Good evening from a soggy and pleasantly cold Arizona. Almost makes me think of winter today and definitely has me reflecting on the fact that 31 years ago today (or more likely tomorrow by the time I get this written and posted) I acquired my copy of the only triple album I’ve ever owned - Sandinista! Last year we were all drawn in to the rumour and then soft confirmation that a 30th anniversary special Legacy edition of the 4th Clash album was going to surface with added ‘rare’ material. Speculation was rife that we’d get unreleased tracks or better still an excellent live document of the band circa 1980/1.  However more than a year later that ship has obviously now sailed with Sony confirming it wasn’t to be. Perhaps the 35th anniversary will see the vaults finally opened up.

I mentioned it on Facebook today (the anniversary) and it led to some good discussion as to the merits of the album which are worth a look. As I wrote there I remember clearly buying it on release and being a bit confused, a bit shocked and rather annoyed that this wasn’t The Clash as I knew them or at least expected. I was only 13 at the time and if you asked me then or even a few years later I would have placed Sandinista! as my least favourite Clash album (excluding Cut The Crap – different parameters altogether). As the years rolled by and my maturity arrived the album was revisited time and time again, instead of my initial feeling of five or six good songs, there were suddenly a dozen. A few years later more than half the album was obviously brilliant and by the time the 90′s rolled around I realised that most of the album was excellent – one of the most ambitious, challenging and bold records ever made. You can argue that it’s not the best Clash album but it may well be the most interesting and certainly contains some of Joe’s best lyrics. Beyond all that remember how quickly it was made and so soon after the brilliance of London Calling, also think of how many new barriers were broken down in particular by Mick and Topper. The band released 55 songs plus Bankrobber within 12 months, unheard of output. Brilliant stuff indeed, at a later time we’ll try and determine the best Clash albums whilst remembering there are no wrong answers. Happy anniversary then to Sandinista! and its far reaching, sometimes ugly beauty – an album that will last a lifetime.

Image courtesy WrongEmBoyo

Sorry for the brief detour there, I owe it to myself and to you to share a few more guest contributions about the Justice Tonight tour, specifically the final night in Glasgow which ended everything on quite a high. Glasgow as you all know holds it place high in the list of cities with Clash lore and with that, great affection for the band. There are a number of rumours/quotes doing the rounds about whether this concept might be revisited in 2012 and whilst I naturally have no inside track on that knowledge I’ll say only that many rumours concerning Mick Jones in the last few years have come to fruition. We’ve just been through the most active 3 years Mick has seen since I don’t when, the early 90′s I’d guess. I hope that doesn’t signal the end of that spell but only Mick knows what he’s doing next – what is apparent is that he is thoroughly enjoying playing live. Glasgow then; please join me in thanking Geoff (via Martin who provided us with his summaries of London and Liverpool) for the overview beneath:

Based on the Liverpool start time we arrived at 8.20 only to find The Farm ending their set with All Together Now. Pete Wylie then launched straight away into his set of: Come Back, Better Scream, The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies, Story of the Blues (with a neat little segued start of Drift Away as a tribute to Dobie Gray who passed away this week) Heart as big as Liverpool and ended with Sinful. I Have to say I was really impressed with his set, fantastic sound and vocals (despite the ‘hometown hangover’ from the previous evening) ably backed up by Joe, Paul and co Mick then took centre stage sharing vocal duties with Pete and James Allan from Glasvegas.

As a side note James Allan was a footballer playing in the Scottish lower leagues including Queens Park (not QPR). (ClashBlog ed: that’s news to me, but then again so is the overall interest in Glasvegas, looking a bit like Joe doesn’t make you Joe).

Immediate set after Pete Wylie was: Train in Vain/Stand by me, Stay Free, Clampdown, White Man (in Hammersmith Palais) – which is James Allan’s favourite Clash track. Then we went into a short break forJustice Tonight speeches and a single Glasvegas song – Daddy’s Gone. This was followed by the return of Mick and Co for Bankrobber, Armagideon Time, Should I Stay or Should I Go and London Calling before launching into All Together Now, at the conclusion Mick shouts ‘see you next time’.

