Well hello again….it’s Saturday night and I’m glad to be back – welcome. The topic tonight is self-explanatory – the return of The Clash Cup! If you’re a regular you know the drill – vote for your favourite track in the quest to find the ultimate Top 10 of Clash songs. If you are a newer arrival we started this magnificent process last Summer (seriously) and I do mean to complete it so you’re very welcome to join in. For the rules and concept please visit this older post where I had clarity in better doses about the method. Speaking of voting I asked over a week ago whether .5C/G (Gorillaz with half of The Clash) should play a Clash song at Glastonbury. Thanks for your votes and there is a decent consensus which you

can see on the original story. I was happy to see that 63% of you felt it was the ideal tribute, and another 17% felt it depended on the song. So only 20% remain resolutely against the idea of a Clash song ringing around Glastonbury this week – despite the fact that Mick and Paul will be performing it. Don’t really understand your logic if you’re in that minority but I respect it. I also hope the rest of us are fawning over a video this time next week of the other outcome!

Speaking of doubts, I know I’ve dragged my heels on The Clash Cup – but I really think it’s worth continuing as we’ve had some good fun and discussions as a result. That will only heighten as we keep chopping down the number of remaining songs and the decisions become more difficult. If you nothing else about this process know this – all the songs are matched up at random – so you might have to kick out a song you love. Before the next pairing a review of our last result, I’m ashamed to say it was back in March (!!) but I’ve a partial excuse as the blog went to The Shetland Islands for six weeks being rebuilt. The two up for grabs were The Leader versus Every Little Bit Hurts – and The Leader won comfortably with 72.4% of the vote. Sandinista! lovers rejoice. Okay then enough fluff – I’ve visited the random number generator and picked today’s pairing. If I get my life together we’ll try and run the cup twice a week, allowing the players time to recover and train.

So dig into these two: Round Two Match Five

Jail Guitar Doors         versus         Police On My Back

That’s not easy is it? Most of the time I’m quite sure what to vote for and this isn’t one of those times. I’d hate to see either get knocked out here in Round Two – worth noting the best runners up will make the final 64, perhaps this will save the one with fewer votes. How do you pick? Listen to both (below) or maybe study your tea leaves.

Form:

Round 1 – Jail Guitar Doors defeated One Emotion – with an amazing 96% of the vote

Round 1 – Police On My Back defeated Hateful  – picking up 55% of the vote

Odds:

You might not want to trust the ClashBlog bookmaker or a prediction here as I’ve only been correct on 2 out of 4 this round. Considering the ‘fame’ of both tracks and I’m sure it will be very close. Seeing as Police.. beat Hateful I think it might have enough to see off Jail Guitar Doors. Then again earlier Clash songs seem to bring out the voters. I’m going to forecast Police On My Back although at long odds – perhaps by a vote or two.

Stuff:

Jail Guitar Doors isn’t your average early Clash number but has Mick really stamping his authority all over it with guitar. Arguably Joe’s barking 54-46….over the last 25 seconds outro make it one of the best endings to a Clash song. On the other hand Police on my Back has one of my favourite openings to any Clash song, if you ever wondered how powerful Topper was this one is like a machine, download some different live performances of this one.

As ever you can make your mind up in the privacy of your own cubicle but first have a final look at these. Your standard version of JGD is here but you might like the abbreviated (and very blurry) clip from Arms Aloft in Acton in 2007 with Mick Jones which is here. As for Police On My Back it has to be the clip with Joe’s intro and howling and of course his request for people to….STOP YAKKING!

Vote early, just the once and polls close in tandem with England’s World Cup bid…or sooner. Night….!

Hello again – what a day that was…..hope yours was decent, mine started with watching my Arsenal lose (again) and then a cold chilly spot of football myself and I felt like heaping revenge on the ball for this morning. Let’s just say the day continued as it started. So back to something a bit more fun. The Clash Cup Round Two – before I explain the format we have one result to share from round one -

Protex Blue defeated The Magnificent Dance 34 – 20

So we are all set with the contenders for round two. (You might want to skip this paragraph) Don’t forget we have 25 songs ‘seeded’ due to the initial voting which will be introduced in round three – let’s call them the heavyweights, the final 25 you all selected would make for the ultimate Clash CD but those votes were cast months ago so nothing is written in stone. From round one 64 songs make it through, 54 outright winners plus the 10 runners up that compiled the most most votes. From these 64 we’ll carry forward 32 winners + the 7 best runners up (percentage of all votes cast) = 39 songs + the 25 seeded songs for our final 64! It’s not as complex as it sounds but we’ll end up with 64 brilliant songs to match up head to head.

