Fresh from purchasing a fistful of tickets for the Gorillaz appearance here in Phoenix I awoke this morning offering apologies to my bank account but a wry grin at the same time. I know its not The Clash, I know we won’t hear any Clash songs but I still never honestly thought I would see a US tour of any act that featured Simonon and Mick Jones a few feet away from one another on stage. It probably (certainly) helps that Blur were one of my favourite bands of the 90′s and that I follow Damon Albarn with some respect. Yeah he’s often labeled as arrogant but look at his track record its not too shabby and if anything more experimental post-Blur. There’s also an about to turn 12 year old in this household who has never been to a concert yet, this will be her first and I quietly hope that she remembers it forever and it keeps her seeking out music a little more innovative than the chart topping shite her peers are listening to. She has taken to indie-rock with some aplomb but tends to like darker things than I would like, so I’ll let that one be. Anyway, yes its bloody expensive and yes the promoters are taking us to the cleaners but I don’t think I’ll regret taking advantage of seeing two members of The Clash (I still see them that way) when they are playing just 8 miles from my front door. So this seems a good morning to look at more of the venues on the North American tour. Part one is covered here.

11/10 Washington, DC – Patriot Centre: After those other dates up in the northeast the tour goes a little bit south to the nation’s capital. I can’t tell you much about DC except the metropolitan area includes Baltimore and the large population of NE Virginia in the suburbs of Washington, collectively a big area to pull from. I’ll assume Obama will make this event but if not we need to find out why. The 25 year old venue is a monster, located on the campus of George Mason University its a basketball arena that hosts concerts and not vice versa. It was recently fully renovated and seats 10,000 and it might be a tough place to fill.

Interior of the Fox Theatre in Detroit

13/10 Detroit, MI – The Fox Theatre: Ah yes Detroit…this town is full of hard knocks and I take no pleasure in saying its reputation is fairly well deserved. It is a tough town but also per capita supports live music better than cities that are far larger. As a result British bands almost always seem to include Detroit on a tour schedule due to the support from the city. This might be one of the best venues on the entire tour – a classic theatre built in 1928 and unlike so many venues not stuck out in the suburbs but right in the heart of the city. It’s the largest surviving theatre of its era and seats 5,000. I think it will be filled. The Clash have a rich and deep connection with Detroit as does Motown with the UK. If I still lived in Chicago I’d probably drive to Detroit to see them here rather than the selected venue in Chicago.

14/10 Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre: Here was my clue that the tour had some trouble confirming venues on a logical schedule as the band zig-zag back to the East and up on into Canada before heading back towards the midwest in the States. Not a normal  way to handle the middle part of the US when you include Toronto on your tour. Including Toronto however makes perfect sense, aside from cities on the coasts – alongside Chicago, Toronto is the hippest city on the continent with a huge population who support the arts and live music. I’m sure this will be hotly anticipated in the city and of course both The Clash and Blur have a long associated with the town. The Air Canada Centre isn’t at the airport but in the heart of town and is another giant hockey/basketball arena and one of the largest on the tour. Somewhere this large (19,800) makes me pretty thankful that I’m seeing the band here as how intimate can you get in a place that size even with the best intentions. That said with some playful marketing I hope they can sell most seats.

16/10 Chicago, IL – UIC Pavilion – A day off then to allow the tour to cut back to the midwest and arrive in Chicago to play at a venue I’ve actually been to. Chicago is FULL of amazing venues to see a band and this sadly isn’t one of them. The giant basketball arena/hangar is on the UIC campus, and somehow I was there for a concert to celebrate the World Cup in 1994. A number of acts played and I remember little about the day except for I was there to see James. The venue left the memory of “I hope I never have to see another concert in this place”. Perhaps I’m being unfair but it seemed as concert friendly as a giant DIY superstore with acoustics to match. Different configurations are available at the venue with capacity of up to 10,000. Surely two nights at the Clash friendly Aragon Ballroom would have been a better fit?

17/10 Minneapolis, MN – Target Centre- Another day and another sponsored venue. Minneapolis is a great town though but can it sell out a venue this size? The arena was again built for basketball and holds either 13,000 or 19,000 for concerts depending on the configuration. I’ll go out on a limb and say this might be the hardest venue for Gorillaz to sell out, so if you can’t get a ticket in Chicago you might want to consider a road trip up to Minnesota.

I’ll finish the tour preview in a future post and hopefully in September I can team up with some of you to get reports for as many of these shows as possible – or at least some.

Oh….I’ve also added an ‘EVENTS’ page to the blog available on the top navigation bar or via this link. I’ll use this to add concerts, television events, appearances or art events. Please give me time to play around with the tool but I’ll make it so you can click on the date and link to the event where possible. If there are things we need to add to the events page please get in touch. Just got back from the vets with our sick cat, this is turning into an expensive week indeed. Oh well….

Cheers ~ Tim

Good evening to you all, thanks for making you way back to the blog (or welcome for the first time if that’s the case). Not a lot of excitement midweek but no complaints either. What I do have is a sprinkle of Clash related stuff for your reading/viewing and listening pleasure.

