Hello again and thanks for dropping in to the blog, I’ve got a last bit Monday energy to burn off today which is odd seeing as I was absolutely knackered last night. I hope your week began in a good fashion. I wanted to say a large thank you to those of you who have been kind enough to contribute to the ‘Clash blog fund’ so far (see the icon in the right hand margin) I really appreciate it and you can contribute any amount you wish – no minimum amounts required or such nonsense. I’m actually trying to work out something with Strummerville so a portion of all funds will be donated directly to them, at present they are not registered as a charity outside of the UK so I’m hoping that is something we can overcome and allow people to make tax deductible contributions via the blog though it might not happen til next year. More news on that topics soon I do hope, ideally we’ll work something out.

Excellent response to yesterday’s post about 1977, I spent another hour or so looking at music charts from 1977-1980 yesterday. I can’t even begin to express how much ice was broken by punk when you compare what was happening from 1973-1976, things were so stale it’s almost unreal. I’m glad I was 13 in 1980 and not 1974, I think I would have gone a bit mad. I’ll definitely do some more research about those charts and share it with you as I think it’s fascinating. Many feel, which I partly understand that ‘Punk was crucial but what do we have now?’ – and while that argument does hold some water you have to also agree that recent years have at least seen bands (whether or not you like them) who are young and guitar based. I don’t think Arctic Monkeys or The Cribs compare especially well with Wire, XTC or Buzzcocks but it’s huge improvement over what was happening before 1977. I’d be interested to see whom Clash fans would say have been the best bands over the last 5, 10 or 15 years. Bands that have begun within those spells – I’m sure we’d come up with some great names and have a few disagreements. I’d have to give that some thought although Doves, The Libertines, Los Campesinos, Gorillaz, Frightened Rabbit, Elbow and many others come to mind. There’s also been a lot of bands who seem capable of a good album or two but then lose my interest. What’s been your favourite album of the last year? Was it by an old favourite or a new(er) band? I’m convinced that there are more good new bands around now than there wereat the beginning of the 1990′s but much of that could be due to it becoming easier than ever to find new music. Perhaps a more difficult question – does anything in the last decade remind you of The Clash or inspire you the same way? Or how about this – if you’re under 30, who has been the most inspiring newer band of the last 15 years to you, a band that makes you want to get involved and change things? That’s the type of artist I struggle to find – someone with something to say.

Just wanted to go through a few things on The Clash and related newsfeed tonight and there’s certainly plenty to follow this week but I’m aiming for more frequent posts to help overcome that. Off we go then.

Strummercamp Festival 2012 tickets are on sale now! Best news of all they are offering a special early bird price for a limited time. Take my word for it, you will not find a better price and value for a music festival next summer so take advantage now and warm up by making plans for next summer. Here’s the official blurb, Strummercamp 2012 takes place June 1,2,3. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE. In recognition that money is tight we have decided to release cheap early bird tickets for a limited period. For just £50 (or £25 under 16, £100 family 2+2) you can enjoy 3 days of festival fun over 5 stages. Be sure to book your ticket as soon as possible before the early bird tickets sell out.

Strummer film latest: Not sure if this is the project we spoke about at length earlier in the year which I’d assume to be the case, or if that has been shelved and this takes it’s place as the forthcoming Joe Strummer biopic. However this is not to be confused with the film about London Calling, are you still with me? According to Cinemablend.com the film has now been titled ‘The Right Profile’ (still not ideal if you ask me) and will be directed by Julie Delpy which contradicts what we were hearing at the start of the year. If I had my notes that would be more useful but I’ll seek it out.

Former Mescaleros support Noel Gallagher: I’d meant to mention this earlier too but my secretary was on holiday but The Hours which features Anthony Genn and Martin Slattery are providing support to the former Oasis bloke on his current US tour. His new band is called Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds which always reminds me of Monty Python’s Flying Circus which incidentally was almost brilliantly going to be called Owl Stretching Time. The word on the tour was very positive, I don’t know whether they’ll be the opening act for forthcoming Australia/NZ and European dates but if you’ve heard please let me know.