Hmmmm wonder if he meant as B.A.D. who were brilliant earlier this year at the same venue or another cause that is deserving of the Clash set. Either and I’d be happy, just keep getting on stage, Mick. They left the stage to ‘make way for the disco’ only for them to return with Janie Jones. Disappointingly a fair number had left immediately after or during ATN. Another reason you should never leave before the final whistle. (Eds note: Anfield ’89) They’ll never be the same without Joe though I’m sure he’d have approved of the cause. Despite having mixed emotions as I did when the Skids reunited without Stuart Adamson I’d rather see Mick and Paul belting out Clash songs than some tribute band. More please……

Image courtesy mckingv on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/44867841@N02/

Thanks so much for that, a great review I thought cheers Geoff. I also have another short summary from Murray which I liked, he may be a bit more forthright than some but just remember opinions about music are simply that and everyone is entitled to one. After all you’ve been digesting mine for the better part of three years now. Does he like Glasvegas? Read along and find out:

The Farm – I never bought into that baggie nonsense the first time round and other than Altogether Now this just washed over me. Pete Wylie was brilliant, a greatest hits set worthy of the price of admission. The Clash set was great, better than I’d imagined. They took a break and the guitarist and singer from Glasvegas got on to do “Daddy’s Gone” – their one great song it seems ! He didnt get the best reception, while he was havin trouble plugging in the guy next to me was repeatedly yelling “you are a wank” at the top of his voice to much laughter around. He’d maybe win a Joe Strummer lookalike competition, but he was struggling with Bankrobber, fluffing the lines he had to read off the page, but then Strummer was always prone to fluffing lines so maybe it was some kind of homage ! or maybe the event was just too much for him. The night ended with John Robb taking a mic to the crowd for Janie Jones. Good fun and by what Mick was saying onstage I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again sometime ….

 Thanks for that Murray, I can just hear a Glaswegian punter shouting that at James Allan in my head. Made me laugh I’ll confess, but as a guest I think he merited more class or am I getting soft? Right then I’ve got to go and drive with the lunatics in the rain this morning but please join me in thanking our guest reviewers for taking the time to write. Speaking of John Robb – his tour blog on Louder than War has been exceptional from the first night in Cardiff and provides so much insight you’d be a fool to miss it so please check that out. I’ll be back during the week, things are going to be hectic around here for the next six weeks as it looks like ClashBlog towers will shortly be relocating to new accommodations in California (more on that soon) but I want to keep up the momentum on the blog – we’ve had an exceptional number of visits over the last month for which I thank you and if you ever want to help our your humble blogger there’s a small banner ad over on the right. Thanks so much to those who already have. Also remember you can keep up to date by  Facebook, Twitter or get the RSS feed which will see the blog sent to you directly. Cheers – Tim

Good evening and welcome back to The Clash Blog. It’s a pretty historic night (now 3am) in London as I write and one that I never really thought we’d see again. When I started writing this blog about two and a half years ago I assumed (logically at the time) that the bulk of what I’d be writing and compiling would be looking back to years long gone. Not that there was anything wrong with that idea in the first place, The Clash were important enough that I hoped there would be an audience of people who’d get together to celebrate the music and the purpose of the band. Having a purpose was always part of The Clash and as fans I think many of us found appeal in that and in turn it gave us a bit more purpose to be engaged in the world around us. You could have got very long odds a few years ago on Mick Jones taking a tour on the road playing a huge number of Clash songs to passionate audiences throughout the UK. It hadn’t happened up til then and didn’t seem likely until about eighteen months ago, around the same time a B.A.D. reunion was first rumoured, if Mick would do that then perhaps the right reason would see him playing Clash songs live again. Perhaps it was Mick realising he holds the keys to The Clash now, perhaps it was allowing enough time to pass since we lost Joe, perhaps it was the simple undeniable fact that the Hillsborough Justice Campaign is the right cause for Mick to align himself with. I think it’s probably a bit of all three but all three were needed to make it happen. I’ll write much more about Hillsborough in the next few days as I think that’s appropriate.

