Hello again and thanks for dropping in to the Clash Blog. My apologies for a rather quiet weekend in terms of new updates but I found myself playing catch-up after a few days away out of town the previous week, hopefully normal service will get back into my writing cycle this week. I’ll do my best. Any excitement where you are? Just a thought to keep the blog well oiled – if you are ever interested in contributing to the blog a post about The Clash or B.A.D. or the impact of the band and their music on you, or if you have a very unique story or even somewhat unique to share I’m more than happy to include some guest blog posts in the coming weeks and months. No rules about length or your point of view apply, just so long as you think it might be interesting to readers of the blog. If you’d like to contribute something or find out more please contact me via the usual channels. Cheers.

Not for the first time I realised that my inbox is more than a bit backed up so I’ll try and get through some of that this evening. Later in the week sees the return of Clash Landmarks to the blog, as well as The Clash Cup, a new podcast and if I get time a few features previewing the Big Audio Dynamite tour which kicks off now in just three weeks! Where’s 2011 gone so far? Right then on to the mailbag:

Burnbake Calling: I know it’s still a bit difficult to think about summer festivals but the time is drawing nearer, in fact it’s only 94 days until the Burnbake Festival down in Dorset. I had mentioned this a few months earlier but now the festival website (linked above) has added details of the artists that will be appearing. The four-day festival raises funds especially for Strummerville, includes Strummerville acts and also has a special Joe Strummer Memorial area and nightly Clash karaoke. The festival is just a few miles southwest of sunny Bournemouth on the south coast. If memory serves me the last time I was there (Bournemouth) I got sunburned in the day and tickets to see Blur that evening with cold shivers due to what was probably heatstroke, good times. Incidentally there’s also a Facebook page for the festival if you prefer.

Blog recommendation: I wanted to point you in the direction of a great blog called The Junk Archive. Even though it’s authored by supporters of Wolverhampton Wanderers it really is a good read if you enjoy (what I hope we would agree on) great music. Lots of tasty pieces related to The Clash especially this article about Big Audio Dynamite and what might be one of the best songs ever written about London Sightsee MC. Please take a spin on the blog and leave a comment to say hello (blog writers love comments…. this one included!)

Serena Rees & Paul Simonon in Paris

Simonon in Paris: My thanks to Christine for sending this article and the photo featured on the left. Unfortunately this is a month old now which shows you how badly I need to clear out my inbox. Still worth reading the short piece on Paul Simonon attending the Yves Saint Laurent show in France. Sharp jacket Mr Simonon.

I’ve got more for you coming soon and in the meantime THANK YOU so much for your emails I will reply to them all, I promise to get current over the next week or so. Thanks again to those who suggested guest posts – keep in touch and we’ll get those planned.  Small favour, can you tweet this post if you use twitter…as I’m testing something. All the best…come on Arsenal – Tim

Hello again and welcome back to the blog on this Tuesday lunchtime, I say lunchtime but in all actuality it’s three p.m. and as of this moment I have failed to eat any lunch and have had too much coffee and a bowl of raisin bran since I woke up. Perhaps that’s why I feel like smacking somebody in the face? Thank you all so much for your feedback on the Topper Headon video yesterday, I was really pleased to find it and be able to post it as you don’t get too often of late which is a pity. Hopefully that will change in 2011. I believe it was Gil who remarked that they were surprised to see him with a tattoo and I was as well.

What’s with tattoos these days anyway – everybody has one? Doesn’t that make you less of a rebel..not more of one?  When I was 16 it was all about your haircut, your mentality, your clothes and your record collection (apart from how many marches and protests you’d been on) and if you had a tattoo it usually signified one of four things -
1. You’d probably spent some time in jail
2. You were previously in the Navy
3. You were mental
4. You lost a bet

Thinking back to my days working in a record shop as a late teen it was number three in that list you’d often come across clutching a can of cider with a really poorly done spider web tattoo on their neck or better still ‘Made in England’ on their forehead (just in case they forgot). By the 1990′s tattoos were in full flow and it was your calling card of being ‘alternative’ whereas now anyone under the age of 25 without a tattoo is considered as unlikely as someone with a tattoo was back in 1983. Really conservative people listen to middle-of-the-road/pop music who think a good night out is a film and buying some new cookware seem to have intricate giant tattoos on their lower back, arms or legs. At least the forehead remains the official ink residence of nutcases? As far as I know.

Which brings me to today’s query for all you Clash experts – what tattoos if any did members of The Clash sport? We’ve all now seen Topper’s arm and I know of Paul Simonon’s pistol on his chest. There is a story behind that which I forget at this point in time so if you have it to hand please share it on the blog. As for myself I am tattoo free although I did have some silly/brilliant haircuts – the only two things I’ve ever considered (extremely briefly) tattoos of were The Clash and Arsenal (not together)- at least if I’d done so my regret would probably be somewhat moderate.

