Welcome back to the blog on this very sunny and warm day. In fact its 115 F out in the back garden as I write – good weather for the lizards who dot our garden wall but not so good for your friendly ClashBlogger. Just to test my common sense we’re off to play football tonight – although I’m sure we’ll do it at a snails pace and with lower exertions – perhaps we’ll just model our play on Italy? That’d be good.

I’m predicting a few days of posts coming short and fast as I really do want to keep on top of Clash related events for you and this might not be our typical weekend. With Glastonbury, the Strummerville campfire and the usual array of random events I might just zip off posts as they happen to hit my head, hope that works for you. If not sit tight and catch up with the blog in a few days! First of all a couple of loose ends.

Something New – Clash Headlines..…You have to love the internet….hopefully you enjoy some of the photos and such on the blog as much as I enjoy finding them? Today I’m going to start an occasional series of ‘headlines’ from newspapers and magazines from back in the day. We’ve tried this before on the header on the blog and it looks nice, not sure if it will work within a post (below) let me know what you think? Click on it for a better experience.

The Ray Lowry London Calling exhibition in…London. The posters are available as previously mentioned for £5 however unfortunately they cannot ship the posters. I’m sure we can start a Clashblog network and get some kind soul to pick up a few and perhaps work something out. I’m also waiting to learn the pricing on the prints from the Bob Gruen exhibition at Subway Gallery. More information as I receive it.

Sandanista! 30th Anniversary Rumours….This one has been doing the rounds since last year. Will CBS/Sony/Legacy find a way to add more tracks to what is already the longest album most of us own? Does BP need a name change? Logic says that they will do something, especially seeing as LC got two makovers in the last two opportunities. Rumours that Sony have ‘something really special’ lined up make me wonder if Mensforth Hill really needs a Gospel version but we can all wait and see. What we do know is that the label should and by all accounts do still have a sizable amount of demos, alternates and a healthy stash of live recordings in the vaults.  I’ve never been much of a bootleg lover but am told it would be easy/beneficial for more live recordings to at least see the light of day. I’d just like more of the ‘official’ live options to include more Topper and less any replacement drummers. Nothing personal and yes they were difficult times for the band but when you hear anything other than Topper its like seeing the Tories be considerate of the social services in the UK. More I’m sure in the weeks and months ahead. I don’t know that Sandinista! needs a special edition, the only thing I’d love to see would be footage of them working on it.

Would you like to help the blog?……I’ve reluctantly accepted I can’t cover everything on the blog that I’d like to sometimes due to time and otherwise due to expertise. One area where we have a gaping lack of information where I know there is a lot of interest is downloads. Let me preface that by saying I’m old school when it comes to my music. I visit record shops to buy my cds….always have and if they don’t all close down I always will. I’ve never been a big collector of bootlegs, I think this stems back to feeling  revolted by some dirty goths at Camden Market many years ago – and I don’t like downloading music. With all that said, thousands of people and thus many of you love downloading concerts, bootleg versions and other rarities. Some of these come as partial files, zip files, torrents and the rest. None of these things fall under my skill set – but I’m a bit of a dinosaur in that regard. So here’s what I need if you can be so inclined:  (and talented)

Someone who is familiar with downloading and testing the downloads. Rating the download for reliability and audio quality. Optional – if you feel like writing a review – please have at it – I’m not the authority on that by any means. I’d like to accomplish one of two things and perhaps both. Focus a page on the site on links to downloads, include a few notes that are useful to people who visit the blog. Write an occasional post for the blog talking about what you’ve found and what you thought of it. If you might be interested let me know – either via the comments, email, twitter or the facebook page.  This wouldn’t be limited to The Clash but all related projects and bands.You’d need a good working knowledge of how to find things and/or I can send you links which I so often just simply bypass at present.

It might be fun…it could be shite….but it would make the site better for Clash fans. Final plug for a different band – if you are in the UK this Nov/Dec please try and see the very seasoned but still brilliant band The Wedding Present. A fan since the very beginning, I still think David Gedge writes some of the best songs of the last 25 years and you really should see them live if you can. The tour details are here and the myspace site is here if you want to listen to some stuff.

More soon ~ cheers for stopping in.