Sunday night already? Where did that weekend go then? (Started last night, finished tonight-Monday) I recall playing football, watching Arsenal lose (again) and clearing out the garage which served as a timely reminder that I happily spent every spare coin I had for a large part of my life on attending concerts as I came across loads of my old concert ticket stubs. I wish I had them all….but I’d hazard a guess that upwards of 50% have gone missing over the course of too many moves to different homes in different towns. I should have kept a log of every gig, there’s a chap online who does that and it’s a remarkable website that I wrote about over a year ago – he was in London and had a good selection of punk in general and The Clash specifically on his list. I’ll need to dig out the name of that site again and share it.

Tonight is a bit of an occasion as this marks the 700th post on the blog since I started it back in late June 2009. Considering we were offline for about six weeks upgrading the site last spring it works out to about just over a post per every 24 hours in the nearly two years since, I never thought there would be so much to write about.  Encouragingly in recent weeks the blog is visited by someone on Planet Clash about every 80-85 seconds for 24 hours a day too – so our global community such as it is continues to grow slowly but surely. I know that 700 posts doesn’t represent a finish line too as I feel we’re just getting started and there’s a lot more to do on the blog – as ever I’m very happy to also open it up to you if you want to write about a Clash (or related) experience, review an album – a c0ncert -a film or an exhibition or simply reflect back on seeing The Clash or any of the subsequent projects. I’m convinced that the views of others add a another dimension to the blog, so don’t be shy please get in touch to contribute and help me get through the next 700 in double quick time.  As I said it’s been a really busy weekend so I’ve not really had time to research that much this weekend although I do know that the Mick Jones interview that aired on The First Time today with Matt Everitt is now loaded on BBC Six Music.

(image courtesy D Plummer)

Here’s the link to the interview – it runs for a full hour so I’m about to fire it up and have a cup of coffee for a late night listen. It’s supposed to be pretty in depth so I’m really looking forward to it. The archive is available in all countries I believe but it’s only online until next Saturday May 21st so don’t forget to take the time before the archive is removed. As ever I have to gently applaud the BBC who are finally doing more to heighten awareness of The Clash in recent years than they ever did when the band were together, beyond John Peel you would rarely if ever hear the corporation play or positively mention The Clash before about 1981.

More tomorrow including competition winner and talk of a ‘where are they now’ series on the blog. See you in the comments….Tim

Nice poster on ebay until tomorrow (May 3)

Hello again, it’s late, after 10pm and I’ve yet to research or compile thoughts for tonight’s post. That kind of day I think, some distractions and a simultaneous intense need to ignore the media today and just focus on website design and statistics….you might have had a similar day? When I start a post like this it sometimes rolls into something useful and other times not so much, I can’t promise which but let’s see where we go. I’m a bit buried, I thought the blog would have provided a very tasty assistant to help me by now but most days its just me with the cat and dog looking at me all day as I blog away both here and elsewhere. Maybe I ought to monetize this a bit by selling ClashBlog mugs and fridge magnets, to pay the salary of my imaginary personal assistant, hosting costs and a ticket to Lollapalooza….then again not the last bit.

There are many loose threads of news that you may have caught elsewhere in recent days and weeks but with the B.A.D. tour I put it all on the ‘to do’ pile. There are a number of interviews with Mick Jones that we need to get to, a number of other concerts that we’ve yet to preview for the aforementioned band, some official news on the next B.A.D. reissue of No. 10 Upping Street which I’ll talk up at length. If there is one era of the story of Mick and Joe that definitely has a little left to be explored it was that spell where Joe worked on the second album by the band. They struck up something approaching the best chemistry they’d experienced since the earliest writing sessions for Sandinista! and not everything made it onto the record that was released. Short of a better live testament of The Clash on stage and the oft-rumoured extras that exist from Joe’s time with the Mescaleros (not sure how credible that story is) no other previously unreleased work would interest me more. I don’t know if there are much more than demo versions of what was worked on during that time but even at that stage of completeness it will be fascinating to see just what is included in the forthcoming legacy edition. I’ve no official word on the timing yet and the sudden activity of Mick and Don Letts this year will surely have some bearing on the release date but it is something worth looking out for.

We’ve also got Strummercamp 2011 coming up at the end of the month, a chance to look back at some Clash relevant gigs over the last week and I’ve not had half a chance to work on the usual features such as The Clash Cup, Video Clash, Lost in The Supermarket or Clash Landmarks. As ever if you fancy knocking out a guest post let me know as that will help the blog to keep ticking along while I get my other ducks in a row. I’m also hoping to relaunch and maintain the podcast in the weeks ahead…the end of the football season will carve out more time for that to be honest as the weekends suddenly get notably less interesting around here as the the temperature soars above 100F over the next four weeks. Some other late news, if you’re trying to decide where to see B.A.D. over the summer, the V Festival Aug 20/21 is now sold out. That poster up on the left is on ebay right now, auction closes tomorrow. Yes please! They’ll have it again, don’t panic.

