Good evening to you all, thanks for making you way back to the blog (or welcome for the first time if that’s the case). Not a lot of excitement midweek but no complaints either. What I do have is a sprinkle of Clash related stuff for your reading/viewing and listening pleasure.

Let’s start with the visual! If you are in or near Toronto (based on the traffic to the site that’s actually a good number of you) there is a great exhibition of photography of bands that visited the city in years gone by. Including shots of the first appearance by The Clash in Toronto (Rex Danforth Theatre Feb 20, 1979) the exhibition is titled ‘Toronto Calling’ and begins today and runs until April 1. Admission is free, included are  The Clash, The Ramones, Johnny Rotten, U2, The Specials, and many more. All images were taken in Toronto which gives is not only a local feel but also will make it a unique collection. If you can make it along I’d love to know what you think of it. Excellent additional information on the Torontoist site and the Steam Whistle site. If you can’t make it to the exhibition it’s still worth visiting the first site I mentioned for a brilliant photo of Strummer on stage.  This all takes place at Steam Whistle Gallery at the Roundhouse (255 Bremner Boulevard in the middle of the city). More on the photographer here.

Audio next right? Yes yes yes…you can hear the entire Gorillaz album online for free via The Guardian. If you’ve been paying attention you know exactly why, if you don’t either ask someone about The Clash connection or read some earlier posts from the last couple of weeks. Having been a Blur fan since the first album and then followed Damon Albarn ever since I’m not the person to ask if the new Gorillaz disc sounds good. Of course it does…

I better offer you something to read too as I’m a bit knackered and won’t be stretching this out to one of those endless posts where you wonder when I’m going to end. This is really worth a read – if you’re in the UK you are already aware that in keeping with the rest of the planet the BBC is struggling (not to make money as it’s not American TV/Radio) to justify it’s current operations. Essentially it looks as if up to 25% of the BBC’s staff, programming, empire need to be removed – on the chopping block is BBC 6 Music. This would be tragic in the extreme, 6 music is perhaps the most diverse, informative, fun, rewarding and consistently innovative places online or offline to find music. I could write an essay about what I think of the station – but it’s better if I refer you to this post. For new artists there is no better venue for them to be found by joe public than BBC 6 music - new artists are always at the heart of music in my opinion. This story on The Daily Growl does a great job in explaining where things stand at present. I’ll get up to speed in the days ahead – I hope the station (and the BBC Asian Network also!) will be spared from closure.

G-night

Hello again, big yawn filled stretch before I get going. Hope your weekend was alright and that you have a job you go to that doesn’t eat your soul – I maintain that loving (or at least liking) what you do is the key to a healthy life…so do your best. I’ve got a lot to fill you up on today but wordpress (the blog program that I write upon) has been having issues all evening so I might curtail the length of this and continue tomorrow if need be.

Make sure you voted in the Clash Cup – match 2 is a lot more one sided than I expected but you’ve still got time to vote. There is a new Facebook page for Clash fans…I’m an equal opportunity Clash fan – so take a look but make sure you join my page first! (we’re approaching 300 fans!). I wrote the other day about the play now touring the UK “Meeting Joe Strummer” and I’m excited to share with you that BBC Six Music have a scheduled interview with the men behind the play this week. I’m not yet certain that it will get a replay slot on the website so here is the link to the schedule and also the Six Music homepage with the built in online player (top right corner to listen live). It might help if I say when also eh?

BBC Six Music – “Meeting Joe Strummer” interview – Friday Feb 26th – 3pm GMT (10am EST, 8am EST). I’ll do my very best to remember and let you know what you missed if you miss it.

You probably heard that the newest Julien Temple project is going to be a film about The Kinks. What you may not have heard is

Hello again, big yawn filled stretch before I get going. Hope your weekend was alright and that you have a job you go to that doesn’t eat your soul – I maintain that loving (or at least liking) what you do is the key to a healthy life…so do your best. I’ve got a lot to fill you up on today but wordpress (the blog program that I write upon) has been having issues all evening so I might curtail the length of this and continue tomorrow if need be.

Make sure you voted in the Clash Cup – match 2 is a lot more one sided than I expected but you’ve still got time to vote. There is a new Facebook page for Clash fans…I’m an equal opportunity Clash fan – so take a look but make sure you join my page first! (we’re approaching 300 fans!). I wrote the other day about the play now touring the UK “Meeting Joe Strummer” and I’m excited to share with you that BBC Six Music have a scheduled interview with the men behind the play this week. I’m not yet certain that it will get a replay slot on the website so here is the link to the schedule and also the Six Music homepage with the built in online player (top right corner to listen live). It might help if I say when also eh?

BBC Six Music – “Meeting Joe Strummer” interview – Friday Feb 26th – 3pm GMT (10am EST, 8am EST). I’ll do my very best to remember and let you know what you missed if you miss it.

You probably heard that the newest Julien Temple project is going to be a film about The Kinks. What you may not have heard is that apparently Paul Weller is going to be a major contributor to the documentary. This should be interesting to follow as The Kinks along with The Who are arguably the two archetypal London bands that preceded the Clash. Who has followed the Clash in that guise I wonder, I’d almost suggest Blur but they made London home rather than being a London band.

