A very good evening to you wherever you may be reading the blog from ClashBlog Towers. An unseasonably warm (almost hot) day today had me looking for my shorts much to the excitement of the girls on the street I’m sure. I don’t want to miss new Clash happenings so I thought I’d boldly proceed with the review of 2011 started yesterday and looking at the most read posts each month from the year just concluded. Before that though two quick thoughts and one of which is also a thank you. Thanks are owed to a good friend in Toronto who was kind enough to send me a 2012 Joe Strummer calendar from Strummerville. I don’t know how many of you already have one or have perhaps been on the fence about acquiring one but now that I’ve seen it in person I can’t encourage you in strong enough terms to rush and get one before January winds down. Not that I intend to use it as a calendar though and write birthdays and Arsenal fixtures on it (is there anything else?) – it’s far too beautiful for that. The photography is remarkable but it’s the overall quality and presentation of the whole package that makes the calendar such a collector’s piece. Others have said they’re going to be framing some of the best shots although it would be hard to limit yourself to just two or three of the images on offer. It’s that good. Again my deep thanks to the sender -I really appreciate it. If you’re not convinced yet you really should be but here’s a reminder and a link to purchase one.

Also worth noting is that Strummerville are organising a music festival this summer to coincide with Joe’s 60th birthday, more on that later in the week. Needless to say it has the potential to be something very special indeed and might be taking place in Somerset. Right then, back to the 2011 ‘best of’ with April, May & June.

April 2011 -

‘Joe Strummer mural damaged‘ (April 7)

I’ve written a lot on the blog about how I feel that The Clash deserve more official recognition, it might sound trite to some but such recognition creates a symbolic place for fans to gather or simply reflect. In Joe’s case that’s even more specific since his passing but in general I think England really needs to get more done to pay tribute to the band and/or Joe. Glastonbury has the Strummer stone but that’s only key during the festival, you might be aware that Soho Square in London has a bench for the greatly missed (here at CB Towers) Kirsty MacColl. London needs to be doing more. I’ve got some hair brained scheme that we could start a campaign of signatures to present to the Mayor of London to get such a tribute taken care of – perhaps that idea will brew more completely this year. Anyway, back to the post in question – New York’s Joe Strummer mural has become such a gathering point for so many since it was created and when it was vandalised in April it caused a lot of anger. Happily the guilty party was caught which I wrote about later and the mural was repaired although maintenance of the piece of art remains an ongoinf challenge.

May 2011 -

‘Ebay listing for early Clash/Mickey Foote sessions tapes’ (May 8th)

I must confess I’m not sure what the final outcome of this one was. I think the person selling these had no right to do so and common sentiment was that he’d have been better off contacting Mick Jones as such an artifact should really have been in the hands of one of the band. There was some intrigue as to how he acquired these but the exact details now escape me. Nevertheless the photos are rather brilliant. If you remember more than me (not hard to do) please add it to the comments.

June 2011 -

‘Joe Strummer mural vandal caught and served jail time’ (June 4)

Ah, there it is – part 2 of the April story. I told you we care about that mural. It was a strange tale though, so if you missed it please go back and have a look.

Right then, that’s all I’ve time for at the moment but I do find it enjoyable looking back at last year and I hope you feel the same. I’ll have part three very soon and after we wrap up the year normal service will be resumed. Thanks as always for dropping in and don’t forget you can keep up to date by  Facebook, Twitter or get the RSS feed which will see the blog sent to you directly. Keep on kicking – Tim.

A very warm hello to you and thanks for checking in with your Clash Blogger. I’m writing this (local time) on the eve of the anniversary that always shapes this time of year and detracts from the holidays, perhaps we need to work on that. I’ve had a very busy few days and lack time to do more than function so I’ve done an appalling job of prepping for tomorrow. Some days I find it hard to fathom that it’s been nine years since we lost Joe Strummer, on the more difficult days it can seem even longer. I’m not too impressed with how the world has changed over these last years and if you think Joe Strummer would be content with our current malaise then you hardly knew the man. There’s some sliver linings though I hope and it’s that global view that Joe was becoming ever better at expressing that I perhaps miss the most. We all love The Clash of course and the music Joe made after that too but I think many of you share how much we simply loved to hear what Joe had to say about the world at large and his place in it. I don’t think he ever tired of meeting people and trying (like we all do) to figure out his place in this soup we call our society.

When the World Cup was held in South Africa I wondered how much Joe would have loved that, when Obama became the first black president I can’t help but think Joe would have raised a pint and when the seeds of change rolled around the arab states and we even are showing signs of anger at last in the west this year wouldn’t Strummer have been bashing the drum and telling people to take back what is already ours. For me and I’m sure many of you it was a bit too much like losing a relative, for me Joe Strummer had more influence on my life that many with whom I share blood. That might just be a sad indictment of my fragile family whilst growing up but it’s my story and as such it’s the truth. To be confronted (via my brother’s bedroom) by the sounds of ‘Give ‘em Enough Rope as a twelve year old was to be kicked up the arse and given a need to explore more. Guns on The Roof sang this rogue and I needed to know what the words were really saying. I remember recording that album to cassette and trying to work out every word with the old play/pause routine (I had more than a few completely wrong).

