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.

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.

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.

‘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.

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?

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