A new box set featuring music by the late Joe Strummer and his post-The Clash band The Mescaleros has been announced.
Set to be release by Dark Horse Records, ‘Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years’ will be released on September 16 and marks the first time a comprehensive anthology of the outfit’s work has been issued.
The collection will feature remastered versions of the band’s three studio albums – ‘Rock Art And The X-Ray Style (1999), ‘Global A Go-Go’ (2001) and ‘Streetcore’ (2003), the latter released posthumously.
As well as this, some of the first demos Strummer wrote for the group will appear in the box set’s 15 rare and unreleased tracks, remastered by Paul Hicks.
Per Pitchfork, the collection also includes the song ‘Ocean Of Dreams’, which featured Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones.
To mark the box set announcement, the label has put out the previously unreleased song ‘The Road To Rock ‘N’ Roll’. Listen below.
Strummer’s widow, Lucinda Tait, served as executive producer for ‘Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years’. In a press release, she spoke of how work on the upcoming release had in fact begun with 2018 box set ‘Joe Strummer 001’, a 32-song collection from across Strummer’s storied career. “There’s so much great music that Joe left us in his archive,” Tait said.
“To focus on Joe’s work with The Mescaleros was the natural second step on ‘002’ because those songs he made with them just seemed to resonate so strongly and reinvigorated his connection with his audience at a level he hadn’t experienced since his days with The Clash.”
Strummer died in 2002, aged 50, of a sudden heart attack.
Earlier this year The Clash issued a special re-release of their album, ‘Combat Rock’.
Released in 1982, the now-classic album served as the final release from The Clash line-up featuring Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon.