Hello again ~ hope your day was pleasant and the world is treating you in a decent fashion. Not much news from the desert, the inevitable heat and lack of clouds have arrived a bit like a boorish drunk coming late to a party and determined to make up for lost time. Its mildly odd returning to the blog after the extended break as I’m forced to look in the past to move forward so I’ll ask your patience as I’m sure to link to stories that are old hat to you in the days ahead or natter endlessly about topics that you are tired of already.

Quite a few significant things have passed in the world of The Clash during our ‘lockout’ from the blog. Rumours of scab action publishing a cut the crapesque version of the blog with Bernie Rhodes telling me what to write each day are unfounded. In fact Bernie Rhodes is all too often cited as the reason for all things negative with The Clash which is a telescopic view at best, many are too quick to overlook just how important he was in the creation of the band and the identity they adopted. One of those missed events was the release on DVD of the Don Letts film about Strummerville on May 31st – a landmark event for the foundation and further chronicling of The Clash. As of yet I’ve not seen the film but it gathered a really healthy swell of goodwill and good reviews during screenings and I’m sure all serious Clash fans will want a copy. How nice it was for me just getting the blog back into first gear to receive a ‘welcome back’ message from Strummerville and a reminder that the timing was good…hence the DVD…hence me writing about it tonight!

The link to preview the film at Strummerville is here - and you can purchase it here. The DVD is just £10.00 and as far as I can tell this would not be an ‘all regions’ DVD. Can anyone confirm that for me? I don’t want you having it shipped to Detroit or Damascus only to find it won’t play on your DVD player. Also note – this is the exclusive venue to purchase the DVD so if you see it down at Camden Market this weekend its not legitimate and funds don’t go to Strummerville!

As I said I’ve got to catch up with email along with Clash news so if I owe you a reply sorry, I will get caught up this weekend. We’ve got a lot to cover soon – especially that Gorillaz / Glastonbury event. An idea posted over on the facebook page has got me thinking about how things aligned to make that happen and I’ll write more about that this weekend. Speaking of Facebook – our Clashblog page now has in excess of 700 fans (!!) so thank you all, if you haven’t followed the page please do as I often link more Clash stuff there and we all chat a bit more. I decided this afternoon that we need to get to 1,000 fans before Joe Strummers Birthday. So invite your friends as we need to add 290 people before late August. It can be done! The link is over on the right hand side…that would be over there ——>

Two other quick things worthy of a quick read if you have time and then I’ll let you return to your dinner/breakfast/lager: Firstly I enjoyed this quick semi-sentimental look at Joe Strummer from the Grand Junction Free Press (of all places!). Then this is a great read – an interview with Mark E Smith of The Fall about his involvement with a World Cup 2010 song in The Independent. Since I was about 13 I’ve swung from devotion back to indifference when it comes to The Fall, though at times they’ve made some great music with more lineup changes than a crappy West Ham side fighting relegation worries. Oh and to our many good friends in Italy….you lost to Mexico today! I just thought you should know.

Right then, thanks for paying a visit, I’ll pop through your online letterbox again this weekend. I’ll leave you with the new BP logo.

Tim