Film search for rocker Strummer

Strummer came to Newport after dropping out of art college

A film company is desperately seeking any old home movies of the late punk rock legend Joe Strummer when he lived in Newport, south Wales in the 1970s.

Producers want to find any footage of the performer who later found fame as lead singer of The Clash.

They plan to use it in a documentary on the life of the legend which is expected to be released next year.

Strummer lived in a bedsit in Pentonville in Newport for around 18 months around 1973 and 1974.

Research for the project is being undertaken by Somerset-based film company Nitrate Film.

Researcher Sam Dwyer said: "We are looking for any footage from 30-plus years ago, when Joe Strummer was starting off his career in Newport."

Our city is vital in the development of the man and his music Friend Richard Frame

"Anything with Joe himself in it would be a big plus."

Strummer, whose real name was John Mellor, died in December 2002 at the age of 50, having been with his band, The Clash, one of the architects of the punk rock movement.

For a couple of years in the mid 1970s, Strummer made his home in Newport.

"He'd just left art college in London and followed his girlfriend to Wales," said Ms Dwyer.

"She dumped him but he went on to be in a band called the Vultures, he worked as a council gravedigger and also as a gardener on the Malpas estate.

"And he also hung out at the art college while he was forming his band.

"All the elements that were later to make up the work of Joe Strummer were put in place while he was in Newport," she said.

She said the singer was definitely featured in a 10-minute clip of film made in 1973 by one student called Gillian Calvert, which has since gone missing.

The Clash, with Strummer hunched down, in their '70s heyday

"Basically we've drawn a blank looking for any film or still photos of Joe down official avenues," Ms Dwyer added.

"We're just hoping some home movie enthusiasts might have some film of him - or even Newport at the time he was there - stuffed away in their attic or somewhere.

The footage will be used by Julien Temple, who has made similar documentaries on the Sex Pistols and Glastonbury festival. The film should be released after Christmas.

'Pantomime'

Richard Frame, now director of Solas, the Newport-based charity for the single homeless, shared a bedsit with Strummer.

"Our city is vital in the development of the man and his music," said Mr Frame, who last year honoured his friend with a plaque on the bed-sit they shared.

"I shot some film of a pantomime in 1973 and it is possible that Joe Strummer is in it."