Voting I’ll leave open for a week – and the sincere goal is to run at least two matches per week. In a perfect world round two will run over the next 16 weeks (at the most) and will try and get through it a bit quicker as round three will be something else. You don’t need to register – just click to vote – one vote per match up.

I’ll mention how the song did in the prior round, you can click on the song to hear it before you vote and I’ll share an opinion if it might help the propaganda of getting the songs I want to see through (I’m kidding). Songs are selected via a random number generator which has the approval of Bernard Rhodes.

Round Two Match One

Cheapskates versus Kingston Advice

Blimey that’s a tough one to start things off I am going to hold off on voting til tomorrow but probably leaning towards one of them. Cheapskates strangely enough also featured in our first week of match ups back on August 16! Kingston Advice came out of the hat the next week.

Form -

Cheapskates won round one 27-4 over Idle in The Kangaroo Court  87.1%

Kingston Advice won in round one 27-10 over Look Here 73.0%

Odds (pure supposition) I’d say Cheapskates is a slim favourite but you may see the Sandinista! track go through as a best runner up. So every vote matters even if your preference is trailing.

Best Lyrics?

Don’t give me the benefit
Of your doubt
‘Cos I’ll bite it off and spit it out

In these days the beat is militant
Must be a clash there’s no alternative
In these days nations are militant
We have slavery under government

Listen here – Cheapskates or Kingston Advice

Thanks for voting !!!

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As promised…the Clash Cup is back, sadly I can’t same for Arsenal as we were dismantled by a Manchester United team who were far more efficient with their attacks and aided by some extremely naive defending by my club. It cast a shadow over the entire day and was only remedied when I dragged my 42 year old legs down to the park this afternoon to play some football myself. Ah well…you’re not here to learn of my malaise but to get back into The Clash Cup – our own unofficial quest to determine the best 16,8 and finally top 4 Clash songs of all time. I dusted off my spreadsheet this afternoon and learned we have one final Round One match to make our votes heard on and then this week we’ll dive into round two. The songs that remain in round two are for the most part all exceptionally good so the voting will be frantic and important.

A brief explanation if you’re new to the blog – we originally listed all know Clash songs and then took a few weeks to ‘seed’ 16 of the best Clash songs. The remaining songs (142 of them) all went into the bucket and a random number generator selected songs to be paired off and voted for. The online poll allows one vote per user and we closed the polls typically 72 hours after the posting went live. The response was great and not everyone could be happy with every result (myself included) but with one vote remaining we are now just about ready to move onto Round 2. First though that final battle -

Protex Blue versus The Magnificent Dance

Two well known tracks on the final slate so please give careful consideration. I’ll close the polls on Wednesday and plan to start Round 2 on Weds or Thursday of this week.

Protex Blue - I believe this is one of the very oldest existing songs that The Clash recorded, the original version dating back to 1975 when Mick Jones wrote it during his brief spell as London SS. Musically its one of the most raw of Clash recordings and a basic chord progression and bridge it has a real garage sound feel. Even the subject matter is a bit fifth form (condoms) but it remains a fun song. Who would have guessed that 35 years later Mick and Tony James would be a band once more writing and recording as Carbon Silicon.

The Magnificent Dance – 12″ records were as much a part of the early 1980′s as being impacted by the cold hand of Margaret Thatcher. The 12″ single evolved for the disco scene initially and became a place for bonus B sides, alternate versions, instrumental versions and the ‘remix’. I’ve always loved this remix of The Mag 7 – probably because my early excellent efforts to make mix tapes always ended with a version of this track faded out at the perfect length to finish side one of my TDK AD 90. If you’re less than 30 years old you probably wonder just what I’m on about.

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Get voting and thanks!