The wild supergroup Clem Burke wanted to form: “They were all great songwriters”
The ‘What Ifs’ haunt us all. Especially in the world of music and culture, there are countless examples of things that almost happened but just never turned out – albums started and not finished, tours teased but never booked, or in this case, Clem Burke’s insane idea for a supergroup that the world never got to witness.
Blondie drummer Clem Burke was no stranger to collaboration. Back when he was first recruited for the band in 1974, Blondie’s position amid the bustling New York scene saw them buzzing around their peers in one giant musical collective. Like any local crowd, band members knew each other as friends, stepping in if another group needed a cover, passing different players between different projects, and all existed in one giant melting pot of admiration and inspiration.
Burke’s career was a testament to that. Not only did his playing power Blondie to new wave heights, giving them the signature strong beat that grabbed people’s attention in the 1970s and kept them obsessed with those songs ever since, but his talent and his love for collaboration saw him go far beyond that.
Burke’s resume was impressive. In his years, he played for the likes of Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Joan Jett, the Fleshtones and many more, even briefly joining the Ramones for a time. His reputation and love for collaboration also saw him cross the pond. While Blondie made their name in the New York punk scene, he worked with some of the leading figures from the British crowd, including The Who’s Pete Townshend and Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones.
Being unashamedly admiring of the ethics of punk, London’s own Sex Pistols, in particular, interested him, which is what sparked this entire mad idea for what could have been a wild coming together of artists. In 1983, Burke joined Chequered Past along with Jones and spent a good few years playing with him. Even though plenty of people shrug the Sex Pistols off as a phenomenon of their moment, or perhaps a band more based on energy than musical ability, Burke was a huge fan, both of that energy but also their musicality and songwriting skills.
When considering his work as the drummer of Blondie, a band that merged punk, rock and pop, and then the Sex Pistols, the ultimate punk act, he wondered what act would exist on the completely opposing side of the spectrum to them. The answer he reached was the Bay City Rollers. It sounds like a joke, but given all of Burke’s connections, with the Pistols, with other punk and rock legends and even with the Rollers – it actually could have happened.
“I was trying to put a band together with Glen [Matlock] and Eric Faulkner from the Bay City Rollers and Paul Weller,” Burke once said of their dream lineup he had in his head. But to him, it wasn’t even just a joke; he was hooked on the idea, stating, “I thought at the time, the juxtaposition of having a Bay City Roller and a Sex Pistol in the same band was pretty interesting. They were all great songwriters, so that would have been an interesting band.”
However, as is often the case with crazy plans, it’s pretty hard to make them real, especially when you’re dealing with some infamous wild cards. “It never really came to fruition but we’ve had a few drinks and talked about it back in the day but it never happened,” he said, leaving behind another major musical ‘what if’ and the question of what on earth that group might have sounded like.
