Rating: 
Summary: A CLASH ACT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: A great book detailing the beginnings of The Clash and Punk Rock in general. It dwells on each member individually, and the road they took to form one of the greatest bands in the world. We also get a history lesson on the Punk movement in the U.K. and all the characters who helped it become one of the biggest genres in the 70's. The Clash is fantastic, and if you want to know a little more about their mystique, read this one. It's quite the trip through time.
Rating:
Summary: Last Gang Top Notch
Review: For The Clash fans, this is the book you wanted to read, but thought had never been written. Massively thick with small printing, this book, like The Clash, offers you more for your buck. Knowledgeable and relevant musically and socially, for a Clash fan, there is no better book out there.
Rating: 
Summary: skip this one
Review: I found this uninteresting, and it dragged out so much. Too much detail, that I could care less about.
Rating:
Summary: Fall In Love With The Clash, Again And Again!"
Review: I have Marcus Gray's: "Return of the Last Gang"... and MAN are you in for a treat. This book has got thousands of fantastic morsels to chew on with regard to Clash trivia and the state of punk rock back in 1977! The more your read this book the harder it is to put down! It's anything you wanted to know about the inner thoughts, feelings and attitudes of all former members of The Clash in their glory days. If you are a hard core Joe Strummer fan like myself it would be sacriligous for you to pass this book up!! Marcus Gray takes us on a journey from the very early begininngs and backgrounds of our fine young lads: Strummer, Jonesy, Simonon, Crimes, and Topper striaght through the punk years, finacial distresses, and final commercial sucess and demise of "The only band that ever mattered". Gray even documents in detail what music the Clash boys did after they broke up. A MUST READ for any and all Clash Strummer/Jones enthusiasts like myself! "THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!"
Calling all Clash fans, this one is a shoe-in for you!! Rest In Peace Joe, you were one of the great ones!
Rating:
Summary: Fall In Love With The Clash, Again And Again!"
Review: I have Marcus Gray's: "Return of the Last Gang"... and MAN are you in for a treat. This book has got thousands of fantastic morsels to chew on with regard to Clash trivia and the state of punk rock back in 1977! The more your read this book the harder it is to put down! It's anything you wanted to know about the inner thoughts, feelings and attitudes of all former members of The Clash in their glory days. If you are a hard core Joe Strummer fan like myself it would be sacriligous for you to pass this book up!! Marcus Gray takes us on a journey from the very early begininngs and backgrounds of our fine young lads: Strummer, Jonesy, Simonon, Crimes, and Topper striaght through the punk years, finacial distresses, and final commercial sucess and demise of "The only band that ever mattered". Gray even documents in detail what music the Clash boys did after they broke up. A MUST READ for any and all Clash Strummer/Jones enthusiasts like myself! "THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!"
Calling all Clash fans, this one is a shoe-in for you!! Rest In Peace Joe, you were one of the great ones!
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for a part time porno illustrator
Review: Inbetween knocking out dirty drawings for guys too scared to buy porno, Gray does a pretty good line in rock crit. I liked the way he was able to see beyond the myth, and present the band warts and all without making you like them any less. I read the other review about dates hopping all over the place - they seemed to hop in a straight line to me. Everything you need to know about what made the Clash and what broke the Clash.
Rating:
Summary: What it is to be a rock 'n' roller
Review: Now in a revised and updated edition, Marcus Gray's The Clash: Return Of The Last Gang In Town is the informed and informative biographical history of "The Clash," one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands in the decades following the sensational Sixties. Following the individual band members' travails through basements, rehearsals, and street busking, to their wild popularity on the stadiums, the participation in radical politics, and their semi-legendary celebrity mythology, The Clash is an involving, well-researched, meticulously written, and inviting account offering a genuine, behind-the-scenes look at what it is to be a rock 'n' roller in general, and a member of "The Clash" in particular.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on the Punk movement in England I've ever read!!
Review: OK, you may think I'm biased, having worked with Marcus centuries ago, before I moved to the US, when I general managed a retail book chain in London and he was senior asistant in the largest store - was I surprised to see his photo iside the back jacket of the hardcover of the Last Gang In Town! - but I don't agree with some of the reviews of this book.
Sure if you want the "I was there with the band..." fairly superficial stuff go with Johnny Green's book on the Clash, but if you want a well researched, no punches pulled book, go for this one - on the Clash or just about any band for that matter.
Having seen the Clash sometime in 1976 (?) when they were a 5 piece (with Keith Levine, later with John Lydon's PIL), I thought they were the worst band I'd ever seen, but later liked them more & more, even when, after singing about being bored with the USA, they ended up, in my opinion, wanting it to embrace them, and became more like the Stones than anyone else.
Maybe that's why Americans like(d) them so much - more than the band I found myself listening to after my friend at the time got me to a few Jam shows (now that was a band that, despite drifting more to a soul sound later in their career, never sounded anything but English!)
As far as a review of this book goes - I'm not doing a great job, I guess, but hopefully establishing my credentials as well as reminiscing a little. Back on track - this is, as others have said, a great book on a great band that seems as popular now among many as it ever was. If you want to read an in depth book on a band when music meant something & for a while at least wasn't (just?) a commodity, get this.
I've been around for a long while (in my late teens in the late 60's - yeah - I'm ancient) & I've seen a lot of bands, listened to all sorts of music & read a lot of books on music. I can't recommend this book enough!
Rating:
Summary: Second Hand Information Only
Review: Pretty comprehesive work, but most of the information comes from sources other than the band members themselves, such as magazine and music paper interviews. On the negative side, the author jumps around quite a bit with the sequence of events, as years and dates get quite jumbled. At no time during the reading of this book did I get the impression that the author actually appreciated the music of the Clash. An entire chapter was spent dismissing "Give 'Em Enough Rope", with ammunition from various English music paper's reviews. The author also spent a great deal of time pointing out that Joe Strummer's background was not that of a poor, illiterate yobbo. Recommended for the hardcore Clash fans who have already made up their own minds, but for the mildly curious, get a copy of the Westway to the World DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Not For Casual Fan
Review: This book by Marcus Gray describes in painstaking detail the major and minor events leading up to and through the end of The Clash's career. Last Gang in Town doesn't pull any punches and points out all the inconsistencies and contradictions of The Clash, while showing how important the really were. But, the book is so in-depth that it doesn't even get to the actual Clash until about page 100. If you're a major fan it's a great book and well worth the read. But if you're only a casual fan, I would suggest A Riot of Our Own by Johnny Green. It's much shorter and to the point with plenty of humor .
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