Happily the following year saw a rather remarkable double album come complete with lyrics and my relationship with Joe moved into overdrive. The brilliance of Mick Jones, the power of Topper Headon, the cool of Paul Simonon all woven like a perfect tapestry around the poems and protests of Joe Strummer – you couldn’t choose better parents. I had my family but I had Strummer/Jones for when things were tough, when things were exciting, when things were mundane. If I was angry Strummer could help, if I was confused or troubled he’d do the same. Those records, those lyrics, they burned through us like a branding iron changing the way we viewed our world and changing the way we viewed ourselves. Joe Strummer was the voice I’ll always hear and I confess it never sounded better than from the moment Topper joined The Clash and the band went on that journey of outrageous output from 1977 to 1980 that no band since had ever competed with. The audacity to release a triple album within 12 months of London Calling coming out and pack more ideas and thoughts from local to global made me love music ever since and believe it mattered, shit it made me feel more important too.

Tomorrow please join me on the blog and share your words about Joe. I’ll be back in the morning but just like last year the blog will be handed over to you. I look forward to your thoughts of Joe.

I miss Joe of course, I miss that there’s nothing new to look forward to and miss hearing him talk as much as play. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being grateful to have had him be a daily part of my thoughts the last 33 years and if I’m lucky enough to still be around in 33 more I don’t think I’ll feel any differently, and if another thirteen year old is hearing Safe European Home for the first time and feeling his blood pump that bit faster than we’ll realise Joe Strummer never died.

Last night I was driving from San Diego to Phoenix through the desert, it was the darkest of dark nights and all you could see were the stars and the rocky outcrops making shadows in the desert against a misty looking moon, I thought they’ll be there millions of years to come, Joe Strummer was only here for fifty but somehow cast a longer shadow.

Hello again and a very good Friday evening to you from the soon to be deserted ClashBlog towers. Haunted forever by memories of The Clash Cup, unfinished ideas and blogging logjams….blogjams? Where did this week go? I need some of it back, not that I want to work more but that I’m not even vaguely ready for the holidays and instead find myself with bloggette looking for a new home in another city. Quite frankly it’s the wrong time of year for that but when opportunity presents itself you have to seize it I read once. Anyway, enough of my bleating.

I’ve got a lot lined up in the days ahead and part 2 & 3 of the Hillsborough post should see the light of day over the next few days, if my appearances are a bit sporadic I’ll be over in California until Wednesday so my access to the blog and blogging might be less ideal than usual. I’ll count on all of you to keep things interesting. I also need to get prepared for all the Joe Strummer memorials/tributes and assorted events in the days ahead, this weekend sees them kicking off with the inconvenience of the anniversary not landing on a weekend we’ll probably see events almost every day starting today. If you want to help spread the word about a local event please do so on the comments section of this post or feel free to use the facebook page which usually has a fair few readers – anything to spread the word of a Strummer night is alright with me. One of the biggest Clash/Strummer events of all actually takes place tomorrow in Parma, Italy – this one has been going for years and gets bigger on an annual basis it seems. It has to be said that it is one of the largest and best organised tributes to Joe and I’m sure attendance this year will once again do the Italian Clash contingent proud. Full information is available via this link and you’ll see that no less than 14 (!) bands are performing with the action kicking off at 1pm local time. I wish I’d have covered this earlier but some tour in the UK dominated proceedings. It’s more than live music though with (if my poor italian translation serves me) artwork, vinyl collection, djs and an auction all being part of the festivities. If you happen to be attending and would like to send in any photos to the blog please feel free to do so.

For tonight I wanted to leave the rest of the post in the excellent hand of Pete Stevens. Pete as you may know has been a giant friend of the blog since the very early days, his friendship and support has been immense as not only is he a brilliant photographer but he also will literally scale walls and scramble down gutters to get some of the concert and event photography I’ve been lucky enough to share on the blog. I’ve seen thousands of concert photographs over the years but I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that Pete is as near to a modern day Bob Gruen or Pennie Smith as you’re going to see. Live concert photography isn’t easy nor does everything go to plan but the composition and sheer brilliance in so many of Pete’s stills would make you think he had days to plan his photos rather than fractions of seconds.

Luckily for us Pete was able to get full access to the Justice tonight event at The Scala in London last week. By now you probably know what happened that night and who the key players were on stage. While it’s great to read the accounts and see the choppy live footage on youtube unless you were there nothing does an event justice (tonight) like great photography. With that said I picked some of my favourite photos that Pete took from that night and they feature in the gallery below. Just click on any photo and they will enlarge and you can scroll through them. If like me you have a bit of time to linger please study the photos, if you had any doubt how much Mick enjoyed this along with the others the photos will enlighten you. One of my favourites is the expression of Peter Hooton when hugging Mick, magic stuff.

Thanks as ever to Pete – you’re a great friend and it’s my pleasure to share your work with everyone.

All the best, I’ll be in touch from San Diego or somewhere out that way. Tim