I stumbled upon this fascinating story the other day from Wired.Com about a lawsuit in the making that could forever change the concept of music copyrights as we currently know them. In short if successful the filing could return all ownership of recorded music and the associated rights to the original writers after a period of 35 years has elapsed. The ‘guinea pig’ trial is about the biggest guinea pig you could ask for as the incredibly tedious and wealthy band The Eagles are apparently looking to win full rights to all of their pre-1976 recordings. If this happens the labels would lose all benefits from the artists and the bands or their heirs would be free to sell all future music directly. The potential for change is quite remarkable – I need to read a bit more to understand in full but the potential for all of The Clash back catalog to be wrestled away from CBS/Sony over the next decade is at least possible – and maybe even likely. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

OK – I’ll get that global traffic info worked on for later this week,  more of the Clash Cup, two excellent interviews to announce and I need to know who might be going to Austin next month for SXSW as I’m not likely to be able to make it.

Cheers ~ Tim

Hello again and welcome back to the blog. Today was one of those days where you realise that what you ‘own’ and who you know and the worries you have can all be taken away by the feeling of being alive and feeling the sun on your face. Today was the embodiment of perfect weather and I set off out with little on the agenda and found myself savouring some quiet alone time, stopping for a while to watch a game of lads playing football in the park and later a dad showing his kid the capability of remote control on a pond near the house. Such toys are so obviously bought for the adult and not the child – I wonder how they sell that idea to the youth. Anyway, old habits die hard and when given free time apart from observing things I tend to dwell in the same two places that have eaten up probably a good fifth of my solitary time since I turned twelve – record shops and book shops.

Today I set off because the weather was so perfect and although I wanted to feel the warmth of the sun my usual inner voice said ‘get to a record shop’. Every time I’ve entered a record shop in the last 30 years I feel my mission is subtle but complex, see what is being played, look for items on my never ending list of ‘records I need’ and scour the overall inventory. Entering a shop that you’ve never been in before is the best of all, although often times it can be an anti-climax the potential outweighs the risk of disappointment. I’m not sure how old you are and whether you still visit record shops, if you do you’ll know things aren’t what they used to be. We’ve all been spoilt a bit though haven’t we? From my desk I can research essentially every album ever made in addition to hearing songs from most of them, when you can’t find the song you are looking to hear you can always look for a file to download for a small cost or grab a pirated file. Add to that you can see a great many songs with video either from a TV appearance, a music video or live concert footage from the smallest of pubs to the main stage at Glastonbury. The internet has made consuming music both instant, frivolous and a little sterile. Its no wonder record shops are struggling, with the best intentions how can they possibly satisfy everyone’s taste and budget?

So back to my travels, I visited three shops today – one for the first time (all used stuff – just opened – limited selection) another that I don’t like much but they tend to have a broad selection and a third that is mostly vinyl but at least is interesting, set in an old house. I guess I’ve become a music snob over the years, I’ve certainly been accused of it and where once I used to get offended now I take it as a compliment. If you don’t own the entire catalogue of certain artists I either feel sorry for you, or if I like you I gradually buy them for you as gifts. The Clash always are top of that list for me but there are probably 50 artists that I’d fail to understand someone not appreciating fully. When a record shop doesn’t stock most (or at least some) CDs by Blur, The Boo Radleys, The Velvet Underground, The Bunnymen, Suede, Doves, Elbow, The Wedding Present, James, The Delgados and many others I quietly gasp and wonder why. When I see (I saw this a lot today) an album misfiled I wonder why they didn’t just open a cheese shop instead. Probably most cruelly I ask myself

Amoeba Music, Hollywood (the holy grail)

if I would swap the shops inventory for my own collection if forced to make the decision – and today I would have said no deal in all three cases. Not that shopping today was awful but that would take a special shop indeed.

As for what was playing today went like this – shop one – Gil Scott Heron, wow…not something you hear often and someone I’ve neglected a lot since the 1980’s when I was first exposed to him. His unmistakable urban poems were so obviously the precursor to much of hip hop and rap and yet he’s barely even mentioned these days. I had read he had a new album out so that sort of explained that. Shop two was entered to the sounds of Just Like Honey by Jesus and Mary Chain, big points for me and made me want to browse. Satisfaction gave way to cynicism shortly after when I realised they were playing a greatest hits album and not the debut. The last shop were playing Jonathan Richman when I walked in and then (I’m guessing) Queensryche. It may not have been them but was a good guess. I also checked for albums I’ve been seeking for years (no luck) some imports I didn’t expect to see (Pete and The Pirates and Hot Club De Paris) again no joy and scoured my mental check list of new releases. I had a few situations where I picked some things up; Pulp special reissues with bonus tracks and an old Brian Eno CD, but put them back down. As ever I looked for the Clash and related, shop one had one title – would you believe Cut The Crap – plus a used copy of Megatop Phoenix for $2.00. The second shop had all the studio albums, two of the Strummer albums, and the Revolution Rock DVD used. The last shop had London Calling plus Shea Stadium and on vinyl has the debut US release, I almost bought that but the vinyl looked knackered. As for my bounty, I got the new Hot Rats (Supergrass) CD of cover versions, Vampire Weekend plus used copies of The Dears most recent disc (only $4.99) and Interpol. The girl at the 2nd shop wore a Bad Brains T-shirt though I’m sure she was told to…..

I’ll save the bookshops story for another time, the sun stayed out all day and I have some new stuff to listen to.