Joe Strummer with a Pogue

Friday and such…well done and welcome back. Before we get started I wanted to set you with a challenge. Go to the Quietus website – they’ve created a ‘album cover quiz’ but not in your normal style. You get 30 second video clips to watch one bloke try and mime the famed album cover. It was a lot harder than it sounded – I managed to get twelve correct, but it really is a teaser. Wasn’t I just writing about Mick Jones being very keen to lend his time for a good cause…..well he’s at it again.

Seems that Shane MacGowan has enlisted the help of a few mates to record a single to benefit those impacted by the recent earthquake in Haiti. According to this article in the Belfast Telegraph Shane has recruited Glen Matlock, Chrissie Hynde, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Mick Jones. There’s even a rumour that Johnny Depp played some guitar on the recording but I imagine they didn’t plug him in. MacGowan flew to London to record his version ‘I Put A Spell On You’ which along with two other songs will form a charity EP for the Irish organisation Concern Worldwide. Nice one! *** This just in….I have video evidence of the gathering ***

You might like this interview with another friend of Mick Jones – the French Algerian musician Rachid Taha who talks about his latest record as well as The Clash and music in general. One of those chaps who breaks down the walls of nationalism he’s always got an interesting point of view. Below you’ll find the video of him performing with Mick Jones in 2006 – a stellar version of Rock El Casbah (How much would Joe like this one!)

Taha has been around as an artist for over 25 years now and I guess when I was a lad he would be categorised under world music, whereas he is just brilliant at blending sounds from all different cultures. Worth investigating if you don’t know him, start here with his myspace page.

“I did ‘Rock el Casbah’ because I like The Clash, and it was my tribute to Joe Strummer,” “It’s extremely pleasant to play with Mick Jones, because he was one of my childhood idols. It’s a dream come true!”

Hope some of you made it to the Shatter the Hotel launch event tonight. Let me know if you did!

Back with more during the weekend….Tim

(John Terry…..ha ha ha ha ha couldn’t happen to a bigger ****)

Who's on first? (The Clash at Shea)

Here we are again – hope all is well wherever you may be. Just one quick item to follow up from yesterday’s post about Nouvelle Vague and their cover version of Guns of Brixton. Check out this piece from a Vancouver listings site where they reveal a bit about Mick Jones’ thoughts about the bands tribute (I guess we can call it that).

While I’m following up on things ~ I wanted to ask once again if anyone has any contacts in the world of art gallery space that may be interested in hosting a traveling exhibition of punk rock art later in 2010 (anywhere in the UK or Ireland I assume). I originally wrote about it in this piece so if you have any ideas please contact me or the curator! Thanks. While I’m on track to clear out things that have been pending please check out two blogs by some friends of mine that have been great supporters of the blog since we got started. Shannon has started her own art / music blog and it has a healthy dose of Clash related fixings but much more, also please take a look at miss C Franke’s blog (obsessed with The Clash!) – she is a great writer and observer of art, music, travel and living a life – take a look at both (and then come back to my scrappy journalism daily too!) Cheers! Blogs are filling some great gaps that are being left with the death of one music/art magazine after another…it really is the fanzine of the modern era. So spend some time checking out music blogs rather than dropping $9.50 on an import copy of Q Magazine. Incidentally what the hell has Q magazine become? I saw it on the newstand the other day and it was like a combination of Hello Magazine and an in-flight airline mag, simply banal. Album reviews of less than 150 words…what is the point? Hire a chimp…

Finally, I’ve a confession to make about The Clash. I should really be a completest (is that the word?) and own every album they’ve ever made right? Well to this point I’ve never purchased the ‘Shea Stadium’ album that was released in October of 2008. I had every intention of getting it and then read some reviews, heard a few tracks, went back to listen to some live tracks online and came to the conclusion that it was surplus to requirements. All the while I’ve secretly and perhaps stupidly be holding onto the hope that Sony would release one of the many rumoured earlier excellent live recordings. Did you purchase Shea and were you glad you did? I brought this up as I just read a good and balanced review f the disc on the rather groovy site The Agit Reader. Now I actually feel compelled to get it, I mean I should right. Curious to know if you think its a worthy Clash album?

