It’s raining like mad here and it’s cold, plus it’s dark. In addition we got shown a footballing lesson by Bayern Munich today (well done to them) which didn’t improve my mood. I’m not up for writing much, it’s just as well I have a wonderful image that will do my talking for me.

For nearly a decade now we’ve all loved the fact that a certain wall on Manhattan Island will forever be adorned in tribute to Joe Strummer. While the New York City mural has been vandalised a few times and had a complete makeover a few years back it remains a site that is visited by many and respected by essentially all. In fact all cities should have something similar and although that’s old ground for me to cover I still fully intend to push for something to happen in London sooner rather than later, with your help naturally.

Tonight’s photo shows that the New York mural has some friendly and extremely worthy competition. First and foremost I think it’s a beautiful piece of art in much the same spirit as the piece you’ve all seen in the States. Full details? I’d love to share them all and am in the process of finding out more, but hot on the heels of the announcement of Plaza de Joe Strummer in Granada comes a photograph of the mural. They said they’d get started this month on the conversion and it appears that indeed they have.

It is located in the soon to be renamed Plaze de Joe Strummer (Joe Strummer Plaza/Square) in Grenada that was the big breaking news last month, even if we looked on a little jealously from elsewhere. Apparently a Facebook campaign with less than 3,000 signatures got it done, if only London was quite so flexible. I know the work was set to begin this month and it seems that this may be the centre-piece. Based on the images of the 130 year old square I’ve seen it looks like a good guess but don’t quote me on that yet. Maybe in an hour.  

* (updated) As I wrote above I wasn’t 100% sure about the facts and I’m happy to announce the details below from Javier Navarrete Fernández-Nieto

Hello I’m Javier Navarrete Fernández-Nieto, director alongside Carles Prats and Anthony J. Garcia, the documentary about the experiences of Joe Strummer in Almería and Granada (Andalusia), “I have a hardware store in Andalusia”

(https://www.facebook.com/QuieroTenerUnaFerreteriaEnAndalucia), who has been in film and soon we will release it on DVD. I am also the organizer of the “St. Joe Strummer Festival” held in August 2012 in Nijar, Almería (https://www.facebook.com/SanJoeStrummerFestival), home to many friends and family still Joe. And specifically, I am also the director of the mural has about Joe in Andalusia, inspired by the famous New York, and is why I write: First I would like to thank your words and share it, and then I would like to correct you . The mural is made of Almería (not in Granada), where the movie was filmed “Straight to Hell”, hence the Joe clothing.
Of course you are invited to visit a few beers when you come by here. A hug and thank you very much for your work.

The future is unwritten, so share it

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Good morning all and welcome back to The Clash Blog on a Monday morning. Not the worst sort of Monday as it’s a holiday weekend although I’ll be at my desk today simply because I love it so much. Hoping your weekend was a good one wherever you reside.

I know a good number of you are pretty serious record/music collectors and it probably hasn’t escaped your attention that vinyl is making a slow but steady resurgence. In fact last year marked the seventh consecutive year that record (vinyl) sales improved, and by an impressive 16% in 2012. Remarkably vinyl sales last year were more than four times higher than they were back in 1992 which you will probably remember was a period in time where you couldn’t typically get a new release on the format. The revival began about a decade ago with some independent artists releasing limited edition vinyl of new titles, although priced higher than CDs the momentum grew. Ten years later you can get many (yet far from all) new albums on vinyl, certainly almost any titles from independent labels. Coupled with that many great albums are seeing vinyl anniversary reissues. What astounds me is people are happily paying 50-80% more for vinyl than CDs, a complete reversal of the 198o’s.

Naturally annual sales are still hundreds of millions per year below the peak of the LP on vinyl in 1978 and it will never reach those levels again, but the market for the serious vinyl collector now looks healthier than it has at any time since the late 1980′s. I can see a time coming where vinyl outsells compact discs and possibly as soon as the next five years. When compact disc was king before the advent of downloads and file-sharing such a future was inconceivable but it shows that record collecting has never gone away which I find encouraging.

As for The Clash, they straddled a time within an industry that was going through tremendous changes. In 1977 when their debut was released punk artists had only a small percentage of a giant market and even less so outside of the UK, but a robust market overall saw the most albums sold in a single year ever. This was eclipsed the following year in 1978 during which The Clash contributed ‘Give ‘em Enough Rope’, a historic year for vinyl which again set a new global record for sales. This however was the summit as 1979 saw a large drop in vinyl sales in part due to struggling economies around the world plus growth in the cassette, growth that would eat away as vinyl sales for the next 12 years. Funnily enough I think 1979 was the best year ever for music, a case I’ll put into writing one of these days. By the time the 1980′s came to an end most record buyers were converting to compact discs and a whole generation had grown up collecting cassettes instead of records. Having music that was mobile was the priority during the decade and popularity of tapes, despite lesser audio quality, grew by leaps and bounds. By the time the CD grabbed the largest slice of the market it was cassettes that were pushed into the shadows with vinyl already being (wrongly) pronounced dead.

