Hello my friends and welcome to the home stretch of 2012 on the blog, it’s been a long an interesting year but I’m hoping for a better new year assuming the Mayans are wrong which they certainly are/were. By some strange twist of fate this being less than 24 hours from the 10th anniversary of losing Joe Strummer this happens to be the 1,000th ever post on The Clash Blog. That number seems a bit mad even to me.

I worked out that since beginning the site I’ve probably spent about 2,500 hours writing, editing and getting the content out to you – add in time for site design, fixing it when it gets hacked, improving the site and working with the Twitter and Facebook pages I’ve probably spent at least 3,000 hours over the last three and a half years on the blog. That works out to a worrying total of 40 whole days per year. That does worry me, if it was a full time job I could justify it but for a hobby that’s a lot of time. If you’ve enjoyed some of the 800,000 words so far you can always buy me a cup of coffee over on the right hand margin. My thanks to you for reading so much nonsense about music, football, punk rock and life in general. I appreciate it. Someone asked me the other day where I find the time, the short answer is I never watch TV. I do watch certain things online but the television is never on and sucking up my free time. Plus of course I really enjoy it.

Enough about me, I promised my revised listing of Joe Strummer related gigs and events over the coming days and here it is. Links where possible are in red and I’ve simply listed all cities alphabetically. If you know of something I’ve missed just let me know and I’ll update later today.

Brighton, England. Jan 5th @ 7pm. Komedia. 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton and Hove, East Sussex BN1 1UN, United Kingdom 1273.647100 Four live acts including Rebel Truce, event is in the new year so don’t head along this weekend. Event is in conjunction with Strummerville.

Buffalo, USA. Dec 22nd @ 8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 East Mohawk Street, Buffalo, NY 14203. 716.465.2368. More than six live bands plus DJ – $12 at the door, event is in conjunction with Strummerville.

Chicago, USA. Dec 22nd @ 730pm at Schuba’s. 3159 North Southport Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657 773.525.2508. 8th annual Chicago Calling featuring Clash tribute band, The Jam tribute band and other special guests. I love Schuba’s – go along if you possibly can.

Dublin, Ireland. Dec 22nd @ 8pm at The Academy 2.  57 Middle Abbey Street DUBLIN 1 Dublin, Ireland. Featuring Clash Jam Wallop and other acts.

Edinburgh, Scotland. Dec 22nd @ 8pm. Bannerman’s Bar. 212 Cowgate EH1 1HQ, Edinburgh, Scotland. Featuring the Counterfeit Clash.

Glasgow, Scotland. Dec 22nd @ 8pm. King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 272a Saint Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5RL, United Kingdom. This is the 10th annual event and always well attended. It may be sold out so please check locally – ask for favours to get in.

Hertford, UK. Dec 22nd @ 730pm. ‘Merry Clashmas’ at Hertford Corn Exchange. 39 Fore Street, Hertford, SG14 1AL, United Kingdom 1992 442992. Six bands, special DJs and much more.

London, England. Dec 21st @ 7pm. ‘London’s Burning’ at Surya, 156 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JL. Please note that this event is on Friday night. Five bands confirmed plus special guests expected, looks like a great night.

London, England. Dec 22nd @ 4pm and 8pm ‘Meeting Joe Strummer’ the play. Final two presentations at the Cockpit Theatre Gateforth Street, City of Westminster, NW8 8EH, United Kingdom. See recent post on the blog for more information.

London, England. Dec 22nd @ 730pm. ‘Ignore Alien Orders’ at The Windmill, 22 Blenheim Gardens, Brixton, London SW2 5BZ, United Kingdom. Five live acts plus DJ Tolly, event is in conjuction with Strummerville.

London, England Dec 22nd and 23rd – The 100 Club. I really shouldn’t need to give you an address (Oxford Street, you know this). The two day event is in association with Strummerville and features a bounty including Ruts DC, Glen Matlock, TV Smith, Spizz Energi, Ray Gange DJing and lots more.

London (Ontario), Canada, Dec 22nd @ 9pm ‘Minstrel Boy a celebration of Joe Strummer’. The Office, 216 York Street, London, ON N6A, Canada. 519.432.4433 The Kensington Hillbillys as The Crooked Beat with Special Guests NFG $10.00 Cover

Los Angeles, USA. Dec 22nd @8pm. Trash City at The Three Clubs. The Three Clubs 1123 Vine Street Hollywood, CA 90038. This looks like it might be the pick of US events including Joe’s dear friend Zander Schloss and Mike Watt to name just two. Should be special, I hope some of you will make it.

New York City, USA. Dec 22nd @ 8pm. Tammany Hall Clash/Strummer tribute night. 152 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002 Featuring Straight To Hell and other special guests.

Osaka, Japan. Dec 22nd @6pm. Strummer Jam at the Club Stereo, 2-11-1 Nambanaka Naniwa-ku, Namba Pier 6026 Osaka, Japan. Three live acts, specials DJs, event is in conjunction with Strummerville.

Philadelphia, USA. Dec 22nd @ 8pm. The North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130. Tel 215.787.0488 Seven live acts, event is in conjunction with Strummerville.

Phoenix, USA. Dec 22nd @ 7pm. The George & Dragon, 4240 N Central Ave, Phoenix AZ 85012. Glass Heroes and five other bands on tap for the 10th annual event organised by my friend Keith Jackson.

Portland, USA. Dec 22nd @ 9pm at East End. 203 SE Grand Ave., Portland OR. 5th anniversary of the East End featuring a local recreation of the 100 Club Punk Festival…and it’s free to get in.

Portsmouth, England. Dec 22nd @8pm. Wedgewood Rooms, 147B Albert Road, Southsea, Portsmouth PO4 0JW, United Kingdom. 023.9286.3911 Nine live acts, 10th annual event in conjuction with Strummerville.

Stockholm, Sweden. Dec 22nd @ 8pm at Snövit. Ringvägen 147, 116 61 Stockholm, Sweden. Three bands, special guests and DJs

Thessaloniki, Greece. Dec 22nd @ 7pm. Spitimou, 3 Fragkon St, Thessaloniki Greece. Special documentary film premier, live music and DJ sets, the event is in conjunction with Strummerville.

Tokyo, Japan. Exhibition until Dec 22nd. Sho Kikuchi photography exhibition of The Clash and Joe Strummer. Daily until 6pm 〒150-0011
東京都渋谷区東3-16-6 LIQUIDROOM 2F

Meanwhile if you can’t get out of the house, are under house arrest, or don’t trust yourself in public there is another option. Of course it could just be that you live in a remote part of Kansas or Macedonia, in which case Andrea is hosting a Joe Strummer online Facebook day. Not sure what that will consist of but here is the link.

Thank you all for reading and for taking time to remember Joe this weekend, I hope to be back in about 20 hours with a liveblog. I’d love to host your favourite Joe Strummer memory, quote, lyric, song, video, tattoo or photograph tomorrow so I’ll see you then. Tim

The future is unwritten, so share it

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