Hello again and thanks for stumbling upon the blog (or welcome back). This was going to just be a journal entry but then I thought I’d share it. I was writing yesterday about time passing too quickly…and it got me thinking. Why is it that I can still clearly remember riding with my brother in his car to the record shop to purchase Combat Rock, peeling of the price sticker, fawning over the logos and cover photo of the band and squinting at that lyric sheet as Strummer’s words were squeezed in on that black background? Why is it that I can remember really acutely specific events from nearly 30 years ago and yet I can’t remember a thing about so many more recent events? I think I’ve established some sort of halo effect for certain spells and artifacts in my life. Cruelly I can’t say its been people who stick in the memory as jaggedly for me, there just wasn’t room with all the records and concerts. That makes me sound a bit of an arse but a memory only has so much space right?

Where so many good nights out began.....

With the advent of Facebook I’ve had people contact me and recollect trivial shared events from 1982 that I can’t even pretend to remember. Drunken nights or fights from 1985 are forgotten also, its just a blank space where a memory should be. But ask me about purchasing the 12″ single of Confusion by New Order in the Summer of 1983 and I know which shop it was and how I felt when I heard it (too electronic and tinny production….the legacy of Joy Division fading by the time of the run-out groove). Ask me about the first time I saw James in concert (they supported New Order coincidentally) and I’ll tell you where we had drinks beforehand, though not with whom I was with. This Factory Records analogy is just a coincidence but I realise I’ve tagged my life with singles and albums, concerts and football matches. Hearing new music and seeing new bands was never more vital for me than from around 1980 (when I first had some money to spend on records) til around 2001 when I’d left Los Angeles and the rich fountain of concerts it offered almost any night plus the restaurants, the people, the art, the scenery and all the rest. When you have lived in London, Chicago and then Los Angeles living anywhere else is going to seem a bit arid.

Since then I’ve kept buying too many CDs (downloading is just soulless for me) and reading about music all the time. I still have huge a passion for football and music of course but what I really am missing is going to 25 or 35 concerts a year – Its not my age, I blame this town, and the bands I like simply skip Phoenix. It’s not on the way to anywhere or from anywhere. Too close to Los Angeles to merit a separate stop and too far from anywhere East to fit within a tour schedule. It wouldn’t be far fetched to say every couple of weeks a band plays in L.A. or San Diego and I am forced to wonder how the gig was. Its 350 miles away…a tough argument just to catch 75 minutes of live music. But I really miss it!

So with that in mind during this new decade some sort of changes need to be made, fortunately its possible for us so the discussions will need to escalate, no hurry I’m a patient person. Southern California, the Bay area or Seattle seem to be the biggest and most logical contenders at present and any would be satisfactory so long as a goal is agreed upon. Its not just about the music, I need to see the ocean when I want to and be somewhere a little more welcoming to everyone  in general (not that I’ve suffered as a result of being English here), its a better place for kids (education, social environment) and a more rounded lifestyle. Perhaps most importantly I always felt strangely very much at home in Los Angeles and miss that dearly, I didn’t realise how vital that was. Its just that a cultural chasm exists and Arizona isn’t winning any awards for open arms or urban hip. With recent events here bands are even boycotting the state to protest the immigration issues. Think of the gulf between Swindon and London for some sort of comparison. London for a second spell is also tempting…maybe next decade!

I’ve got Clash news for you later, but I was just venting…so there you have it! Lots of news later I promise…thanks for reading, or skipping to the closing sentence as the case may be. Today’s video won’t win any awards for style but look away from the screen and remember it was recorded in the Summer of ’76 in Brisbane of all places.

ps – sorry Swindon.

pps – If you want to win in the World Cup, try using Cesc Fabregas

Tim