Hello and welcome back again. A strange day as the Clash blogette had a painful trip to the Doctor and now I’m playing nurse…if you know me you realise that’s probably not a sentence you would want to hear from my lips.  She’ll be fine….right! Okay then on to matters Clash and there are a few pieces for your persual. First off -  don’t forget that this Thursday marks the debut of ‘Breaking Rocks’ the JGD film in Camden. If you are in London or nearby I’d highly recommend you take the tube to Camden Town and the short walk for a great event. As far as I know tickets are still available, if you know different please let me know.

It seems Mick Jones made a short trip to the South of France last week to appear at the Festival Marsetac with Rachid Taha (as his guest I believe). Video clip is below and as you can see it seems to have been a splendid time -- I’m waiting to learn more. That sounds like the perfect weekend, a music festival and Marseilles which is such a lovely city. It’s really great to see just how public Mick Jones has been since I started the blog, it makes you wonder where he might show up next. I hope it means the Carbon Silicon album is ready to go and not that he has other time to spend elsewhere? Further info on Rachid Taha on his myspace page. Additional video of Rock The Casbah has now surfaced too along with other great clips though not sure about Mick Jones doing an Algerian dance!!!

San Francisco has always been an interesting city for music and along with Los Angeles had it’s own very vibrant punk scene back in the day. With that in mind this book review sounds great (and of course reference our boys). Gimme Something Better is available now in the US from $12.25 on Amazon.

Billy Bragg sits down with the Newham Recorder (East London’s finest) and further explains the inspiration behind the Jail Guitar Doors project.

Visitors to the blog who live in the New York area should try and visit the following exhibition which starts October 30 and runs through til the end of January. Amongst the collection of Rock and Roll photography are some Clash pieces by Pennie Smith which would be nice to see first hand. Full details with address and hours etc are here.

Finally….I learned a new word today - Rhotacism. It’s the inability to properly pronounce the letter ‘R’ and no I’m not making light of it. The examples that come to mind Jonathon Ross in the UK or Barbara Walters in the US (or Elmer Fudd globally). Why am I mentioning this? Well I found a list of famous people with speech impediments and Joe Strummer is on the list for Rhoaticsm. I’ve seen dozens of interviews with Joe and of course all the songs…surely I would have noticed it?? Does he actually sing White Wiot? Am I missing something? Answers on a postcard or via comments please.

More soon -- Tim

Friday morning at last, it’s been that sort of a week. Funny how the events this week with Billy Bragg sent more than just me into a bit of a frenzy. It’s not every day that 50% of The Clash get together to re-record an old Clash number and better still in this day of online promotion you can get pretty much ‘real time’ access to exactly what’s going on. It reiterates a theme I’ve dwelled on a few times and that is just how much the music industry and media has changed in the 30 years since The Clash were active. In the 70′s and early 80′s the music press held all the cards. If you wanted news you waited for the NME or Trouser Press to be kind enough to share it. If you wanted to hear the songs it was late night sessions on the BBC or perhaps independent radio in the US. When did college radio kick in in the States to help indie music? 1982-3?

If you wanted to see the band wait til they finally toured in your town or city, by the time MTV came along and made music videos the norm The Clash were already close to the end. With all that said I did a quick scan of the reporting about the Jail Guitar Doors event this week and wanted to share some with you:

Consequence of Sound went with the somewhat bold “The Clash reunite, well kind of…”

The Telegraph promised even more as “The Clash Musicians revisit one of their classic tracks”

The New York Times (consistent Clash support) keep it up!

Uncut was more subdued as it just stuck to the details

The Guardian kept up their Clash campaign with a nice “Topper and Mick collaborate on charity single’

The Mirror (wankers) decided to cease the Strummer baiting long enough to fire out a story which was even vaguely accurate!

UKPA announce ‘Clash duo reunite for a Jail Project’

I’m excited on two counts, it shows that the level of interest in the Clash remains high in general which cannot be a bad thing. It also brings a lot of added awareness to the Jail Guitar Doors program specifically and the film just before the release date. Needless to say I hope the Clash Blog will be your preferred source for Clash news but nice to see a story create such a buzz this week. I must get my head down to some work, Clash Cup tonight and some assorted stories this weekend.

Cheers – Tim

Many thanks to Steve Kirk from Night of Treason for providing more photos from the ‘Breaking Rocks’ session with Mick Jones, Topper Headon and Billy Bragg plus ‘graduates’ from the Jail Guitar Doors program. Photos are fairly self explanatory but Steve assured me it was a very special day to see them play together. Billy Bragg’s face looks like how I would look, despite his 25+ years in the business I can still see ‘Clash Fan’ all over his face. Steve assured me it was a priceless time to be present for as Topper arrived first and Billy had to traverse the whole of England to arrive on time.

As for me, I can’t hide the fact that Billy Bragg has had a huge impact on me since I was a teen, and emotionally/politically took the torch from The Clash and carried it through the 80′s, 90′s right up until now. Great images – thanks Steve.

Topper's missing his kit....

Happy looking bunch...

Topper doing what he does best

All images courtesy Steve Kirk