No Gigs, All Glory
London SS never played a single gig. Their “discography” was rehearsal tapes. They lasted less than a year. And yet the musicians who cycled through that West London rehearsal room in 1975 and 1976 went on to form the Damned, the Clash, Generation X, the Boys, Chelsea, the Lords of the New Church, Big Audio Dynamite, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and Carbon/Silicon. Every track on this playlist has at least one person who was in London SS.
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01
The Damned — “New Rose”
Brian James played guitar in London SS before there was punk rock to name. He and Rat Scabies had both passed through the proto-punk orbit around Malcolm McLaren and Bernard Rhodes, and after London SS dissolved James and Scabies teamed up with Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible to form the Damned. “New Rose” came out in October 1976 — the first British punk single, released before the Sex Pistols got theirs out, which is one of those facts that history keeps burying. James wrote it. Three minutes of clean menace and he got it right on the first try.
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02
Chelsea — “Right to Work”
Tony James came into London SS as bassist and became one of its semi-permanent members alongside Mick Jones and Brian James. When London SS fell apart, James linked up with Gene October and a young guitarist named William Broad to form Chelsea. Both James and drummer John Towe came directly from London SS. “Right to Work” was Chelsea’s debut single and it sounds exactly like what it was: musicians who had been rehearsing hard material in a room together for months finally getting to play in front of people. Mojo named it one of the best punk singles ever made. Three members of this lineup went on to form Generation X before the year was out.
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03
Generation X — “Your Generation”
Tony James and guitarist Billy Idol (formerly William Broad of Chelsea) left Gene October’s band and formed Generation X in 1976. The London SS bloodline is still Tony James — same bassist, same instincts, different name and a cleaner sound. “Your Generation” hit the UK charts, which made them divisive in a moment when chart success was briefly considered suspicious. But the song holds up. It has the same blunt forward momentum as the best London SS-era material, redirected into something that actually got heard.
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04
The Boys — “Brickfield Nights”
Matt Dangerfield was in London SS before he was in the Boys — Wikipedia is unambiguous: he left London SS in September 1975 to form a new band with Casino Steel, the ex-Hollywood Brats keyboard player who had also passed through the London SS auditions. Both of them are on this record. “Brickfield Nights” is the Boys doing power pop before power pop had a genre tag — all hooks and no fat, melody carrying more weight than attitude. Written by Steel and Dangerfield, which means two London SS alumni wrote the best song on the album. The Boys were always slightly too tuneful to be fully embraced by the punk crowd and slightly too loud to be radio pop. “Brickfield Nights” is where that tension pays off.
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05
The Clash — “London’s Burning”
Mick Jones was one of the founders of London SS. He wrote “1-2 Crush on You” and “Protex Blue” during those sessions — both ended up on Clash releases. When London SS collapsed, Bernard Rhodes introduced Jones to Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon (who had failed his London SS audition) and the Clash formed almost immediately. “London’s Burning” is on their debut album and it has the same raw electricity as the best proto-punk they were playing in that rehearsal room, now aimed at something specific. Jones co-wrote it with Strummer. The London SS DNA is in the guitar.
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06
The Lords of the New Church — “Russian Roulette”
Brian James left the Damned in 1980 and spent a couple of years forming the Lords of the New Church with Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys, Dave Tregunna of Sham 69, and Nicky Turner of the Barracudas. James is the London SS thread here, six years removed from those rehearsals and now making something darker and more theatrical than punk ever intended to be. “Russian Roulette” was their debut single and it announced them correctly — post-punk gothic with actual guitar chops underneath it. Brian James wrote the riff that started everything in 1976. He was still writing them in ‘82.
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07
Big Audio Dynamite — “E=MC2”
Mick Jones got fired from the Clash in 1983 and formed Big Audio Dynamite with filmmaker Don Letts. The band took everything Jones had learned about rock and roll — going back to those London SS rehearsals covering MC5 and small-band R&B — and ran it through hip-hop, dub, and film samples. “E=MC2” is a song built out of movie quotes and drum machines, and it works completely. Joe Strummer co-wrote it, which meant the two principal Clash members briefly reunited on a track that sounds nothing like the Clash. From West London rehearsal rooms to this — a decade of a musician figuring out what he actually wanted to say.
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08
Sigue Sigue Sputnik — “Love Missile F1-11”
Tony James formed Sigue Sigue Sputnik in 1982, a full decade after London SS. The idea was to apply the original punk provocation strategy to the mid-’80s media landscape — maximum hype, deliberately absurd visuals, Giorgio Moroder production, ads sold inside the album tracks. It worked briefly and perfectly. “Love Missile F1-11” is on the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off soundtrack. Tony James, the London SS bassist who played Chelsea and Generation X in quick succession, ended up in a Giorgio Moroder production. That trajectory makes complete sense if you think about it long enough.
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09
Carbon/Silicon — “MPFree”
In 2002, Mick Jones and Tony James — the two London SS members who had gone on to the Clash and Generation X respectively, who had last played together in that rehearsal room almost thirty years earlier — formed Carbon/Silicon. The first song they wrote together was this one, a statement about file sharing and free music. They gave their records away for free online before the industry knew how to respond to that. “MPFree” is the London SS reunion that nobody framed as a reunion. Two people from the same room in 1975, still figuring out where music goes next.
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10
The Boys — “First Time”
The Boys get two tracks here because they had two members in London SS — Matt Dangerfield and Casino Steel both passed through those rehearsals before leaving to start their own band in September 1975. “First Time” was the Boys’ second single, released July 1977, and John Peel made it his Single of the Week. The subject matter — losing your virginity — sounds like a punchline but the song itself is completely earnest and completely great. Written by Honest John Plain rather than the London SS alumni, which proves the Boys were more than just their pedigree. Peel got it right.
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