Afternoon…sunny skies hide the fact that it was such a gloomy morning…..I’m counting on you to be having a better weekend than I thus far. Continuing my commitment to more frequent posts I’ve a very quick two topics for the price of one and both are definitely worth your time in the opinion of your Clashblogger. First of all the image that you see off to the left, usually I do a semi-regular feature for ‘Clash Shopping’ now retitled ‘Lost in the Supermarket’ and usually I batch things together but today’s piece of art is different enough and perhaps good enough (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) to stand up for it’s own post, or at least half of one. What can I tell you about it – not that I know much about art – is that it’s done with pastels and prints are available. The artist is named Josh and attends the Savannah (GA) College of Art. I’ve asked him for more info such as price for the prints so if you’re interested let me know.

On a non shopping matter – I hope you remember a while back the many posts we had about Alan Miles’ film ‘Breaking Rocks’ – the documentary that looked at the Jail Guitar Doors initiative in the UK. It was a busy year for JGD who also launched a US chapter in the Spring. The film follows Billy Bragg and some of the individuals helped by JGD as they learned guitar and a new skill. The film had a pretty cool premiere and then made it to DVD I believe, I assumed sitting in the States it was something I would never see until the other day. Just doing a general search I found that the entire film had been uploaded online to youtube! I didn’t want to promote a bootleg so I got in touch with Alan Miles to check if it was alright to promote via the blog and he did give it the thumbs up. So why waste time reading my blurb, you need to pull up a chair and watch this film. Watch it for the good of the project, watch it for Billy Bragg and Alan, watch it for the spirit of The Clash…just make sure you watch it! Then let me or Alan know your thoughts – I’m sure he’d love your feedback. You can contact him via Facebook. Also, here is the official link to Jail Guitar Doors.

Cheers for now – the film is below. Tim

Alan Miles’ film Breaking Rocks

Well hello again, all things being equal it’s the end of your working (or studying week) or perhaps you are part of that fraternity of people who work weekends? I’ve been in that boat and the rest of the world just don’t relate to you if you have a week day off cos you have to work a Saturday or Sunday do they? Anyway if you are a weekend worker I hope you enjoyed your day off during the week. Not sure why I brought that up – mostly to welcome in the weekend before we see what’s come over the Clash newswires the last 36 hours.

Quite a lot of activity to be expected in the next week or so as Stummerville makes it way to Austin for the SXSW music festival and hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of a rumour that’s been circulating for the better part of two weeks about Simonon and Mick Jones becoming part of Gorillaz live band. Initially I heard that the two former members of The Clash would be appearing with Gorillaz at Coachella and then that they would actually become a semi-official part of Damon Albarn’s live band for gigs coming up in the UK. Now it seems the rumour is heating up as the NME are joining the speculation I’ve offered above. Two thoughts on this, first I think where there’s smoke you tend to find fire so I do expect it to happen at some level, secondly I don’t care if you fail to enjoy the music of Gorillaz (I realise some Clash fans are more than a bit turned off by it) the fact that Albarn respects his musical heritage enough to include Paul and Mick is good enough for me if that’s what it takes to see them play live on the same stage together. To extend that point, Blur made some of the most interesting music of the 90′s while I’d take all three Gorillaz albums and The Good, The Bad and The Queen as representing some of the more diverse things done during these last ten years. The heritage of a musician who takes chances and constantly evolves is entirely in keeping with the spirit of The Clash and for me has more merit than Simonon and Jones joining a band that attempt to be a modern day Clash circa 1978 (I won’t name names but there are more than a few of those kicking around with a US origin). Let’s see what happens and keep an open mind to new music – in as much as there were Clash fans who disowned the band after the release of London Calling you’ll find Blur fans who can’t find value in what Damon does now. I’m banking on it being made official next week.

This is great (thanks for the heads up Alan Miles) and make sure you make some time to listen. A podcast is up with an special feature about JGD. It kicks off with the reworked version of Jail Guitar Doors with vocals from Billy Bragg and a new verse from Mick Jones. It’s a pretty lengthy podcast which doesn’t

image courtesy Laura Levine

exclusively feature Jail Guitar Doors related material but there’s enough on there to keep you interested. The bulk however features an extensive interview with director Alan Miles (who put the film ‘Breaking Rocks’ together about the charity)  and tracks by some of the artists associated with the project. The link to the site is here and they give you a further outline there especially if you want to skip to your ‘Clash’ bits.

New York City and The Clash is a theme we’ve touched on more than once on the blog, accepted wisdom is that Manhattan gradually became the overseas headquarters of The Clash especially from 1979 onwards. As the British press started to reject the evolution of the band they spent more and more time in the US and Canada, New York becoming the hob for the band. It extended beyond the residency at Bonds and other famed concerts but they also were immersed and inspired by the scene in the city not to mention recording and mixing so much of their music in the town. I only meant to write a sentence there…sorry…I mention the pairing again as PopMatters posted a good article about New York and the band that’s worth a quick read.

I’ll have more over the weekend – Clash Cup and more. Thanks for visiting…..

Good Evening – just a short post tonight but I wanted to share a quick summary from the Rich Kids reunion show last night. I so wish I could have been there as it sounds like it was brilliant on so many levels. The good news? Two friends of the blog (namely Stuart and photographer Pete) were there and have kindly provided a summary of the event and photos to boot! Thanks to the two of you and let me hand it over to Stuart:

Well, what a fantastic night at the Rich Kids bash. You’ll be pleased to know that Carbon Silicon were back with a bang – only four songs – Global War on Culture, The News, Why do men fight and What the fuck. All delivered with fun and energy which reminded me why this band is soooooo SPECIAL . A very special mention for Rusty Egan who guested on drums and was so powerful – highlight being his magnificent performance on the News – wow did he give some welly. An awesome Why do Men fight also deserves a mention – a good old rambling epic – like the old Carbon Silicon days – went on for ages but totally captivating. Other highlights of the evening include Viv Albertine (God she looks good – Oil of Olay adds next surely?) wooing the crowd with “Confesions of a Milf” , Ian Broudie and Glen Matlock with The Illusions belting through Wreckless Eric’s Whole Wide World, Glen again with Patti Palladin leading a singlaong – ohhh so many great moments…… As for the Rich Kids – well what can i say – they played with enormous energy and it was hard to believe they hadn’t been together for 30 odd years. Another special mention for Midge Ure, as his vocals were outstanding. Most enjoyable though was seeing these guys having such a great time – it was quite touching. Encores were A Rousing All or Nothing with the band being joined by Mick TJ and Gary Kemp and having a generally riotous time finishing with an absolutely belting Rich Kids – honestly it was fantastic and I feel so lucky to have been there – God these old punk rockers know how to put on a show, have a laugh , and create a brilliant atmosphere – I’m proud to say thats my kinda music. It was also nice to see Pete the Snapper albeit briefly and I noticed with disappointment the demin quota was at a more manageable level than the Breaking Rocks bash in October – mind you who am i to talk – it was so cold i had a cardigan on under my jacket – so Val Donican jibes my way next time Pete! I’ll try and write this up properly when i get a moment but hopefully this’ll give a bit of an idea – all the best – Stu

Mick Jones looking dapper for 2010. Image Courtesy Peter Stevens

Stu – thank you…that’s a lovely capture of what sounded like a uniquely amazing night. Pete – Thanks as always for doing what you do best! I’ll sort out more photos when we talk….. Stu – I’ve got that breaking rocks article to post soon….

Video clip above and to the right ~ worth a look for a hidden Clash track mixed in there!

Tim