Good…it’s Friday. I think that’s how today got its moniker in the first place right? (I started this last night but finished it today…sorry) For a country that seems as overtly religious (compared to England) as this one seems I can’t quite understand why everyone is working and shopping today. My best guess is the distinct lack of decent chocolate, hot cross buns and bank holiday football fixtures but answers on a postcard if you can.

Very little writing from me today except to point you in the direction of the two largest newspapers in New York (Times and Post) and their overtly contradictory/negative/divisive/cynical/weak reviews of Big Audio Dynamite’s gig at the Roseland Ballroom earlier in the week. Both journalists find new and interesting ways to be petty while (by all accounts) missing the atmosphere in the arena entirely, failing to find strength in the songs or realising the path carved out by the band in the first place. As I commented on one of the articles (the Post) it seemed that this reviewer had written most of his piece before even setting out that evening and merely needed the setlist to verify his attendance. I’m not sure if in the post Interpol / Strokes New York rock world that it takes something far more hip or young to draw a positive review or if the two critics in question are keen to cite the influence of years gone by in their own armoury of music knowledge and then when actually confronted with it look to make some currency in saying that time has passed it by. Without nitpicking even the research in the article in The Post is shoddy and simply wrong. Ignoring that lyrics that are 25 years old apply just as suitably today as back then is criminal. In fact one of the reviews even said something along the lines of Big Audio Dynamite don’t sound as fresh because so many bands have since aped what they did. What the fuck is that ? It’s like going back to Thomas Edison thirty years later and saying ‘your electricity invention wasn’t all that, everybody’s running a light bulb these days‘. I don’t tend to worry that much about negative reviews except for in this case they both fly in the face of what everyone else has been saying and this represents the two large daily papers in the biggest city in the country. Moreover it’s better you read them for yourself and determine if you find anything well off the mark, plus it’d be fun to see your comments added to those already there. Here’s the link to the New York Post assassination and the slightly less acerbic piece in the New York Times.

I can’t sign off this afternoon on such a negative note so I thank Morris for sending me this link of the entire Big Audio Dynamite performance (as broadcast on YouTube) at Coachella. Rin time is about 55 minutes and the quality of the video and audio are both pretty good. Mick’s on good form throughout if a little less chatty than he has been during the indoor dates. I have to say that things really raise up through the gears when Don Letts wanders away from the labeled keyboards. Enjoy it – I’ll be back a little later. Almost forgot – we just passed our 400,000th visit ever to the blog yesterday – thank you all so much for visiting, commenting, contributing and being part of the Clash community! Tim

Big Audio Dynamite at Coachella Festival 16/4/2011

BAD merchandise in the city of angels (image courtesy Gil Warguez)

Good evening everyone and according to my watch it’s Thursday here in Clash Blog Towers. Just looking at my pile of recent CDs that I need to dedicate some time to over the weekend which should fill the void that remains due to the nonexistent thirtieth anniversary release of Sandinista! Remember that rumour? Unless I’m mistaken it was also confirmed late last year during an interview with either Mick or Paul wasn’t it? In fact I know it was because… well because I wrote it at some point during my never-ending quest for accurate and reliable information to relay to you, this isn’t Fox news you know. I wanted to try and tie together all the loose ends from the B.A.D. dates in the States today and tomorrow if possible then we can hopefully return to a more normal variation of news on the blog until the summer festivals start rolling along. Not that the reunion tour hasn’t been loads of fun to cover but I feel that so many other things I’d like to write about are somewhat waylaid. With that said let’s try and present a nice user-friendly summary of some of the words and images that capture the last week. To those of you in the UK we get very excited when Mick leaves London, especially during the football season and particularly late in a season where it looks like Queens Park Rangers are about to get promoted to the Premier Division. If you think Mick Jones has been smiling a lot during this tour wait until that promotion is official (it’s very near the stage).

Mick signing outside the Roxy pre gig (image courtesy Gil Warguez)

Another good friend of the blog Gil in San Francisco jetted down to Los Angeles last week to make sure he was able to see the B.A.D. show at the Roxy and of course being the technical guru that he is photographs and videos were captured in earnest. I’ve previously linked you to Gil’s YouTube page but I’m going to do it again if you want another dose of the live buzz from that show.  He also captured some great photos pre and post gig which I’ve included tonight.

I was also really pleased to hear from LA Weekly (thanks Liz!!) who had a photographer down at The Roxy who captured a series of great shots the same night. I’ve featured a pair below but please visit the LA Weekly site to see all of the images captured by Timothy Norris on the night. Nice work indeed. The happy tour was gathering steam for sure… I’m still waiting for the official list of ‘spotted celebrities’ from Los Angeles gig, Billy Idol rumours abounded.  Here’s that link to LA Weekly. (I miss that paper)

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Mick Jones at the Roxy (image credit Timothy Norris for LA Weekly)

Tomorrow I’ll be back with more of the written reviews from the concerts in all three locations after I’ve had a better chance to sort through them. It’s quite amazing how much was written / blogged about the three events. I think there’s enough of a buzz to get them back on a larger tour to be honest and hopefully even make a new record. Tighten Up vol 12.

