For seven years The Clash conducted a barely contained experiment in popular music, dragging in styles as far-flung from their council flat beginnings as rap, reggae, drum and bass, rockabilly and their own concoction of amphetamine (and cocaine) fuelled rock and roll. The Clash made only five records and never had a number one hit but Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon represented one of the last, great, quixotic attempts to...