The Clash - Tommy Gun

What this video is

Released 24 November 1978, Tommy Gun arrived during a volatile period of global political terrorism — the Baader-Meinhof Group, the Italian Red Brigades, and the IRA were all active. Joe Strummer's lyric satirically equated the media celebrity of terrorists with rock star ego, a provocative stance that generated controversy around whether the band endorsed or condemned political violence. The song became The…

Why it matters

Tommy Gun is a landmark artifact of first-wave British punk's most politically literate moment. It demonstrates the genre's capacity to engage seriously with geopolitical events — specifically international terrorism — using sardonic, irony-laden lyricism rather than simple sloganeering. As The…

The director

Donovan Letts (born 10 January 1956, London) is a British film director, DJ, and musician. He rose to prominence as the primary videographer and music video director for The Clash. He directed The Punk Rock Movie (1978), co-founded Big Audio Dynamite with…