Hello again and thanks for dropping back in at the Clash Blog. I hope your weekend went well and that Monday wasn’t a disaster either. I can’t complain about the weekend although I would have liked to have managed more sleep but the time difference between here and the UK meant that I had to get up at some ungodly hours of the day.

Last night I was in the mood for some Joe Strummer, more so than usual and was listening to Streetcore and then decided to see what videos, if any, had been uploaded recently. I came up with the three below that all came from the same source and thought that they were outstanding. I have little doubt some or maybe all of them have been seen previously by some of you but I’m certain that all of you haven’t seen all of them. On that basis plus the fact that these are really excellent examples of just how great Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros were live then I thought this deserved a chance for a few of the videos to be in one easy location and viewable by as many people as possible. That’s how Joe stays with us and I hope you enjoy the 8 or 9 minutes it takes to watch these as much as I did last night. I need to do a much better job of checking uploaded videos and building some sort of archive but time always seems to be against that happening. Volunteers? (the only pay is knowing you’re doing something good)

Speaking of Joe, I also wanted to point everyone in the direction of Strummerville who are having a very special 20% off sale for some specific merchandise at the moment. It’s a great time to make some significant savings, take care of early holiday shopping and also contribute some greatly appreciated funds to the foundation. Here’s a link to the Strummerville sale and please let me know what you decided to purchase (don’t buy me the pink number, really).

On to the videos then and two thumbs up to driftbolt for uploading them in the first place. I’d never seen them before so they made me happy, but apparently they appeared on the HBO series ‘Reverb’ which aired between ’97 and ’01 with the Joe/Meskys episode airing in 2000 I believe although it was recorded the year before. The concert recording took place on Nov 23, 1999 at the Roseland Ballroom which you’ll recall also hosted B.A.D. earlier this year. It was Joe’s 2nd set of dates around the US that year as the band working their collective arse off promoting ‘Rock Art’ and also working some Clash songs into the set. Enough from me – just press play below a few times and enjoy the rest.

Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros – London Calling – Nov 1999

Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros – Tommy Gun – Nov 1999

Joe Strummer interview outtake Nov 1999

I believe that essentially most of the show was broadcast on HBO (can someone tell me for sure?) and you’ll find other songs on the ‘driftbolt’ YouTube link as posted above. See you later – Tim

Tuesday evening, no clouds, cooler temperatures and some unfinished business to attend to. Overall not a bad day to drop in at the blog although I’m at sixes and sevens about what I want to be when I grow up. Follow your heart of follow the money, I’m electing to follow my heart and try and make a living out of this writing thing. So if you know anyone who needs help with website content, setting up a blog or SEO for an existing site just point them in my direction. Consider that advertising and it didn’t cost you a penny. I was reading more about the economy and the various ‘occupy protests’ swelling up everywhere and it made me write at length about the fact that some drastic change is needed soon and I don’t think either of the existing parties in the US (nor many of the standard choices elsewhere) are going to get things ‘fixed’. Too much water under the bridge and too many politicians have already been bought and sold if you ask me. Our local #occupy event takes place this Saturday, if I had my beat reporter costume I’d go down and interview some of those who are mad as hell and don’t think they can take it anymore.

As for The Clash Blog; I thought tonight would be a good opportunity to finally share some of the video footage of Mick Jones and a collection of others performing in Liverpool for the ‘Don’t Buy The Sun’ event that took place recently. I realise this is overdue but other things kept popping up so if you’ve already seen all of the footage below pretend you haven’t but better still please let me know what you thought. Some have said it was ‘as near to spirit of The Clash as you can get’ which is really saying something.

I really like this still from the video - Mick looks like his 1981 Clash gangster fashion age

Regardless I wish I was able to attend this one in person as it did look special. Above and to your left you’ll see a quote from The Farm (I assume Mr. Hooton) sent to me via Twitter, it did seem to have been a special night for Mick and one that apparently continued until dawn the next day. There is some photographic evidence of that at Liverpool Lime Street Station which I really must include in a future post. Until then however all that’s left for you to do is hit the play button on the videos beneath and for me to thank IcicleWorker and Whichway for the videos. Cheers.

