by The Clash

Billboard is reporting that according to former Mescalero Martin Slattery, Joe Strummer left behind "reels upon reels of homemade recordings, some of which date back several years." The former Clash frontman had a "slew" of eight-track recordings made in his in Plymouth, England. Slattery told the magazine "There's loads of reels that haven't been listened to properly yet, all these tapes that he kind of doodled around on… We've listened to bits of it and found some kind of stuff that relates to what [the Mescaleros] were doing, but nothing totally new. But I'm not sure whether they've all been completely listened to." The recordings were all done on tape and some predate the formation of the Mescaleros in the late 90s. They are currently being copied and archived by a Strummer family friend, although it is too early to say what will ultimately become of them.

This is in addition to a number of unreleased Clash recordings that, according to Billboard, "now stand a better chance than ever of seeing daylight." Strummer rejected the notion that they would be added to Legacy's Clash reissues from a few years back, apparently uneasy with the idea that fans would have to buy the albums twice in order to get the new material. Furthermore, Hellcat label chief Chris LaSalle has said that the label has various live recordings of the Mescaleros in it's vaults.

There is no word on if or when any of this unreleased material will ever see a proper release. You can find our review of Streetcore here.