As for Topper, please get in touch with me if you’re located in East Kent as you’re probably aware he still resides in Dover as far as I know.

Topper's new (?) ink

I’m going to do some investigating and see if we can find out about his next appearance before the event and hopefully get somebody down from The Clash Blog to get some photographs and perhaps even arrange a chat if we can. I’ll be back.

Good evening everyone and cheers for the visit as always. As much as the Europa Cup final in Dublin sounds a better night out than Wembley I’m still chuffed that Arsenal didn’t self destruct tonight and won 3-1 in a must win match in London. Speaking of must win events that phrase will also surely apply to The Clash Cup of which we have another installment this evening. You can’t really win The Clash Cup but hopefully we will end up with the best 16 songs ever recorded by the band so you can make the ultimate mix tape, or mix CD or whatever it is we now do when we compile music. We’re deep into round two now at the end of which we will have 64 songs left standing and each one seeking your votes for the final 32 where I can imagine decisions be nearly impossible. Few decisions were harder than the last pairing which saw the lead changed hands numerous times before the eventual winner was revealed.

Charlie Don’t Surf beat  I Fought the Law 43-40

Excellent turnout on the voting for which I must thank you and the best news is that with a final vote tally so close “I Fought the Law” pulled in enough support to make the next round (unofficially at this point) which is probably as it should be. As you know all the pairings are completely at random so let’s pull the next two songs from the remaining list.

Clash Cup Round 2 Match 14

Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad versus   White Riot

While we have had quite a string of unpredictable results in recent votes this one looks like it should probably be a lot more one-sided unless I’m completely misjudging how you are likely to vote. A proper matchup of the first and second albums although probably not the best songs on either (again, feel free to disagree) I recall being really surprised that White Riot wasn’t originally seeded we began this policy. Everyone voted for songs that shouldn’t face elimination in the early rounds and White Riot didn’t get enough support to protect it from the early voting variances. Even with that said if it gets paired up with the right songs I would still say it’s got a very good chance of making the final 16 or even the final eight. That being with the assumption that it will be able to defeat Julie’s Been Working…

Form Book

Round 1 – Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad defeated Are You Ready 95% of the vote
Round 1 – White Riot defeated Silicon on Sapphire 91% of the vote

Both songs have robust wins under their belt in round one against a fairly simple pair of opposing songs. Round 2 brings a lot of extra pressure and I would say with pretty good confidence that White Riot will win with at least 70% of the vote. Julie’s Been Working will need at least 40% of the vote with a high turnout to have any chance of progressing.

Stuff

Do I have a personal preference? Yes it would certainly be for the earlier song which although I didn’t find the most appealing song on the debut album back when I first heard it as a kid, it’s certainly grown in stature and relevance to me over the years with a better appreciation of how it was written and why it was written. The fabled inspiration from the Notting Hill Riots in late summer 1976 has taken on the place of proper Clash folklore when it comes to why some songs were written in the first place. Strummer’s combination of exhilaration and fear, frustration and confusion all resulted in a song that said where’s our riot and why are we doing just what we are told. The ‘we’ that he referred to was essentially any disaffected youth that weren’t of Jamaican origin and thus controlled by the inhibitions that might stop a riot from starting in the first place. A furious bundle of energy that sounds as coiled today as it was when first recorded.

Everything that White Riot was (short, focused, angry) Julie’s Been Working really isn’t. On an evolutionary scale you can say it speaks much to the constantly evolving style and song structure of The Clash between the debut album and 1978′s follow-up. While I think lyrically “Julie’s” shows Joe trying to pull together a lot of ideas somewhat successfully the song but essentially focused on current events (a police drug raid in Wales) of itself it now seems overly long and a bit too much R&B or piano based to my untrained ears. While Sandy Pearlman promised ‘GTER’ would have ‘more guitars per inch’ than any album ever recorded – this wasn’t the song that demonstrated it, more romp than stomp and while it would be a good song for most bands it’s not at the top standard for The Clash.

As always before you vote I suggest you clear your head of other distractions such as wikileaks or the lack of a Christmas bonus and devote six or seven minutes tearing both tracks one last time. For White Riot I had to include the Rock against Racism clip from 1978  – whereas for Julie’s Been Working… I would try this demo version which is pretty raw and some squealing sax. Still one of my favourite lyrics ‘they arrested every drug that had ever been made’ which sounded both sing-song and cynical at the same time.

Thanks in advance for all your votes and if you feel inclined please add comments as to why or spread the news around so that more votes get tallied. I’ll have the polls open through until Sunday. Cheers – Tim

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