Ukrainian punk band Beton have reworked The Clash’s famous London Calling, turning it into Kyiv Calling to highlight events in Ukraine and raise funds for a resistance movement.
The three-piece band, comprising an architect, orthopedist and businessman, recorded their reworded take on the 1979 Clash hit in a studio in Lviv, Ukraine.
They hope it helps raise funds for the non-military operations of the Free Ukraine Resistance Movement, a publicist for the movement said, adding that The Clash have agreed to donate all royalties raised to the movement’s communications department.
“Kyiv calling to the whole world... Come out of neutrality, you boys and girls,” read the new lyrics. The song is accompanied by a video of the band with clips of battle damage in Ukraine.
‘GUITARS TO GUNS’
“Many Ukrainian musicians are now on battlefields or in territorial defense. This time they’ve changed guitars to guns,” Beton lead singer Andriy Zholob said. “We hope this song shows Ukrainians’ spirit and our defiance to Russian aggression.”
The Clash were one of the biggest bands to emerge from the UK’s punk scene in the late 1970s and had several hits, including Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah.
“The Clash were one of our inspirations when we fell in love with punk rock and music in general, there is no snobbery or pretentiousness to the music, they had something to say and voiced their opinions against human anger,” Zholob said.
“London Calling epitomizes all of that, and we are very happy to be able to take this iconic classic and turn it into our own anthem with new meaning and life.”
Moscow refers to its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation” to weaken its neighbor’s military capabilities and root out people it calls dangerous nationalists.
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