Tonight though the tour with so much more headed down to London, a sold out and very expectant audience at The Scala had already seen the tour bring out some remarkable guests. This was London though, might the stakes get even higher? Not a Clash reunion – don’t even use that phrase – but a return of others to the stage alongside with Mick Jones. Eight hours ago I had high hopes and had read and heard lots of rumours, here’s what happened courtesy of a special friend of the blog – Martin who promised and delivered a review of what happened tonight. Let’s hand it over to him….

The Savage Nomads, including Chris Salewicz’s son Cole, opened the night. Very quickly the venue filled up until it was rammed solid. Tickets had sold out in under 3 hours for this London gig - ironically there are still tickets on sale now for tomorrow nights Liverpool show! I did not catch the name of the next band up and after them was the Rotten Hill Gang with Hollie Cook and Lauren Jones on vocals – the daughters of Paul Cook and Mick Jones.Next up were The Farm and for the next 2 hours the Scala rocked, with more or less the whole of the Farm plus Pete Wylie onstage for the duration.Groovy Train | Steppin’ Stone | Love See no Colour and then All Together Now – which saw Mick Jones arrive onstage, not to leave until the end of the night.

Next up was Pete Wylie’s set:

Come Back |You better scream – dedicated to Kelvin MacKenzie, the editor of the Sun in 1989 at the time of Hillsborough | The Day that Margaret Thatcher Dies (ed’s note – soon as possible please) | The Story of the Blues | Heart as Big as Liverpool – dedicated to the 96, a song that Wylie said Sony had warned him not to release as a single as “it will only sell in Liverpool…..well it didn’t even sell in Liverpool!” | You can’t put your arms around a memory (Johnny Thunders song) | Sinful

And then, at 9.30pm, we moved onto the part of the set that everyone had been waiting for – The Clash songs!

Train in Vain
Stay Free
Bankrobber – with Hollie Cook on vocals who needed help from Peter Hooton and Pete Wylie with the words
Clampdown - with Richard Archer from Hard Fi on vocals – a Brentford fan. He did a good job
White Man (in Hammersmith Palais) – with Peter Hooton on vocals
Should I stay or should I go – should have been Rex from the Rotten Hill Gang on vocals but he forgot the words and again Wylie and Hooton had to come to the rescue!

There was then a short break and Bobby Gillespie plus 2 other members of Primal Scream join the band on stage PLUS PAUL SIMONON!

Rocks Off
Jail Guitar Doors
Brand New Cadillac
Guns of Brixton – sung by Paul
Armagideon Time – calls for Don Letts to join them onstage but he had vanished after being seen earlier
London Calling
Janie Jones – with John Robb, who spent most of the song crowd surfing!
All together now – a final rousing rendition of The Farm song and then it was good night…..or was it?
Rush – one last song, the Big Audio Dynamite song closed a fabulous, never to be forgotten night!

Roll on Liverpool!

Thanks so much Martin, I can’t even imagine how brilliant it would have been there and to see Mick and Paul sharing a stage.

Simply an amazing setlist , so many Clash songs and so many other great tunes. Photos from above are courtesy of our good friend Peter Stevens, I’ll be working on a gallery tomorrow for you. Added to that Paul Simonon and you’ve got a night that can’t be topped. Please join me in thanking Martin for taking the time to chronicle the details. Nice one.

I’m still reeling about this to be honest whilst simultaneously sickened that I wasn’t there. I know we’re going to have some excellent photos and perhaps passable video over the next 12-24 hours so please drop back in. If you’re going to the Liverpool gig you’re in for a treat on what I’m sure will be an emotional night. All the best – Justice For The 96 – Tim

Good morning and welcome back to another weekend at last. I must confess that Saturday’s are much more pleasant now that Arsenal are once again looking like a team who actually have some fight in their stomach, it certainly makes getting up at 5am much more rewarding.

