Decline
Apathy in the team at this time of trial an invitation to lead the May 28, 1983 rock festival in the US-Los Angeles (in the list of participants were A Flock of Seagulls, The Stray Cats, Men at Work): the fee was half a million dollars. The Clash had agreed to speak at the festival, before holding a mini-tour of the United States. For the tour group was again forced to look for a drummer. They became Pete Howard, recruited as a result of numerous auditions.
Summer 1983 was held in bed rehearsals of new material. Musicians hardly communicate with each other. Mick Jones was in the studio after all and sometimes did not come, causing irritation among colleagues. There was also a problem of determining the future musical direction, exacerbate tensions among the group participants, especially between Mick Jones and Joe Strammer. Finally, in one of the first days of September, the conflict was resolved: Miku Jones, came to the rehearsal, it was, to his shock, told to leave the group. This moment is still the most dark in the history of the group. Mick Jones was the author of music of most songs, and it takes a lot of perceived end of The Clash. The remaining group Strammer Joe and Paul Simon decided to prove otherwise and to place Jones scored two guitarists: Nick Sheppard and Vince White. Mick Jones, meanwhile, gathered with Don Lettsom group Big Audio Dynamite.
The new The Clash concert resumed. In January 1984, have been touring the U.S. in March - in Britain, a total that year a group has more than 80 concerts in the tour «Out Of Control». In early 1985, CBS brought to the attention of the group that it expected the new album - the highly controversial The Clash are the contract must still label 8 albums). Recording the new album took place in Munich. Suddenly, all the manager Bernie Rhodes began to show interest in the actual music of the team and took part in the writing of new songs and arrangements. According to his concept, the album should have been heard in modern music and ideology. Thanks to him, computers were used, drummer Howard found himself simply unnecessary for the sessions, and almost did not participate.
At the end of the album, The Clash, in May 1985, went to an unusual tour of Britain: the musicians, armed with only acoustic guitars, for two and a half weeks were on the streets and in underground passages provincial cities, earning and spending only what is thrown in their hats. In summer, a group has only three concerts in the various European rock festivals (in Denmark, France and Greece). Speech to the «Greek Festival» August 27, last appeared in the biography of The Clash.
Meanwhile Bernie Rhodes in London reduced the album called «Cut The Crap». The result of his work became known 8 Nov., 1985, when the album appeared on the shelves of shops. Disc took 16 th place in the British hit parade, which quickly disappeared, and poor been criticized in the press. The album resulted in terror and of the musicians, especially Joe Strammer: singer and co-author of all the songs the album feels devotees of Bernie Rhodes, overloading the plate drum machines effects. Subsequently «Cut The Crap» was completely removed from the biography of The Clash: Songs from it are not included in the compilation, it did not mentioned in the biographical film Westway To The World, made in close cooperation with the former group of musicians. The failure of this album, and determined the fate of the group: by the time for Strammer it became clear that the expulsion Hidona and Jones were all the more fatal errors, as well as the admission of Rhodes to the creativity of the group, and at the end of 1985, he dissolved the group.