Good morning and it is a pleasure to have you drop back in to the blog. Have you been following events in Egypt? I went to asleep with the BBC coverage from Cairo and awoke to the same thing, looks to be the dawn of some serious changes in that part of the world although the hesitation from the media to call it a revolution is a bit strange. When the army watch on and let you spray graffiti on their tanks and the police pack up and go home you’ve got a revolution – I just hope that a peaceful solution (involving a resignation from your top man) is found rapidly.

Anyway I need to break away from the news and make a statement of intent about the weekend, even if that’s simply having a shower and brushing my teeth. First though I wanted to get a quick update out.

Things are hotting up in Cairo (Jan 25, 2011)

London Calling – one of the best albums of all time had seen what I thought was every conceivable reissue method with the original version on vinyl and cassette, CD when those came along years later and now a 25th and 30th anniversary reissue with bonus tracks and DVDs. Incidentally was it released on 8 track? My rusty memory says 8 tracks were discontinued around 1978 but if there was a London Calling 8 track some self-defeating part of me would love to see a photograph. If you have kids or still haven’t grown up you might be aware of the fact that another version of London Calling is getting released next Tuesday Feb 1st. Depending on your point of view you might be excited, dismayed or indifferent to learn that the entire album is going to be released for Rock Band 3 as a play along game so that you can pretend to play along to Lover’s Rock, Death or Glory and Hateful. I have it on good authority that the game (album?) to be released on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii is causing great excitement amongst those who spend their lives imagining plastic game controllers are in fact instruments and a measure of musical skill. The Rock Band ‘community’ are buzzing about London Calling with many saying it was the most important album still not released as a game. I don’t mean to belittle those who play Rock Band (well, perhaps I do) but if you have a child or niece or nephew in your life who is really excited about these games why not get them an acoustic guitar, keyboard or drum kit instead? If, on the other hand you understand anything about these games, then hopefully this will make sense to you:

Out of the legendary album’s 18 tracks, five have “Pro” guitar and bass functionality available for an extra $1 each, while all of them have thoroughly enjoyable music and lyrics. As per usual, individual tracks are available for 160 MS Points/200 Wii Points/$1.99, and the entire album can be purchased (at a hefty discount) for 1600 MS Points/2000 Wii Points/$19.99.

So while the youth in Cairo and Alexandria are plotting revolution the cities that share their names in Virginia and Illinois will be downloading Rock Band updates.

The rumour mill has been working overtime lately and I deeply hope this one is correct; early in 2010 Sony issued the Legacy deluxe edition of  ‘This is Big Audio Dynamite” and it looks like the repackaging won’t cease with just that debut album. It seems that ‘No 10 Upping St” will be getting the same treatment later this year and I hopefully don’t need to explain just how significant that might be due to Joe Strummer’s involvement with that record. More as I learn it.

Hope that you had a chance to listen to yesterday’s podcast and found it vaguely informative and entertaining. I’ll work on polishing up the presentation I promise, I’ll get better equipment and learn the software – so for the time being perhaps think of these as the demo tapes? The Apple police have approved the podcast being uploaded to iTunes so you can get it there for free within a few hours of me adding it. Here’s the link if you are an iTunes person. That’s all for now – enjoy your Saturday. Tim

It’s the best song I could think of for today. The Cure – Fire in Cairo (1981)

Hello…what brings you back here then? Nothing to see here, just keep on moving moving moving your feet. I was chatting with a friend about The Jam yesterday and agreed that few songs are as brilliant as Ghosts.Which, brings me to my question for the day (I might start doing this more often as I really enjoy both reader participation and your collective expertise) – if you’re at or above the same age as me and British you surely remember the semi-rivalry between The Clash and The Jam. I like both bands intensely but I’d take The Clash overall, but I do think The Jam were/are truly brilliant in their own right.

