Good morning and thanks for stopping in at the blog, now rapidly heading towards the 800th ever post. Blimey! You find me on a Thursday morning with a full mug of coffee and listening to Diamond Dogs by David Bowie, I’m not quite sure why. That midlife crisis thing may actually be sneaking up on me. I have to pack for a few nights away today so I thought a short update prior to a day’s travel through the desert would be in order.

Not much news comes immediately to mind, I image that Big Audio Dynamite must have flown from Heathrow today or yesterday to Tokyo for their Friday night appearance at the Fuji Rock Festival. I know we get an awful lot of readers on the blog from Japan so I’m quietly optimistic that we may receive photos or some notes about the gig from a few of them. Speaking of the festival they have a rather brilliant lineup of bands appearing over the three days although of course I’m not including Coldplay in that description. Arctic Monkeys are also there and I happened to purchase their new album a few weeks ago, yesterday was my first chance to listen to it in full. Let’s just say I’ve heard better lyrics coming from a random search of the dictionary, which based on the album may have been exactly what he did when writing these songs. Does the music make up for the lyrics? No…sorry. As for B.A.D. I’m pleased to see not only will the band not be playing in broad daylight but they will be headlining on the smaller ‘white’ stage. They are also scheduled to play a long set (22:20-23:40) and I’m not even sure that they’ve rehearsed enough songs to fill an 80 minute slot. Expect a lot of asides from Mick Jones on the night.

Remarkably it’s only 6 months short of being thirty years since The Clash first played in Japan at the beginning of 1982 – a period of time that is really well chronicled in the Chris Salewicz biography of Joe Strummer. The response to The Clash from Japanese fans bordered on the obsessive which I can do nothing but applaud and I hope a handful of those same fans will be at the Fuji Rock Festival over the weekend. Just to get some of you in the mood here is a link to an entire Clash concert recorded at the Sun Plaza, Tokyo back on Feb 1, 1982. Thanks to the original KombatBlog - ‘Nuzz Prowlin Wolf’ for the upload.

On a local level I’m cautiously optimistic about this dusty desert town as not one, not two but three new live music venues have opened here in Phoenix over the last few months. I’m going to need to campaign hard to try and get the owners/promoters of said venues to get in some of the British/European bands to add this town to the itinerary as they have all too often skipped it. On the plus side though after a few years of various closures it is a good sign that perhaps live music is making some inroads – especially in venues that hold between 300-900 people that we are painfully lacking in. So good luck to ‘The Foundry on 1st‘ – ‘The Crescent Ballroom‘ and another whose name escapes me.

Do you ever use/listen to last.fm? The online streaming music software that does offer a wide selection whilst simultaneously performing an appalling job of ‘predicting’ the bands you might like? As a lazy resort I sometimes use it and just found that you can look up the most listened to songs by any artists. So of course I plugged in ‘The Clash’. You should too as the results will surprise and then fill you with dismay, above all else it shows you what we’re up against. Tracks 1 & 2 (SISoSIG and Rock the Casbah) are exactly as you might fear but tracks 3 & 4 might cheer you up. An alarming lack of ‘listening’ on last.fm to earlier material it would seem. They are close to being banned as a result due to this and the fact that I’ve finally got Spotify but I’ll make a decision next week. When you work from home and spend 6-12 hours a day writing, blogging, building blogs and websites the companionship and rhythm of music is crucial so I take this far too seriously.

Have a splendid Thursday, please share/tweet/comment as you wish. Best -Tim

Hello again everyone, I trust you had an excellent weekend filled with pleasant moments and lack of unwanted drama. I’ve been away from the computer for a few days but didn’t want today to pass by without acknowledging the fact that today is a special one in that Nicky “Topper” Headon celebrates his 56th Birthday today. As it happens I’m already 20 hours into that fact but better late than never. I was listening to The Clash over the weekend and the ability of Headon as ever reminded me how he could do whatever he wanted with a drum kit. I was this time listening to some tracks from London Calling and Sandinista!, next time you do the same just try and isolate the drumming in your ears. He could play any style and with the precision and power that just doesn’t come along on a regular basis.

