Good morning Clash people around the globe and welcome to another Monday. It’s a better Monday this week as it’s apparently a holiday for something or other, perhaps it is to honour idiots like me who live in a climate as hot as Phoenix? A short update this morning and then more tonight is the plan and I thought I’d reintroduce Video Clash as I haven’t done that for quite some time, the idea being that we feature some of the more recently uploaded Clashcentric videos to be found on the internet. I can’t guarantee they will all be new to you but if some or most of them aren’t I’d be failing miserably. Cover versions, odd clips and sometimes rarities stumble into the mix so let’s see what we have today. I need to do this twice per month, I’m going to try for the 5th and 20th, so remind me.

Festival cover versions (strummer festival season). I don’t think it’s my imagination but it seems more and more bands are covering Clash songs in their live sets. I’ve no problem with that especially if a fan of that band decides they might then want to go back and hear/buy the genuine article. The appeal of cover versions depends greatly on your ears I suppose, for the most part I struggle to hear a Clash song without either Strummer or Jones being on hand to deliver the vocals but that shouldn’t detract from the effort/recognition being paid by various acts in 2012. Beneath is Rise Against performing ‘White Riot’ in Leeds last month and below the video are links to some others, good, bad and indifferent but I’ll let you be the judge.

Rise Against – White Riot – Leeds Festival Aug 27, 2011

I.M.F. perform ‘Radio Clash‘ at ‘Concert for a Cure’ in Ontario. Concert for a Cure is a music-based, family fun day to raise Cancer awareness. A group of youth from Six Nations have come together to bring cancer awareness to the surface in this aboriginal community.

Mighty Mighty Bosstones perform ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ at the Reading Festival. In all honesty I didn’t realise they were still going (sorry).

Glory Days perform ‘Bankrobber’. Never heard of them before but I like the acoustic version all the same, the band Glory Days (no shock) hail from New Jersey. What bands are named after Clash songs, what Clash song would be a good name for a band? I’d go with Hitsville UK or The Ghetto Defendants.

Japanese Band cover ‘Career Opportunities’. I love this mostly because it has such a nice raw sound, sadly I can’t provide much information because needless to say I don’t read Japanese but I know we got a lot of visitors from Japan so please provide some information if you can – I’d appreciate that.

‘Career Opportunities… in Osaka’

‘Lost in the Supermarket’ on piano. Just like it says on the packet, for whatever reason this song lends itself really well to piano and the emotions of the lyrics translate well to the single instrument rather well. If you can listen to this and not sing along or at least here Mick and Joe in your head then you’re a better man/woman than me. All I can tell you about the upload is that it’s from the UK.

Lost in the Supermarket – piano version

Mick Jones covers Elvis (not Costello). Just to make a change here we have Mick covering someone else rather than vice versa, I’d appreciate more information on this clip?

Mick Jones covers Elvis Presley

That’ll be enough for now, please furnish more information, comments and your favourite video from this batch below. Thanks! Tim

Warm, tired and lacking in coherence. That might sound like the perfect combination for a blind date or perhaps describes your other household members but today it simply describes me. This heat has to finally relent before I can get myself into a very good writing groove again which is a great source of frustration for me as I’d like to update the Clash Blog every 24 hours or better if possible. More importantly there is enough information to do a daily post and the lack of reaching that goal means I’m not as current as I should be I think revert to the dreaded and dreadful 300 word updates to get me through the summer might be in order. Apologies in advance, I hope you’ll accept that but I think I should be back in the groove in a week or two. I’ve also got a mountain of work on my plate which is a good thing (fuck knows 1 in 10 on both sides of the Atlantic wish they had gainful employment…..the recession that keeps on giving) but the excess of work leaves me not wanting to face a keyboard for a second longer than is truly needed.

Tonight’s post should be part two of the Mick Jones in Minneapolis mini-interview but I’m missing part of the transcript of that conversation (I know…not good at all!) but I will find it and/or catch up with my source at the weekend so we can complete that tale. I do of course know the questions but I’d like to present the answers furnished by Mick verbatim. Look for that over the weekend.

Mick Jones at the Joe Strummer tribute in San Francisco

In the meantime I’d like to thank Gil from San Francisco (regular readers will know him as a wonderful friend of the blog, a man who seemingly captures on video anything Clash related that occurs along the Pacific coast). Not sure where my oceanic theme came from tonight but we’ll just need to ride that wave for another paragraph or two. Keen watchers will know that Big Audio Dynamite wrapped up their American tour dates at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco and from what I’ve seen you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque setting in this part of the world. It’s not Glastonbury by any means but certainly a nice location for a gig, namely San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I’ve only ever wandered through it for a walk as it is after all a park but I imagine it would be a really great place to see a band and I don’t even like outdoor gigs.