Mick Jones & Pete Wylie – ‘Train in Vain’ Olympia Liverpool 24/9/11

Pete Hooton, Mick Jones & Pete Wylie – ‘(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais’ Olympia Liverpool 24/9/11

Pete Hooton, Mick Jones & Pete Wylie ‘Armagideon Time’ Olympia Liverpool 24/9/11

The entire evening looked to have been top shelf and you can also see ‘Stay Free’ and ‘Rush’ performed plus a host of other great tracks from the evening if you follow the links I provided just before we got to the videos. Were any of you there that night? What did you think? If (perhaps due to age) you missed out on The Mighty Wah! and The Farm check them out as they were both excellent, shit my list of Liverpool bands is as long as my arm. Echo and The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes (+ Julian Cope solo), The Pale Fountains, The Lightning Seeds, The La’s, Shack, The Boo Radleys, The Icicle Works, Benny Profane, Wild Swans to name just a few. Viva Merseyside!

That’s me done for now – more tomorrow I’d imagine.

Hello again you wonderful Clashites (is that a word?) and welcome to a happy Monday. It’s happier than usual here as it’s a holiday Monday of sorts, something to do with some bloke who claimed to have discovered America. The native Americans and Vikings might have something to say on that matter although I’ve already discounted the piece of folklore that it was initially an Irish monk, although every other person here does claim to be partly Irish. I, on the other hand, actually am to the tune of 50% (cheers Mum). Right, I’m sure you didn’t land on the site today to learn such mundane facts so let me leap over to a wall in New Jersey for something more interesting.

Most of you will already be familiar with agitprop, politico and cultural artist Shepard Fairey. More importantly than that he’s also a huge Clash fan which raises his profile significantly as far as we’re concerned. Amongst his most famous pieces were Obama ‘hope’ (but the republicans don’t wanna share any) and a very nice Joe Strummer piece or two. I like Fairey’s work a great deal but I don’t like his name as I have to check the spelling every single time I write it.

Anyway Mr SF has been up to more great things with the recent completion and unveling of a giant mural on the wall of famed Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I’ve never been to Asbury Park although it’s famed in Clash lore from previous visits by the band – it looks a little bit like Southend meets Clacton. Correct me if I’m wrong. The mural is rather lovely and holds exta significance to us as it features Joe Strummer as one of the six punk icons on the piece. I may be biased but I also think that Joe looks by far the coolest of the six, I also take issue with who those six people should have been. At present the representatives are Joey Ramone, Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer, Glenn Danzig, Ian MacKaye and Henry Rollins. I’d probably take the first three and Henry Rollins (who deserves something for longevity). I’d probably include Paul, Topper and Mick but the wall isn’t big enough and let’s stick to one member per band. You could make a very good case for removing Danzig and MacKaye (maybe if I was exposed to Minor Threat at the time I’d feel differently?) and replace with any two from Dave Vanian, Pete Shelley, Siouxsie Sioux, Stiv Bators or Jello Biafra. I’m sure I’m missing other equally worthy names but nobody asked me. What do you think?

Let’s not get away from how cool the wall is however and I think/hope this will become another one of those places that must be visited if you’re in that part of the world. I do of course think yet again that this reiterates a huge gap in West London. We need something Clash inspired and permanent.

Please click on each photo for a larger view and before I forget I must give credit to those who took them, the top two are from Jason Persse check his stream as there’s some great stuff , while the final image titled Mount Rushcore was by Breathless Conni (apparently).

There is space (based on the last photo) for at least 3 or 4 more but I’d have to assume this is he completed version. Art lovers let me know? Okay time to enjoy some sunshine, remember that you can keep current via Facebook, Twitter get the RSS feed for the blog or email me and as ever I appreciate you sharing the blog wherever you can. October is off to a great start for visits so keep coming back if you like. Tim