Few bands are quite so intimately associated with a specific locale as The Clash. The iconography of the band is, of course, closely bound up with a cluster of neighbourhoods in West London and symbolised most dramatically in the form of the Westway urban flyover. This chapter explores the very particular ways in which the band conjure up a certain moment in the history of the British capital, and in doing so how they mediate the ever more complex connections between Englishness and Britishness. While The Clash may have had intimate ties to the neighbourhoods around Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove, this rootedness was always entirely compatible with a broader view of the world. Indeed, one might be said to have fed into the other. It was in part their connection to specific districts of multiracial London that allowed the band a wider cultural and political palette than many of their peers in the punk scene. In order to explore a world riven with conflict and inequality, The Clash after all simply had to unlock the global politics that existed already on their doorstep.

That moment when punk first flowered in the UK is so heavily mediated that it is difficult to separate its real meaning from the various fictions that surround it. In this chapter, it is suggested that we need to pare back these multiple mediations in search of the genuinely revolutionary spirit that was abroad in 1977. Due not least to their celebrated synergy with reggae, The Clash attained a political power in that early moment that they would never attain again over the rest of their career. While this flash of creativity would prove to be short-lived, its brevity was central to its potency. As Walter Benjamin suggests, moments such as punk interrupt the continuity of capitalist history, their momentary flowering leaving traces that can provide the substance of future cultural struggles. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that we need to bear this in mind, to recognise that the early songs that The Clash wrote in one period of geopolitical crisis in the distant past might yet prove the inspiration for another generation in this current age of turbulence.

At the heart of the mythology of punk rock is the notion that it was driven solely by a ‘do it yourself’ ethic that denounced the technical virtuosity of the most celebrated recording artists that came before. Drawing on the first-hand experience of a former manager of the band, this chapter suggests that the success of The Clash originated not in this much-lauded DIY culture but rather in a much more conventional and traditional dedication to their craft. That the band were able to sustain a commercially successful and artistically innovative career for so long was because they were absolutely committed to striving for ever greater levels of musical excellence. This commitment ensured that for all the compromises they were required to make, The Clash retained a palpable ‘authenticity’ that enabled them to challenge the artistic constraints of the ‘corporate voice’.

A central attribute of The Clash was from the very outset a curiosity about, and passion for, musical forms well beyond the confines of the stylistically constrained and overwhelmingly white early punk scene. This chapter suggests that the songs the band recorded together represent a critical moment in which it was imagined that a racially divided UK might have a multicultural, postcolonial future. The engagement of The Clash with reggae in particular widened the cultural horizons of their mainly white audience, while their endorsement of Rock Against Racism was an important gesture at a time when the punk movement was under threat of infiltration from the far right. In addition, the work and spirit of the band paved the way for other artists exploring multicultural forms, not least those on the Two Tone label. This influence remains undiminished today and the chapter documents the many contemporary black British artists who have covered songs by The Clash. As the authors of an important and enduring multicultural dialogue, the band should be acknowledged then as among the authors of the ‘outernationalisation’ of an ever more racially diverse British society.

This chapter examines the emergence of jungle, the first original black musical culture in London. It discusses the relation of jungle both to rave and to the Black Atlantic traditions of reggae, hip hop and soul, and argues that jungle can be thought of as both a distinct black British musical form and as articulating a particular form of multicultural politics. It explores the emergence of jungle from the ‘ardkore circuits of East London in the way 1990s, and the approach to technology that links it with wider black Atlantic practice.

This chapter places the music scenes the book has discussed in the context of the politics of space and music in contemporary London. It considers the rise of the ‘plutocratic’ city’ in the early 21st century, and considers the emergences of subsequent music genres of grime, drill and new London jazz in terms of what they tell us about the contemporary state of London multiculture.

Using Henri Lefebvre’s notion of ‘diverting’ space this chapter analyses the emergence of warehouse parties in the mid-1980s, self-organised club culture in abandoned industrial buildings in the city, and the kinds of culture which emerged there. It discusses the context in which they emerged, the main innovators and the changes in club culture which drove the warehouse phenomenon. It also analyses the genre of rare groove - American soul and funk of the 1970s – which dominated the warehouse parties and discusses some of the key innovations of the era in terms of race and gender, particularly the activity of black women.

This chapter provides an historical account of the racialisation of London in the post-war period, with particular focus on Caribbean migration, the “re-racialisation” of the city, the forms of spatial discipline – like sus – which militated against multiculture and the way leisure, including pubs and football were racialised spaces from which black youth was excluded. In the context of this exclusion the chapter discusses the emergence of the semi-autonomous black colony and the role reggae sound systems and Notting Hill Carnival played in providing the sites and resources for the emergence of new kinds of black British culture. The chapter also focuses on the emergence of multiculture in London space- at schools, and in the mixed musical cultures of soul.

This chapter discusses the emergence of acid house, a new form of club culture in the city, which reorganises London clubs culture and eventually that of the whole UK. This involves a critical discussion of the ‘Ibiza myth’, the conventional way in which rave is understood, examination of the racial politics of the acid house movement and shifts the focus onto the cultural work of black Londoners who have been excluded from the story of rave. This chapter also discusses the complex racial politics of house music and critically assesses rave claims to have transcended divisions of race, class and gender.

This chapter introduces the main book themes: dance music cultures in London in the 1980s and 90s and their relation to multiculture. Introducing some of the key ideas around the relationship between space and music (eg Lefebvre) and the politics of multiculturalism this chapter discusses some of the historical background to the idea of London as a Black Metropolis, the role black musical genres have played in the city and the how London has functioned as key site in Black Atlantic culture