Just the shortest of updates this evening as I’m off to the cinema and dinner. A ‘night out’ I believe they call it. Hopefully will involve some curry and a good chat about what has been a rather long week coupled with the hottest weather of the year so far. I do have to set aside some time for the blog this weekend so I’m sorry about the brevity of this.

One quick thing to get to then, B.A.D. as you know played in Bournemouth last night and featured a new ‘member’ in the band which I’ll get to over the weekend in more depth. By all accounts it was another great gig and I’d even seen a few note that it was they’d seen since getting the old gang back together. Perhaps most interesting of all was the debut performance of an entirely new song (video beneath) which not only is very good despite the usual audio issues with liver recordings on a mobile voice but also is punchy enough to keep your interest. Not sure if that suggests a continuation of B.A.D. beyond these summer dates and some new material on the horizon or not, what is certain is that the odds are higher than they were a week ago.

There is also of course the added variable as to whether the ‘new’ member is permanent or just filling in for these shows, it would be good/wise for B.A.D. to make an official announcement as there are a lot of people wondering what happened to Dan. All it takes is a one line explanation via the facebook page,  especially for people who are paying some hefty prices for tickets. Come on B.A.D. social media team……you can even do a press quote this very blog if you like. (as if…Mick, call me!) Indeed, if the potential for new material being recorded does exist it would be great to tie that all together.

Let me know what you think of the song.

Big Audio Dynamite – ‘Rob Peter, pay Paul’   Bournemouth June 23, 2011

This must be the first time I’ve ever put Bournemouth in a blog post headline, probably the last time too. I’ll be back tomorrow with a fair old selection of things to keep you busy over the weekend plus Glastonbury tales where Don Letts has a DJ set in addition to the B.A.D. gig and also will be bringing the podcast and a new Clash Blog forum over the next week or two so stay tuned for that.

Have a brilliant Friday night. Tim

Where does the time go….seems like 5 minutes ago I was filling up the filter in the coffee machine in urgent need of a brew and now suddenly the shadows are getting long up towards Camelback Mountain as I look down the street and another day in the desert draws to an end. I really must stop making excuses and get started on my novel, at this rate there won’t even be books being printed by the time I get finished. Bad planning….

Enough of that we’ve got matters Clash related to attend to, one of which is the continuing adventures of Big Audio Dynamite. While we’ve yet to see any update about how/why the website now reflects the band as having four members in the meantime they’ve added another gig in Southern California. This time in Orange County at the ‘Grove of Anaheim’. Never been to the venue before so can’t tell you much apart from the fact that the concert is Thursday August 11th and tickets will be on sale this Friday at noon. Such information puts me in a quandry as I can find a good reason to attend either or both concerts and begin round two of ‘in search of Mick Jones’. The very exciting part one took place last October if you’re new to the blog, go back and read it if you like. Right, I’m now officially an expert about the Grove of Anaheim. It sits a few miles from Disneyland if you’re keen to visit and sits in the car park of Angel Stadium of Anaheim which apparently is a good place for a music club if you don’t consume enough beer at the baseball stadium. Strange how so many things in Anaheim are called ‘of Anaheim’ as in if I were to live there I’d refer to the Clashblog dog as ‘Winnie of Anaheim’…..or not. Seems like the town has a Disney sized inferiority complex. Anyway the venue holds 1,700 which seems quite large with the Los Angeles gig on the calendar so we’ll wait and see. Here’s the link to get tickets.

I’ve got to make some dinner – I’ll be back soon with more oddities and some great features later this week.

Finally click the image below – it’s pretty cool and you can do the same for any website. See you in the comments, thanks for dropping in.

Monday….silicone chip inside her head and all that. Say what you want about Bob Geldof but that song, despite the gloomy subject matter is still so often rather appropriate I’m thinking. Hope your day went swimmingly and welcome back to the blog or indeed thanks for your first ever visit. A rather busy 24 hours in Clash related terms so let’s get cracking (Gromit).

I honestly don’t court controversy but recently it seems to be on the increase, so it goes with this short story. I added the photo on the left to the Facebook page last night but still felt it merited inclusion here. You find some strange things online and as if the Joe Strummer mural in New York hadn’t received enough coverage this week it has turned up as a real estate gimmick. Being used on an online advert to rent a flat in Manhattan at $3600 per month the broker for the property felt that the proximity to the Strummer mural was more of a feature than added interior shots of the unit itself. I realise that the lower East side of New York is nothing like it used to be but I don’t see how that makes it alright to use Strummer to market a flat that costs more than many normal people make in a month. The mural can’t help where it happens to be but I’d really like to see it not affixed to some prime real estate. Speaking of which I need to get back on task with finding out when London is going to finally get around to naming something significant after The Clash. A park, The Westway itself, a tube train….something….it’s long overdue.

Some Big Audio Dynamite news that’s worth knowing about too and my thanks once again to Gil for being one step ahead of me (how do people check google alerts that often!?). First and foremost B.A.D. have as predicted here on the blog added another date between the midwest and the festival date in San Francisco. This one being in Los Angeles on August 10th at Club Nokia, just a few yards from where I used to live and what looks like being a mandatory road trip although time constraints will probably make flying the more practical solution. Details are here and tickets go on sale this Friday June 10th at 10am. On a related note the appearance up the coast by B.A.D. at the Open Lands Festival in San Francisco has been moved from Sunday Aug 14 to Friday Aug 12, I’m sure purchased tickets are transferable? Perhaps a large assumption and a large pain in the arse if you’re traveling a significant distance to see the show. More B.A.D. stuff for you, meant to add this last week but they were late so I was too but they’ve added an online shop with your typical selection of hip merchandise. Prices aren’t great but if you’ve looked at most band’s clobber at various concerts recently I guess its near normal (sadly) here’s the link if you want to go shopping. Maybe they’ll read this and donate something to give away as a prize on the blog…(hello?).

One last B.A.D. thing I promise from the eagle eye of GW once more, if you visit the official site (please encourage them to contact me, they really need a web designer, I know good people) you might notice something odd. Keep looking. Yes there are only four members suddenly with Dan not there, all five cartoon versions were on the image from the time the site went live earlier in the year until very recently. Not sure what this means, it could be like that thing in Back to the Future or perhaps something worse. Either way I hope all is well with the missing Dan Donovan. If you know more than I do please get in touch.

Martin Rushent in his element in 1981, working with The Human League

I can’t finish up tonight without mentioning the very sad news that famous/brilliant/revolutionary record producer Martin Rushent has passed away in England at the age of just 63. Rushent was one of the first producers I was very aware of initially for his landmark work on Dare by The Human League but his portfolio went further back to include T Rex and most of the early/most renowned albums by The Stranglers along with Buzzcocks, The Members, Generation X, Altered Images and the first solo album by Pete Shelley. He was synonymous with creativity and getting the most from his artists, a well liked and extremely talented man. Sad news indeed that started my day poorly and a cause for me to visit some old vinyl this week. Here’s the link to an official obituary via the Guardian.

Much more soon, hopefully I’ll see you in the comments.