Good evening to you from Clashblog Towers, a beautiful sunny day that would have been perfect for a beer outdoors so that is exactly what I did at 530pm – Newcastle Brown in honour of my troubled youth. For some reason in the States they serve Newcastle at a point just above freezing which diminishes the taste horrifically, thankfully I wasn’t offered a ‘frosty mug’ as I was already wearing one as I waited for the warm sunshine to bring my beverage up to a drinkable temperature. That helped.

As you’ve gathered from the blog over the last few days things have had a very Big Audio Dynamite shadow cast over them which is rather appropriate, it has been an extremely long time and seemed far-fetched a few years ago. As you’ve seen it will be the original lineup (“as we’re all still alive” per Jonesy) and I assume the songs chosen will be from the original incarntation of the band as a result, but you never know – BADII had some significant success in the States so it remains to be seen what tracks are chosen. That is of course assuming they add US/Canada dates to the Coachella excursion, signs point to yes but we should take a wait and see attitude I suppose. Mick will be drumming up some serious air miles at this rate. Tonight I wanted to point you in the direction of some of the many articles that have been scribed about the reformation of Big Audio Dynamite over the last week, I found it interesting that the buzz doubled (maybe tripled) when the UK tour dates were announced as opposed to the Coachella news. Perhaps before that point most outlets wondered if the festival appearance was for novelty value only. What this means is over the next couple of months driving around rehearsal spaces in West London might be time well spent in case you hear a beatbox or see grown men trying on old baseball caps. I’m counting on London readers to be very alert and keep me posted! Right then, over to those links:

The NME rather yawningly delivered just the facts and the tour dates, rather a surprise from an editorial team who seem to have been priming a Clash mania pump for the better part of 5 years.

Punknews.org wrote a snappy little piece but like many others rambled on about the band ‘reforming after 25 years’. I don’t understand where that figure (keeps) coming from; 1986 was neither the year the band (original lineup) last played or formed. So after 25 years perhaps makes for a better headline but makes no real sense.

Jon Stickler at Stereoboard had a bit more to say in his announcement which provided more info about the history of the band and ticket prices. I’ve seen a few groans about the £27.50 and £28.50 prices but in all honesty it is a bit above the going rate but to be expected in 2011 for a band who probably won’t play again after these dates. Edwyn Collins by way of example is playing the same venue in London next month and tickets are £19.50 so yeah perhaps a few quid over the odds. Drink at a nearby pub first, problem solved. The Descendents are playing Shepherds Bush in April…when did they reform?

According to The Clash Online the reunion “represents unfinished business for Mick Jones” (???) does it indeed? I’m not sure that’s so but I guess we’ll see. What unfinished business could there be…now I’ll be up all night.

Clashmusic.com at least churn out a new angle “a mixed race group at a time of great tension in the UK” to describe the origins. Not sure 1984 was especially a tense time for race relations…for miner’s yes but Brixton and Toxteth were years earlier. Anyway from what I’m hearing it’s a bloody tense time in the UK once again…so perhaps they can add that on to the gig reviews.

MTV.co.uk really came up with the worst headline “The BAD men are back” before following up with a few sentences of the same information as elsewhere.  If you are a budding music writer contact MTV in the UK and tell them you’d like to apply to be their new webmaster.

Hmmm….most of the other ‘official’ stories seem to rearrange most of the same sentences so I think I ought to leave that there for now, I’ll scan the blogs tomorrow and see if they are a bit more engaging. I’m guessing that they will be. Right….more tomorrow including some Strummerville news. Be good – Tim

So that will be Friday on our doorstep, come right in make yourself at home as I know the only thing following you might just be the weekend. Welcome back to The Clash Blog and you stopped in on a very auspicious or potentially disastrous day in the history of the blog. If you’ve been with us since the beginning you’ll know that I have batted around the idea of a podcast for an extremely long time and the combination of laziness, shyness, lack of technical skills and lack of time have always kept me from doing more than just talking about it. You might have noticed a few weeks ago that a new year arrived and with it I thought I must try some new things. Having already decided to attend more concerts this year I also committed to trying to do more with the blog. Hence what is about to appear below.

