Greetings once more from a very happy Clash Blog towers, the happiness is due to having all the windows open and temperature being below 80 for the first time since probably April. This calls for a a celebration of sorts so I am equipped with a cup of coffee and am also listening to XTC ‘Drums and Wires’ as I write. I’ve found myself listening to XTC rather a lot recently and I’ll go on record by saying they were one of the most influential bands of that era, in fact they’d sing on that rung just below The Clash with few other contenders. You can hear their impact on so many bands of the last twenty years, whether that influence was always intentional or not is open to debate but I hear them all over the place.

So, it’s Thursday already and I can finally start to cross a few more older stories off of my list. By now you’ve almost certainly heard that Mick Jones headed up to Merseyside last month to take part, a headlining part it turned out in Liverpool’s ‘Don’t Buy The Sun’ concert. I could (and perhaps might on my other blog) write an essay as to why you shouldn’t buy The Sun (english Murdoch operated gutter press newspaper) and I’m proud to say I never have. It’s a paper that looks to wave nationalistic, hateful, poorly researched, racist, divisive and frankly ridiculously sensationalistic views under the guise of a newspaper by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Unfortunately as poor taste would have it The Sun is also one of the best selling daily papers in England, except in Liverpool. If you’re of similar vintage to me you’ll forever remember the events that took place in Sheffield in  1989 when an FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was so poorly policed that almost 100 football supporters were crushed to death. There were a number of mistakes that day but the fulcrum of the blame laid with some very poor decisions by the police. As someone who went to see my team home and away and had stood on that same section of terracing a number of times Hillsborough hit me and the people I knew very hard, we all realised it was could just have easily had happened to us. However I digress, the story and the facts behind that tragic event were slow to emerge but it didn’t stop The Sun from making up their own mind and wrongly blaming Liverpool supporters for not only causing the tragedy but also acting like animals during the rescue operation. It was hideous knee-jerk journalism and quite rightly resulted in the city turning on the paper and almost completely ceasing to purchase it. That was 22 years ago and the Sun and Murdoch haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory in the intervening years.

This summer of course saw the explosion of the phone tapping scandal with the sister paper The News of The World which comes out every Sunday. A paper that thrives on celebrity gossip and sensationalism was brought to it’s knees due to a scandal that simply wouldn’t go away and Murdoch reacted by closing it down to appease public pressure. Not that his News International empire has even caught a cold as a result but this closure was a sign that there was a limit to what is accepted by even a patient public. Anyway, enough of the history but if you want to you can read much more about Hillsborough and the Hillsborough Justice Campaign via this site and also the Don’t Buy The Sun campaign via this site.

Mick Jones has a longstanding and warm relationship with Liverpool which extends all the way back to the time of The Clash, so when friends Pete Wylie and Peter Hooton of The Farm invited Mick to the event it was something he was happy to get behind. It also helps that he’s been a dedicated football support since childhood, in his case Queens Park Rangers. I’ve read a lot about the concert plus there is some great video footage and I will get those links for you over the weekend, but many have said it was just an amazing evening with Jones receiving a hero’s welcome and performing some Clash songs which were completely unexpected by many I would think. For today though I wanted to link you to a few things that we didn’t  get enough of when Big Audio Dynamite were touring – in depth interviews with Mick Jones. I guess that’s fair enough as the range of questions were well thought out and varied ranging from Clash history to the recent riots in the UK and his feelings about Liverpool. These are some of the best I’ve seen this year.

The Olympia, Liverpool

The first interview was in the live4ever ezine and the interview takes place around the Liverpool concert. Also interviewed is Mick’s cousin Martin Muscatt of the band Taurus Trakker, an excellent read and here’s the link. Also worth a visit is the Taurus Trakker website where you can learn and hear more and also purchase the new album ‘Building Ten’ which features (you guessed it) Mick Jones amongst some other special guests.

“You do it because you know it’s what you enjoy the most, I was born for this to tell you the truth and it was all I ever wanted to do really. I remember going to the careers officer at school and being asked what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to be in a band and they said they couldn’t help me”  Mick Jones

Sabotage Times is the home of the other interview conducted with Mick when he was on Merseyside and it’s a brilliant one too. You’ll see some duplication with the other interview as he must have had a mini press conference of sorts but there is more than enough to make both worth reading. Stopping just short of being sunkissed I’ve got to say Mick continues to come across as the nicest bloke imaginable. Right then I hope you enjoy both of these and I’ll get those other loose ends pulled together this weekend. Huge thanks to Sabotage Times and live4ever for the Mick transcripts, bookmark those sites! Don’t forget you can keep current via Facebook, Twitter get the RSS feed for the blog or email me.

“I was brought up by my maternal grandmother, so I was a latch key kid with a key round a chain to get in and out of the council flat. But to come so far is an amazing thing, it’s a story for everybody and I love to use it to inspire other people. It doesn’t matter where you’re from – its what you are. For me to be here playing after all these years is such an incredible thing”    Mick Jones

Morning, I believe it’s now Sunday? Played football (the proper kinds without helmets) last night and slept like a baby and awake to find only my left ankle now hurts which is a better result than last night. The weather is finally cooling off and reminded myself that the glass things in the house actually slide open – fresh air after the 4 month desert heat is most welcome.

