Bernard Rhodes (born 1944)[1] is a band manager, designer, studio owner, record producer and songwriter who was integral to the development of the punk rock scene in the United Kingdom from the middle 1970s.
According to John Lydon, Rhodes was responsible for discovering him in the Kings Road and arranging the audition which led to his joining the Sex Pistols.
Rhodes nurtured and managed other bands including Subway Sect, The Specials, Dexys Midnight Runners, Jo Boxers, The Lous, The Black Arabs, Twenty Flight Rockers, and Watts from Detroit.
His mother worked long hours for Huntsman's tailors in Saville Row making suits for people like Cary Grant and later Hawes & Curtis where Rhodes' friend John Pearse who co-owned Granny Takes a Trip was her apprentice.
Mick Jagger, Marc Bolan, musician Mickey Finn, the Small Faces and Guy Stevens (who Rhodes later brought in to produce The Clash)[6] were regular visitors.
[7] In the early 1970s Rhodes had a shop in the Antiquarius Market, Chelsea selling his hand printed silk screen designs on shirts and T-shirts, plus a selection of rare vintage reggae records.
[8] During this period he became re-acquainted with an old friend, Malcolm McLaren and his girlfriend Vivienne Westwood who were operating out of Let It Rock boutique at 430 Kings Road.
Westwood wanted to expand the sleeveless T-shirt clothing line and Rhodes was an ideal colleague with his silk screen printing skill and whose 'complex meandering discourse threw up many new ideas'.
[13] Original Sex Pistols member Glen Matlock describes Rhodes' contribution as making them understand the importance of being clear cut.
[17] Rhodes told them to write about social issues occurring at the time, i.e., the housing problems, lack of education, dead-end futures.
After a couple of albums, including their first, which Rhodes helped produce with Mickey Foote, he felt the group were drifting away from their street ideals and they parted company in late 1978.
[24] Club Left performances included Dig Wayne, Anne Pigalle, Tom Cat, Lady Blue, Johnny Britton, Sade, Bananarama, Georgie Fame and Slim Gaillard.
recorded in Rhodes's absence[30] but Kosmo Vinyl states that with the Bonds NYC residency, The Clash 'clawed their way back into the Premiership'.
[35][36] Critic Samuels Lennox described it as a "tuneful, beautifully crafted overview of social decay in England, where political philosophies joust for hegemony while the country sinks into ignominious decline and millions of youths turn to the dole.
"[37] In 2017, the journalist Bill Wyman praised Rhodes' production, writing that his "sound collage and the gentle, troubled synth lines undergird the song unerringly, and for once the group-shouted chorus, though still over-loud, conveys some wan meaning.
"[38] The song has inspired many other artists, including Shane Meadows who used the title for his movie and TV show centering on young skinheads and Oi!
[35] In 1990, Rhodes relocated from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Georgia where Doug Watts, lead singer of the band Naked Truth, asked him for help.
[2] Rhodes launched the website cancerclash.com in June 2022 to ‘dynamically demystify the world of cancer’[40] and provide a cultural space to deal with the impact of the disease.