image courtesy Erik the Fish http://www.flickr.com/photos/23662057@N03/

In a quest to keep the blog more current expect to see a few more short posts in the days/weeks ahead. I think if I try and get short updates out as I see them/think of them it might be a better approach. We’ll try it and see. On the agenda this morning is the Justice Tonight tour in the UK next month AKA the ‘Mick Jones Review’. I was surprised to see that tickets are still available at five of the six venues with currently only London on December 8th being sold out. Interestingly the night(s) before the London concert are open on the schedule so perhaps we might see a second night added if a venue can be found as The Scala has another event booked on the 7th. An extra night might also avoid people looking to charge £75 on ebay per ticket. I hope many of you in the UK (sod it, it would be worth a trip over from mainland Europe) are able to get tickets for one of these, I don’t think opportunities to see Mick Jones play perhaps 6-8 Clash songs are going to come along very often. Tickets for the other five nights can be purchased here.

Finally on the same subject, if anyone has a spare ticket available for the London concert please let me know. Someone from Ireland contacted me and desperately wants to make it over only to find the show has sold out, if you can help please contact me and I’ll match you up. That’s all I’ve time for right now but more later I assure you, in the meantime below the video below might make you go and get a ticket.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mick Jones ‘Train in Vain’- Liverpool 24/9/11

Good morning and how is it then? I’m wondering just what life would be like (and what was it like before) coffee? I don’t know if it’s the smell, the taste or the caffeine but I’m not getting out of bed until it kicks in today. Better yet I don’t need to, as this post writes itself which is how a Saturday morning post should be. Just turn up your speakers, sit back and click and I can promise you nothing but goodness.

Best cover versions of all time? That’s a list I would have a lot of fun with but I know for certain that The Clash would have half a dozen songs that would make my own top fifty. Rarely has there been a band who would take a song, fill it with a thousand volts of power and make it sound like the original artist was just chaperoning it until The Clash could rip it up and create the definitive version. That’s no exaggeration either. There are Clash songs that people are surprised to learn were written by others, not learned readers such as yourselves of course but your more casual listener. Our goal – to convert those casual listeners to the more dedicated variety.

Topper Headon - image the exclusive rights of Bob Gruen http://www.bobgruen.com/

You’ll hopefully remember from the past on the blog that those rock band games do actually serve one purpose beyond the obvious one of you not needing to personally spend time with your children. Some clever wag has been taking The Clash songs on the game and stripping them down to their composite parts of vocals, guitar, bass and drums. So far we’ve seen the method applied to Complete Control and London Calling to brilliant effect and now a third (are there more?) song has had ‘the treatment’. It just happens to be a cover version and features some of the greatest drumming ever committed to a recording studio which is why I’ll make the kickoff video be Topper’s treatment of the 1959 classic. To save space on the blog I’ve decided to just give you the direct links to the vocals, guitar (brilliant) and bass here. Green Day’s version? Come on…it’s not even close. I hope this chap continues to strip the songs down as it provides simple but effective pleasure and really lets you deeper inside songs that we’re already familiar with. After about a decade I’m still a hopeless guitarist so perhaps it’s time go get that drum kit….or not. That’s all for now, I hope your weekend is full of fire and commitment. Remember that you can keep current via Facebook, Twitter get the RSS feed for the blog or email me and as ever I appreciate you sharing the blog wherever you can.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I Fought The Law – Drums (isolated)

Well a good evening to you as well. Just when you thought the blog was on permanent hiatus eh? I’m sorry for the lack of a new post over the last ten days or so but a combination of small emergencies to take care of, lots of work with deadlines that had to be met and mild case of the computer burnout blues equated to me not getting much written on a recreational basis over the recent spell. I’m now back however and I hope you will be too. Expect updates every 16-48 hours in normal fashion in the months ahead unless I drop dead or similar. The summer here is beginning to end (thank fuck) so I’ve put my Clash Blog hat (no such thing yet…don’t worry) back on and am ready to write.

Right then, I know full well what I had hoped to write about on that Friday evening and never got back to and that was the closing embers of Big Audio Dynamite’s summer of touring and festivals. I will need to go back and total up just how many concerts Mick and the boys performed since the Spring reunion/reformation. It must be in region of 25-30 altogether with a fairly large amount of travel thrown in for good measure (two trips to the US plus a stop in Japan). After spending the better part of 4 months living/working together I remain curious to see if that will be the final curtain call for Mick’s primary post-Clash venture or if there are future concerts/recordings for us to look forward to? I can’t help but feel that there is a bit more to come although I’ve been wrong many times before. What do you think?

