Hello again and welcome back, if you are a regular visitor you already know I’m in a good mood today and that was primarily due to this. For those of you with no interest in football in general or Arsenal in particular there are still a few good reasons to read the Clash Blog today, in fact more than a few.

To get you started Dubwise 72 was kind enough to email me with the details of links to a vast list of live Clash concerts. He says that the quality is good so by all means jump right in and see what you think. I’ll gradually sip through them like a fine wine. Here is the link to the site and in due course I’ll get them added in detail to the AudioClash page on this site. You can see the list of cities and dates currently at the foot of that page. Common consensus amongst audiophiles is that better Clash live performances are doing the rounds online and/or sitting in the vaults and that many surpass those that were issued as a regular release such as ‘From Here to Eternity’ (can you believe the prices on Amazon…snap that up!). By all means if you have the time, feel free to do a live review of one of these gigs and I can post it on the site. Just email me if you are interested.

Next up, a band with a very direct connection to The Clash who were as crucial to the music scene in Britain in 1979-1981 as any act I can think of have announced that they are playing the Coachella Festival in the deserts of Southern California. The Specials are playing on the opening night (why they aren’t headlining is beyond me) and to the best of my knowledge this is the only US date confirmed at this time. I’ll keep an eye on that and I’m sure there will be other dates added if only a handful. I’ll write much more about Coachella in the weeks ahead as the festival has a history of a rapidly changing lineup during January and February. Can’t imagine seeing the Specials after all these years but I am most definitely tempted and it’s only a 3.5 hour drive from here.

In conjunction with Strummerville the UK launch of the Shatter The Hotel CD (the dub inspired tribute to the songs of The Clash) have confirmed their launch party at Clash Central (The Inn on the Green) for Feb 5th at 8pm. We’ll dig into this more nearer the time of course and I should add that this will be sold out – tickets are just a fiver! More details are currently posted on Strummerville and the official Shatter The Hotel page, I’ll work on an interview with the creator/curator of the project also beforehand if possible, Mr. Mark Matthews. Please support this if you can make it to London that night, it will be great I’m certain.

Lastly, I’m reading a lot (an awful lot) of posts and reviews the last few days tying in Vampire Weekend with The Clash. What sort of filtering system can be doing that I was thinking? It seems the keys components are a political song called ‘Contra’ and a new album that people are interpreting as a not so subtle tribute to The Clash. I don’t know what to think yet – read one of the opinions here on the Musicfile.com site and you can also listen to the track in question there. **Update…the song is a stunner**

Final thought…would you go and see a (fully) reformed form of The Libertines? Looking more likely as I’ll explain in the next post. Hope Mick Jones has been informed! Up the Gunners…Cheers…