LONDON — Ukrainian punk band Beton have reworked the Clash’s famous song “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 the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
They hope it helps raise funds for the non-military operations of the Free Ukraine Resistance Movement (FURM), a publicist for FURM said, adding 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.
“Many Ukrainian musicians are now on battlefields or in territorial defense. This time they’ve changed guitars to guns,” said Beton lead singer Andriy Zholob. “We hope this song shows Ukrainians’ spirit and our defiance to Russian aggression.”
The Clash were one of the biggest bands to emerge from Britain’s punk scene in the late 1970s and had several hits, including “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and “Rock the Casbah.” — Reuters