Why did The Jam resonate in terms of net ‘success’ in the UK more deeply? More records sold, bigger hits and (at the time but maybe not in hindsight) a profile that was just as high? Were they more adept at writing a ‘pop’ single and therefore sold more records to casual record buyers? Did they maintain a better relationship with the very important music press? I do know they were more TV savvy so were they better managed? Don’t forget just how many management changes The Clash went through.The Clash were the darlings of the weekly music press throughout 1977/8 and it then started to fragment as early as 1979 which strangely was when they started making a move to far more diversity in their sound. Less coincidentally it was also when The Clash started making some serious progress in North America. Perhaps it was that The Jam and/or with the help of Polydor were choosing/making better singles? I do think that The Clash were much the better albums band. Also interestingly The Jam saw no real success in the USA even while they were becoming huge in Britain. I do remember how apt it seemed that The Jam were allowed to bow out when they called it a day and reissued all those singles as final celebration. A much more gloried conclusion than what befell The Clash. I’m sure there are those of you with much better memories than me so please add your comments.

You may have noticed but I’m not about to mention either football or the backwards coastal town of Ipswich today, for reasons you can gather yourself (bloody Arsenal). Speaking of Ipswich I hope blog readers in Queensland and any other extremely sodden portions of Australia are reading this today and are keeping safe and dry. The situation there looks awful and I hope it improves soon.

The Guns of Brixton getting some ink

Lastly a quick flashback to yesterday’s post about tattoos – I hope you read the comments section on the blog (you should as the contributions are often more interesting than my own) but I’d like to extend huge thanks to Frou (Frau?) who wrote in yesterday to shed some extra light on the news about tattoos as they specifically apply to Paul Simonon anyway. She even sent a photo which you can see on the left of Paul getting his latest ‘piece’ ? – I’ll save you time and reproduce her entire comments. (Is Frou a she? I do hope so)

Paul has a tattoo now to commemorate the Gorillaz tour – I don’t think Mick got it. It says “Die Kunst” (the art) with an anchor between DIE and KUNST –
too bad it’s gramatically incorrect (Das Kunst would be right). Paul designed it and lots of other people of the Gorillaz crew got it.

*and then part two after I had asked for more info

Haha no, someone of the Gorillaz fanbase got it from the Facebook of the place they got their tattoos (Damon Albarn got it, Jamie Hewlett, Darren Evans the bodyguard, Roses Gabor UK R&B/dance artist, Yukimi Nagano singer of Little Dragon, and probably more people… I didn’t get to check a lot of arms) at. The incorrect tattoo still means “the art”, it’s just incorrect. The German “Kunst” is a sexless (Die is female) word, therefore it should be “Das”.

So thanks for all the extra information, tattoo chatter seemed to come thick and fast from there on and I felt like a little kid looking through the shop window at the colour television that we don’t have. I’ve no tattoos so can’t add to the dialogue! Right that’ll be me done for tonight and we learned a bit of German, but I will be following up on Topper watch shortly. Cheers – Tim

Good evening and welcome back to the blog, hope that your Christmas (*insert name of any chosen holiday or none at all here) went well and that you managed to spend some time with people you liked or at least limited the time spent with those you don’t.  Weather wise I’m glad to have spent it here but that’s about the extent of it really…it’s not a terribly good place to try and feel like it’s Christmas and the lack of a Boxing Day football fixture today really was the final straw. I’ll be back to full daily Clash blogging effective tomorrow and will start by finishing  the review of some of the pieces written about Joe Strummer on the 8th anniversary of his death earlier in the week. Incidentally we have had an Joe Strummer tribute night here in Phoenix (of all places) which is always well attended – this year it got deferred to January 15th at the George and Dragon pub in Phoenix if anyone is reading in Arizona (more details to follow).

It’s been an active year for Clash fans with of course the highlights being Mick and Paul on stage across the globe with Gorillaz (rumoured more gigs in 2011) continued growth by Strummerville and more recognition of the band than arguably ever before. 2011 should have plenty in store too with Carbon Silicon back to active ways, the anniversary edition of Sandinista! finally getting a delayed release and at least two Clash related films in the works (and a third is made and scheduled). I just took a few days away from writing this week so regret the lack of new posts.

I wanted to thank you for following the blog all year long – I’m happy to say it’s been lots of fun and has seen loads of growth all year long with over 200,000 visits to the blog in 2010. Thank you for reading, for contributing stories, photos and news and most of all for (hopefully) enjoying the blog. Next year should be good fun and strange as it sounds I think we are just getting started. Have a happy New Year wherever you are and I hope 2011 brings a bit of a smile to your collective faces. I’ve met some great people via the blog this year and your friendships and support are appreciated. Keep on keeping on…I’ll be back tomorrow.