough Rope 1978 reaching numberon the UK charts. Soon after, they began achieving success in the US, starting with London Calling 1979, and peaking with 1982s Combat Rock, reaching numberon the US charts and being certifiedplatinum there. The Clashs politicised lyrics, musical experimentation, and rebellious attitude had a farreaching influence on rock, and alternative rock in particular.

Joe Strummer was born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey, onAugust 1952. His mother, Anna Mackenzie, a crofters daughter born and raised in Bonar Bridge in the Scottish Highlands, was a nurse. His father, Ronald Mellor, was a British foreign service diplomat born in Lucknow, India. Ronald Mellor had an Armenian maternal grandfather and a German Jewish paternal grandmother. The family spent much time moving from place to place, and Strummer spent parts of his early childhood in Cairo, Mexico City, and Bonn. At the age of 9, Strummer and his older brother David, 10, began boarding at the City of London Freemens School in Surrey. Strummer rarely saw his parents during the next seven years.At the age of nine I had to say goodbye 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 fathers job it was a job with a lot of perks all the fees were paid by the Government. ........

Source: Wikipedia