Big Audio Dynamite

Big Audio Dynamite (BAD, for short) was founded in 1984 with movie director Don Letts (The Punk Rock Movie, Clash videos and later the Clash documentary Westway to the World[?]).

The first BAD album, This is Big Audio Dynamite released a year later, is generally recognized as the first album by a major recording artist to include digital sampling techniques. The single "E=MC2" was in heavy rotation in dance clubs at the time. 1986's No. 10, Upping St. reunited Mick for one album with former Clash-mate Joe Strummer who co-produced the album and co-wrote a number of songs, but that reacquaintance soon ended.

BAD opened for U2 on their 1987 world tour in 1987, the followed with 1988's Tighten Up, Vol. '88 and 1989/1990's Megatop Phoenix. After a complete reworking of the lineup that left Jones as the sole remaining original member, BAD then released 1991's The Globe, which produced the band's most commerically successful single, "Rush".

After signing with Gary Kurfirst's Radioactive Records in 1995, and releasing a rather tepid album, F-Punk, BAD found its proposed next album Entering a New Ride, in limbo -- the record company apparently refused to release it. Coincidentally, the new line-up featured the inclusion of vocalist Rankin' Roger. In 1998, the band launched a new web site, primarily as a means to distribute new songs to the group's fans.

Jones has shuffled the line up of the group several times, and even renamed them "Big Audio Dynamite II" (in 1991) and "Big Audio" (1994), but with the possible exception of the 1989 release, BAD never really captured the cutting-edge promise of their debut album.