Hello again, I realise it’s been a while and I have no good excuses so I won’t even bother. Trust all is well in your particular corner of the world wherever that may be. I expect the blog might be a little slow on updates this week as I’m in a bit of a hole work wise at present which I need to try and dig myself out of, but for today at least it is a Monday and a holiday Monday at that so I’ll get back on track starting tomorrow most likely. There is however quite a bit of news to get through so we’ll try and take some of that to task to get the week started.

Strummercamp 8 tickets are about to go on sale! Needless to say the festival is as ever very affordable and set to take place over the late May bank holiday weekend. Early bird ticket will be available starting this Friday evening (November 16) and I hope with advance warning many of you will be able to make it up to Manchester to kick start next summer. You only need to visit their site to see the quality of previous year’s lineups and I read nothing but good things about the festival year after year. Pricing (early bird special I believe) : adult weekend tickets £55 and child weekend ticket £15. They are also offering a family pass (2 adults, 2 children for £120. For more information and to keep abreast of announcements as they come visit Strummercampfestival.co.uk and/or follow their facebook page right here. More news as it becomes available.

Since we last spoke the US election took place and we have four additional years of Barack Obama being roadblocked by a Republican house and aided by a Democratic senate. All that money spent and the net result is no change. Let’s see if the next term is better than the first, I’m cautiously optimistic and simply based on social issues am pleased with the outcome. Would be very nice to see a third party gain some traction in the US but I can’t see the existing two ever allowing that to happen. I don’t know what Mitt will now be doing but seeing as one of his homes is just down the road perhaps I’ll bump into him at the supermarket soon, perhaps we’ll go for a beer. I hope you were relatively happy with the results?

I was thrilled to see that the Arms Aloft in Acton gig this coming weekend (at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill) has now completely sold out, so I hope you didn’t leave it too long to get tickets. If you are going and fancy writing a review of the event just let me know, I’d also love a t-shirt if anyone can manage that. The shirts are worth grabbing even if you can’t attend and are pictured on the left. Even if you can’t make it along they are priced at £20 and all profits will be going to Jail Guitar Doors and Strummerville, can’t say fairer than that. Here’s the link if you fancy shopping for yourself or getting me a Christmas gift.

Right then, I better press on with getting some work done. Sorry for the delays, I’ll be back soon with more ‘ill-informed garbage’ as the blog was recently described by a very kind troll reader. You know who you are….I love you really.

For more infomation:

Strummercamp 8 | Arms Aloft | Strummerville | Jail Guitar Doors

Hello again good people and welcome to the weekend. It came as promised and I hear that the first sniff of winter is with many of you, meanwhile I’m having to write this in the shade due to stupidly warm weather.

In a perfect world I’d read every book that is recommended, listen to every album with a glowing review and get everything posted on the blog in a timely manner.However, as Billy Bragg said ‘this is reality so give me some room’. I would though like to vow in 2013 to try a more orderly approach to the Clash Blog so that I manage to get ideas written about instead of being half-finished and report on events when they are still somewhere near to still being fresh. This isn’t going to be one of those days, but just because I meant to share this with you two months ago doesn’t mean I should throw the information away completely.

The brilliant raffle prizes at the SF Strummer event

Before getting to that though I wanted to share my condolences to family and friends of Jo Dunne who was with the band ‘We’ve got a Fuzzbox and We’re gonna use it’. The mid 1980′s weren’t the best of times if you liked bands who made a bit of noise and had an attitude to match but werent afraid to have a laugh and Fuzzbox were the exception to the rule of lo-fi C86/Smiths based indie and some rather glum stuff. I saw Fuzzbox a load of times live and have some fond memories of Jo and the rest of the band. I was shocked to see she passed away from cancer last night in Birmingham, she was only 43. If you missed Fuzzbox you owe it to yourself to revisit them so pop over to youtube or start with this. Here is a link to the BBC story about Jo, sadly the timing is even more unfortunate as the band had recently reformed.

