Good morning to you and by all accounts this would be Friday so no long faces. I am tempted to go on a very long dissertation about the current debate being fueled by the media and the conservative party about the welfare system in the UK, the same cruel double standard based pigeon-holing takes place in the States too – but I need to read more and not write in anger. All I will say is that the lethal cocktail of division and the rising gaps between the rich and poor put the 1970′s to shame, some seeds of revolt are surely being sewn.

On to sunnier pastures instead for the time being. I must admit that when I lived in England I wasn’t aware of the current tide of exhibitions of photography from the punk/post punk era (or they just weren’t happening yet). I’d have to assume that in the first half of the 90′s that the elevation of punk to a worthy cultural retrospective platform had yet to occur, I remember people not really taking my proclamations for the importance of The Clash seriously during the era of grunge and Nirvana which is a touch ironic.

Happily such exhibitions are now almost commonplace and I wanted to write about a new one coming up in Dundee, Scotland. It’s being hosted at The McManus which is the city’s art gallery and museum commencing on Friday May 3 and running through until August 11 so you’ve got all summer to plan a trip up to Dundee.

The What Prescense! show will feature the work of Scottish photographer Harry Papadopoulous who seemingly was exposed to every significant band and concert from the immediate post-punk years. Oh to have my time machine working properly. More than 300 photographs taken between 1979 and 1984 will make up the exhibition including images of The Clash, Orange Juice, Joy Division, The Specials and Siouxise and The Banshees.

The exhibition may sound familiar to you as it previously had a very healthy stay in Glasgow at the Street Level Photoworks at the end of 2011, there are some great photographs here from that previous showing of Harry’s work.  In fact I believe the Glasgow gallery is the residence for the exhibition.

In addition to the photo exhibit various talks and performances will also be scheduled during the Dundee exhibition. I hope that everyone of you who reads in Scotland and a fair few from further afield might be able to put this on your calendar, it looks brilliant. I didn’t find an ideal Clash photograph for today but I think you’ll be alright with a brilliant shot of Edwyn Collins during his time with Orange Juice.  Edywn is class, it’s just that simple. For full details about the Dundee run at the McManus vist their site here.

Don’t forget that today is the last day to enter the competition in association with ‘Let Fury Have The Hour’ so remember to enter that if you’re in the US or Canada.

More soon, thanks for dropping in.

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The future is unwritten, so share it

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Good morning and welcome back to the blog, my legs ache like I’ve played 90 minutes of football yesterday but the reality is I didn’t even watch 90 minutes worth. Not sure if I slept in a strange position or if I’m learning from the ClashBlog dog and running after imaginary rabbits in my sleep. Odd…but worthy of ponder.

Overnight some wonderful news to share though arrived in my email (thanks OPS/OSP – you wrote it both ways) which if I had received 48 hours earlier I might have guessed was an April Fools gag. Funny how just a few weeks ago I was speculating on these very pages about the future of Carbon Silicon and suggested they may well be back. Well they’ve only gone and released a new single!

It’s titled ‘Big Surprise‘ and you can listen and view in full below and purchase in the digital manner via iTunes right here. Not sure about a physical release at this time, but will advise.

I’ve had a chance to listen a few times and whilst it is gentle it is also a beautiful track with a fine blend of optimism and ‘we’ve made it this far’ woven into the lyrics and Mick can still pen a tune of that there’s no doubt. Reminds me in places of ‘Innocent Child’. The video too has all the hallmarks of being a classic featuring numerous local faces with the lyrics in various bloody cold looking London locations. Some great images and personalities throughout.

Carbon Silicon – ‘Big Surprise’

It’s presented Tony James with the chance to write what’s below and us to wonder if this means new material and Carbon Silicon returning to the live arena is likely. As I’ve written more than once, I can’t see Mick Jones sitting still this year and perhaps the time is right for the return of his current band by definition. I do hope so.

“We asked young film makers Oleg Tolstoy, Sebastian Pacher and Peter Bennett to come up with a film to go with the new recording and gave them a completely free hand in what they shot. Both Mick and I love the resulting video as it so perfectly captures the diversity of people’s lives – the hope, joy and reality of every day existence and that feeling that you just never know what tomorrow may bring. There is a real substance to the work filmed here and every face tells a story. I’ve watched the film dozens of times and am always touched by the people who agreed to be involved in it and I’d like to thank them for sharing a moment with us. Life really is a big surprise”                                  - Tony James

Please share your thoughts about the song and the video in the comments below, I’ll be back shortly after I chase some more rabbits.

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The future is unwritten, so share it

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Good Sunday evening to you wherever you may be reading and I hope that your weekend went well, in fact I hope that it went very well, the sort of well you feel when you find a few notes of cash in the pocket of something you haven’t worn in a long time. I love that feeling, it’s like robbing yourself with no victims – just free found money.

Over the years on the blog I’ve found myself lamenting the closure of music venues and pubs, record shops and other spots that I think are a crucial part of our collective musical heritage. It seems that the vast majority of the time greed and ‘progress’ win out and another building filled with irreplaceable memories is turned into dust to build new flats or more shoebox retail or coffee shops. Therefore it’s pleasing to sometimes report that the odds are defeated such as the famed 100 Club in London’s Oxford Street surviving what looked like imminent closure when I wrote about it fairly recently.

A less celebrated but still Clash related venue earlier looked doomed in South London and I wrote about The Ivy House back on January 24 of this year. The locally famous and historically significant pub hosted Joe Strummer when he was with the 101′ers, Dr. Feelgood and Elvis Costello along with many others.  Great news then that the pub is the first to be saved in the UK under the auspices of a new law that allows residents to demonstrate that the building is vital to the community. The building which holds Grade II-listed status looked almost certain to face the axe when the owners placed it on the market a year ago, a property developer purchased the building for close to £500,000 in October and later placed it back on the market with the intention of a conversion to flats at a significantly higher price.

As I mentioned in the previous post local residents formed an active group that used the Localism Act to put pressure on Southwark council to protect the pub from closure. Under the law residents can cite to the local governing body that the building merits being listed as an ‘asset of community value’ which halts any plans to change the property and allows local groups the opportunity to purchase the site.  According to the London Evening Standard:

“Southwark subsequently have approved the application and last weekend The Ivy House Community Pub Limited, formed by the campaign group, completed its £810,000 purchase of The Ivy House with the help of a £500,000 loan from the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) and another grant. The group has launched a community share issue scheme under which people can invest anything from £200 to £20,000 to help reopen and run the pub as a going concern”

It’s great news in terms of holding onto musical heritage but also keeps alive an important part of the community. Another location to add to my (still to be written) Clash Blog guide to the world!  I do hope that the end result is as positive as it now appears it may be, but I can’t help wondering how many other important buildings might have been saved if this law was already on the books. You might find interesting this interview with Paul Heaton (ex Housemartins/The Beautiful South) about the struggles being faced by British pubs throughout the land. My sincere apologies that it’s in the Daily Star.

The only other thing this morning is a huge thank you – I made a commitment to writing more often this year and so far the blog(s) have received a 12% increase in traffic over the first 3 months of last year, especially from countries outside the top 3 (US/UK/Canada) so thank you so much for reading, commenting and sharing. It’s nice to know the audience keeps growing, in fact March saw the most visits in the last fifteen months which was excellent. Thank you.

I’ll be back with more soon, don’t forget to enter the competition from the last post if you haven’t already done so and keep an eye on the sister site for more updates too.

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The future is unwritten, so share it

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