I dare say many of you at some point between the ages of 10-15 you read ‘The Catcher in The Rye’ and it spoke to your inner angst (well it did for me). I’m almost ashamed to say I don’t think I’ve revisited the book in 20 years now but I still recall how it made me feel when I was about 13. Naturally I write as J.D . Salinger passed away today at the age of 91. I prefer to leave obituaries to the professionals so let me defer to The New York Times on this one. Mr. Salinger – thank you for creating Holden Caulfield, that character did more than speak to us…he was us.

G’night

Alright then back again and I’ve no dreams to share with you this time, actually I had a crap night’s sleep so a dream would have been rather welcomed. Just a few things tonight for you to ponder – a bit of news, a great review of Sandinista! and a few snippets. I’m constantly astounded by how many songs by The Clash get covered by other artists, I could feature a new one every day on the blog and still we’d never catch up – they get added to the various audio and video sites constantly. Some are good…some are bad….many are interesting and usually I can make my mind up on where I stand.

In this case though I keep changing my mind. Nouvelle Vague are more of a musical collective than a band, to date they have used in excess of 30 musicians and vocalists but the nucleus of this french band remain the same. If you haven’t heard of them their currency is cover versions – almost exclusively cover versions of punk, post punk and ‘new wave’ songs. Some of the tracks I’ve really got a lot of time for especially the covers of songs where the original vocalist guests with them. Namely their version of ‘All My Colours’ by Echo and The Bunnymen featuring Ian McCulloch of course (slowed down but simply sumptuous) and ‘Our Lips are Sealed’ by Fun Boy Three with Terry Hall guesting. That said Terry Hall could show up in our kitchen and I think dinner would taste better. Staying on task, Nouvelle Vague have been around since 2004 and have three albums under their belt. Artists covered include those mentioned above plus XTC, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus and The Violent Femmes. You get the idea. They’ve also now covered ‘The Guns of Brixton’ and being a band with a rotating cast I’ve seen/heard versions now with three different vocalists both male and female. It’s a cover version but does manage to reinvent the song to a somewhat sultry stroll. I’ve liked it on a Monday and resented it the next day but wanted to get your take on it. The version below is live and for the purist I’ve a link to the studio version also….perhaps they should have invited Paul.

My verdict, they have done a number of covers that I really think are worth seeking out or buying the album would be even better but I don’t think The Guns of Brixton is their best or most innovative effort. Incidentally they are out on tour around the States from now until February 20th, if they were coming to Phoenix I’d go along so if you do drop me an email.

I’d like to say thanks to a friend of the blog that we’ve linked to before, Mike who writes for the Houston Examiner. Now from what I can tell his gig is writing restaurant reviews but he manages to slip in his thoughts about music from time to time and specifically The Clash. I won’t steal his thunder but I will implore you to follow this link and read his thoughts about two of the greatest albums of our times. Mike asks this fascinating question which I know has its merits: (read the whole article for context)

“If London Calling might be considered the greatest album, as I believe it is better than the ones ahead of it on Rolling Stone’s list, and if Sandinista! is better in edited form, might not it be considered the best album of the rock era?”

Also Prez Obama gave his state of the union speech tonight…rather good stuff but still so much work to be done. I did like these words especially which should remind someone of these careerists what being a politician is supposed to be about in a democracy – no matter what side of the aisle you sit on.

“Just saying no to everything may be good short-term p olitics, but it’s not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambition”                                    President Obama,  Jan 27

Finally, a word about Scotland. Pound for pound has any nation produced more brilliant bands than our friends to the North? I’ve always had a very affectionate space in my record collection for bands from ‘up there’ and it took this article to remind me that the quality of bands from Scotland remains intensely good. The Scotsman list their greatest Scottish bands of the decade – Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian and Idlewild just for starters – ensure you read on and research them all. I can’t even list the number of acts fully or partially Scottish that have made me a happier man. Don’t forget Joe was half Scottish also (before anyone starts getting all English on me!) which he seemed to feel was a large factor in who he became as a man.

Cheers…