Good Saturday to you all and welcome back to the blog. In time-honoured fashion the whole household was sick at one point or another during the week missing school or work respectively making sure I didn’t succumb until the weekend. Typical innit? So I’ll publish this post, sleep for 20 hours and then watch Arsenal win tomorrow.

Today is part two of my chat with Randal Doane the author ‘Stealing All Transmissions-A Secret History of The Clash’. If you somehow missed part one it’s linked here and you can purchase the book if you haven’t already from Amazon in the US or WH Smith in the UK. Unfortunately you’ll have to do some research for other markets but starting with the monster named after the big river in South America is probably a good bet. Make sure you check out the insightful comments on the last post from The Baker too. So I’ll hand it back to  myself and Randal below and cover my throat in medicine, until next time good people and please join me in thanking Randal for taking the time.

The relationship between New York and The Clash is considered (after London) the most important one the band built, at times perhaps more so. What do you put that down to?

RD: New York’s the US’s most international city, and its bars close at 4am. It also has a rich rock’n'roll history, and of course the growing popularity of rap and hip-hop culture circa 1980 held quite the allure for The Clash, too. New York, then and now, teems with possibility for long-time residents and interlopers alike, and The Clash made the most of the vintage clothing shops, the recording studios, Studio 54, bars in midtown, the Village, and in Soho, and then there was Bob Gruen, who ensured that they could tool around in 1954 Buick as if they were stars in a noir thriller.

Are you still listening to much new music, what do you enjoy most that is recent?

RD: Each February, I assemble a Village Voice Pazz & Jop-inspired mix disc, so that I have a sense of what “the kids” are tuning into. I dig Carbon/Silicon, of course, and I can be caught dancing in the kitchen with my daughter to Teddybears or Tune-Yards a couple nights a week. I think the Kopecky Family Band achieved a measure of pop-confection perfection with “Heartbeat,” and that Air Traffic Controller comes close with “You Know Me.”

My favorite contemporary performer for the past few years, though, is Hamell on Trial. Imagine The Clash meets George Carlin on acoustic guitar. He’s got it all.

Do you think that The Clash would have achieved more than for example U2 on the global market if the band had managed to regroup and stay together/overcome Topper’s issues and the conflicts with Mick?

RD: In terms of quality, or quantity? I think Joe had difficulty with the “Rock the Casbah”-level of fame, let alone Superbowl-halftime-show level of fame. It seems as if the last time Joe and Paul had fun together as The Clash was that busking tour when they lived hand-and-guitar-to-mouth. Could they have had fun as the size of U2? Hmm …

I’d like to side with Don Letts on this question. Seven years is a long time for any band, and The Clash amassed a host of great, great songs in those seven years (76-83, of course), and blew away a lot of people who saw them live. Plus, I don’t know that I would trade Big Audio Dynamite’s debut for the album that might have succeeded *Combat Rock.* I just love the humor, the sound, and the joy and–perhaps most surprising of all–the lack of bitterness of that album.

 What’s the main reason a seasoned Clash fan might want to read the book?

RD:  The main reason? Hmm … I wrote the book for folks like your readers so that they might wax rhapsodically with greater accuracy about the righteousness of our youth and our music, and to tell the stories of select deejays and rock journalists who really mattered. I also hope my reflections on music, technology, and fandom resonate with readers in the US and UK who grew up listening to vinyl, cassettes, then CDs. Likewise, I think folks should know the modest number of degrees of separation between Hilary Rodham Clinton and The Clash.

I want to own up to this now, too, so there are no illusions: I understand that I erred when I identified Joe’s last gig as Acton, rather than Liverpool. I’m delighted to set the record straight in a subsequent printing of the book, and look for your guidance in terms of the number of hail-marys I need to say before I might be forgiven by The Clash faithful.

Favourite Clash album and song – and why?

RD: I’m still making sense of Sandinista! (which is amazing), but I’ve got to give the nod to *London Calling.*  It fit perfectly on a 90-minute XLII tape with the 5-song EP by Echo and the Bunnymen that came out in ’84, and I wore that tape out. *London Calling* was an audacious move, but it’s effectively a 3-sided, filler-free LP at 66 minutes (rather than 2 hours+), and every song sings with the band’s determination, their sense of humor, and the brilliant mixing work of Mick and Bill Price.