The Clashcast! Podcasting is a strange animal indeed but I like it, well when I say I like it I’m referring to other podcasts specifically the ArseBlog arsecast and a few others. Arseblogger has been doing his podcast weekly for years now and it’s brilliant even if you have little interest in football in general and Arsenal specifically, he does a fantastic job and it’s become hugely popular quite deservedly. The main reason I really want to do it isn’t so you can listen to my voice but so that you can listen to other voices primarily people I want to interview for the blog. You’ll hear more about my justification if you press play below, if you don’t press play then wait for the next written post. If you don’t have speakers buy some, if you can’t find speakers use headphones. Parental guidance warning I do believe I may have used a small amount of language in my first podcast and I expect in any future ones.

Please let me know what you think, I’ll apologise in advance for my lack of preparation and knowledge of the software – I know fully well that I can get audio mixed in properly I haven’t taken the time to learn how just yet which is the story of my life. Comments, observations, ideas and insults are all welcome in equal measure but don’t tell me I sounded nervous because you would too. I’ll be back later although my planned Coachella review may no longer be needed, click play to find out why. Cheers – Tim

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Hello…what brings you back here then? Nothing to see here, just keep on moving moving moving your feet. I was chatting with a friend about The Jam yesterday and agreed that few songs are as brilliant as Ghosts.Which, brings me to my question for the day (I might start doing this more often as I really enjoy both reader participation and your collective expertise) – if you’re at or above the same age as me and British you surely remember the semi-rivalry between The Clash and The Jam. I like both bands intensely but I’d take The Clash overall, but I do think The Jam were/are truly brilliant in their own right.

Why did The Jam resonate in terms of net ‘success’ in the UK more deeply? More records sold, bigger hits and (at the time but maybe not in hindsight) a profile that was just as high? Were they more adept at writing a ‘pop’ single and therefore sold more records to casual record buyers? Did they maintain a better relationship with the very important music press? I do know they were more TV savvy so were they better managed? Don’t forget just how many management changes The Clash went through.The Clash were the darlings of the weekly music press throughout 1977/8 and it then started to fragment as early as 1979 which strangely was when they started making a move to far more diversity in their sound. Less coincidentally it was also when The Clash started making some serious progress in North America. Perhaps it was that The Jam and/or with the help of Polydor were choosing/making better singles? I do think that The Clash were much the better albums band. Also interestingly The Jam saw no real success in the USA even while they were becoming huge in Britain. I do remember how apt it seemed that The Jam were allowed to bow out when they called it a day and reissued all those singles as final celebration. A much more gloried conclusion than what befell The Clash. I’m sure there are those of you with much better memories than me so please add your comments.

You may have noticed but I’m not about to mention either football or the backwards coastal town of Ipswich today, for reasons you can gather yourself (bloody Arsenal). Speaking of Ipswich I hope blog readers in Queensland and any other extremely sodden portions of Australia are reading this today and are keeping safe and dry. The situation there looks awful and I hope it improves soon.

The Guns of Brixton getting some ink

Lastly a quick flashback to yesterday’s post about tattoos – I hope you read the comments section on the blog (you should as the contributions are often more interesting than my own) but I’d like to extend huge thanks to Frou (Frau?) who wrote in yesterday to shed some extra light on the news about tattoos as they specifically apply to Paul Simonon anyway. She even sent a photo which you can see on the left of Paul getting his latest ‘piece’ ? – I’ll save you time and reproduce her entire comments. (Is Frou a she? I do hope so)

Paul has a tattoo now to commemorate the Gorillaz tour – I don’t think Mick got it. It says “Die Kunst” (the art) with an anchor between DIE and KUNST –
too bad it’s gramatically incorrect (Das Kunst would be right). Paul designed it and lots of other people of the Gorillaz crew got it.

*and then part two after I had asked for more info

Haha no, someone of the Gorillaz fanbase got it from the Facebook of the place they got their tattoos (Damon Albarn got it, Jamie Hewlett, Darren Evans the bodyguard, Roses Gabor UK R&B/dance artist, Yukimi Nagano singer of Little Dragon, and probably more people… I didn’t get to check a lot of arms) at. The incorrect tattoo still means “the art”, it’s just incorrect. The German “Kunst” is a sexless (Die is female) word, therefore it should be “Das”.

So thanks for all the extra information, tattoo chatter seemed to come thick and fast from there on and I felt like a little kid looking through the shop window at the colour television that we don’t have. I’ve no tattoos so can’t add to the dialogue! Right that’ll be me done for tonight and we learned a bit of German, but I will be following up on Topper watch shortly. Cheers – Tim