Rare early recordings by The Clash to be released

Picture dated 1978 of British punk rockers from the band The Clash, Joe Strummer (R), Mick Jones (C) and Paul Simonon. (Getty Images)

Unreleased songs from the first ever recording session by punk pioneers The Clash are to finally see the light of day.

The tracks - along with other early studio sessions and unseen footage from shows at the start of their career - will come out this summer.

They will be part of a box set, Sound System, which draws together all their albums, rarities and tracks which did not feature on LPs.

The band made their first recordings at Beaconsfield Studios Buckinghamshire in 1976 with Julien Temple, the director who had befriended the band and went on to make The Sex Pistols movie The Great Rock And Roll Swindle.

Although the version of White Riot from the session went on to appear on the band's debut album, the versions of London's Burning and 1977 have not been released.

All five songs from their demo for label Polydor at the company's studio in Stratford Place, just off London's Oxford Street, are also included in the box set - three of which have never before been released.

Previously unseen footage from a 1977 show at Sussex University, archive material provided by Temple, is also included in the package which will come out on September 9.

Alongside the discs, there will be a book. reprints of the band's Armagideon Times fanzines, plus badges and stickers and the group's promos for their singles.

The artwork has been designed by bass player Paul Simonon, who now works largely as an artist although he returned to music to play with Damon Albarn's The Good, The Bad And The Queen and then touring alongside Clash guitarist Mick Jones for Gorillaz live shows.

Explaining the idea behind the box set, Simonon said: It was really just to make a nice box - like a work of art."

"And then put something in it," added Jones.

The band disintegrated in the early 1980s although frontman Joe Strummer and Simonon soldiered on for one further poorly received album - Cut The Crap - after Jones was sacked, which is not included in the box set. Strummer died in December 2002.

A new "best of" album, The Clash Hits Back, will also come out on 9 September.

PA