Song-wise: “Charlie Don’t Surf” gets the nod today over “White Man in Hamersmith Palais,” but try me again next week. The lyrics of “Charlie” are awe-inspiring in their poignancy and simplicity, and the hook and the spacious dub mix just draws me in.

What three people living or dead would you most like to have a few beers with?

Karl Marx– I’d like to talk to him about parenting.

Joe Strummer –There’d be so many topics of interest, but I’d ask him first about compassion and laughter.

Ralph Ellison–He was such a sharp dresser, so I know I’d have to starch up my finest shirt and press my favorite tie before settling down for a conversation about jazz, prose, and freedom.

You’ve got one sentence to tell a 15 year old kid today why they need to invest time in The Clash. What would you tell them?

RD: ”This is the stuff of Robert Johnson at the crossroads, kid, but The Clash isn’t asking for your soul, just your ears, and your mind.”

Thanks for the time/space on theclashblog, Tim, and keep up the good work

  The Clash Blog News | Twitter | Facebook | Google+| RSS feed 

The future is unwritten, so share it

• 
• 

A very good morning Clash people and welcome back. I’m up at stupid o’clock today to get a few miles cycling in so while I wait for the daylight to get cracking I thought I’d start today’s post. (football reference warning) Yesterday I saw something I’ve waited over five years to see, Theo Walcott actually shouldered an opponent off of the ball. That was odd.

Today I’ve got some great news for those of you who enjoy a good read / collect books about The Clash. You’ll perhaps remember that back in February I wrote my review of ‘Stealing All Transmissions-A Secret History of The Clash’ by Randal Doane. It’s a terrific read that explores the exact environment that helped lead to The Clash breaking through in North America which consequently coincided (in my humble opinion) with the band being at the very height of their creative powers. A fascinating look back at a time now eroded, the author studies the importance of the support the band received from FM DJs and those who helped govern the buzz back in 1978/9.

I’m pleased to say that the book has now been published for the UK market and is now available at WH Smith or via their website if you simply follow this link at a special price of just £6.86 which is a bargain you should take advantage of. Randal has also been writing his own blog stealingalltransmissions.wordpress.com that you should visit, as he takes a regular look back at punk/post-punk music on both sides of the Atlantic. You can also follow him on Twitter @stealingclash, as you can see the man is wired.

Randal was also kind enough to humour me by answering a number of questions about himself, The Clash and of course the book which I’ve reproduced below. It hopefully tells you a great deal more about the book itself too. You know me by now, I tend to go on so it’s a bit lengthy but to be fair so does he therefore I’ve split it into two parts. My thanks to Randal for taking the time for the interview, part two to follow soon.

You’re a little younger than me, tell me more about how The Clash influenced your early days of not just listening to music but considering the potential of it?

RD: I got turned onto The Clash when I was 13, during the summer before I started high school. As I note in the book, football players, cheerleaders, and the Friday-night home games dominated the school’s culture, and the place abounded with the triangles of homosocial male bonding of muscle cars, after-market stereos, and Van Halen. So The Clash–and a host of other bands from the UK–kept me mindful that the future was unwritten, and that things could be otherwise. (Kudos to JulienTemple for picking such a great title for his Strummer biopic.) In other words, The Clash saved my soul.

How vital do you think the support of deejays and journalists was in the success of The Clash in North America?

RD: Absolutely vital! The rock scribes and the deejays shared with The Clash the conviction that music and culture mattered, that culture was political, and that the stakes were high. When more people listen to The Clash rather than, say, Poison, the world is a better place. The folks at Epic served as good allies, too, and did some great things to help promote London Calling and the LPs that followed.

As an American, why do you think The Clash made the crossover to the American market where acts like The Damned and The Jam never had the same impact despite huge success in the UK?

RD: Good question. I’m not sure I know the history of The Damned or The Jam well enough to venture an accurate guess, but I’m still happy to offer one. Now I dug *Machine Gun Etiquette* and the upbeat tunes on *Phantasmagoria*–very groovy stuff. But The Damned especially, and The Jam, too (if less so), sound inextricably English in a way that The Clash did on a handful of tracks on *The Clash,* and then they didn’t. *Rope*’s difficult to pin down in this regard: it’s English and American rock, and the production is more Phil Spector than Bill Price. It’s certainly more clear cut with the next two: *London Calling* teems with a variety of great sounds from England, the Caribbean, and urban America, as does *Sandinista!* Let’s also consider the possibility that The Clash simply made more interesting music.