Anyway, Gil was down in Los Angeles to see B.A.D. and then followed their itinerary back up North to the San Francisco festival concert on the Friday. It just so happened that the following evening saw the annual Joe Strummer Tribute event in the city with proceeds going to Strummerville. You may recall from last years footage (compiled by Gil) that the event features a rather brilliant raffle and numerous acts paying respect to Joe Strummer/The Clash, I’m often a bit unsure about many cover versions of Clash compositions but for whatever reason this event seems to bring out some of the best in people/acts. Optimistically or confidently (??) Gil had asked Mick if he might be able to attend the Strummer night and the results of that as well as many of the videos of the evening are beneath. This wouldn’t be more than a footnote on the blog if it weren’t for Gil and I must thank him once again and if you haven’t previously clicked over to his YouTube page I recommend that you do – dominated by Clash related videos that are well worth a look so here’s the link. Enough of my babbling have a look at the videos beneath and make sure you watch the last one! (incidentally these may be aligned oddly depending on your browser, it’s me – not you) It’s a long weekend here so I’ll be back with more I’m sure. Thanks for dropping in.

B.A.D.  ‘C’mon Every Beatbox – Los Angeles

Interchords ‘Sightsee MC’ – Joe Strummer Tribute San Francisco

B.A.D. ‘The Bottom Line’ – Outside Lands Music Festival

Clash City Sirens ‘Medley…’ – Joe Strummer Tribute San Francisco

B.A.D. ‘A Party’ – Los Angeles

Montage of bands & Mick Jones at the Joe Strummer Tribute

Good evening, a late night update from the desert from me(*typing by moonlight and a tall/cold glass of water). I know I owe you part two of the Mick Jones in Minneapolis piece and I will get to that tomorrow. Earlier this evening though I was looking through my records, you remember, vinyl. It struck me as how beautiful album (and even singles) sleeves were, I grabbed London Calling and realised just how much of an impact those 4 pages of lyrics and photos had impressed upon me as a teen.

I hadn’t revisited some of these records for quite a few years, each small black and white photo on the London Calling inner sleeve and the (Ray Lowry) fonted lyrics reminded me of how many hours I’d spent with these pieces of paper all those years ago. While the record was doing it’s thing at 33 1/3 rpm we would sit and look at the record’s artwork. We’d smoke cigarettes and drink cider as we wondered if there was ever going to be anything as important as our records and although I realise I’m supposed to grow out of that I’d still argue that the answer is still no. Nothing mattered as much as music then and I don’t know if anything has ever mattered as much to me since. Through music came a feeling of action, of involvement, of excitement, of possibility and usually a reaction. I looked at the 7″ sleeves of some of The Clash singles I have (so sadly dog-eared now) and the simple but expressive beauty of some of the early Two-Tone singles by The Specials. I found myself shocked at the majestic quality of everything I still own on Factory Records and 4AD, heavier cardboard, beautiful construction, art for the sake of it – and no wonder Tony Wilson couldn’t keep Factory afloat.

I slid the three slabs of Sandinista! out of their sleeve and laughed at the fact that The Clash insisted on making sure the record was affordable so their fans didn’t need to save up to purchase the thing, perhaps a triple album would be their folly but the fans shouldn’t need £15 or $20 to get their latest offering, it was of course marketed (if memory serves) at £5.99 in the UK and $9.99 in the US much to the ire of CBS records, about half of what the label wanted it to cost. The Clash meanwhile had to make peace with CBS by skipping royalties until 200,000 copies had sold, that moment didn’t arrive for more than two decades. I briefly panicked when I couldn’t find my copy of ‘The Armagideon Times’ booklet until I recalled that it was stored away with all my box set stuff.

I quickly looked at Combat Rock and remembered the bittersweet relationship I had with what always felt like an early goodbye from a band I wanted to have beside me for many more years, after The Clash my collection was dominated for a while by acts on Rough Trade, Mute, Factory and Beggars Banquet – my loyalty went to movements and labels (stables?) rather than a single band for a while but The Clash were still my gateway to all of that.

When CDs eventually replaced vinyl I resisted for a while but since felt sorry for those who never had the proper association with having amassed a record collection. Yet now twenty years later with a CD collection in excess of 2,500 titles, I’m told that nobody buys CDs anymore which isn’t true based on my local music shops. Even that is now obsolete and I thought it was hard enough to connect with an artist when the inlay card measured just 5″ x 5″ – is there anything more soulless than a downloaded collection of music then compressed onto your i-pod? Besides which you’re taking a huge hit in sound quality you’re also taking the media down to the lowest common denominator. I put my records back on the shelf with the mixed feeling of sadness but also gratitude for having them in the first place. I might even start a new blog called 144 square inches when I find me some time.