Joe Strummer's London Calling Broadcasts
I’m a happy Clash fan tonight – in fact I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been waiting 7 years for the Joe Strummer BBC World Service broadcasts to be in one place – without the frankly annoying bells and whistles offered on the itunes downloads but as the exact same broadcasts that went out from 1998-2001. My search is over as this wonderful site has brought them all together in one place.
Thank you so much !! I heard perhaps a third of these broadcasts in their original format via the world service – my memory escapes me if I heard some of them online also…in those days I was on dial up and a 45 second audio clip could often cost you 25 minutes of your evening as your streamed download would stutter and lurch through a protracted playback.
Most of these have been available now and then via the BBC and other sources but usually for a limited time – and my timing was always off. So I’m shacking up with these archives over the next few weeks and enjoying hearing Joe’s enthusiasm for the most remarkable spectrum of music. My mp3 / audio mining skills are probably weaker than many of you (I’m still a CD guy) so forgive me my excitement. Most of the files are MP3 but some are OGG – if you can help me with those please do.
BBC Great Portland St
Happy Tim – receiving transmissions in the faraway towns.
“Now pin your ears back this one is for old men in bars all around the world” -Joe Strummer
_20110619215502.png "World Service Bulletins")
I managed to catch up with most of ‘em a couple of years back. Joe sure had a broad taste in music. My CD collection certainly expanded after hearing some of the tunes. Miriam Makeba and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole being particlar favourites.
Too bad Joe and Dick Rude’s “Global Boombox” TV show only got to the pilot stage. If you’ve not seen it, the links between songs are on youtube. Great to see Joe havin’ so much fun (even if he would n’t have made much of a goalkeeper).
Thanks Karl….I love the diversity of those broadcasts…and Joe’s delivery is priceless. I really like Miriam Makeba and I’m sure I’ll find a stack more as I work through these. I’ve seen some of the boombox clips – I must write about that sometime. Did you ever hear his interview on KCRW round about 99? Incidentally I’m happy to announce (here in the quiet of the comments) that I’m gonna interview Dick Rude soon..so email me any questions! (I’ll post that info soon)
Thanks for blogging about these! I do have them converted to MP3 – uploading now. Also the Don Letts tribute show from 2007.
Not sure whether to post the podcast ones over there since they’re still available via iTunes – certainly there is overlap with these shows in some of them, I think. But when they inevitably become not available I will.
Tim -
Brilliant stuff – If you have time I’m sure people will enjoy them in addition to the Don Letts show. It’s such a plus finding ‘em all in one place.
Cheers~
Tim
No problem. Do you know how many shows Strummer did? I’m sure there are more than 14 on the podcast – especially as his 2002 shows weren’t even included in those.
I’ve marked which ones seem to be duplicated in the podcasts over at iTunes – I suggest people listen to those in some cases as the radio recordings go from wonderful/digital (my 2002/2007 radio rips were mostly off DAB digitally recorded, apart from a few I missed and the Don Letts show) from really bad (1998 and a few of the 2000 ones). To hear them in decent quality on the podcasts is brilliant.
Still have the nagging feeling there are a lot more shows out there – was told once that Strummer did a much longer series in 2000.
Thanks Tim & Tim, making for one very enjoyable Saturday evening….
Pete,
Acton
Thanks again Tim – I’ll do some research – or failing that someone visiting may have the answers. My memory says there were two short seasons and one long one (due to his touring etc). Wouldn’t swear that to be correct though.
Also some naughty person might’ve uploaded the podcasts with proper tags and tracklisting in the comment field http://radioclash.myzen.co.uk/londoncalling/
But as Shaggy said ‘it wasn’t me’
[...] thought is related to the Joe Strummer BBC World Service audio files which I covered the other day. I’m trying to get through all of the broadcasts [...]
What a wonderful surprise! For so long I’ve tried to compile the playlists of the music he played, for later research on each artist. To think that I can actually listen to these broadcasts is fantastic. Thank you so much.
Hi,
Thanks for this, i have been looking allover for it.
/Anders
[...] found this website three days ago and all I do here at work is listed to the rebroadcasts. It is where the song you [...]