Hello again Clash people, hope the week is off to a decent start and the summer is not as hot wherever you are as it has been over much of North America for the last few weeks. It’s a bit like the famed summer of ’76 in England for hot weather and we all know what the result of that was don’t we?

I really hope that you had a chance to watch the videos of Big Audio Dynamite at the Royal Festival Hall on yesterday’s post. Most of the time I can swallow the fact that I miss this concert or that event in London but I really wish I was there at the weekend to have seen this one. It just looked and sounded right and from all accounts it felt right with the consensus being that Mick Jones seems so vested in the band once again and it shows in every sense. I’m becoming fairly convinced that we’re going to see an album as a result of the reunion, purely idle speculation on my part but I can see now that they’ve tested the water for fan reaction (and the addition of new/younger fans who never saw the band first time around) and the chemistry within the band that new music might well be the result. We’ve already seen the first new song being performed live.

I’d like to once again thank Pete Stevens for the excellent photography below from the weekend, I know he also was able to see the soundcheck in full. He must have an equity card or something. I think it’s the 4th time he’s seen B.A.D. this year – I’m sure someone will now write in and tell me they’ve seen them five times in 2011. Go on then.

Prior to the photos I do want to start sharing some of the recent blog posts that I’ve seen and enjoyed. I always enjoy reading about people’s experiences of The Clash and how they impacted them or briefly met a member or perhaps saw a gig or two. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of that as every experience is different and exclusive to the author of it. In addition, these days with the internet and being able to see photos and videos or read brief accounts of a concert anywhere in the world within a few hours via twitter or facebook things are never going to be as they once were again as any sense of exclusiveness has all but evaporated. That in itself is both a good and a bad thing. How many people saw The Clash in Dundee in January 1980? More importantly how many have written about that experience? How many people had a chance to share a cigarette or a beer with Mick or Joe during the earliest Clash tours outside the UK – and again how many have committed those nights to memory and shared them? It’s those experiences that make me look to see what’s written on smaller blogs or social media, everyone has a story to tell and a lot of them are really good.

I know that a book was being compiled about fan’s accounts of The Clash, that was last year but I’ve not heard more of it since. I must find out where that stands. Anyway, another ramble off topic here instead is a link to a the Clicks and Pops blog where the author speaks of a friend named Julie and her love of The Clash. It’s a simple tale but no less special as a result, although I knew a lot of people (perhaps a lot is a slight overstatement) who owned Sandinista! I also remember getting my first ever Sony Walkman in about 1982 (?) and rushing to the record shop to purchase a tape as I was very loyal to vinyl only at that time, I ended up christening my new Walkman with a copy of Sandinsta! on cassette. Partly because I liked the album but mostly because I was impressed by the fact it was on just two tapes instead of three records and came with a nice cardboard outer sleeve for both tapes. I still have it in a box of tapes. It was odd sequencing as the 36 tracks compiled essentially sides 1-3 of the vinyl on tape one. Years later I got sand in the cassette inner plastic somehow whilst on a beach near Barcelona, it made the tapes screech and groan and as a result and tape two was never the same again although I kept playing it.

Hope you enjoy the photo gallery beneath, just click on the first image and navigate your way through. Thanks again Pete, simply brilliant shots. All these new additions due to  technology to the blog, soon I’ll be made redundant. I just read that The Psychedelic Furs and The Tom Tom Club are coming to town on the same bill and my first reaction was “I must go”, is this the first sign of a midlife crisis? More soon – Tim

All images the exclusive copyright of Peter Stevens

Hello, how are you? Thanks for dropping in to the blog, all of a sudden Monday arrived and sort of knocked me over I must confess. A very weird weekend and the distraction/emotions from horrific events in Norway and a sad end to another person fully consumed by addiction gave the weekend some surreal aspects which I didn’t really navigate. Most importantly I hope any blog readers or your families in Norway were not impacted by the tragic events on Friday, although of course the whole country is at some level. As for Amy Winehouse, it’s very sad but I simultaneously saw a lot of people forget any sense of humanity and suggest/comment it was somehow fair game. In which case I suggest you’ve never known an addict and/or forget just how bloody hard Topper Headon had to work to overcome his troubles. I thought this piece by Russell Brand (love him or hate him) about Amy Winehouse was one of the better things I read at the weekend. I’ve no words for what happened in Norway, extremely troubled people fueled by fury, fear and hatred are a constant risk and we remain in a world where intolerance will lead to such events. Terrorism comes in all shapes and colours.

Mick Jones at the Royal Festival Hall, image courtesy Peter Stevens

We need to review the way society treats addicts, not as criminals but as sick people in need of care. We need to look at the way our government funds rehabilitation. It is cheaper to rehabilitate an addict than to send them to prison, so criminalisation doesn’t even make economic sense.   – Russell Brand

On to brighter thoughts then, by all accounts the performance by Big Audio Dynamite at the Royal Festival Hall at the weekend was quite something. Apparently many are saying their best live gig yet since the reunion (being indoors after festivals perhaps!?) or the venue and the charge from the audience in London? I don’t know the facts but the positive words I’m reading everywhere are very encouraging. I’ll hopefully have a series of photos from Pete to share with you soon, in the meantime I wanted to try a new toy on the blog and share some of the videos taken during the gig. Apart from looking like everyone was having a brilliant time the quality of the audio and video is really good as well. My thanks to ’00liadon’ (and one from ‘fergaiq’ for his youtube uploads. Hope you enjoy these as it looked like a great gig, even greater photographs to follow.

