After Clash guitarist Mick Jones (b. 26 June 1955, Brixton, London, England) was fired from that group in 1984 he formed an ill-fated outfit with former Clash drummer Topper Headon, before linking up with ex-Roxy DJ and filmmaker Don Letts to form Big Audio Dynamite (or BAD, as they were commonly known). With Jones (guitar), Letts (keyboards and effects), they completed the line-up with Dan Donovan (keyboards), son of famed photographer Terence Donovan, Leo Williams (bass) and Greg Roberts (drums). THIS IS BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE proved to be a natural progression from tracks like Inoculated City on COMBAT ROCK, the last Clash LP that featured Jones, with cut up funk spiced with sampled sounds (the first time this technique has been used). The follow-up album featured writing contributions from Joe Strummer, who happened across the band while they were recording in Soho, London. BAD continued to record but hit their first crisis in 1988 when Jones came close to death from pneumonia, which caused a delay in the release of MEGATOP PHOENIX. This in turn led to the break-up of the band and by 1990 and KOOL-AID, Jones had assembled a completely new line-up (BAD II) featuring Nick Hawkins (guitar), Gary Stonedage (bass) and Chris Kavanagh (ex- Sigue Sigue Sputnik; drums). DJ Zonka was also drafted in to provide live ‘scratching’ and mixing. Jones also contributed to the FLASHBACK soundtrack and Good Morning Britain single from Aztec Camera. He summoned disdain, not least from former colleagues, by insisting on putting a BAD track on the b-side to the posthumous Clash number 1 Should I Stay Or Should I Go. Donovan married and separated from Eighth Wonder singer and actor Patsy Kensit. He went on to join the reformed Sigue Sigue Sputnik, while his former employers were being hailed as a great influence on the new wave of '90s Brit-dance-pop ( EMF, Jesus Jones).