I’ve been a keen collector now for over thirty years, a period of time so long that it leaves me in a state of shock. You can tell the exact year and almost month when I converted over to compact disc and the CD now represents more than 70% of my overall collection. Like many of you I’ve found myself replacing my vinyl over the years which is more frustrating than rewarding. I wish I never switched but bought into the theory that vinyl would fade away, essentially it did for over a decade.

As for The Clash, Mick and Joe in particular were huge music fans and vinyl addicts during their youth which was spent during the evolution of the long player over the format of the single and of course Bernie Rhodes felt the art form still had much potential. I’d wager he put more stock in the importance of the single (as did the label, strangely) over the album back in 1977 which was perhaps missing a beat. What was most apparent was the apparent passion for providing value for money for fans, chiefly from Strummer/Jones as pricing was a key issue for the band for records as well as tickets and never was that more demonstrated than during the battles with CBS/Epic over the pricing of the double and triple albums that the band released. I’d find it interesting to see the ratio Clash albums sold on vinyl versus cassette but I’d guess you’d see something like 85% in favour of records with the possible exception of Combat Rock as by 1982 the tape had become a serious part of the market. I found it interesting to note that cassette sales peaked in 1990 which was the point where vinyl was being pushed into the cemetery and not everyone had yet transitioned to compact discs. If you have a spare hour you might enjoy the documentary below ‘When albums ruled the world’  it might be over-ambitious trying to cover the history of the LP in one broadcast but still has some good moments.

When did you stop buying records (if you did) and have you returned to them since? Do you think record shops will last another decade by relying on vinyl sales?

‘When Albums Ruled the World’ – BBC Documentary February 2013

The future is unwritten, so share it

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Good morning, the weekend has arrived. You should be out doing something good, but I appreciate you dropping in all the same. I’m hoping to get to the beach today or tomorrow and of course I’ll send a postcard now that the warm weather has returned.

Years ago (1985) when I was too young to know much better I used to wander around West London with friends on warm summer weekends (that’s how I remember it), visiting markets and stopping in pubs and having a pint here and there hoping that we might just bump into Joe Strummer or Mick Jones if we had picked the right neighbourhood. Pre-internet it wasn’t as easy to have your Clash history to hand but I knew that Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill or the surrounding environs were each a good call. We never saw anyone of note unless you count a rather stinky Kevin Rowland (he was bladdered) in a rough pub near Kilburn.

We knew enough history though to try The Elgin from time to time but it had more old locals than young punk rockers by the mid-80′s. The quest went to a new level as I ended up leaving my basement flat in Central London for the relative glamour of half a house off of Goldhawk Road. A wise decision as any concert in Hammersmith was a short walk as were any number of good pubs before the Australian invasion of 1987. Still, I never bumped into a former Clash member but the hope kept you going. It sounds daft and innocent years later but I was a music obsessed 18 year old, as opposed to an older version of the same thing now.

Suitably enough it’s the famed Elgin that will be hosting the first Strummerville concert of 2013 in a series of gigs that will spotlight artists that the foundation supports and raised funds at the same time. The Elgin will never win awards for the most stylish pub in London but it used to have sporadic bouts with being hip. It’s a long time since I’ve been but I think it’s great that Strummerville chose the location for the gig. March 1 is the date in question and I’d suggest getting there around 7pm, admission is free and below is the official blurb.

This is our first event of the year and will be on 1st March 2013 at the fabulous Elgin on Ladbroke Grove. Come down and support these fantastic acts:

The Meat and Onions Gang
http://www.strummerville.com/the-meat-and-onions-gang/

CuT
http://www.strummerville.com/cut/

LTNT
http://www.strummerville.com/ltnt/

Bob Doyle on the decks.

Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/460118480709345/

FREE ENTRY.

Onto other news before heading out, I know many of you were as saddened as me to read about Wilko Johnson and his health prognosis at the start of the year. It’s left many with a heavy heart but if you’ve seen or heard any interviews with Wilko over the intervening weeks I don’t know how you could fail to be inspired by his mentality and spirit. I can’t picture myself handling his situation with anything like the same courage so surely there is so much to be learned here. What a chap and what an inspiration. I so hope that many of you are able to see him on his tour in March.

Wilko Johnson interview on BBC Breakfast 15/2/13

The future is unwritten, so share it

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