Can you think of other bands from the UK who might have been able to step in the space that The Clash opened up in the North American market if The Clash never existed?

RD: The Police, maybe. They made their debut appearance in the states–and New York–about the same time as The Clash. They were on A&M, so they had major-label support, and they also had an awesome drummer and an amazing lead guitarist, if a comparatively less-suave bass player. Sorry Gordon! The Police, though, due in part to their prog-rock roots, didn’t inspire kids to start bands the way The Clash did, so the DIY-post-punk scene in the US especially would have consequently been, well … I shudder to think.

Do you think new technology and easier access to music could see something that was ‘against the grain’ the way punk was take hold to such an extent again? 

RD: Back then, I could identify the grain–or, say, the dominant center of western popular music. I don’t know if there is a center today, and it’s one of the key points you can glean from The Replacements’ documentary *Color Me Obsessed,* when sales figures from Replacements’ albums are compared to LPs by Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and a couple others. *Slippery When Wet* has sold over 12 million copies in the US alone! I don’t see anything quite like that happening again. Is that a good thing? Possibly. Anything is possible.

Care to say a bit more about that?

RD: More bands are out there, making fantastic music, but with Pandora, Spotify, and the rest, it appears to be a race to the bottom in terms of royalties for the musicians. I don’t want my favorite bands to “keep it real” by having day jobs. I want them to have the money that allows them to have the freedom to make great songs over the long-haul–or at least for a few years.

The relationship between New York and The Clash is considered (after London) the most important one the band built, at times perhaps more so. What do you put that down to?

New York’s the US’s most international city, and its bars close at 4am. It also has a rich rock’n'roll history, and of course the growing popularity of rap and hip-hop culture circa 1980 held quite the allure for The Clash, too. New York, then and now, teems with possibility for long-time residents and interlopers alike, and The Clash made the most of the vintage clothing shops, the recording studios, Studio 54, bars in midtown, the Village, and in Soho, and then there was Bob Gruen, who ensured that they could tool around in 1954 Buick as if they were stars in a noir thriller.

Clashblogger again now and we’ll end part one right there with the remainder coming up soon. If you happen to be in Cleveland or NE Ohio Randal is giving a reading of the book and it also be on sale this Saturday evening May 18. Full details below:

 The Clash Blog News | Twitter | Facebook | Google+| RSS feed 

The future is unwritten, so share it

• 
• 

Good evening from a very hot and sunny ClashBlog towers, so hot that we had to make a pilgrimage to the beach today. Just 6 miles away but thankfully 20f cooler, that Pacific is the world’s best air conditioning system. A lovely day though and nice to spend time with the bloggette and the surf.

A rather stupid post tonight or a bit fun if you like. When I look at the visits to the site I can get data that showed the words typed into the search engine that brought you here. As you’d imagine the vast majority are as you’d expect; The Clash, Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, London Calling etc. but I also can see the phrases used. I notice a lot of questions are asked and Google or Bing then brings the visitor to the blog. I’m not complaining as I’m glad people find the site and in many cases get their questions answered too. The number one question is the location of the (New York) Joe Strummer Mural – the specific details of which I addressed on this early post back in July 2009.

I thought/hoped you might have a laugh at some of the more obscure questions I’ve seen that people asked and then found the site as a result. There are so many that I’ll need to break them down into a few categories, so look for part two in the near future. Here’s my favourites and thus the top ten ‘Why’ questions, a few of which I still wonder and a few which will hopefully make you smile, none of these are made up. The best answer to any of these (add to comments) I’ll send a prize too incidentally. These first batch then are in no particular order – The Top 10 Why Questions:

1. Why did Mick Jones leave The Clash?
2. Why are the British blamed for everything?
3. Why is Cut The Crap a great album?
4. Why do Gorillaz waste the talent of Paul Simonon?
5. Why does Joe Strummer think smoking is good?
6. Why is being a bus driver or ambulance man so bad?
7. Why should I live in Norwich?
8. Why wasn’t Cut The Crap mentioned on Westway to The World?
9. Why were The Clash so important?
10. Why is Nick Nolte fat?

As I mentioned I’m not even sure how some of these led to people finding the site but I’m sure collectively we can answer all ten effectively. Part two will be the ‘How’ questions. Your comments to any are hugely appreciated.

Thanks for dropping in.

  The Clash Blog News | Twitter | Facebook | Google+| RSS feed 

The future is unwritten, so share it

• 
•