Right then, coffee at the ready so let’s get through some of the recent events so we can again look forward. Keep an eye on these #occupy events, it’s going global so if you’re making a homemade sign and joining the action please share the details. In addition, Americans might have been the first to land on the moon and have the biggest army in the world and all that….but why don’t the protestors work on some chants that carry a bit more conviction than what you might hear from 11 year olds? Also, if you’re marching but sipping from a Starbucks cup you might be part of the problem. They could start with reading some Clash lyrics and then work forwards from there.

Mick Jones image courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/kamikazewords/

We should really start with wrapping up the summer commitments of B.A.D. and as if to emphasise my blog lagging ability it’s now 3 weeks since Mick’s reformed bunch made their appearance on the Isle of Wight at Bestival 2011. I’ve never been to the Isle of Wight, just seen it from the mainland, but by all accounts Bestival is fast becoming one of the best music fests of all and has the added significance of being the last big one of the summer. However based on recent weather in England it should have been this weekend. I’ve read a number of comments and by all accounts it was another stunning set from Big Audio Dynamite who seemed to grow back into reworking songs that have laid dormant for so many years. It seems that the addition of Davo has really beefed up the guitar sound, overall energy and allowed Mick more free rein to enjoy himself. With all that said there’s a definite risk that this could have been the last concert by the band, I’m going to be optimistic and say we’ll see more next year. There’s more events in Europe plus I’m sure they could fill some halls in Asia and Australia/NZ if Mick wants to commit the time to more travel in 2012. If he decides not to I’m fairly sure we’ll see him on the circuit with Carbon Silicon or something else. I think he’s made more lives appearances in the last 4 years than he probably did from 1994-2005 collectively – a very good thing. One of which was Liverpool which I’ll get to in the next post although that one’s been well documented elsewhere.

As for Bestival – thanks to Heston 68 for the YouTube uploads below of B.A.D. live (really good audio and loving Mick’s suit) and an interview with Mick and Don Letts. Rob Peter, Pay Paul certainly merits a release and on vinyl too please. Has anyone heard/read any other official word on whether other new songs have been written? Mick does some offer some clues in the interview beneath. They’ve spent the better part of 5 months rehearsing, touring and playing so you’d hope so. Enjoy the videos – more shortly. Please share the blog if you can on Facebook, Twitter and such – it’s appreciated. Tim

Big Audio Dynamite at Bestival, September 2011 17:48

Don Letts & Mick Jones interview at Bestival

Well a good evening to you as well. Just when you thought the blog was on permanent hiatus eh? I’m sorry for the lack of a new post over the last ten days or so but a combination of small emergencies to take care of, lots of work with deadlines that had to be met and mild case of the computer burnout blues equated to me not getting much written on a recreational basis over the recent spell. I’m now back however and I hope you will be too. Expect updates every 16-48 hours in normal fashion in the months ahead unless I drop dead or similar. The summer here is beginning to end (thank fuck) so I’ve put my Clash Blog hat (no such thing yet…don’t worry) back on and am ready to write.

Right then, I know full well what I had hoped to write about on that Friday evening and never got back to and that was the closing embers of Big Audio Dynamite’s summer of touring and festivals. I will need to go back and total up just how many concerts Mick and the boys performed since the Spring reunion/reformation. It must be in region of 25-30 altogether with a fairly large amount of travel thrown in for good measure (two trips to the US plus a stop in Japan). After spending the better part of 4 months living/working together I remain curious to see if that will be the final curtain call for Mick’s primary post-Clash venture or if there are future concerts/recordings for us to look forward to? I can’t help but feel that there is a bit more to come although I’ve been wrong many times before. What do you think?

Quite a lot has happened in Clash related terms over these ten days that I’ve missed, not least of which was the Mick Jones appearance (along with a decent repertoire of Clash cover versions) in Liverpool at the ‘Don’t Buy The Sun’ event. His long standing friendship with Pete Wylie meant that it was a particularly special and worthwhile evening for those who managed to attend. More on that over the next few posts. Here was a ‘preview’ interview with Mick in the Liverpool Echo which foreshadowed what was to come.

I’ve also got B.A.D. interviews from Bestival and live clips, a new Clash art collection, some great photos, Lost in The Supermarket and The Clash Cup and hopefully now I’ve emptied my brain some brand new things lined up for the next few days and weeks. Thanks for coming back to the blog, the forthcoming weeks will be as busy as usual I’d expect so please share the word that the blog is back. I’ll be getting through my emails in the days ahead also, cheers for being patient. I know some of the ground I’m going to cover in the next few days may well be old news so try and cope, it’s like going back to the days of the NME for readers. Tim

Click here for more on Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! (you must partake if you didn’t manage to do so in the 80′s)

Click here for information about the 2011 Bestival

A new feature – one year ago today I was writing about The Strummerville Tour, The Big Pink Clash Book and The 100 Club. Worth a read even now!  Two years ago I was going on about The Clash Cup and Bob Geldof who now is forever known to me by this alternate name courtesy of Russell Brand. Geldof can sulk with the best of ‘em.