The StrummerWalk

Great experience to walk the streets and hear about the stories of not just a great artist, Strummer, and a great band, The Clash, but of a whole neighbourhood, its working class immigrant inhabitants, their struggle and vitality, the young hippies and later punk enthusiasts, the squatting, the pubs and what's left of all this.
Aidan is a great, funny, welcoming person, and most of all is someone whose love and knowledge for music and history makes you feel a connection with places and people that seem impossible to see in todays London (sadly!).
Really recommended!

My husband and I took a private Strummer Walk tour on a Friday morning. Aidan does a great job at painting the picture of the hippie scene in working class Ladbroke Grove in the 70s as well as the effects of gentrification thereafter. I could just picture Joe and the 101ers wheeling their gear to the local pubs and rocking out. He grew up in the area and had a lot of great stories to tell about his own experiences in addition to stories about Joe, the Clash and other music industry players. He pointed out a lot of interesting landmarks and his colorful descriptions took us back to times that no longer exist. Thankfully we have Aiden to help keep Joe’s legacy alive!

This was a terrific tour hosted by Aidan who is a font of knowledge when it comes to The Clash. I thoroughly recommend this experience.

Fabulous tour.
Joe Strummer experience and so much more.
Aidan is a fantastic guide, passionate about his local area which comes through throughout the tour.

Great and insightful tour! Aidan really knows his stuff and shares in depth knowledge on the band and the surrounding area of where the band began.

Fantastic tour of an area I was not too familiar with, this tour not only included the clash and 101 ers , but a bit of social history of the area, from race riot is to squatters.

Had a cracking day yesterday walking around Joe Strummer and the Clash’s old stomping ground. Aiden certainly knows the area and certainly knows his subject.

He’s a fan but not a fanboy and slags the Clash when they deserve a slagging but does it all with enthusiasm and humour.

Well worth the money and an enjoyable day.

"The locals don't call it Notting Hill round here," he says. We're standing outside Ladbroke Grove station, where we've gathered at the start of the tour. "It's North Kensington," he says. "It's always been North Kensington. Most people round here hate that film. Think about it," he continues. "Where are the black people in that film? Where are the Irish?" We've made a good start.

This is Aidan McManus, our tour guide for the Strummer Walk - and I'll tell you right now you'll be hard pushed to find anyone better. He's a local, grown up around here from when he was a kid, which means he can tell you more about this place than you'd ever find from just reading a history book.

"See, that's The Chippenham. Joe Strummer had a gig there every week with the 101ers. Me and my mate were drinking in there once. The place used to have a fearsome reputation. One night, I was in there playing pool and my mate said we had to duck beneath the pool table..." No, I'm not going to spoil the story, and I'm only saying this much to illustrate the first hand anecdotes you'll hear on this tour.

Anyone can read the history of the 101ers or The Clash from a book, but Aidan brings it all to life. As we made our way round on the tour, I could hear Joe singing Keys To Your Heart in my head. This was the place that formed him. I could hear White Riot in my head as we stood under the Westway with Aidan pointing out 'the front line.' And I London's Burning was ringing in my ears, with its references to the Westway and Westbourne Park, where we were headed.

You'll learn about the social history of the area, the squats, the social injustice, the riots, the artists, the creative forces that still exist to this day. These are the streets that formed Joe - and Mick, and Paul, of course. But don't walk them in reverence. Walk them to understand.

Joe once said: "Punk rock isn't something you grow out of; punk rock is an attitude. And the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth.'" You'll find that spirit alive and well on this tour. Nice one, Aidan.

Go go go! All the tour you'd hope it would be, and more. No notes, no nonsense: local lad, punk of a certain age and Portobello Radio presenter Aidan serves up enough Strummer/101ers/Clash insights and sights to satisfy the trainspotteriest of us, all delivered with wit, good politics and sweary panache.

It's especially welcome to hear such perceptive observations on how hippie Woody became driven, Springsteen-inspired Joe, hoovering up musical influences, left politics and angles on career opportunities along the way.

Maybe even more valuably, Aidan excels at the vivid social history backstory we might not even know we're looking for: the 1970s' endemic no blacks-no-dogs-no-Irish racism down the Grove, violent and corrupt policing, weed-filled betting shops and (ahem) lively drinking establishments overseen by shillelagh-wielding guvnors, via seriously good insights into the who, how and why of the squatters' movement.... all the way to today's landscape of relentless gentrification, Hugh Grant films and selfie hordes, the ghost of Grenfell, ten-million-quid houses in giveaway shades of Fired Earth and the toffs and Tories who lurk in them, and entirely sound views on the tarting-to-extinction of proper boozers and local caffs. And some mischievous asides on the irony of Westminster Council carving a "working for the clampdown" quote into the newly refurbed Strummer "legacy stone" at Maida Hill Market (which now, thanks to Aidan, has Joe's correct birthdate on it, LOL).

