Its a big weekend around here, I might just finally see the back of summer and try and complete digging the fish pond that was started in May and then suspended due to our ridiculously hot weather. See…I knew you’d be excited, but imagine how the fish feel! They’ve made it through an Arizona summer via the efficient use of shade and occasional ice in their temporary pond so I can’t wait for them to have something deeper and by default cooler. You’ve not arrived by accident at the pondblog – but I read somewhere you can better engage your blog audience by sharing whats going on in your life (so proof positive that this advice might be entirely sound) …that and Arsenal vs Chelsea this weekend- tasty! Also later this month of course Gorillaz will be in town with Paul and Mick and I might be going to Los Angeles at the end of the month for some blog related research…more on that soon.

Ou est Monsieur Jazz?

So, The Clash…yes indeed we’ve got stuff to be getting to over this weekend so I’ll break it up into shorter than normal posts this weekend and try and cover as much as I can. First things first, it seems the Sandinista! 30th anniversary reissue has now unofficially been postponed until the New Year which sort of makes it the 31st anniversary doesn’t it? Needless to say I’ll forward any information as I get it and see how the 36 tracks will be expanded upon when the details get published, although a DVD seems to be a near certainty with some live footage.

Speaking of live footage I have to pass on this which was kindly posted to our facebook page overnight by Ina Visio. I think (not sure) that I’ve seen some of this live footage from The Clash playing live in Paris in  single song segments but never the extended clips with between song banter and such. What is sure though is that it provides almost as good a visual document as any of The Clash mid-period in early 1980. Its a crowded stage with the addition of a Blockhead on keyboards and at least three cameramen that I can detect scrambling all over and not a huge stage to work with in the first place. What is apparent though was a band at the peak of their confidence in the live arena visibly enjoying playing within the now broader confines of the more recent material from London Calling as well as breathing extra fire into some of the earlier tracks. Visually the quality is decent and benefits from the multiple cameras and the audio is of an above average standard as well. Seems that Mick’s microphone gets lost in the mix at times but you can’t have everything. Two things that really stand out to my casual observation compared with footage from 77-79 is that Topper is just amazing in setting the platform for all of the live tracks, he doesn’t miss a lick and the band feed off him at all times. The second thing is that Mick used to play a bit more rhythm and a bit less lead in earlier concerts but by this stage he completes entire songs (see Spanish Bombs) without playing a single barre chord but just entirely lead. It demonstrates a lot of how their songwriting had evolved and that Joe’s rhythm guitar would hold a song together live as needed. Anyway a good chance to hear some tracks you rarely find live footage for also. Two clips for you then and if you’ve seen ‘em before…well enjoy them again:

OK…we had a complete bugger of a time embedding those two videos so time I had earmarked for writing a bit more this evening has been eaten up by trying to get the videos on the blog. They might take a little time to load though you should be able to make them full screen. Here’s what’s above for your pleasure:

Video 1: Jimmy Jazz / London Calling  / Protex Blue / Train in Vain

Video 2: Koka Kola / I Fought the Law / Spanish Bombs / Wrong ’em Boyo / Stay Free / Janie Jones /  Complete Control /  Garageland / Tommy Gun

I must confess I’ve been a bit obsessed the last week or two with London Calling since picking up that Marcus Gray book about the making of London Calling. More on that after completion I’m sure. As for the gig, it took place at Le Palace in Paris on Feb 27, 1980 and was filmed for television. You’ll notice constant chaos at the perimeter of the stage with equipment being moved around and the band looking indifferent, which would be another word to describe Joe’s command of French. 40 minutes of video and audio survive from the gig although I think releases have been limited to bootlegs and online. Yes, that was Antoine de Caunes at the beginning of the video. My sincere thanks to Ina.Fr for pointing me toward these full versions of the tv videos that are a bit hard to find. Please check the site they have a host of The Clash in France related videos. Right then bed for me and more tomorrow including a milestone I need to tell you about.  Cheers ~

