In footage of the punk band the Clash as they pile onstage at Rock Against Racism in Victoria Park, east London, in 1978, there’s a glimpse of the road manager Johnny Green and his two young daughters Acorn and Goldy. In his 1997 book A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day With the Clash, John wrote: “I felt quite proud that my kids had come to see Daddy at work. A guy in a silk tour jacket [a roadie from another band] said, ‘Who let these kids up here?’ I said, ‘I did. So what?’”
Three decades on, at the first Latitude festival in 2006, John reacquainted himself with an old compadre from punk days, John Cooper Clarke, and before long had become the poet’s “gentleman travelling companion”. He remained so for 15 years, reprising his Clash role of cutting through the bullshit and ensuring smooth passage to places such as the Baths Hall, Scunthorpe.