Right then, I ought to consider some dinner I suppose, I don’t feel particularly brilliant tonight so it’ll be an early one with warm milk or something. Don’t forget to share the blog if you can and wish to plus remember you can keep current via Facebook, Twitter or get the RSS feed  thanks for reading. Tim

Sunday morning then, thanks for dropping in to the blog. If you’re of similar vintage to me and grew up in the UK and most of Europe I presume you probably remember Sunday being the sleepiest day of the week. Now it’s a bit like a watered down version of a Saturday isn’t it? In the 1970′s in England the only places open were newsagents in the morning so shopping wasn’t an option, there wasn’t any football and generally it was a day to do little other than bring the paper to the pub for a in-depth read and probably end up with a roast dinner. It was almost seemingly designed for a recovery from a late Saturday night but even that was usually not that extremely late as the pubs closed at 11pm. Seems like a very different world that spawned punk and The Clash in 1976 but when you see old video footage of practically anything from that era (try this for example) the fashion, the hair and every aspect of life looks like the hangover from the 1960′s resulted in a soupy mess of stagnation.

When you add to that the fact that the economy was entering a downward cycle the breeding ground for something new and exciting was especially fertile, particularly for youth. Inner city life had long since lost the ‘swing’ of the 1960′s and with grim job prospects and it being harder to afford a place to live made cities like London, Manchester and Liverpool perfectly positioned to support a new movement for young kids. With that said though it’s not as if punk rock in the UK replaced pop music and that hundreds of thousands were buying the earliest singles by The Sex Pistols, The Clash or The Damned. It remained a fringe scene for the better part of 12 months until the media decided it posed a huge threat to the existing morals of society. The turning point was probably The Sex Pistols appearance on the Bill Grundy show on December 1st 1976 which resulted in the daily newspapers finding a new danger to rally against and it was punk rock. You have to remember that more than television or gossip and long before the internet nothing shaped public opinion in the 1970′s like the daily paper. It’s very reasonable to assume that prior to ‘The Filth and The Fury’ headlines that 90% of UK adults had never heard of punk rock as they cuddled up to their latest ELO or Wings album and suddenly their children had to be protected from something more sinister than they could comprehend. The truth was that small punk scenes only existed in a handful of cities around the UK at that time, if you lived in Exeter or Norwich, Stoke or Bradford no such scene had even formed. Early audiences at concerts by The Clash and others outside of London were more likely to be attended by aging rockers, the curious or the local drunks than someone who already owned the first few Ramones albums. The scene came later as did the inspiration, by the second half of 1977 and into 1978 every town in the country had a new band who realised that anyone could make a record and it all fell under the umbrella of punk. A lot of crap was recorded under the banner of punk but there were also dozens of excellent new bands that realised that if you could master 4 or 5 guitar chords and get a pub willing to put on a gig a local scene could begin. For me personally, a huge ratio of the bands that have meant so much over the years formed between the start ’77 and the end of ’78. Not every band would legitimately be considered punk in sound (any more so than London Calling was) but punk in terms of attitude and creativity for sure. The biggest and best legacy of the era is what changed compared to previous- new bands on small labels became the norm and not the exception. Record labels were set up in small offices and garages and with the help of people like John Peel and the fanzine culture bands could get heard with little or no financial backing.

I think it also ushered in the most exciting spell of music we’ve yet to see as punk merged into post punk and then what was to be become ‘indie’ 1979-1987 saw a fantastic variety of bands on labels that didn’t even previously exist and the catalyst for all of this was punk. Just for fun I looked at the best selling singles in England in August 1976 and it simply demonstrates just how much punk was needed and how close music was becoming (had become?) to being a non factor for all of us. Below is a look at the top 20 at that time:

As you can see there is hardly a ‘guitar band’ in that list and most of it wouldn’t look out of place in a collection of singles for someone aged over 25 (35?) even at that time. Who were the kids of 1976 supposed to be inspired by? Elton John was top of the charts and at age 29 had ended his run of albums that were vaguely monumental, Dr Hook were soft American pop by guys in their late 30′s. David Dundas was a one hit wonder from Oxford, Tavares were a bland R&B band in their late 30′s, Jimmy James was more insipid R&B from a chap pushing 40. Even the relative excitement of Glam Rock was all but dead with the art rock of Bryan Ferry being as near to ‘alternative’ as this chart offers even those he was 31 by then. The lack of a young guitar band in that list is almost painful when you think that a decade earlier the charts were dominated by The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones and The Who – each of whom were populated by young men at that time. By 1976 it was like the sixties had never even happened, the charts were as safe as they were in 1956. The door was wide open for something fresh to happen and the impact was genuine, a year later the 40 top selling singles in August 1977 included The Stranglers, The Sex Pistols, The Jam, Television and The Ramones – none of whom would have got a look in just 12 months earlier. Not quite sure what got me started on this today but it’s important to note that beyond The Clash you could suggest that the seeds planted in 1977 saved music and by 1978 and 1979 (I’ll write about those later) the difference was incredible.