Quite a lot has happened in Clash related terms over these ten days that I’ve missed, not least of which was the Mick Jones appearance (along with a decent repertoire of Clash cover versions) in Liverpool at the ‘Don’t Buy The Sun’ event. His long standing friendship with Pete Wylie meant that it was a particularly special and worthwhile evening for those who managed to attend. More on that over the next few posts. Here was a ‘preview’ interview with Mick in the Liverpool Echo which foreshadowed what was to come.

I’ve also got B.A.D. interviews from Bestival and live clips, a new Clash art collection, some great photos, Lost in The Supermarket and The Clash Cup and hopefully now I’ve emptied my brain some brand new things lined up for the next few days and weeks. Thanks for coming back to the blog, the forthcoming weeks will be as busy as usual I’d expect so please share the word that the blog is back. I’ll be getting through my emails in the days ahead also, cheers for being patient. I know some of the ground I’m going to cover in the next few days may well be old news so try and cope, it’s like going back to the days of the NME for readers. Tim

Click here for more on Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! (you must partake if you didn’t manage to do so in the 80′s)

Click here for information about the 2011 Bestival

A new feature – one year ago today I was writing about The Strummerville Tour, The Big Pink Clash Book and The 100 Club. Worth a read even now!  Two years ago I was going on about The Clash Cup and Bob Geldof who now is forever known to me by this alternate name courtesy of Russell Brand. Geldof can sulk with the best of ‘em.

Good morning Clash people around the globe and welcome to another Monday. It’s a better Monday this week as it’s apparently a holiday for something or other, perhaps it is to honour idiots like me who live in a climate as hot as Phoenix? A short update this morning and then more tonight is the plan and I thought I’d reintroduce Video Clash as I haven’t done that for quite some time, the idea being that we feature some of the more recently uploaded Clashcentric videos to be found on the internet. I can’t guarantee they will all be new to you but if some or most of them aren’t I’d be failing miserably. Cover versions, odd clips and sometimes rarities stumble into the mix so let’s see what we have today. I need to do this twice per month, I’m going to try for the 5th and 20th, so remind me.

Festival cover versions (strummer festival season). I don’t think it’s my imagination but it seems more and more bands are covering Clash songs in their live sets. I’ve no problem with that especially if a fan of that band decides they might then want to go back and hear/buy the genuine article. The appeal of cover versions depends greatly on your ears I suppose, for the most part I struggle to hear a Clash song without either Strummer or Jones being on hand to deliver the vocals but that shouldn’t detract from the effort/recognition being paid by various acts in 2012. Beneath is Rise Against performing ‘White Riot’ in Leeds last month and below the video are links to some others, good, bad and indifferent but I’ll let you be the judge.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rise Against – White Riot – Leeds Festival Aug 27, 2011

I.M.F. perform ‘Radio Clash‘ at ‘Concert for a Cure’ in Ontario. Concert for a Cure is a music-based, family fun day to raise Cancer awareness. A group of youth from Six Nations have come together to bring cancer awareness to the surface in this aboriginal community.

Mighty Mighty Bosstones perform ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ at the Reading Festival. In all honesty I didn’t realise they were still going (sorry).

Glory Days perform ‘Bankrobber’. Never heard of them before but I like the acoustic version all the same, the band Glory Days (no shock) hail from New Jersey. What bands are named after Clash songs, what Clash song would be a good name for a band? I’d go with Hitsville UK or The Ghetto Defendants.

Japanese Band cover ‘Career Opportunities’. I love this mostly because it has such a nice raw sound, sadly I can’t provide much information because needless to say I don’t read Japanese but I know we got a lot of visitors from Japan so please provide some information if you can – I’d appreciate that.

