I was once in the same room as Joe Strummer, though I

didn’t know it at the time. It was the 400 Bar in November

of 1999 at a Lifter Puller show. My pal Def Jeff was there,

drunk. We were both huge Lifter Puller fans who learned

an encyclopedia’s worth of drug slang from their songs. At

this show, the normally boisterous Jeff could not yell out

requests between songs as the band had song titles like

“The Gin and the Sour Defeat”, “Lifter Puller vs. The End

of the Evening”, and “Cruised and Accused of Cruising.”

His last-ditch effort was to start yelling “Bill Tuomala!

Bill Tuomala!! BILL TUOMALA!!!”

The next day I heard on Radio K that Joe Strummer had

been at the show with Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong. I

began telling friends that Strummer had certainly heard

my name yelled, and that the name “Bill Tuomala” was

likely to turn up in one of his future songs. If anybody out

there has Global a Go-Go and would care to confirm, let

me know. Thanks.