B.A.D. “Medicine Show”

B.A.D. “The Bottom Line”

B.A.D. “E=MC2″

B.A.D. “Just Play Music”

B.A.D. “Rush”

I realise the above would look nicer if I had a sixth video but I’ll sacrifice aesthetics for some good videos. Looks like a really good night and if I’m not being unfair (and certainly don’t intend to be) the sound is bigger and better with the change in personnel? I’ll be back soon, hoping you have a good Tuesday. More to follow, please do all you can to share the blog via Twitter, Facebook shares or word of mouth. Thanks – Tim

Good morning and welcome back to the blog. Just getting going for the day so it’s an ideal time to try and recount a snippet from a dream I had last night. It was one of those nonsensical ones that features a revolving cast of characters non remaining in the dream long enough to explain why your brain included them in your nocturnal thoughts. It was set in a coffee house for a start (yawn) and as I wandered about looking for somewhere to sit I just ended up catching snippets of conversation, one included Lee Dixon (former Arsenal player) chatting with a chain smoking Joe Strummer. From what I overheard they were discussing their respective viewpoints as to why organic farming methods and urban farms were not only the future but intensely exciting. Then I woke up…

Strong coffee is probably what’s needed so I’ll take care of that and scour the headlines and mailbox for interesting stuff, I do know that Joe’s birthday next month promises a good number of events to be on the look out for which I’ll chronicle in full at the end of July.

Okay then, dog walked and coffee brewed and I’m so much better. If you’re in or near to New York City then you’ll want to try and get along to the Steven Kasher Gallery from July 21-August 19. The gallery located at 521 West 23rd Street in Manhattan has a special month long exhibition featuring the acclaimed photography of Laura Levine. Levine was at the forefront of music photography throughout the greatest years of punk and post-punk and her collection captures so many of the best artists of that era including of course The Clash. Here is the official release:

Laura Levine: Musicians is being presented at Steven Kasher Gallery in conjunction with our exhibition Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics, 1976-82, the first New York exhibition surveying the extraordinary diversity of punk and post-punk graphic design.

Levine is highly esteemed as a photographer and documentarian of the downtown NYC, London and Los Angeles music scene in the 1980s and early 90s. Her portraits of such seminal figures as Bjork, R.E.M., the Clash, Afrika Bambaataa, Tina Weymouth, DNA, the Ramones, Beastie Boys, Iggy Pop, Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett, Madonna, and many others are valued for their unpretentious intimacy and emotional power.

Image the exclusive property of Laura Levine and featured at the exhibition

Levine was the Chief Photographer and Photo Editor of the important underground paper New York Rocker. She published frequently in the Village Voice, Sounds, Rolling Stone, Spin, the New York Times, Trouser Press, and Creem. She worked for numerous record labels. Levine enjoyed wide access to musical greats, many of whom became close friends.

During the 1980s Levine was active in the downtown NYC gallery scene, showing frequently at East Village galleries such as the Fun Gallery and Bridgewater Gallery. More recently, Levine’s work was shown at Museum of Modern Art, where ten photographs were showcased in the exhibition Looking at Music 3.0. Other recent shows include Vivienne Westwood 1980-1989 at The Museum at FIT, and Backstage Pass: Rock and Roll Photography at the Portland Museum of Art. Her work is part of a current traveling exhibition Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present, originating at the Brooklyn Museum.

Levine’s photographs are in the collections of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Jerome de Noirmont, Michael Zilkha and many more.

In 1994 Levine stopped shooting. Her primary focus has evolved into a cross-disciplinary visual practice spanning painting, illustration and animation to directing music videos and documentary film. It is only recently she decided to revisit her photography archives.

Laura Levine: Musicians will be on view from July 21 – August 19, 2011

Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011.

Summer gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11am to 6pm.

For more information or press requests please contact Christiona Owen at 212 966 3978 or christiona@stevenkasher.com

I do hope that some of you will be able to make it along to the exhibition, if you are able to do so please let me know what you thought. Here’s a link to the inevitable Facebook page for the exhibition and for the many of us unable to get to New York this link shows you much of Laura Levine’s outstanding work.

Also I’d like to thank Gil in San Francisco not for the first time and surely not the last (Gil seems to catch items related to The Clash in real time, I don’t know how he does it!) for finding the video below. It’s Big Audio Dynamite performing at the Exit Festival last week in Yugoslav… Serbia, good quality video and audio and although it doesn’t capture the entire set at the festival it does document over two thirds. Really worth a watch although I still struggle watching any act performing in broad daylight and outdoors.

I’ve just lost 15 minutes of my life trying to get the embed code to work so you could watch the video right here but alas it doesn’t work so here is the link to B.A.D in Serbia. There’s also rather decent but strangely edited footage on this video of the same performance, songs are spliced halfway through and such. Ideal if you are ADD I suppose. I do like the new song, let’s hope that gets recorded when all this summer touring comes to an end if not before.

Right that excitement with the embed code has me all stressed out, must do some work. Have a pleasant Friday. Tim