The Clash’s fourth album, Combat Rock, was aptly named. Created against a backdrop of growing tension, behind-the-scenes machinations and spiralling drug abuse, it would gave the band their biggest singles but also contributed to their break-up. But Combat Rock was only part of a bigger, more ambitious mothership – the double album Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg.
At the start of 1981, The Clash were starting to come apart at the seams. The previous year’s Sandinista! had polarised fans, and now singer/ guitarist Joe Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon had voted to bring back original manager Bernie Rhodes in an attempt to regain some of their old spark, overruling guitarist Mick Jones, who was spending much of his time in New York with girlfriend Ellen Foley. “I wanted to reignite the old firm, like in The Wild Bunch,” Strummer said in 1999. “Get the old gang together and ride again.”
