Hello again, submarine mission returning to base. It feels like an age since I blogged when in fact it’s just about four days but the interruption was neither planned nor ideal. I’m back now but not quite sure where to begin as it was a busy few days in terms of tales of Mick Jones and Big Audio Dynamite, Joe Strummer Tributes (both completed and forthcoming) plus the usual assortment of bits and pieces that I try and report on. If you’ve emailed in the last week or ten days thank you – I am very far behind but will follow up as soon as I can. As for my absence it’s been a combination of lots of work, some pressing matters at home and then when playing football (soccerball) this past weekend I managed to bruise some ribs (well, a foul by an opponent caused that outcome, I didn’t just bruise them by choice) so I’ve been in relative agony the last three days – spending only as much time sitting up and typing as is needed – such time on the computer(s) is greatly satiated by my work commitments so I had to press the ‘pause’ button on the blog for a few days.

In the meantime there’s been rather a lot going on from the Big Audio Dynamite camp at the very least and I’ve yet to even check out Clash news over the last four or five days. B.A.D. left the midwest for the sunshine in California and by all accounts put in three stellar shows in Los Angeles, Orange County and then up in San Francisco. I’ll have a number of photos and videos from each of those and then a little special bonus up in the bay area. Suddenly we’re only a few days away from Joe’s birthday too and I feel guilty that my blogging void has left some of those events short of a proper preview, indeed some of have already taken place. I’ll try and get a short summary/preview of everything I see on the calendar for tomorrow’s post if that’s alright?

Huge thanks to Scott and Jessica in Minneapolis who performed a triple somersault past security guards whilst cleverly dressed/disguised as harmonicas at the B.A.D. concert in Minneapolis to grab me the B.A.D. setlist from the stage and also for then getting it signed by Mick Jones later that same evening and conducting the impromptu Clash Blog interview with Mick post show. More on that later once I get myself sorted out and a photo of course. There are many many photos and videos from the last few nights of the B.A.D. tour and the rest as well to get through, it might take us the rest of this month.

Sunday – August 21st – Joe Strummer’s Birthday. Joe would have been 59 this Sunday which twists the knife in that bit deeper that we lost him far too soon. Moreover as I try and remind myself his family lost him far too soon and I can only imagine the depth of that loss which is uniquely theirs. I think we’ll go with a photo or written tribute this Sunday – if you wish to visit the blog I’ll do my best to man the blog during the day and update it as we go – you can either email me comments and links, pop on facebook or twitter and send me your favourite Joe lyrics, quotes memories or photos. Hopefully we can enjoy it as much as we did on The Street Parade post that we did in December. Just add your name and city to the link (if you like) and I’ll add your input to the blog as the day goes on. Let’s make it a celebration – I can’t help feeling Joe would enjoy that far more. More on that on Saturday morning as preview. Sorry I was gone so long, let me know what I missed, more tomorrow! Finally…good luck Cesc Fabregas, you’ll be missed. Tim

Good morning and thanks for dropping in. It seems that the weekend is once again upon us which I’m sure will bring a collective sigh of relief for many. It’s not been a very good week, a number of major cities in England saw looting and rioting, Arsenal enter a new season with seemingly two of our better players to be sold in the next few hours and a combination of bad timing and the need to be responsible meant that I was unable to jet over to Los Angeles to see Big Audio Dynamite. I’m a glass half full person these days however so I’m glad to have a job, a brilliant bloggette and a chance to listen to a bunch of music as I work today.

I’ll have some busy days ahead as we try and catch up on the missing/missed B.A.D. gigs at both ends of California, (today’s image is Mick at Club Nokia in Los Angeles this week). If you attended/will attend any of those on offer and would like to contribute your thoughts, videos or images to the blog please feel free to contact me. I must also get my arse organised so that a suitable preview of all of the Joe Strummer events is on the blog and the calendar – look for those next week.

A little bit of housecleaning then first. Over on the right hand margin you’ll see a new addition of a Joe Strummer icon/picture badge. This little but lasting affiliation with Joe is a simple add-on to your Facebook or Twitter icon if you enjoy such things. They do look rather cool once added to your image, there were only four people enrolled when I added it to the blog and facebook page and now there are 45. Let’s get to 100 by the end of the weekend, you can either click on the image on the right or follow this link.

