Joe Strummer, leader of the Clash, the idealistic firebrands whose 1979 London Calling is the masterpiece of British punk-rock, died Sunday at age 50.
The guitarist, singer, and, with Mick Jones, cowriter for the foursome that brazenly identified itself as "the only band that matters," died of an apparent heart attack in Broomfield, in southwestern England.
A statement released by Epitaph Records said the singer "died peacefully at his home." An autopsy is to be performed today.
Mr. Strummer ended a tour with his band the Mescaleros last month, and at a Nov. 15 benefit in London performed with Jones for the first time in 19 years. He was at work on a follow-up to his 2001 Epitaph album Global a Go-Go.
Mr. Strummer was hailed yesterday as a hero. "The Clash were the greatest rock band," said Bono, leader of the Irish supergroup U2. "They wrote the rule book for U2."
"The thing about Mr. Strummer was he walked it like he talked it," said English singer-activist Billy Bragg, who shared the performer's fiercely leftist politics. "He didn't cop out. He didn't show one face to the public and have a different face in himself."
"The Clash will be endlessly influential," said Bob Geldof, who organized 1985's Live Aid benefit concerts. "They will always be one of the deathless rock bands."
Mr. Strummer was born John Graham Mellor, a diplomat's son, in Ankara, Turkey, on Aug. 21, 1952. Before forming the pub rock band the 101ers in 1974, he attended British boarding schools, which caused some to question the Clash's credibility as spokesmen for the working class.
The band's music, however, rendered such carping irrelevant. From the first, the Clash - Mr. Strummer, Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Terry Chimes (later replaced by Topper Headon) - delivered brawling garage-rock and reggae-rhythm salvos with brutal conviction and boiling rage.
The band opened for British punk-rock pioneers the Sex Pistols in 1976, and its eponymous debut album followed the next year, on the heels of the Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks. But where Johnny Rotten's Pistols were arty nihilists, Mr. Strummer and his Clash mates were earnest believers that if they started enough trouble, they could make the world a better place. "White riot!" spat Mr. Strummer, whose music railed at the hopelessness in England on the eve of the Thatcher era. "I want a riot . . . a riot of my own."
