Approved music websites for the discerning Clash fan
Good evening everyone from the Towers, you want sick kids, we’ve got ‘em and you might as well take them for how infrequently the attend school these days. Rant over, but one more to follow (paragraph two is a good place to start tonight) – I’d like us all in to join our friends in Washington DC but only putting forth either 90 or 95% effort beginning tomorrow and see how well our workplace is impacted. Speaking as someone in a household that will be affected by the sequestration I’d like to thank the government for doing their very best to ease us back into recession by cutting the income of this household for no good reason. So I need the blog to raise coffee money more than ever if you’d like to help over on the right.
Enough with the moaning, I wanted to thank everyone for visiting our new red-headed stepchild site – The Clash Blog News – I’m pleased to say that the design is almost done and you’ve been reading it in great numbers which I truly appreciate as it makes it all worthwhile. If you’ve not gathered that site is still by me but will feature shorter posts that are still Clash related or at least other bands/issues that I think you’ll be interested in, hopefully we’ll get some special guest posts by budding writers too and hear some new music. So please feel free to contribute, comment and share. There’s been a few updates the last two days about Mick Jones and his new ‘Scouse’ status which are worth a read too, full credit to him and richly deserved. Many years ago I had to go to Speke (Liverpool) for work on a semi-regular basis and was treated as an honorary Scouser too on some great nights out, bloody good times.
I’ve been working on websites so much this week that I wanted to be sure you visit and bookmark some of these which provide me with constant reading pleasure and information which all help/inspire me to write this blog(s) on such a regular basis. Doubtless you already visit some of them but if you don’t make sure you do as there’s some great stuff online if you dig it out.
If Mecca for a Clash fan was the most comprehensive list of Clash concerts, concert notes and recordings/bootlegs than this site would be the one to bow to. Just a wonderful resource of such high quality that it should be bound and printed as a coffee table book except books are digital now just like music and thus sadly going the way of the dodo.
I’ve sadly not kept all but at least most of the vinyl from my youth. Now that collectors are out in full force I’d suggest record shops for old Clash records might be hit and miss but rather than eBay or Amazon the very best place for vinyl in my opinion for years has been Discogs.
I love great music journalism, I know it doesn’t show in the way that I write but I’ve never lost the passion for great album reviews and well developed interviews with the bands that I love. Jack Rabid and a cast of dozens have kept this twice a year magazine going for over 30 years and the website is a good place to get introduced. Chances are you’ll find out about the bands you forgot and be introduced to many you should know about.
John Robb has developed a website that has become a fruitful garden of news and reviews that an older punk just shouldn’t be missing. I don’t know how he has time to produce the amount of content he does (I’d do the same if not for work I suppose) but it has resulted in a site that is essential reading on a regular basis.
A bloody amazing site and what it lacks in design it more than makes up for in terms of content. Make sure you have a big bottle of cider or a pot of tea ready to go because you’ll start digging in and will have suddenly lost a few hours.
Another of my must read music websites that I have to recommend. It’s a shame that the once fantastic British music press has never spawned an online equivalent holding the same name (Yes…NME, I mean you) but sites like The Quietus admirably fill in many of the gaps.
That’s all for now, a handy gallery of all sites mentioned is below so just click on one to enlarge and get started.
I love Discogs! You can definitely find some great deals on vinyl there.
I love Discogs! You can definitely find some great deals on vinyl there.
I tried to post a Clash article on ‘The Quietus’ and was told by the editor that the Clash ‘was not not really their thing’….so fuck them!!