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Career Opportunities… in Osaka’

‘Lost in the Supermarket’ on piano. Just like it says on the packet, for whatever reason this song lends itself really well to piano and the emotions of the lyrics translate well to the single instrument rather well. If you can listen to this and not sing along or at least here Mick and Joe in your head then you’re a better man/woman than me. All I can tell you about the upload is that it’s from the UK.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lost in the Supermarket – piano version

Mick Jones covers Elvis (not Costello). Just to make a change here we have Mick covering someone else rather than vice versa, I’d appreciate more information on this clip?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mick Jones covers Elvis Presley

That’ll be enough for now, please furnish more information, comments and your favourite video from this batch below. Thanks! Tim

Good morning and thanks for dropping in. It seems that the weekend is once again upon us which I’m sure will bring a collective sigh of relief for many. It’s not been a very good week, a number of major cities in England saw looting and rioting, Arsenal enter a new season with seemingly two of our better players to be sold in the next few hours and a combination of bad timing and the need to be responsible meant that I was unable to jet over to Los Angeles to see Big Audio Dynamite. I’m a glass half full person these days however so I’m glad to have a job, a brilliant bloggette and a chance to listen to a bunch of music as I work today.

I’ll have some busy days ahead as we try and catch up on the missing/missed B.A.D. gigs at both ends of California, (today’s image is Mick at Club Nokia in Los Angeles this week). If you attended/will attend any of those on offer and would like to contribute your thoughts, videos or images to the blog please feel free to contact me. I must also get my arse organised so that a suitable preview of all of the Joe Strummer events is on the blog and the calendar – look for those next week.

A little bit of housecleaning then first. Over on the right hand margin you’ll see a new addition of a Joe Strummer icon/picture badge. This little but lasting affiliation with Joe is a simple add-on to your Facebook or Twitter icon if you enjoy such things. They do look rather cool once added to your image, there were only four people enrolled when I added it to the blog and facebook page and now there are 45. Let’s get to 100 by the end of the weekend, you can either click on the image on the right or follow this link.

Glad to see that things seem a bit calmer back in England, although it was rainy the last few evenings. Tonight and tomorrow should be a good test to see if things have settled down although the conditions haven’t changed of course just due to extra policing. If you’re not in the US you may not be familiar with The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart. A nightly satirical program about (mostly) the news. The other night he did a 5 minute bit on the London rioting which if you can get past his cliched view of the UK is quite funny, he’s very funny in general…..remember when New York had some fire in it’s belly Jon? Yeah I know…it’s been a while. Anyway here’s a link to that clip which about a minute into it features a fairly weak pun/fake album cover in relation to The Clash. Have a look.

This blog only came up on the radar due to a newsfeed on Mick Jones. I think the author is correct about the identity of young girl but why on earth is there a need for the final paragraph of the article? It’s negative, insensitive and quite at odds with the story itself. I don’t think it merits more comment than that but I ask that you visit the site, read the piece (especially the last paragraph) and leave a comment if you will. Leave the shit raking to the gutter press. Blogging (ironically) can rise above that.

Okay lets end on something positive. How about Jimmy Cliff covering ‘Guns of Brixton’ just uploaded to soundcloud. Very nice indeed. I’ll be back soon. Tim

Guns Of Brixton by JimmyCliffMusic

Hello again on this perfectly stormy Monday night. I’m tired of hot weather and no rain. There….I’ve said it. Apart from that you could tell me ‘what do you expect, you live in a desert?’ to which I’d reply something bitter and dust storm inspired. Just you wait though, in sixty days you’ll be saying goodbye to summer just as it gets nice here, he who laughs last and all that.

I’m going to start my A-Z of Clash cities next month, I’ve decided it can’t wait any longer so if you know your way around a city and especially the old music halls and The Clash played there during their history then I would love for you to participate. I’ll be putting the full list together over the next two weeks so this can be somewhat organised as a work of reference. We’ll look at the times The Clash played in each city, the venues and other particularly insightful pieces of Clash related information for each town. Yes it sounds ambitious, but I also think it could lead to a Clash inspired travel book and of course you’ll all share in the credits of such a venture. It doesn’t mean that The Clash Cup has been shelved either, in fact look for a return of the internet’s longing extended election in the coming days.

