Warm, tired and lacking in coherence. That might sound like the perfect combination for a blind date or perhaps describes your other household members but today it simply describes me. This heat has to finally relent before I can get myself into a very good writing groove again which is a great source of frustration for me as I’d like to update the Clash Blog every 24 hours or better if possible. More importantly there is enough information to do a daily post and the lack of reaching that goal means I’m not as current as I should be I think revert to the dreaded and dreadful 300 word updates to get me through the summer might be in order. Apologies in advance, I hope you’ll accept that but I think I should be back in the groove in a week or two. I’ve also got a mountain of work on my plate which is a good thing (fuck knows 1 in 10 on both sides of the Atlantic wish they had gainful employment…..the recession that keeps on giving) but the excess of work leaves me not wanting to face a keyboard for a second longer than is truly needed.

Tonight’s post should be part two of the Mick Jones in Minneapolis mini-interview but I’m missing part of the transcript of that conversation (I know…not good at all!) but I will find it and/or catch up with my source at the weekend so we can complete that tale. I do of course know the questions but I’d like to present the answers furnished by Mick verbatim. Look for that over the weekend.

Mick Jones at the Joe Strummer tribute in San Francisco

In the meantime I’d like to thank Gil from San Francisco (regular readers will know him as a wonderful friend of the blog, a man who seemingly captures on video anything Clash related that occurs along the Pacific coast). Not sure where my oceanic theme came from tonight but we’ll just need to ride that wave for another paragraph or two. Keen watchers will know that Big Audio Dynamite wrapped up their American tour dates at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco and from what I’ve seen you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque setting in this part of the world. It’s not Glastonbury by any means but certainly a nice location for a gig, namely San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I’ve only ever wandered through it for a walk as it is after all a park but I imagine it would be a really great place to see a band and I don’t even like outdoor gigs.

Anyway, Gil was down in Los Angeles to see B.A.D. and then followed their itinerary back up North to the San Francisco festival concert on the Friday. It just so happened that the following evening saw the annual Joe Strummer Tribute event in the city with proceeds going to Strummerville. You may recall from last years footage (compiled by Gil) that the event features a rather brilliant raffle and numerous acts paying respect to Joe Strummer/The Clash, I’m often a bit unsure about many cover versions of Clash compositions but for whatever reason this event seems to bring out some of the best in people/acts. Optimistically or confidently (??) Gil had asked Mick if he might be able to attend the Strummer night and the results of that as well as many of the videos of the evening are beneath. This wouldn’t be more than a footnote on the blog if it weren’t for Gil and I must thank him once again and if you haven’t previously clicked over to his YouTube page I recommend that you do – dominated by Clash related videos that are well worth a look so here’s the link. Enough of my babbling have a look at the videos beneath and make sure you watch the last one! (incidentally these may be aligned oddly depending on your browser, it’s me – not you) It’s a long weekend here so I’ll be back with more I’m sure. Thanks for dropping in.

B.A.D.  ‘C’mon Every Beatbox – Los Angeles

Interchords ‘Sightsee MC’ – Joe Strummer Tribute San Francisco

B.A.D. ‘The Bottom Line’ – Outside Lands Music Festival

Clash City Sirens ‘Medley…’ – Joe Strummer Tribute San Francisco

B.A.D. ‘A Party’ – Los Angeles

Montage of bands & Mick Jones at the Joe Strummer Tribute

Good evening planet Clash, and how are things in your corner of the world then? I’m hoping your day was a little more normal than here at Clash Blog towers which after a session that began before the birds were fully awake has now ended and HQ now has a brand new roof. Perfect for blogging beneath. Nothing special in that as virtually every house on the street has had the same after a large hailstorm wreaked havoc on the town. We all needed new (Guns on the) roofs. I’ve never seen people work so hard in my life in bloody warm temperatures, Arsenal should watch a video of that team effort for inspiration. Anyway I filled the day with blogging from a remote undisclosed location (like Dick Cheney when things are dicey) before returning home to a newly shingled abode. As a result I’ve little left in the tank to write with but I did want to make sure you caught the new Paul Simonon video that has been making the rounds since around the same time when they started hammering this morning.

The video (beneath) is brought to you by Fender who are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Precision bass and features a really enjoyable 5 minute interview with Paul obviously put together during last years stint with Gorillaz. It’s especially good as we’re left with just Paul talking skipping the questions from the other end as Simonon discusses his original desire to be a guitarist, how he views his instrument and his changed playing style. As you’d expect the circumstances behind a particular album cover also are touched on. Nice video though and as it was only uploaded yesterday I hope it will be new to some of you. As for those in the comments comparing Paul with Hugh Laurie….shut up. Thanks to the many people who emailed me about the video today.

Paul Simonon talks bass guitars with Fender

Oh before I forget, voting on the Clash Cup remains open for another day or so. While the vote is a bit lopsided at present there is still time to change the course of history.

