Keith Levene

Known most for his early membership in the Clash and also for his slicing, slashing guitar work with Public Image Limited, Keith Levene is one of the more overlooked key players of punk and post-punk, not only as an innovative guitar player but also as a major factor in punk's sound collision with reggae. Since leaving PiL during the making of their fourth record, Levene has worked sporadically, popping up every now and then with a new project. Bizarrely enough, the punk pioneer got his start in music as a roadie for Yes in the early '70s. Through a former schoolmate, Levene weaseled his way into helping Alan White -- the drummer of his favorite band -- with the cymbals and snares while touring. Levene had also been practicing guitar intensely since his early teens and fell in with Mick Jones around the age of 16, joining up with a band that would morph into the Clash. Levene was eventually voted out of the band, somewhere between mid-August and mid-September of 1976, prior to the recording of their first record; while many claim it was drugs that led to his forced departure, Levene claims it had more to do with a power struggle between himself and Jones. Levene then played in the Flowers of Romance (a group named by John Lydon), with Viv Albertine, Palmolive, and Sid Vicious, but the band's lifespan was cut short by Vicious' defection to the Sex Pistols as the replacement of Glen Matlock. Albertine and Palmolive formed the Slits, a group Levene often mixed sound for. Levene also worked occasionally with Ken Lockie in Cowboys International. Once the Sex Pistols split in early 1978, Lydon was off to form Public Image Limited with Levene, bassist Jah Wobble, and drummer Jim Walker. Levene and Lydon had agreed to start a band together upon the Pistols' dissolution and...