Don Letts filming the Citizen Sound! (Image courtesy Pete Stevens)

Hello everyone – nearly through another week of thrills and spills. I’ve got a backlog of things to cover and will try to ramp up the posts over the weekend. I will say it looks likely that we’ve got some very interesting Clash associated interviews exclusive to the blog coming up in the next few weeks and I’ll probably need your help – so keep in touch!

Last Friday night Prince Blanco (Mark Matthews) was back over in London from his current home in Toronto to reach the pinnacle of a year’s worth of work. It also involved heading to the right side (N) of the river! Mark has spent months organising, recruiting artists, marketing and collaborating on the Shatter The Hotel project on behalf of Strummerville. Actually for extra insight I’d recommend that you check out the podcast I mentioned the other day – during which Pete Cogle interviews Mark about the project. Last Friday marked the very special event that coincided with the UK launch of the album and in conjunction with Strummerville, the troops all rallied at The Inn on The Green. I’d asked Mark to check back with us when he had returned to Canada and he’s subsequently been kind enough to write this brilliant account of the evening beneath. Thanks to everyone who made it along that evening, all the artists who contributed and everyone who has so far purchased / downloaded the album. I’ll be back with more Clash Cup, some news and other special features soon – for now here’s Mark:

On Friday, February 5th we celebrated the UK launch of Shatter The Hotel: A Dub Inspired Tribute To Joe Strummer at Inn On The Green in West London. I must admit, I was a bit stressed getting everything organised for the event especially since one of our contributing artists DubCats, who were set to perform live on the night, unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute. Anyway, two lagers, a couple of quick interviews followed by a schedule tweak and we were back in action.

The punters starting rolling in around eight-ish and we began the night in fine style with ‘Lost In The Supermarket’ contributor and most recently Roots Manuva’s remixer Wrongtom who mashed up the place with a wicked set of what was essentially reggae as recorded by punk artists – think of ‘Jah War’ by The Ruts and you get the picture! Nice.

Up next ‘London Calling’ contributor Dubmatix with singer Mighty Howard hit the stage and tore the place up with some serious roots and dub. This was Dubmatix’ first ever performance in London and based on the reaction of many of the hardcore Ladbroke Grove lot, it definitely won’t be his last!

Mighty Howard - Image Courtesy Pete Stevens

Toronto based producer Citizen Sound who contributed ‘One More Time’ to the CD hit the turntables next and kept the crowd on it’s feet with a fine selection of chunes, including a nice white label alternate version of Joe doing ‘The Harder They Come’ all the while egged on by London DJ and mashup king J-Star.

Glasgow’s Chomsky Allstars hit the stage next and gave the crowd their trademark punk-fuelled selections. I joined them onstage for their Shatter The Hotel contribution ‘Know Your Rights’. The band brought some amazing energy to the room and I found out on the night that appropriately, they will be going into the recording studio very soon as they themselves are recent recipients of assistance from Strummerville!

Closing the night, the one and only Don Letts who lit up a packed dancefloor with some boombastic reggae cuts. Most of us were having such a great time by this point that we didn’t realise the bar had closed!

Cheers to all the artists who donated their time and talent to this event and to everyone who came out to celebrate with us! Special thanks to friends old and new: Trish and Bell from Strummerville, Dave Pitt and all at Inn On The Green, Slits’ biographer Zoe Street-Howe, Strummer biographer and Shatter The Hotel contributor Chris Salewicz, bassist Leo Williams (carrying regrets from Mick Jones), the very dapper Gaz Mayall, the legendary Robin Banks, rude boy Ray Gange, all the old Big Audio Dynamite gang – Guy, Desmond, Karl Statton, Rosamund, Brady from the Hollywood Brats (check your Clash history!), photographer Pete Stevens, Pete Cogle and the young geezer who shouted ‘Prince Blanco, you’re a legend!’ prompting the crowd to give me a very warm and heartfelt round of applause…thank you all very, very much!