Let’s start with the visual! If you are in or near Toronto (based on the traffic to the site that’s actually a good number of you) there is a great exhibition of photography of bands that visited the city in years gone by. Including shots of the first appearance by The Clash in Toronto (Rex Danforth Theatre Feb 20, 1979) the exhibition is titled ‘Toronto Calling’ and begins today and runs until April 1. Admission is free, included are  The Clash, The Ramones, Johnny Rotten, U2, The Specials, and many more. All images were taken in Toronto which gives is not only a local feel but also will make it a unique collection. If you can make it along I’d love to know what you think of it. Excellent additional information on the Torontoist site and the Steam Whistle site. If you can’t make it to the exhibition it’s still worth visiting the first site I mentioned for a brilliant photo of Strummer on stage.  This all takes place at Steam Whistle Gallery at the Roundhouse (255 Bremner Boulevard in the middle of the city). More on the photographer here.

Audio next right? Yes yes yes…you can hear the entire Gorillaz album online for free via The Guardian. If you’ve been paying attention you know exactly why, if you don’t either ask someone about The Clash connection or read some earlier posts from the last couple of weeks. Having been a Blur fan since the first album and then followed Damon Albarn ever since I’m not the person to ask if the new Gorillaz disc sounds good. Of course it does…

I better offer you something to read too as I’m a bit knackered and won’t be stretching this out to one of those endless posts where you wonder when I’m going to end. This is really worth a read – if you’re in the UK you are already aware that in keeping with the rest of the planet the BBC is struggling (not to make money as it’s not American TV/Radio) to justify it’s current operations. Essentially it looks as if up to 25% of the BBC’s staff, programming, empire need to be removed – on the chopping block is BBC 6 Music. This would be tragic in the extreme, 6 music is perhaps the most diverse, informative, fun, rewarding and consistently innovative places online or offline to find music. I could write an essay about what I think of the station – but it’s better if I refer you to this post. For new artists there is no better venue for them to be found by joe public than BBC 6 music - new artists are always at the heart of music in my opinion. This story on The Daily Growl does a great job in explaining where things stand at present. I’ll get up to speed in the days ahead – I hope the station (and the BBC Asian Network also!) will be spared from closure.

G-night

Good Morning from a wet and gloomy Phoenix, funny after living in London that you can grow to love mornings like this but it’s quite lovely and almost (51f) brisk outside. I’ve got the coffees in and I have some time before Arsenal play Chelsea, I can only hope that unlike last weekend we actually remember how to defend as I can’t stomach another defeat today. I was also putting together the list for 2nd round of The Clash Cup, if I get that finished I hope to have the second round started tonight.

I’d written about this once last year but was reminded how great his work was and he’s since added more items. Japanese artist Nob Suzuki came

Strummer T-shirt by Nob Suzuki

to my attention with the Clash figures he made but has added more since to his collection. He sells items privately via ETSY and unlike so much artwork it is actually pretty affordable. In addition to the figurines there’s wall art, t-shirts and more – if you are ever struggling for a unique gift for a Clash fan in your life I suggest you visit his page (and I hope those that love me are reading…).  If nothing else it makes a nice change from some of the less than stellar sweatshop crap you see elsewhere on line, the very fact that Clash shirts are mass produced by people being paid insulting wages is wrong on multiple levels, not that I’m limiting that statement to Clash shirts of course.

I’m always on the lookout for artists who were inspired by The Clash and Ebony Bones isn’t shy about her influences in this recent article in the Chicago Tribune. Ebony Bones (Thomas) first got noticed via her MySpace page and first toured supporting The Slits. The subsequent two years have seen her getting bigger gigs and appeared at SXSW last year. Her look and sound are both memorable – there is a crossover of that old Burundi Beat sound from Adam and The Ants and a bit of rap with punk, she’s been championed by Damon Albarn, Rat Scabies and many others. The best thing about the music is that you can’t file it one place – and she looks marvelous just a sense of ‘why not’. South London punk for the new decade. Anyway she knows her roots and it’s interesting to hear her background (she was born in’85 I think) and influences in the interview.

“When I was growing up in the ’80s, my dad had a small market selling punk music to West Indians, Punk and reggae were mixing in London, and bands like the Clash galvanized that.

Take a few minutes to listen to some of her stuff – and get past the Bow Wow Wow comparisons, as there is more under the surface in the lyrics. To get an idea about her fashion and visual style that’s caused a stir check this video.

On a related note – here’s a great article about fashion, Central St Martin’s College and being at the heart of it all in Soho in the late 70′s. I remember people just name dropping St Martins when I was a teenager was like ‘oh wow, who do you know?’ seems not much has changed.

In addition to London, Sheffield and Manchester I think Liverpool has been the most important scene for punk and post punk over the last 35

Bernard Sumner at Pickwicks - Image courtesy Francesco Mellina

years. For what is a relatively small city the number of bands that I’ve been fixated with that come from near the Mersey has been remarkable. From The Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes and Wah! the blueprint was there for so many that followed. I just stumbled upon an article about a photographer who has captured so much of what was happening in clubs and gigs during those formative years (including snaps of The Clash) Francesco Mellina. Many of his classic B/W photos have been made into T-Shirts under the ‘Icons’ range including this one of Joe Strummer. However its the photographs I really wanted to draw attention to – just remarkable images from a time that seemed to be lost to history. His exhibition hopefully will get a future run elsewhere – for now please have a look at the pages for that site and also I recommend his facebook page. For an appetiser just look at the photo of Bernard Sumner up above. This site has some fantastic photos and an interview.

Have a good one.