Glastonbury flags under a sunny early evening sky

Suddenly we’re sitting in the middle of June which means B.A.D. appearances in Bournemouth and at Glastonbury are just around the corner, if you happen to be attending either concert and would like to submit a post for the blog retelling your point of view please get in touch. In fact I’ll say it again, if you’d like to contribute a guest post to the blog about The Clash or related matters please don’t hesitate as I’m keen to share other stories and points of view beyond my daily rambles.

Speaking of Glastonbury be sure and stop by the Strummerville site where they have set the stage for the Strummerville campfire, if you’ve never been before make sure you wander over and spend some time. Happily every time I’ve been to Glastonbury Joe was still around (and perhaps even there?) with Pulp being a highlight whenever that was. Sadly I’ve not been back since, one of these days I’ll have the cash to do so again just as soon as the fucking money pit house stops needing repairs.

There’s certainly more to write about and for those that have emailed ideas recently I promise to catch up as soon as I can (and thank you), but I’ll need to drop the old laptop for a few hours kip now. Thanks for visiting and don’t forget to say hello in the comments or on Facebook and Twitter. You can also have a daily blog fix mailed direct to enjoy with a nice bottle of Old Peculiar by subscribing to my RSS Feed here. Cheers – Tim

Hello and good evening (although it might not be when you read this) welcome back to the blog. Yes I know its been a few days since I squeezed in an update but I took a little break from blogging this week in the hope that I’d recharge my batteries. Instead I found myself spending the evenings listening to a pile of CDs that I’ve purchased recently, attended a concert (Gruff Rhys, he of Super Furry Animals fame) that was simply brilliant and began to study for my Google Analytics certification. If the last part of that sounds incredibly dull it probably is unless you really like numbers and statistics in which case you might enjoy it. I’m also getting into that end of the football season/start of summer vibe so I’ve been getting my bike (not a motorbike) ready for hopefully 50 miles a week of riding which I need to get me out of the house and in fighting shape because of course I expect to get in a fight soon with a Stanglers fan or a random Tea Party supporter. Those bloody tea baggers eh? To add insult to injury Sarah Palin just moved into this very town, as if property prices weren’t low enough as it is. On a lighter note I heard a commentator on the radio today point out that in reality we have slipped back into recession, this wasn’t some paranoid talking head either but a genuine economist with data that supports his statement. Brilliant!

All of which doesn’t begin to get you any closer to news about The Clash does it? When in fact I’ve got quite a bit. I’ve worked out that all too often I try and compile an 800 word post so that your visit feels worthy and as a result I’ve been averaging about 5 or 6 posts a week. Quite good but I’ve always wanted for the blog to be a daily thing whenever possible so I’ve made an unofficial decision to on occasion not wait until there are 3 or 4 topics to cover but instead send out  a shorter three of four hundred word update post which will cover sometimes just one piece of news in more depth. Posts will then be more frequent if sometimes a bit shorter than you are used to. Does that sound good? Even if it doesn’t that’s the plan for the time being. As ever I welcome your guest posts on the blog so if you’d like to write about a Clash memory or a favourite song, concert or bit of trivia that you think that the readers of this corner of the internet might enjoy please get in contact. It doesn’t have to be exclusive about The Clash, you might want to review a concert or album that draws a parallel to the band, you might want to write about the best opening ten seconds of any Clash song ever, or write about the best haircuts ever sported by Mick Jones (first album sleeve to save you time) – I’m open to your suggestions and something that gives more variation than me chirping away daily.

You see I find myself back in the situation where I have half a dozen topics to cover and feel I’m destined to miss something entirely or at best give it short shift (I thought I’d include a link to that phrase as every time I use it in the states people look at me as if I’m the one with the speech impediment, at least I can pronounce ‘otter’ correctly so you know I’m mentioning the river residing little mammal). Speaking of little mammals I wanted to shut up and simply introduce a never before seen (by at least 90% of you) video interview with the four members of The Clash circa 1982 in Auckland, New Zealand. Its so very worth a watch as the video and audio are brilliant quality, Joe plays a few songs, Topper drums on his legs, Mick looks very happy and Paul is cool as the proverbial. The interview is really good and has a touch of foreboding about it as Joe explains that The Clash won’t simply stop or go away. My thanks to Steve for letting me know about the video which originally surfaced on the incomparable Black Market Clash site. Incidentally there is no better resource for tracking every concert/event and live recording in one place than that site. I don’t know how Graham (the site owner) possibly compiled such an amazing level of information but chances are you can settle almost every debate about The Clash via that brilliant website. I consider it the ultimate fact checking site when I’m trying to determine chronology of events or concert information. In fact I’ve tried to find out if Graham would do an interview for the blog about this site/Clash story, he said yes and we’ve yet to schedule it which I understand as he’s a busy chap. I’ll explain why when I get the interview. Anyway please visit his site if you haven’t or even if you have and be sure and say hello on his site. Here’s the video and I’ll be back within 24 hours I hope, see you in the comments.

Interview excerpts with The Clash, Auckland, February 1982