Good evening, a lack of planning means that tonight’s post is short in depth but full on in terms of the sentiment behind it. I would have had it written for this morning but felt the Paul Simonon story from yesterday deserved pride of place for a few more hours.  I’ve written numerous times of how(I’ve spent the last few years trying to change my sentiment when it comes to finding some good in Joe Strummer dying so young. Trying to move from the senses of mourning, sadness and frustration (which definitely dogged me the first five plus years) to making the loss of Joe something more akin to celebration or at the very least inspiration. When all is said and done he was just a solitary bloke, a special one at that, but one bloke who cared a massive amount about his community and the world at large and managed to find himself to be in a position where he could try and drive change. He ended up heading a band that changed hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, not the first person to manage that and not the last. However I think when it comes to Clash fans above all other fans of specific bands something deeper and longer lasting resonated due to their music, their lyrics, their stance and their passion. There have been dozens of bands who perhaps made music just as good as The Clash, there have certainly been many bands who held wider appeal around the world, but in terms of impact – genuine life changing impact I don’t know if a band from that generation or since who managed to change so many people’s futures or simply attitudes as The Clash. Getting involved and doing it for yourself was never a very Rock and Roll approach before punk and perhaps only with the advent of affordable recording over the last decade has it become so since. The reason The Clash made such a difference was due to all four members but central to that fire was Joe Strummer.

If you ever saw Joe on stage you’ll know that he was born to lead that band, if you had any doubt about his sincerity it was immediately vanquished when Strummer led the band charging through their set. There are days when it seems an awfully long time ago but as soon as I hear a live recording I realise how lucky I was to have been impacted by this band. I can’t be bitter at his loss when the great thing was feeling involved from the age of twelve onwards. Therefore it’s a sad day today only on paper – as I wrote last week November 15th 2002, was that very special night when Strummer and Jones shared a stage one last time. Completely unrehearsed and fully unplanned but as natural and in sync as the 100+ brilliant songs the two composed between 1976 and 1982. Strange events happen to us all, a final phone call to a relative who was soon to pass, a chance meeting with a old friend to bridge a gap of too many years. Strummer and Jones were more than our generations Lennon and McCartney and while everyone has rightly mourned Joe these nine years since I’m not sure how often we stop and think about how it must have impacted Mick, Paul, Topper and Terry. It’s a fair case to argue that these four working together brought out the very best in one another, despite the fighting and struggles. Each of them know that the chemistry they had with Joe and Mick writing was lightning in a bottle. In hindsight the band should never have split up, they would have beaten all-comers in the 1980′s,  but I don’t think you could even beg for five better or more unique and masterful albums released at breakneck pace. At the heart of that was Strummer/Jones and I will forever be thankful that they shared a stage that final time. I think they both had some unfinished business there and although that reunion lasted less than a quarter of an hour it must have been something they both reflected on long and hard after the fact.

So nine years on from the unofficial closing of the story of Mick and Joe I think it’s only right to celebrate it for what it was – it was magic, it was trans-formative and like all great art it can last forever. Moreover I can’t imagine the story of The Clash without that remarkable night at Acton Town Hall. If you were there I’m sure your memories of it would be hugely enjoyed by everyone who reads this blog – the ratio of people who were there that night (I don’t think that hall holds more than 500) compared with who would have liked to have been would be absurd. Anyway, I know I rambled and repeated some of last weeks thoughts but keep Novemeber 15th on your calendars for the years ahead. Two dear friends finally got together on this night again in 2002 at last,  they easily bypassed all the years that had gone and together did what they did best one last time. Definitely an anniversary to celebrate.

If you ever want to visit the scene of that special night – stay tuned, I’m going to be add Acton Town Hall to the Clash locations series soon. I know Pete (a major friend of the blog and myself) lives nearby to Acton High St – he might even recommend a decent pub or place to grab a curry.

For tonight – and with a huge tip of the cap to Alan Miles I suggest you watch the film below if you haven’t seen it before and purchase a copy if you don’t have one. Part 2 is here and part 3 here. Enjoy it but better still make sure that you also celebrate it. Also, tomorrow should mark the 800th post on The Clash blog so come and join me for an octopus or spider themed update.

The Last Night London Burned