Mick Jones image courtesy Tony Wolliscroft

Hello again and my appreciation for your visit. Not much going on here today,the summer continues to drain the life from everything not air-conditioned and shaded. People seem tense and edgy from the heat, the news is getting people down and it’s not quite July as I type these words. To counteract that I’ve a link to one of the best things I’ve read in months.

For all the exciting things that have bounced around The Clash in the last 12 months, one thing that has been sadly lacking is a really good and well thought out interview. Snippets and quotes are usually as much as we get and its been just over a year since Topper Headon gave a pretty lengthy interview with The Independent. We covered that interview here in case you missed it and I recommend you take a look if you did. I’m more than a bit excited about what I have to share this evening though.

Crawdaddy had time to sit down with Mick Jones recently for a very lengthy chat. This isn’t one of those pointless page fillers but an honest to goodness (fairly) well researched discussion with Jones. Mick covers a huge breadth of topics and I guarantee you’ll read a lot of things you didn’t know about. Mick talks about the R+R public library and some of his thoughts about art, exhibiting and collecting. Really funny stuff concerning the lack of good storage space in London.

“They put their stuff into storage places off the A40, and it’s quite sad because they go and visit their stuff instead of their parents at the weekend”

After discussing what he’s been up to recently and some of his hobbies he reflects on growing up as a obsessive pre-teen captivated by film, football and music probably in that order. Conversation then turns to The Clash and how the desire to offer value for money often outweighed covering the bills the band ran up. He also confirms a rumour that we’ve been wondering about.

“So, when Sandinista! comes out again at the end of this year, it might be the first time we get any royalties from it. It’s taken a long time to pay that off, but I’m glad we did that”

Jones also talks about the many changes he’s seen in West London, reflects on his time working with The Libertines and explains why he took the invitation to play with Gorillaz and just how much its meant to him in general but how much he has learned as a result. On playing with Gorillaz:

“I think I can learn a lot from it. I already have learned a lot from it, just in terms of my own self-improvement. It’s been very good for me”

He also is asked questions about being a fan when he was younger, learning the guitar and the evolution of Carbon Silicon. Its a great sincere interview and Mick seems happy to delve into topics from all corners and you’ll leave it wishing it was even longer than the sizable interaction it was. All quotes above courtesy of Crawdaddy – the link to the interviews itself is here, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It’s 3 online pages long so don’t forget to cycle through.

Much more soon ~ thanks for coming by. Perhaps tomorrow the internet, cable, and wordpress will all work in unison and I can do things at normal speed again!