Good evening…welcome back to the blog. A funny old day…England and the US both continued to the knock out stages of the WC without looking especially good. Says far more about the quality of the group than the two sides who progress. Still they both have until the weekend to get things right.

Tonight a shortish post which I’ll elaborate on more at the weekend if I get time, but as of 5 hours ago The ClashBlog is a year old! Happy anniversary to us and all that guff, who knew we’d make it to the ‘sits up and smiles’ stage…pretty soon we’ll begin to make sense and eat solid foods. Some of you dearest readers have been here since the very earliest days of the blog and stuck with it all the way through, others have found us somewhere during the trip and many even more recently. Even if this is your first visit thanks for dropping in and hope you make it back with a bookmark, or subscribe to the RSS feed or facebook page. It’s been a fun experience I must admit, a labour of love which provides more than enough reward in friendships and a better knowledge of all things related to The Clash (plus some excellent photos I just keep on my hard drive!). I knew from the beginning that the Blog would fill some sort of void beyond the (very good) Clash forums that are already out there. I also knew for it to grow we’d need to share ideas and stories, some exclusive things and simply have a laugh.

The Clash NYC 5/27/81 3468-9 From SoHo Blues - A Personal Photographic Diary of New York City in the 1970s by SoHo Weekly News chief photographer Allan Tannenbaum

I’ve learned more about how Clash fans are simply a breed apart, defiantly proud of being a fan and welcoming new converts. I’ve learned everyone has their own story and favourite song or reason they got into the band. I’ve learned that we come from every country imaginable. I’ve learned that The Clash do more than just fill our music collections, they helped form our view of the world and what we expect from our artists. I’ve learned that The Clash opened doors to a continued love for music for so many of you – for me that’s been their biggest continuing gift – I’ll always love music and explore things from a much wider spectrum because of The Clash.

So thank you, every single one of you and I hope we can keep doing this. I’ll always try and get to the emails and comments and be happy to share your stories, reviews and photos. Best of all thanks for being such remarkably nice people, its a pleasure to know what you write is being read by such a great audience. I’m not the definitive Clash resource – you are. Special thanks to Kim – the ClashBloggette who pushed me to do this, designed the site and helps make sure it runs well. She insists nothing makes me as happy as ‘doing the blog’ – she’s almost right. Writing about what you care about is easy, the blog has taught me so much more about discipline and dedication – being open minded and hopefully entertaining. Whether The Clash, Punk, alternative/indie music are about inclusion and doing things for yourself, participating and challenging your borders is open to debate. I know I started blogging for the same reason I learned guitar, not to be the best at it but to at least participate in it. That’s a good enough reason to try anything new I think.

It’s been exciting to see the blog (after a 6 week sabbatical in Luton) come back and receive more visits than it did at any point earlier in the year. I wondered if you’d move on to a Rancid blog or something.

So after 384 posts, more than 1,500 comments, dozens of wonderful new friendships and 154,250 visits so far (!!) let’s start year two by making it even better. Here’s the first thing I wrote last June….like a newborn chick chirping his love for a band from West London. I’ll even be as bold to quote myself -

I really hope this blog connects some people with what we already share and better still brings on some new blood too.  I’ll do my part in bringing the threads together – and if you want to participate I’ll hand you the keyboard.

This blog is about the past but what we’ve got is the future, as Joe wrote Crashing head-on into the future, it won’t even leave a dent / Just walk in like you own it, remember it ain’t set in cement”

Thanks again for a bit of indulgence. More tomorrow…(news…not indulgence)

Tim