After Clash guitarist Mick Jones (b. 26 June 1955, Brixton, London, England) was fired from that band in 1983, he formed an ill-fated outfit with former Clash drummer Topper Headon, before linking up with DJ and film maker Don Letts to form Big Audio Dynamite (or B.A.D., as they were commonly known). With Jones on guitar and Letts on keyboards and effects, they completed the line-up with Dan Donovan (keyboards), son of famed photographer Terence Donovan, Leo Williams (bass) and Greg Roberts (drums). This Is Big Audio Dynamite was a natural progression from tracks such as "Inoculated City" on Combat Rock, the last Clash album to feature Jones, with cut-up funk spiced with sampled sounds (the first time this technique had been used). The album included the memorable UK Top 20 hit and Nic Roeg tribute, "E=MC2". The follow-up album included writing contributions from the former Clash vocalist Joe Strummer, who happened across the band while they were recording in Soho, London.
Big Audio Dynamite continued to record but faced their first crisis in 1988 when Jones came close to death from pneumonia, which caused a delay in the release of Megatop Phoenix. This in turn led to the break-up of the band and by 1990 and Kool-Aid, Jones had assembled a completely new line-up (B.A.D. II) featuring Nick Hawkins (b. 3 February 1965, Luton, Bedfordshire, England, d. 10 October 2005, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; guitar), Gary Stonadge (b. 24 November 1962; bass) and Chris Kavanagh (drums, ex-Sigue Sigue Sputnik). DJ Zonka (b. 4 July 1962) was drafted in to provide live "scratching" and mixing. Jones also contributed to the Flashback soundtrack and the "Good Morning Britain" single from Aztec Camera. Meanwhile, he attracted disdain, not least from former colleagues, by insisting on putting a B.A.D. track on the b-side to the posthumous Clash number 1, "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?'. Donovan proved to be no stranger to controversy either, having married and separated from the actress and Eighth Wonder vocalist Patsy Kensit. He went on to join the re-formed Sigue Sigue Sputnik, while his former employers (now known as Big Audio) were being hailed as a great influence on the new wave of 90s British dance-pop (EMF, Jesus Jones). Jones regrouped in 1995 for the accomplished F-Punk, which mixed imported west coast hip-hop beats with jungle textures and rock 'n' roll. Although the commercial fortunes of Big Audio Dynamite (as they were now, again, named) were in free-fall following Columbia Records' decision to drop his band, F-Punk reaffirmed Jones" status as an intelligent artist working on the periphery of the rock scene. Radioactive Records elected not to release the follow-up Entering The New Ride, although tracks were made available by the band on their official website.