Mick beating Leo's offside trap at The Roxy (image courtesy Timothy Norris LA Weekly)

Finally over on the right (at the top) I’ve added quick links to the Facebook page, Twitter and the RSS feed if you’d prefer the blog comes to you via email/feed. As the blog approaches its 2nd anniversary please do all you can to help it keep expanding by sharing via Facebook, Twitter and the rest with shares, likes and retweets. Lots of people still need to know about all the the excellent stuff you contribute beyond my daily mutterings! Thanks as always to the many of you who helped make the whole tour so much more real to those of us watching it from afar. Thay whole community around the music was always part of what this blog set out to help create – so please keep the ideas and contributions coming. Cheers – Tim

Friday night according to the clock and here we are once more with the weekend at our disposal. If tax season didn’t coincide with Coachella I’d most likely be sleeping under the desert stars in Indio, CA with B.A.D. on the docket for tomorrow. Instead I’m sending a government that couldn’t agree on how to wipe their collective arse thousands of dollars so they can spend it all on planned parenthood with my blessing. Perhaps fewer Republicans will be born as a result. I’ve seen a robin and a worm have more in common with each other than the politicians in this country, perhaps time they simply called it The States….

So I’ve good news for you and some feel sorry stuff for me. Coachella being sold out and keen to take on advertiser’s money (of course) is offering a webcast of proceedings so you should be able to catch Big Audio Dynamite on your computer from every corner of the world. I’m watching it now (Friday night) and the audio/video is remarkably good. So check out this link tomorrow afternoon and evening and see how Mick Jones and friends are coping with the heat! Remember it’s 8 hours behind London. Interpol are on now…pretty bloody good. Tomorrow I’ll miss it because I’ll be playing football…alas.

Initial feedback of the gig at The Roxy in Los Angeles last night has been overwhelmingly positive so we’ll get more into that over the weekend I’m sure. Looks like the setlist mirrored

No Age playing at Stinkweeds, Phoenix

what was seen in the UK with 14 songs in all. Smiles, smiles and more smiles were the order of the evening and the positive energy of the tour continues. I’m really beginning to wonder if they may actually get around to working on a new album together, the camraderie certainly appears to be there and I’ve no doubt Mick and Don could write about 2011 in a way thats worthwhile. It’s looking more and more like a remix of 1984 anyway if you ask me.

Tomorrow (April 16th) is international record shop day. Before you raise your eyebrows and ask ‘are there still record shops?’ finish reading this blog post. The idea started just a few years ago and has gained incredible momentum. The reality is that yes thousands of record shops have closed down over the last 20 years but those that have been innovative enough and customer focused have survived. There are happily a number of excellent independent record shops still alive and well and in fact as places in the States that had no business selling CDs in the first place stop doing so, business is actually up again, there are even new shops opening. There’s also been a resurgence in collecting and vinyl is again hip…people are searching out good shops and being loyal. Not everyone wants a download. In Phoenix we’ve actually got a choice of excellent shops each of whom are prospering by providing excellent customer service, knowing their stuff and promoting good new music. You should check your town too, you just might find it’s great to hang in a record shop again. Here’s a link to the official site which will help you find a brilliant shop near you – I think every payday is record shop day but that is probably because I buy way too much music and haven’t really grown up yet.

Whilst I was already aware of Record Shop Day due to the fact that the labels are actually supporting (!!!) the shops by making available hundreds of different special edition releases, vinyl and cds, live tracks, rarities and exclusives – my interest was further peaked by a book I purchased a few months ago called ‘Last Shop Standing’ by Graham Jones. It received extra affection from me as I was lucky enough to work in a record shop from the age of 17 until 21 which helped pay for my cider, concerts and inevitably records. I’ve never earned as little per week in my life and until recently it was by far my favourite job ever. If at that age I wasn’t working in a record shop the most likely place you would have found me would have been a record shop. Getting to play and recommend records all day and even get involved with ordering records for the shop (I’d always be the indie buyer …for Rough Trade, Pinnacle and Jetstar) was enough to keep me more than happy despite the lack of cash. Add on the discounts on records, promos, concert tickets and meeting the occasional musician I was a very happy teen. Somehow I also studied during this time and did well enough to earn a ‘proper job’ afterwards but I also got my education in music. Oh…the book….Graham Jones is from the Northwest of England and his story is quite similar to mine, working in a record shop was his dream and he also got his foot in the door. He stayed in the industry, on the retail side, then as a rep for SP&S and then other ventures and now works for Proper Distribution. He’s seen the industry shrink from the manically successful 1980′s when records sold at amazing levels in the UK to an era where supermarkets undercut traditional record shops and the labels didn’t look after those who helped diverse and exciting music sell. The arrival of internet retailers and downloads partnered with the American Idol / X Factor mentality has seen the passion for pop music wane, shopping becoming old fashioned and the purchases wither. While the book is about the UK the story is global, thousands of excellent shops were unable to compete and went to the wall – great towns and districts in big cities were left without a neighbourhood shop. The book looks at how this happened, why it happened and why (at last) a renaissance is now happening. Those shops that remain are truly the strongest of a dying breed but I don’t think the future is written yet (Thanks Joe!) – record shops are coming back.  It’s a great book, full of facts and true stories, funny as shit and more than a little eye opening about the corruption of the charts. I’ll confess many times when I sold a Dire Straits or Madonna album I’d key in The Housemartins or The Smiths….trying to make a difference! The book involves Graham traveling throughout the UK looking at the best remaining record shops – the ‘Last Shop Standing’. (Cheers again Graham)

The day I finished the book I emailed Graham and asked if I could reproduce a page from the book with a personal story he had about The Clash. He kindly said that would be fine and I’ll feature that tomorrow – in the meantime I insist you visit an independent record shop tomorrow if you can – or at least grab yourself a copy of Graham’s book as it is simply brilliant. Here’s a link for you about the book where you can order it - or you can probably find it in an excellent indie record store – I did.    Tim