Good evening and welcome back to what is almost sure to be a rather abbreviated edition of The Clash Blog. Two reasons for that, firstly I’m completely cream crackered, tuckered or wiped out as you might say in the states and secondly that tomorrow is the equivalent of Christmas day and your birthday all rolled together if you’re a football fan as my side Arsenal play in the first leg of what is seemingly becoming their annual matchup with Barcelona – so I want to make sure that I get enough sleep so that they can hear me screaming in North London tomorrow from here. I’m going to go ahead and fear the worst but boldly predict a 2-1 advantage to the Arsenal at the end of tomorrow’s match, I’m sure to only see your comments if I’m outrageously wrong in my forecast.

One piece of news today is definitely unexpected but welcome is that Joe Strummer’s stepdaughter Eliza Mellor will be joining Alabama 3 on a UK tour this March and April playing acoustic unplugged sets by the band. The official news appears on the band website linked here and to say I’m surprised is of course an understatement, but a cool surprise all the same. Please note that as it mentioned on the site that more dates will follow which makes sense when you notice the intervals between the gigs that are currently listed which kick off in Newcastle on March second. Chances are you’re also already aware of Alabama 3 even if it’s indirectly as their music seems to have popped up on an endless number of television shows and films over the last five years most notably “Woke Up This Morning” which featured on The Sopranos. Perhaps the best known yet strangely unknown band of the last few years. Under normal circumstances I’d have my research in order to tell you Eliza’s exact age and more details, but if memory serves she would now be about 24 or so. Hopefully I can share more details for you soon or you can comment below which would be equally great.

Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning

I’ve not yet had a chance to listen to today’s Mark Radcliffe broadcast on BBC Radio Two but I just learned that his feature guest is Mick Jones and chats at length with him about the reformation of Big Audio Dynamite. The running time of the show is two hours so when I figure out the most pertinent portion I will most likely update that with a new post tomorrow, unless I manage to get to that this evening. If it contains anything especially groundbreaking I might even be back by the time you complete this paragraph. Here is the link to get you started in the meantime and with BBC archives it should be on there until Tuesday morning of next week so don’t delay because once it’s gone it will be gone for good. Who knows he might even talk about the forthcoming yet unannounced US tour dates, although I hope one of you wonderful people would have already e-mailed me with such news. Right? Good old BBC radio and good old internet.

Well there you have it, short and sweet but two rather interesting things to get your teeth into for tonight. Talk to you tomorrow and as always Buck Farcelona. Tim

The future is unwritten, so share it

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