Right then, on to some odds and ends that keep piling up. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as the next Mick Jones or even another Mick Jones this may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. As you know there are a fair few Clash cover/tribute acts who regularly find gigs and some of them are rather good all things considered. One of them ‘London Calling’ is looking for a new Mick Jones so if you’re interested here is the link. Now they know exactly how Joe and Paul felt in 1984. Here is a clip of ‘London Calling’ playing London Calling and some other tracks.

If you’re someone who has more time than they know what to do with then Listal might be a good website for you. The proviso is that you list the things you love and then rate them accordingly. Surely if you love it enough to list it then it scores high. A strange site but growing in popularity as a way to catalogue your music collection or just connect via social media with people who like the music or films that interest you. You also assign a score out of 10.0 to artists and albums you like, worth noting is that The Clash have a score of 7.6 that needs to be improved although I was happy to see that Coldplay registered a 6.8. Individual members need differing levels of support; Joe has a 7.5, Mick a 7.0, Paul a 7.3, Topper a 7.0. The site also reveals that Topper is just 5’6 tall, is that correct? Each of the albums and DVDs are also rated with London Calling taking top spot with an 8.4 which seems low if you ask me.

Unlikely lists part one (there may have been others but I forget). Check this link to the Hymie’s Vintage Records blog (an independent purveyor of vinyl in Minneapolis) to see an interesting list of ‘The Best Songs about Car Crashes’ which The Clash appear on. Bonus points if you guess the song before you check the link.

Finally today from the Jason Jack Miller blog – here’s a link to a great concert by The Clash at The Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (excellent venue) from September 14, 1979. Free download and decent audio quality, interesting to see that although London Calling was just a few months from release the 19 tracks featured just 5 (if we include Armagideon Time) that were still in the construction phase.

That’s me done for now, more to follow all things being even. If you’re attending any of the forthcoming B.A.D. concerts in the coming weeks and wish to submit a review please let me know. Until then I hope to see you in the comments or on Facebook and Twitter. You can also have a daily update sent direct to enjoy with your mineral water by subscribing to my RSS Feed here

Hello again from a very sweaty Clash Blog towers, not that it’s especially hot but I just tuned up my bike (bicycle) and after a few laps I’m knackered – then I was forced to play football with Jack and the neighbours kid. They got in trouble from the boy’s Mum for smacking a half volley against the garage door when in truth it was me, I owned up just in case the Rapture really happens later today I assumed it better to go out on a truthful high.  Obviously it won’t happen but you have to feel for people who believe in such nonsense, probably the same people who think that Coldplay are banging out one classic album after another.

This weekend looks to be fairly calm but next weekend if you are in or near the UK I sincerely hope you’re able to consider making it up to Manchester for Strummercamp 2011. This years three day festival looks all set to be the biggest and best one yet lots more information plus tickets are still on sale if you check this link. The festival kicks off on Friday the 27th at Manchester Rugby Club in Cheadle and runs through until Sunday. Not for the first time this year I really wish I was back in the UK as the lineup is pretty special this year. Friday features the UK Subs and Rebel Truce. Saturday has Geno Washington and The Ram Jam Band plus the majority of a band I consider to be one of the most underated to ever come out of Manchester in the 1980′s – The Chameleons. Now operating under the name Chameleons Vox with Burgess and Lever on hand, strangely so many people were bypassed by The Chameleons and for my money that’s reason enough to be in Manchester. The final day has The Selecter and The Popes, two more fantastic acts. There are literallly dozens of other bands playing plus camping, a wide selection of catering and of course Strummercamp 5-a-side football. Of course this is Strummercamp so you’ll also be surrounded by the biggest gathering of people possible who appreciate the life and work of Joe Strummer.

One last thing I should mention especially as we’ve been bemoaning quite often the price of tickets to see bands lately and especially festivals. Strummercamp offers a very affordable 3 day ticket for £65 which is less than it costs for two people to see a film and have a nice meal in London these days. I’m sincerely hoping that we’ll get some videos and photos (maybe a report…hint!) from Manchester next weekend, I hope many of you are able to attend. As someone noted the other day I wonder if Mayor Boris will make it up.