Can't recommend this walk-talk-and-gawp occasion highly enough. Two-plus hours goes by in a flash.

The best 3 hours I’ve spent in London for years and definitely the very best guided walk I’ve ever been on.
Aidan is an incredible raconteur. He has the ability to transport his audience back to the late 70’s with his atmospheric descriptions, fascinating facts and brilliant (and often very amusing) personal memories and extensive knowledge of his subject, on this walk, Joe Strummer and The Clash.
I live in London and thought I knew these streets and stories but Aidan’s walk is literally a tour de force. Loved it! Thank you!

Aidan was incredible. He's got all the stories and first hand experience from this moment in time. A man not short on opinions, I can't imagine anyone else to lead this tour.

Had a great day walking around Ladbroke Grove and beyond with Aidan. We covered all of the Strummer, Clash, 101'ers sites which was great but the best part of the tour was how Aidan evoked the times with personal stories of his upbringing in the area. After the tour I came home at watched the Hell W10 movie, which again evoked the times and included some great versions of Clash songs. Well worth the money and time.

The tour was well done
Was easy to find Aidan to start the tour.
Really informative and good involvement with the group. Aiden made the tour very entertaining and a real insight into life in the area during the time Joe Strummer lived and played there

Aidan is a funny, knowledgeable and informative tour guide. And he’s not afraid to slaughter one or two sacred cows as he takes you on a vivid journey through Joe Strummer’s Ladbroke Grove. If you’re interested in Strummer, the Clash and the 101ers, this is the tour you need to take.

And even if you only have a passing interest in Rock ’n’ Roll lore, there’s a lot more to this walk than simply tracing Strummer’s transformation from Woody, the long-haired, acoustic guitar-slinging gravedigger, to the iconic “Punk Rock Warlord” we remember today. Aidan paints a graphic picture of the old pub rock scene that spawned punk, the hippy and counter-culture moment that informed and nurtured it (despite what the Never Trust a Hippie lot might say), and the burgeoning network of squatters and outcasts whose ingenuity and tenacity helped create a genuinely alternative West London scene.

There’s stories of the great and the good slumming it with junkies and wasters. Memories of legendary auld Irish boozers full of characters and chancers; and music venues now sadly gone, sacrificed on the altar of gentrification. Tales of sound systems and shebeens, of dodgy betting shops and five pound wraps of weed scored from The Front Line. An exploration of the racism that led to the Notting Hill Race Riots of 1958, and the seismic eruption of righteous fury during the 1976 carnival which spawned the iconic image on the back of the first Clash album. Aidan pulls no punches in his delivery, and the passion he has for his chosen subject is undeniable.

The history of Ladbroke Grove is the history of the Irish and West Indian immigrants who came to live here along with the weirdos and misfits who couldn’t fit in anywhere else. And as London becomes increasingly gentrified and soulless, that history is being erased and replaced. But as long as we have people like Aidan as custodian, those stories and tales will never entirely vanish. Do yourself a favour and book a ticket. It’s well worth it.

Booking a private Strummer-themed tour of Ladbroke Grove with Aidan was one of the absolute highlights of our week in London. It was exactly what we’d hoped it’d be and more — a stroll around the spots where the Clash became the Clash but also a ton of cultural history of this part of the city, helping explain *why* they became the Clash. Unlike tour guides who take you from one photo op to the next, Aidan felt more like a local friend of a friend who’d agreed to show you around a bit while you were in town.

He brings the ‘70s feel of the now-gentrified Notting Hill area back with both the vintage photos on his iPad, which you can compare to the pub, bridge, or studio you’re at, and a mix of personal and musical anecdotes that took our conversations in all kinds of wonderful directions. It’s honest and unfiltered — he doesn’t deify the band or gloss over the politics of the time, he just tells it like it was, in all its squalor and strife. He’s a great storyteller and, two months later, I’m still laughing at some of the tales. As a bonus, Aidan gave us some recommendations of pubs and record stores of the old-school punk variety, places we never would’ve found on our own. All told, the tour feels like getting a behind-the-scenes look at this part of the city, guided by your new mate. Booking this jaunt with Aidan was one of the best decisions we made during our stay so don’t miss out.

This was 1 out of the 2 tours we took with Aidan (The SoHo Punk Tour being the other) and I cannot recommend both enough. This tour was such an amazing experience immersing ourselves in Joe Strummer’s life and following the footsteps he once took. I would take this tour again if ever get the chance to.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Strummer Walk with Aiden. He was very knowledgeable, entertaining and fun, providing a wealth of knowledge about the early punk music scene and culture of the Clash, Joe Strummer and the Ladbroke Grove neighborhood. Would definitely participate in another tour on our next trip to London. This is very different than the Soho Punk tour, which I also highly recommend.