Glad to see that things seem a bit calmer back in England, although it was rainy the last few evenings. Tonight and tomorrow should be a good test to see if things have settled down although the conditions haven’t changed of course just due to extra policing. If you’re not in the US you may not be familiar with The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart. A nightly satirical program about (mostly) the news. The other night he did a 5 minute bit on the London rioting which if you can get past his cliched view of the UK is quite funny, he’s very funny in general…..remember when New York had some fire in it’s belly Jon? Yeah I know…it’s been a while. Anyway here’s a link to that clip which about a minute into it features a fairly weak pun/fake album cover in relation to The Clash. Have a look.

This blog only came up on the radar due to a newsfeed on Mick Jones. I think the author is correct about the identity of young girl but why on earth is there a need for the final paragraph of the article? It’s negative, insensitive and quite at odds with the story itself. I don’t think it merits more comment than that but I ask that you visit the site, read the piece (especially the last paragraph) and leave a comment if you will. Leave the shit raking to the gutter press. Blogging (ironically) can rise above that.

Okay lets end on something positive. How about Jimmy Cliff covering ‘Guns of Brixton’ just uploaded to soundcloud. Very nice indeed. I’ll be back soon. Tim

Guns Of Brixton by JimmyCliffMusic

Good evening and welcome back to the blog. Hope all is well and if you’re in the UK that all is calm. Another day of tension in England it would seem and although London was seemingly quieter it seemed a lot of the troubles instead occurred in Manchester, the West Midlands and Nottingham. I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been a major distraction this week and working from home on a computer having a newsfeed or radio stream in the background has been a constant. Interesting but distracting. I know I warbled on at length about this earlier so I will cut it short on this post but thanks for so many excellent opinions on the last blog post. I must say that now that England is four days into this chaos you really start wondering what the solution is. The UK has a long history of community policing with moderate use of force (debatable I realise) but it simply doesn’t seem to be working this week, nor can the service provide 16,000 men to London each night. However, if a radical change to that approach is decided upon it is really difficult perhaps impossible to ever return to the way things were. Thus now the blame game begins while the looting and burning continues. While none of this is overtly political there are of course underlying facts that the economics and the economy produce. Underneath all of that as Pete said earlier ‘rioting is fun’ and having been involved in a fair few myself it genuinely is, although I never saw it as a chance to steal. I remember all of this being predicted by so called radicals after the last election but in truth it wasn’t a radical prophecy nor an avoidable one sadly. Something’s got to give but I don’t see a solution on the tip of anyone’s tongue. One smart observer noted that a few rainy nights would slow things down to a great extent and as daft as that sounds it’s probably true. This won’t go on for months and the root issues won’t get addressed – but the UK may end up with a complete change to the approach of law and order.

Enough of that for now. I did want to link to the ridiculous story (fact) that much of the official advertising for the 2012 Olympics will feature the track London Calling. Can you think of a less appropriate use for the song? I think that it’s one of best songs ever written and will never tire of it but the lyrics do anything but invite you to London. It might contain some of Joe’s greatest lyrics of all but they speak of a city and a world shrouded in risk and doom. This was all in the shadow of the Cold War, Three Mile Island, inner city tensions and a society collapsing in on itself. Funnily enough it has more relevance to this week riots than the bloody Olympics but somehow it has become a theme song – just don’t examine the lyrics. The best piece I’ve seen or heard on this so far occurred on NPR (public radio in the US). Below I have the full four minute piece as broadcast, courtesy NPR. As it happens I’ve yet to hear or see the adverts. If you can and care to share with us please do so.

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NPR feature on London Calling as an Olympic invitation

I started writing this piece last night and it’s now the night after (Wednesday) and time escaped me not for the first time. We’ve got gig reviews and some inside scoop stuff to share in the next 48 hours as well as The Clash making the cover of the NME. The timing was of course intentional. More on that tomorrow, until then please enjoy this video of B.A.D. performing in Minneapolis earlier in the week. Until then go easy…..Tim

BAD – E=MC2 Minneapolis Aug 7, 2011