Keep current with festival notes via the Strummercamp Facebook page. Please Tweet or share this one if you can – thanks.

I need to run for a shower before non-Strummer 5-a-side this afternoon, enjoy The Rapture everyone. See you in the comments I hope. Tim

Hello gang in all the corners of the world, how was your day then. Don’t forget if you have a special Clash related story from your particular country I’d be glad to include it on the blog. Did you start a band because of The Clash, do something out of character as a result or had your life changed by seeing them live? This is the place to share it and I’d like to start handing some of those stories over to you when possible. You already know my story for the most part, first heard them coming from my brother’s room round about my 12th birthday and 30 years on barely a day passes where I don’t think of a song or a lyric or at the very least look at my photos of the band on my bookshelf (not to mention the books about them). My continued passion for music is traced back to The Clash and I hope/think my ability to listen to almost any band objectively (almost….not Coldplay or The Police of course) stems from the fact that The Clash were so ambitious with what they recorded so long ago. How can you become addicted to London Calling or Sandinista! as a young kid and then not look for bands to push themselves to their own limits? Of all the things I appreciate about The Clash the assistance they provided in helping me spot formulaic music is close to the top of that list.

Anyway, off topic a bit but I wanted to share with you an account of a special Joe Strummer night that took place last week in Hamilton, Ontario (just along the lakefront from Toronto). In the chaos of last week I missed covering this earlier so my thanks to Skip for making sure this gets an appropriate nod on the blog. One place I’d like for the blog to excel is to make sure Clash fans know about events in advance that might be of interest, whether they are in Rennes or Rochester, Derby or Darwin we’ve got readers from literally every country and if you give me enough notice I’ll add these events to the events calendar I’ve put on the site and provide extra information to help promote where I can. Art exhibitions, tribute nights or concerts are all fair game so please share the word if you know of something that I might have missed, especially outside if the US and UK where I tend to catch wind of a higher ratio for obvious reasons. Skip wrote up the following review on his cool blog “The Hills are Alive” and allowed me to share it here. Please visit his blog to check out some more photos and videos from their 9th annual Joe Strummer tribute night in addition to some other great stuff….check it out and say hello while you’re there.

We were lucky enough to experience 2 straight nights of Joe Strummer songs at This Ain’t Hollywood this past weekend.  Great crowds (the first night was capacity packed, second one almost) and a way better experience than having to live thru an evening of Gorillaz or Big Audio Dynamite to get your 2011 Clash fix.  It was so good we already can’t wait for the next version on Good Friday and Easter Saturday of 2012.  There wasn’t a bad act amongst the lineup with a heap of supergroups, one-offs, reunions and special guests appearing.  Folk, Punk, Celtic, Rock, Reggae, Rockabilly, Thrash genres and everything in-between were all covered.  Personal highlight had to be seeing the Letdowns (ex-Wetspots) play.  Ah, so many good shows they’ve had and all the memories just came flooding back the moment they hit the stage!  Our fave song, Straight to Hell got a sweet treatment and hearing Burning Lights from the soundtrack of I Hired a Contract Killer was fantastic!  Top marks for The Saints Are Coming for bringing a great Celtic twist to some songs that we wish the video we took did more justice. And speaking of video, this event got us thinking about investing in a better camera to take videos of live music with since our current setup is hit and miss. its just an everyday digital camera and not meant for live music.  Ahhhh, there’s always a reason for more gear!

Here’s some pics and some of the best of the video evidence (ed: please visit his blog).  Visit our youtube site for all the vizness. More videos still being added as we post this.  Thanks for the memories Strummer Night #9, we’ll see u again for 10!

image courtesy FulsumPrisonBlues on Flickr

Thanks so much for sharing that with us Skip, I hope we can expect even more audio/visual goodness next year. Thanks for keeping the spirit of Joe alive and well in Ontario. I’m going to wrap it up there for tonight but will see you in the comments and tomorrow as well I’m sure. Cheers – Tim

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rockers Galore at the Strummer Tribute