Hello again, I trust that your Saturday went reasonably well and you are about to ease into a Sunday that it was equally pleasant. I must confess that I’ve had more enjoyable 24-hour cycles than the one that is just coming to an end, we kicked off on Friday night with continued drama of the dishonest and self-loathing variety which in a perfect world you wouldn’t have to endure…. but the bloggette has a past (don’t we all) that includes people with the grace of Mussolini and the integrity of Jimmy Swaggart. It makes for a lovely cocktail of inconsistencies and the sort of drama that should really be limited to daytime television. Nevertheless the sun went down and I woke up full of joy at the prospect of watching Arsenal playing in London against a team you expect to beat handsomely, you can probably gather how that went as well (2-3 win by WBA who thoroughly deserved it), but that wasn’t the icing on the cake….that was to come after the match.

An advert break followed the end of the game and I wasn’t looking at the screen but I heard the familiar opening of a song by Los Campesinos. My initial reaction was ‘brilliant to hear them early in the morning after that bloody match’ and I thought it was probably a preview for another segment, then I looked at my monitor and I saw that the track was being used to promote beer. Again not ideal but manageable until I realised that the beer was Budweiser. Could the day get any worse? It didn’t, but at that moment anything seemed possible. Don’t take this personally if you like Budweiser, I know some people actually drink it by choice, I also know some people like McDonalds, these are things I know but don’t necessarily understand. If you are going to drink beer why would you possibly choose something that tastes nothing like beer? Then to team up the product with a band who are amongst my favourites to emerge from the UK in recent years seemed offensive in the extreme. It’s a pity as you you won’t hear them on the radio or see them in the charts though I’m sure they got an advance from Anheuser-Busch unlike anything that CD sales in the US have generated for them, so I can just about understand the decision to license the music for such a shitty product. We’ve been here before though haven’t we?

While The Clash released five albums and a good number of singles (probably 12 or 13 without checking) during their existence they never cracked the very peak of the UK charts. There were multiple reasons for that of course some of which I’m sure you’ll know well, for starters their refusal to appear on ‘Top of the Pops’ in the UK was a huge factor. The band in their quest for full artistic control felt that (I tend to agree) going onto a program and having to lip sync was totally against what the band were about. I believe the reason this happened on the BBC was due to musicians union rights which impacted the program from most of the years that it was on the air. The problem being 99% of the competition would go to the BBC studios and benefit from the audience that watched the program every week. When I was growing up Top of the Pops was one of the most ritualistic events in our household, my brother would schedule his life around it and when you watch that 52 times a year from the earliest age you can remember it tends to rub off. Of course he wasn’t alone, it was the most influential television program for pop music in the UK and held that position without competition for decades. Clash singles would typically enter the charts somewhere between number 20 and 40 and might move up a few places and then stall and drop out the charts. Combined with the politics behind not appearing on the key music program was the fact that the band received very little radio support outside of the evening broadcast of John Peel. The singles never gained the momentum to become big hits.

I’m not sure I care that The Clash didn’t have a series of top 10 singles in the UK, I do think they merited it and more importantly it would’ve driven album sales much higher and perhaps improved the always difficult relationship with CBS records. That would’ve been the biggest benefit as a fan, that the artistic control and reduced pressure to tour/record/tour/record may have somehow led to the band overcoming the difficulties that ultimately caused them to end. Of course in 1982 they did experience huge success in North America, propelling a single (Rock The Casbah) and the album from which it was taken to the very highest reaches of the charts. This in a market that was more than six times the size of the UK, bringing in resultant attention, pressures and of course cash the like of which they never had seen. Not coincidentally the greatest success was rapidly followed by the bands shattering to bits.