While many of us tend to know more about and reflect more upon Joe, Paul and Mick when we discuss The Clash I don’t think its unreasonable to suggest that Topper might have been the cement between the bricks that made the band at their finest completely unbreakable. Its been written by many and stated by Joe Strummer that the biggest mistake he ever made (and the one that began the implosion of The Clash) was the sacking of Topper Headon. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult that decision was, surely they all knew it was the riskiest of propositions. So it was. I’ll make a note to write more about Topper soon, but as we’ve discussed before it has been one of the high points of the last five or six years to see Topper so healthy, happy and on form. Long may it continue.

In the days ahead I also want to write some thoughts about the very sad death of Gil Scott-Heron at the weekend at just 62 years of age. If I had a short list of perhaps lesser known musicians  (to some) that I feel everyone should be aware of Gil would always rank high on such a list. His loss is tragic for reasons beyond his relative early demise but also for the fact that we was back recording and touring and somehow was all too often overlooked for being as punk as any of our 1976/7 icons, albeit in a different field. He was the very definition of a visionary in music, so many paths of modern hip hop and counter-culture/protest music will either go right to his name or alongside it. Like Topper he struggled with many of the same bouts with serious drug addiction and served jail time. Like Topper he made it almost all the way back and was back in the limelight and active again. Unlike Topper he never enjoyed an extended time sailing clean again, his ‘comeback’ such as it was ended just as it was getting started. If you aren’t familiar with his craft and you love The Clash, I implore you to find out more.

I’m off to see Gruff Rhys tonight, so I’m sorry for the shortish post. More soon, see you below in the comments. Tim

Good evening you wonderful Clash people dotted on all four corners. How was your Wednesday then? All is well here as we’ve gone from near 100f heat at the weekend to rainy and upper 60′s today, being from England a cloudy and cool day always makes me happy especially when its a pretty rare occurrence. On the negative side of that coin it will mean more grass to cut at  the weekend, I really should write the grass blog too (no drug jokes please we have many responsible/non slackers reading this fine organ….no organ jokes either).

Some business to attend to then, last week you’ll recall that we were lucky enough to have a The Clash – The Singles box set to raffle off courtesy of the kind people at Sony Music and PopMarket. All you had to do to enter was reside in the US and answer the simple question about what Joe Strummer was looking for in the closing lyrics of (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais. I was thrilled to see that we had 131 entries to the competition of whom 130 had the correct answer, so with the help of the Random Number Generator the name Jesse Markway came out of the hat. So Jesse, I’ve emailed you so please forward your address to me within 48 hours to claim your prize. I won’t share the single incorrect answer but as you all know Joe was ‘only looking for fun’.

I’ve yet to listen to the entire Mick Jones interview on BBC 6 Music but have heard that it was really excellent, don’t forget it will only be available until Saturday so don’t miss it. I will get to it this evening, I tried the other night and fell asleep about 10 minutes into it (it was late) only to have Mick and Terry Chimes (again?)  making special guest appearances. I really mustn’t eat the Toblerone Fruit and Nut so close to bed time anymore, but I dare you to turn down triangular chocolate. Also has anyone made it down to Subway Gallery at Edgware Road tube station in London yet for the new Joe Strummer exhibition? Please get in contact if you have.

Big Audio Dynamite have confirmed those East coast dates (plus Minneapolis) as predicted for early August. The newly confirmed dates take in Boston, New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia with a void still open for the 2nd week in August. I’m holding my breath that Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles will be added so that I can make it through the desert and see them in the summer. Don’t let me down. Full details of the dates are on the Facebook page although isn’t it time they updated this site? You may have also seen they’ve been invited to appear the Exit Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. Good news for Serbians but I think there might be a backlash if they make it there but fail to make a stop in Canada and Japan. Perhaps Damon is arranging the tour schedule? Incidentally Glastonbury and the V Festival are now both sold out.

In what seems to be unreasonably long ago tonight is somehow the 31st anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis, he’d only be 54 if he was still with us. Let me direct you to this video interview with Peter Hook as he reflects on Ian. There’s so much to be said about Curtis, Joy Division and the importance of this contribution to post punk music. Also worth noting is the importance of punk on him, including his trip down to the Mont-de-Marsan punk festival in France in August 1977. During which he would have seen one of the first larger appearances by The Clash along with The Damned, The Police, Dr Feelgood and others. I was so stupidly young that the significance was rather lost on me although I was at many of the earlier New Order concerts I’d miss my chance to see Joy Division.

I better get some sleep but I’ll be back with a new post tonight. See you in the comments, and let me know if you’ve secured tickets for those dates on the east coast and perhaps you can provide extra coverage. Tim