Strummerville is a registered charity that aims to create new opportunities for aspiring musicians. Set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death, the charity seeks to reflect Joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them.

December 2010 marks the eighth anniversary of The Clash’s Joe Strummer’s death, and the Joe Strummer Foundation for New Music has been doing an incredible job promoting new music in his honour. Strummerville, established shortly after the musician’s death in 2002, was founded by his wife Lucinda in order to provide rehearsal space and studio time to musicians who lack the funding to do so on their own.

Strummerville started out by supplying a rehearsal space at the Roundhouse in London, charging £1 an hour. Eight years later the charity has become a force of nature, with numerous rehearsal spaces available for that same price, including two in Belfast. This year (2010), it has helped put more than 40 bands in the studio (EMI Music Publishing and Metropolis donate studio time). To give bands the chance to hone their live performances and gain exposure, it organises “campfire sessions” at festivals such as Glastonbury, where they can perform. The organisation has brought bands over to the SXSW music conference in Austin, Texas – and even has a Strummerville tour bus they can borrow.

The charity is run by Trish Whelan, who once worked for Island Records. “We used to have a real culture of developing acts at Island,” she says. “Managers and labels used to be happy to take a chance on acts. They can’t afford to any more.” This is how bands such as Pulp were able to develop, she says, adding that she believes it afforded them greater dignity. “I believe in DIY, but I also realise that’s not enough.” Strummerville provides practical help, as even smaller costs can be debilitating when you’re trying to carve out a career in music while working for minimum wage. “When we went to SXSW, much of the attention seemed to focus on the tech part of the conference. They were all talking about creating apps,” says Whelan. “The guys I deal with don’t even have money for pay as you go.” She says the charity tries to help everybody. “We don’t judge. We give them the freedom and support to do what they want.”

They also support Billy Bragg’s charity Jail Guitar Doors, which takes its name from the B-side of the Clash’s 1978 single, Clash City Rockers. It provides instruments for inmates, helping them use music as a means of rehabilitation – and also functions as a platform when they get out of prison, with a number of former prisoners playing at their SXSW gig. The Strummerville website has a DIY section where bands can post free MP3s, with a top 10 list of the most downloaded ones. When Mumford & Sons started out, one of their tracks became the site’s second most popular download. Now the band often get Strummerville artists to open for them. “There’s a sense of family among the bands,” says Whelan.

Meanwhile the list of projects the charity is involved in keeps getting longer. It has helped put together an anti-knife crime record for murder and manslaughter support organisation SAMM, and recently started a project in Detroit turning derelict buildings into rehearsal spaces. It has built a music centre in an orphanage in Malawi. The lead singers of two Strummerville bands are about to visit the space and to hold songwriting workshops for 40 orphans living there. The charity has also provided a full kit and rig for the country’s Abatonga Vibes band. So how does Strummerville fund these projects? Its biggest donor is the artist Damian Hirst, who was a friend of Strummer’s. Hirst says that if it wasn’t for the Clash frontman he wouldn’t be an artist in the first place, and he has auctioned a number of pieces to raise money for the organisation. There are frequent fundraising concerts around the world, as well as a donation page on the site.

2010 sees the eighth anniversary of Strummer’s passing on 22 December 2002. If he was still alive today, I bet Strummer would be doing exactly what his foundation does: reaching out to people in need and giving them the tools to fulfil their dreams through music. Strummerville is proof of how one man’s passion can live on long after his own untimely death.

http://www.strummerville.com/diy-index/ is a platform for new bands to showcase their music for free, and the Top 20 playlist is updated every Monday to reflect the most downloaded tracks. With a recent redesign, the platform has seen more than 250 bands involved - it even featured Mumford & Sons before they hit the big-time. Strummerville took London five-piecer Rum Shebeen on tour across the UK earlier this year, while experimental-pop duo The Welcome Committee have had their tunes spun on the likes of BBC Radio 1 and XFM and Swagga’s combination of ska and hip-hop has received more than 24,500 plays on MySpace.