A grand night was had all ’round and I have to thank the wonderful people of Portobello Road and ‘Da Grove’ for making me feel at home and for extending me honorary west London ‘citizenship’ for the week I was there – you made this sarf London boy feel very welcome! The best part of all is we raised more than a few hundred quid for Strummerville in the process!!

By the way, Don Letts came with a film crew in tow and filmed the entire event for last minute inclusion in his upcoming documentary about Strummerville. The film is set to be shown at this year’s SXSW festival in March – stay tuned to the Clash Blog for more on this!

Mark Matthews aka Prince Blanco
Toronto, February 2010

He's not acting...Sean Penn

Good Evening…whats up then? Just time for a quick update tonight but thought it would be nice to say hello. Just watching Sean Penn on the news who is over in Haiti doing what he can – it’s become very easy to see ‘celebrities’ as shallow and selfish but you should tip your cap to someone who could just be sitting in his Beverly Hills mansion but instead is getting his hands dirty at the site of a genuine crisis. Raising awareness about important matters is (I think) a responsibility we all share and if you are ‘famous’ and connected you should shout it out as loud as you can that things need to be changed. I guess I like my actors like I like my musicians – to have a conscience and some ideas, nobody has all the answers but at least ask the bloody questions.

I wanted to touch quickly on the Strummerville event last Friday night for the Shatter The Hotel album launch. When you get time pop over to the Strummerville site to see some more great photos and find the link to hear a podcast of the whole event. Marvellous…almost as good as being there except lacking in Twiglets and a pint of Stella. I hope to get some more inside information from Mark Matthews (Prince Blanco) later this week but I am genuinely thrilled that the project was so warmly received in London. The podcast is a must listen, interviews are mixed alongside the music and you will want to buy the album when you finish listening. You can download it to your i-tunes thingy also if that’s your bag. (ask someone younger…sorry!!). The Trish Whelan interview is priceless as she discusses a lot about Strummerville and how its expanding.

I’ve worked out my Achilles while working on the blog, I can’t write an album review that is succinct to save my life. I just ramble so much that I don’t think I help sell the record though I might convince you that I think the Miner’s Strike was the socio-economic event of the 1980′s – I get off track. However I can say this album review of the aforementioned Shatter The Hotel album from the Lucid Culture blog is well worth a read also.

In other news - Paul Weller will get the NME Godlike genius award this year – (after The Clash of course). While I just simply adored The Jam and The Style Council my continued efforts to enjoy his solo output has not been easy. I know it’s revered and critically loved but beyond Stanley Street (was that the title?) I’ve just not found that groove. Perhaps you did? Either way congratulations to Mr. Weller.

The always enjoyable Huffington Post has a brief story about The Specials today – with the band coming to the States in the Spring I am sure that the US music media (the fragments that remain) will be queuing up for days to speak to Terry Hall for a few minutes. Terry is a fascinating bloke and one of my favourite musicians ever but not easy to interview, he’s also sort of ‘forgot’ much of his time with The Specials – he was just a young man don’t forget.

Back soon ~ Tim

Hoping to expand upon this over the weekend with a lot more info from Mark Matthews the man behind the project. If you’re new to the blog Shatter The Hotel is a project in conjunction with Strummerville to create a CD of Clash songs performed in a dub / reggae style. The disc itself is brilliant and benefits the Strummerville  charity – if you haven’t bought it then you can do so and learn more on the site. The UK launch event took place last night at Inn on The Green in Ladbroke Grove. By all accounts it was a great event with a smashing vibe and hopefully I can furnish more info over the weekend. Pete was their with his camera and has captured some lovely images – starting with Dubmatix beneath:

Dubmatix at The Shatter The Hotel event - courtesy Pete Stevens

I’ve been listening to the disc a lot recently and as opposed to other ‘Clash cover compiliations’ this is a really cohesive piece of work and makes for a worthwhile sit down and listen (or drive…or skank). The disc has liner notes from Chris Salewicz and features among others Don Letts, Dubmatix, Chomsky All Stars and of course Prince Blanco (Mark) himself. You can get a flavour of the album on the MySpace page. Back later tonight…

Strummerville Merchandise - image courtesy Pete Stevens