As always thanks for supporting the blog, sharing ideas and posts and making sure the community stays active and grows. Last month was the busiest for total visits in the last three and I really do appreciate it. I’m going to cut it short for today and then bash through all of the other topics above as soon as I can. In the meantime some short but really enjoyable footage of Mick Jones with some fans outside the recent Los Angeles concert at the The Roxy. One last question, did anyone make it down to The Big Busk with Billy Bragg in London the other day? I must make it over for that soon, you bring your acoustic along and Bragg leads the assembled guitar slingers with the aid of signs with the correct chords on them so you can all busk along. It’s even more daft that it sounds…..have a look. Cheers, see you in the comments and let me know if I’ve missed other stories lately – Tim

Mick Jones meeting the people in Los Angeles April 14. 2011

Cough and splutter. Yeah I started coughing on the drive back from playing football this evening and haven’t really stopped since, don’t worry I’ve got beverages and the ability to smack myself firmly in the back should I need it. I hope your day was good, I can’t complain except for as usual there’s never enough bloody time to do everything you want to do. I’m annoyed that we spend such a huge amount of our lives sleeping, it seems like that time could be better spent elsewhere eh? I did manage to get another new post out on my other blog that was sparked by last night’s discussion of The Libertines. Seems like their reunion plans have taken a step backwards as you might expect, here’s a link to the story if you’re interested. I don’t have this on any authority but I’ve thought for a long time now (dating back to summer 2002 I think) that a huge part of what I consider to be the renaissance of Mick Jones might have gathered momentum when he produced their debut album all those years ago. Since that time he’s been amazingly active, available and prolific which wasn’t always on the cards after a quieter spell during the late 90′s. His partnership and friendship with Tony James, his dedication to the Rock and Roll Public Library and his more recent touring with Gorillaz and getting B.A.D. back in the saddle have all been far more than flippant gestures. Mick’s obviously really enjoying life and it’s been great on the blog to follow just how involved and inspired he’s been. He hasn’t really stopped working since I began the blog back in June ’09 so his timing has been exquisite as far as I’m concerned. Before I continue I should be sure you understand ‘get on my wick‘ I don’t think it’s said outside the UK.

So tonight for the first time in a while I thought I’d see what’s been said and written in relation to The Clash lately. I usually compile such stories in bulk with an update of Westway Traffic but two things I read tonight left me perplexed on one hand and disgusted on the other. If they were written on a blog post with no readers that would be one thing but these were written in The Sun (not a site I normally visit without a healthy dose of detergent anyway) and Spinner. Spinner overall do a very good job with their online music journalism, this wasn’t one of those times. First The Sun I guess, David Hepworth (who has been writing about music for longer than I’ve needed to shave) took the sad passing of Poly Styrene to reflect on how so many of the established top rank of punk rock have died in the last decade. There’s nothing wrong with that at all and the article  is alright if a little too wikipedia reliant on it’s facts, there’s not a lot of depth or point to the story. He explains that most punk ‘stars’ who lasted beyond ’78 became professionals which was the opposite of what punk should have been. Where that loses me is that you’re suggesting Strummer, Jones, Lydon, Diggle and a host of other excellent songwriters and musicians should have just shut up shop after writing a brilliant debut album. I’ve heard that argument from others and while there’s a semblance of reason behind it, its simply not realistic. If the best year of your life has already happened do you then try and emulate it, improve on it or give up? Doesn’t matter if you’re a punk musician,  a painter or a train driver you surely try and establish new levels of best either in your career, your real life or both. I also think we’d have been cheated out of a lot of brilliant music if Strummer/Jones and so many others sold their guitars and moved on once the original punk fury died down. I’ve argued for ages that The Clash were a ‘punk band’ because they got started in 1976 – they became much more than a punk band and I’d like to think they’d have broken through 5 years earlier (that may have been tough) or 5 years later due to the talent that they had. The top half of the piece is alright but then the following made me lose my patience, I even read the whole article a second time to see if he was making sense. He wasn’t and he isn’t.

That’s because you’ll always be able to make more money for less effort playing your old songs for your old fans than you’ll be able to make doing anything else. This applies to everyone in punk rock with the exception of the Clash’s original drummer Tory Crimes who is now a chiropractor. The fans will pay your mortgage. In return they insist you continue to call yourself Sid Snot, cram yourself into bondage trousers and do the old hits. They don’t want you to grow up because that would mean they had to as well.           David Hepworth

I should have switched off when he dropped the ‘Strummer/public schoolboy line’ with the usual lack of foundation but I was hoping for a conclusion. The piece doesn’t become a tribute to Poly, Joe, punk or the fans of the scene but just a veiled swipe at the credibility of punk. He also says the truest fans of the scene don’t like the reunions and revivals and again that paints a broad swath across many of us. I think it all depends on the whys and wherefores. If Joe Strummer and Mick Jones had settled for obscurity beginning in 1979 and then called each other up in 2000 and said let’s play again to cash in, then his argument has more merit. Again they didn’t and he doesn’t. I know its just The Sun but I also know David Hepworth is a far better writer than this, his days with the NME and Sounds proved that. He mocks the fact that we remember Poly Styrene by her stage name, but don’t we do exactly the same with many of the arts? John Wayne and Cary Grant didn’t exist after all…nor does David Bowie, Bob Dylan or Woody Allen as each adopted new names. Why different sets of rules? Here’s the article.

I went on far too long, take away the keyboard please…..I’ll save the Spinner thing for next time. You don’t have to agree with the above…but wondered what you thought? See you in the comments. I’ll have a Stella please. Tim