Right then back to the missed story that I wanted to cover. We’ve spent a fair bit of time previewing Joe Strummer memorials that are up and coming but one of the very best ones took place again back in August up in San Francisco. Well attended, supporting Strummerville and always featuring a great assortment of acts who are versed in brilliant Clash back catalogue it seems to be the premier event in the US and has now been taking place for 10 consecutive years  with the first one back in 2003. I must also mention what looked to be a really top shelf raffle of Clash related swag, you can’t go wrong. I’ve included full sets of each act below but you can see even more from our friend Gil W on his youtube page. For more information on the annual Joe Strummer tribute in the bay area and to prepare for next summer you may want to bookmark their Facebook page. Thanks to all the bands this year and those who attended. Videos below and you can click on the red links to learn more about each artist who appeared.

Eastern Span - 8 song set – all Clash numbers, great job lads

Chris von Sneidern – 6 song set, all Clash numbers (Time is Tight is masterful) just a brilliant set

The Hooks – Diverse 8 song set; Clash, B.A.D. & Joe tracks

The InterChords - I really like these chaps, 7 songs from all over the shop

Thanks again Gil you do good work mate, really enjoyed these and hope many of you take the time to watch these too. He even captured the raffle if you fancy that, it’s pretty entertaining. Let me know what you liked most.

Good evening fine people and welcome back to the blog, hope all is well at your end. I don’t want to overstate the enjoyable responses by The Baker to questions raised by his guest appearance on the blog a short while back, but if you haven’t kept an eye on each of his guest posts (under the comments section) I really encourage you to do so. Loads of interesting moments of Clash history are examined in depth from a man who was right there after all. Links to the post are here – part one and part two.

Tonight I wanted to give a very abbreviated overview of the Joe Strummer memorial events coming up between now and the end of the year, I will do my very best to preview each one in more detail as the dates draw nearer but I felt that an early warning might be beneficial in many cases. Brief details with clickable links to each events page (if they have one) are below, if you know of any that I have missed please let me know so I can get them included on the site. Right then, off we go – alphabetical by each city seems to make the most sense:

Asbury Park NJ, USA – Strummerjam 22 December 2012. The Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park.

Buenos Aires, Argentina: La Plata Calling – 15 December 2012.

Glasgow, Scotland: Joe Strummer tribute night. 22 December 2012 at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. In association with Strummerville

London, England: Joe Strummer Arms Aloft – 10th Anniversary Memorial Event. Friday 16 November 2012. The Tabernacle,Powis Square, London W11.

London, England: London’s Burning, 21 December 2012. Hosted by Surya, 156 Pentonville Road, London N1

London, England: Remembering Joe at the 100 Club. 22-23 December 2012. In association with Strummerville.

Los Angeles CA, USA: Joe Strummer 10th anniversary tribute, 22 December 2012. The 3 Clubs, 1123 Vine Street L.A.

Milan, Italy: Revolution Rock – 4th annual celebration of Joe – October 26-27, CasaLoca – Viale Sarca, 183 MILANO ITALY

Newark, Notts, England: Strummernight 22 December 2012. The Horse and Jockey

Naturally each of these events have flyers and a list of guest acts which I’ll be sure and preview before each date with the probable exception of the Milan festival which is this weekend but importantly I wanted to direct you towards each event and get tickets if one happens to be in your city. Australia was represented by the 4 city Revolution Rock this month which went really well but I hope we’ll see something pop up in Spain, Germany, Japan (?) and perhaps Mexico. Of course as I see them I’ll add them back to this update and cover via the blog, facebook and twitter.  Sorry for the mad scramble but I didn’t want the Milan event to pass us by and suddenly I realised we’re in late October. Plus don’t forget there is always the ‘upcoming events’ over on the the right of each page —-> if you want to see what is on the horizon. I’m happy to add other things to that calendar if they have a relevancy to Clash fans. All good? Have a great night, Tim