All it took to reach number one was this 1991 advert in the UK

Yes, I mention we been here before and I think why the Los Campesinos song being used for ‘Bud’ seemed especially wrong was that the band is just a few years old, and very much in the middle or the early part of their career. I know the market and the industry has changed so much in the intervening years, but surely there thousands of products you’d rather be associated with? That is of course assuming they dislike the lager as much as most sane people. The Clash as you probably know had their biggest ever hit in the UK about eight years after Mick Jones left the band. I specifically remember being annoyed at the use of a Clash song for advertising, the fact that the song used wasn’t one of the 20 best tracks they recorded and the fact that due to slick marketing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” rocketed up the British charts with abandon. 20 years later and I’m still not thrilled that it was Levi’s that helped the band have a huge hit. Though I’ve subsequently heard ‘London Calling’ being used by Jaguar, ‘Pressure Drop’ by Nissan and I’m sure you can fill me in with other examples wherever you may live. Conversely I realize that the success of the single in 1991 may have led to more people being exposed to the band for the first time and discovering and enjoying all of the music as a result. The reissue climbed all the way to number one in March of 2001 for two weeks, therefore becoming by far the best selling single they ever had in the UK. I hope that most of those royalties went directly to the band and not the huge debt that they had run up with CBS Records. A debt that was greatly due to keeping ticket prices low if you wanted to see The Clash and releasing double and triple albums for the price of a single so you didn’t have to spend a fortune to get the music. Of course the vagaries and complexities of the contract they originally signed in 1977 ran much deeper than that, but I hope that one big single at least put cash in the pockets of the authors, I believe it did.

I’d love to know if any of you first heard The Clash due to that Levi’s advert in 1991? Surely that might apply to some of you, don’t be shy. At least it wasn’t for Budweiser. The rest of the day was great, I managed to catch up with someone that makes me realise what’s most important, and then played football tonight without breaking or twisting anything. That’s me done for now, I’ll talk to you soon. — I’m a criminal everywhere don’t you know — (my new tagline apparently)

Another quick update for you, you’ll have to bear with me as I am finding the energy to type with the brief return to cooler weather. Just ate the nearest thing I’ve had in years to a North London kebab from this new Greek place that has opened nearby. If it were raining and 35 degrees colder I could have squinted and pretended I was walking down to Turnpike Lane tube. His menu I must mention, he was Greek but decided anywhere that bordered the Mediterranean was fair game, Greek food rubbed shoulders with Italian, Turkish, Middle Eastern and Moroccan.  Couldn’t help but think of Joe singing Bhindhi Bhagee as I scanned the menu, welcome stranger to the humble neighbourhood indeed.

Regular readers will remember a lot of the work last year and this Spring that centred around the Jail Guitar Doors project. One of the many special moments was the rare reunion of Mick with Topper Headon as they partnered with Billy Bragg to record a new version of the song that christened the project, the original post was nearly a year ago which is hard to believe.  Since that time the Alan Miles film that chronicled the project has helped raise awareness along with the continued efforts of Bragg plus Wayne Kramer who launched JGD USA.  Following a year spent touring and being an activist for electoral reform in the UK plus his protests against RBS bonuses Billy Bragg is back to help Alan Miles with a Scottish leg of the project. To date only one prison in Scotland has allowed Jail Guitar Doors to donate guitars to inmates but the hope is that may well change soon. Bragg and Miles were in Edinburgh for the Scottish launch of the film Breaking Rocks this week at the Cameo Cinema in the city. After the film Bragg plus two former inmates performed tracks from the cinema stage. I’d like to link you to Reel Scotland.com who have a nice feature on the event in addition to exclusive audio interviews with both Billy Bragg and Alan Miles. Nice work by all!

Meanwhile in the USA you really should follow Wayne Kramer on facebook, lots of information always added plus photographs etc and former MC5 star is a really humble bloke too. Speaking of prison I watched Shawshank Redemption again recently for I don’t know the 30th time, I keep waiting for that film to seem anything less than brilliant and I don’t think it ever will. Just a brilliant film. Lastly….Gorillaz….(sorry) but it seems .5C/G are taking the piss a bit announcing just one date of the US tour in New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 8th. Are they going to announce one venue per day for the next two weeks? Feed Good (inc) not really just a bit of an needless extended wait to find out how far we’re all going to need to drive/fly.

OK I think I’ll wrap it up there and go back to thinking of Greek food and North London.