Well…the Birthday lark is well and truly done with now and thus the task to be a more mature and responsible adult becomes more pressing, it struck me this morning that its 21 years plus since I was 21 – what a strange concept. It also struck me that you sometimes pass by historic events in life without knowing the ripples from them will last a lifetime. Bad things on a grand scale like Hillsborough and 9/11, wonderful moments like the Berlin Wall coming down and South Africa turning over apartheid. Then of course there are each of our private moments, falling in love, breaking up – losing relatives and friends or achieving something you’ve worked for years at. In our world (The Clash) there were a number of pivotal moments not least of all the sequence of events that led to Joe Strummer being part of the band in the first place, the perfect foil for the songwriting skills and arrangements of Mick Jones. If the stars weren’t lined up properly in 1976 who knows what might have been. Then there was the opposite end of the lens, when the band let first Topper and then Mick fall from the lineup.

I thought today of that preposterous TV series from the early 90′s “Quantum Leap”, if you don’t remember it bear with me as this won’t take long. (I know I saw it a few times, which worries me that I spent some of my 20′s watching television when now its little more than a big thing to dust now and then in my office). Anyway in the show the main character (Biff, Steve?) was shot back into the far or recent past to an event of historical importance, his task seemed to be to change history for the good as a time traveler with a purpose. He was aided by some other chap who used to send him messages via (phone? fax? I don’t know…it was a long time ago) as to just what he should or shouldn’t do to best allow the world at large to be a better place. I only remember two episodes; one involved Lee Harvey Oswald though I can’t remember the outcome – and another bumping into the young Buddy Holly and convincing him he should write about ‘Peggy Sue’. Just think, people were paid money to write this stuff up. Why did they never send Steve/Biff back to 1983 to be a fly on the wall in The Clash camp?

Only Mick looks pleased with this interview....

If he did imagine what he would have seen. A band whose hard work and brilliant music was bringing recognition they had always dreamed of. At the dawn of MTV the best British band were poised to do whatever they wanted after Combat Rock and a global audience had found out about The Clash and were taking them very seriously indeed. Biff/Steve would have seen the hardest working front man imaginable insisting that the band work, record, tour at all costs and a songwriter who not only embraced diverse influences but wanted to mold them into The Clash being the hardest band to tag imaginable. He’d also have seen a drummer who was lost to serious drug addiction and a growing lack of stability amongst the remaining members. More than I wonder what Biff/Steve would have done I wonder what I myself would have done?

Would I have taken the band and Bernard Rhodes to one side and said you really need and deserve a long break to recharge the batteries and decide what to do next. Would I have insisted Joe keep his faith with Mick because Mick had never failed the band before and surely never would. Would I have asked that they insist Topper gets the help he needs and when he is well The Clash will be all set to finish what they started. When the band kicked Mick Jones out in 1983 I thought my world had fallen apart, I thought in a few weeks or months the rift would heal and The Clash would get back to business. As the months rolled on and it looked like a lost cause and there was no sign whatsoever of progress I felt lost for a while. My band were done…I was supposed to have them to get me through the rest of my teens and beyond.

What would you do if you went back to 1983? Is the legend just as it should have been? Would another 5 years of The Clash resulted in more amazing output or perhaps a tattered dream where the inner turmoil of the band just transferred itself to the records they made? I know you can’t change history but isn’t it tempting to wonder about it – to see what you’d do if you could do it all over again . I don’t know what I’d have told the 1983 version of The Clash to do, probably take 18 months off, let Culture Club have their moment in the sun and come back and be the main act at an alternative Live Aid at Loftus Road. Instead….we got U2 and Queen (no disrespect) and a music industry that was right back to feeling very pleased with itself. What would you have done? I know we’ve talked about this before but I’m sure to do it again…….

I wrote this tonight as I’m feeling sad at the loss of a friend at a dreadfully young age which I just learned of today and hoping I said the right things to him the last time I spoke to him. I think I did, he was worried about me at the time and I said don’t worry I’ll be fine but thanks for caring. It also brought into sharp relief just what I do with all relationships on a daily basis, not to live a life full of regrets and do or not do things you then need a time machine to fix.

John – you’ll be missed, we needed more gentle and joyful people on this planet.

Back soon – Tim

Cheers for coming back to the blog / finding it for the first time. What is it about lists and when did that trainspotting tendency become something for public consumption? Growing up there were two lists I always looked out for – my older brother would always put together a mix tape – yes we used to have to put on a record, hit play+ record+pause on our cassette deck cue up the song and hope your index finger jabbed that pause button at the optimum moment. Too long and the extra second of silence (with a bit of hiss) would ruin the flow of the tape, too late and introduction of the song might be cut off for half a beat. If you were my brother neither happened, he had it down to a science plus the dual sound meters so he could get the recording level just right thus eliminating those annoying highs and lows. Anyway each year he’d tot up his best singles from the year, note the time on each and convert his knowledge into the best 90 minutes of music you could ask for. On a more professional level by the time as about 12-13 I became aware of John Peel’s festive 50. The NME would always publish the final version and you’d measure your own credibility against his 50 tracks. I think I peaked round about 1985 when I probably had 34 or 35 of Peel’s 50 for the year, probably not coincidentally I worked in a record shop at the time so our discount would take about a quid off of the price of a 12″ single.

I’ve continued/bastardised my brother’s habit and managed to list my own top 10 albums just about every year since about 1981 and it makes me laugh when I look back now at those lists. I’d meant to write this evening about a few lists The Clash have just appeared on but I’ll save that for the weekend – the results aren’t satisfying to me so I’m likely to vent and today seems such a nice day otherwise. What has also made me defer is those John Peel lists, I had it in my head that although he introduced me to much that I like I don’t seem to recall him having much time for The Clash. Unlike so many bands they never recorded a session for him – but nor were The Clash mad about radio’s treatment of them from the very beginning. I do wonder whether the band were ever invited to record a peel session? If you know for certain please write in. My memory though isn’t correct which probably means I started be more aware of John Peel round about 1980.

In 1977 The Clash were number 9 on his top 50 with Complete Control – worth noting is the Sex Pistols highest song was number 11. Considering it was the year when punk really broke commercially its interesting to note Peels Top 10 consisted of two tracks by The Motors and some Neil Young. The Clash also made number 27 with White Riot that same year.

In 1978 Peel really did endorse The Clash with Complete Control (again!?) in the top 10 but much higher as the number 2 song of the year in addition White Man in Hammersmith Palais was 7th for the year. At 15 White Riot and at 23 Police and Thieves. Its interesting to note Peel had songs that were by then over 18 months old making his end of year list – I’m fairly certain that wasn’t typical.

In ’79 the four tracks I’ve already mentioned appeared on the festive 50 occupying slots 3,5,26 and 49. Interestingly nothing from Give ‘em Enough Rope made it and of course London Calling was released at the time he’d have been making the list. Also 1979 saw more first generation punk records than the prior two years – is it possible that John Peel was a bit behind the times (unlikely) or did the list answer more to the wants of the audience?

1980 saw The Clash appear four more times – adding Bankrobber to the chosen tracks, 1981 saw two nods and Combat Rock brought 3 tracks to his list in 1982. My understanding was voting for tracks began further into the 1980′s but based on these lists I’m now not so sure. The same website gives an overall weighted ranking score for Peel’s favourite bands and while its no shock to see The Fall, The Wedding Present and The Smiths take the top 3 slots I was pleased to see The Clash in at number 17. Much as I love and miss John Peel I always thought there was some bias against bands from London and The Southeast – that might be valid as The Clash are the highest band on that weighted list from my part of England, while fully half of the 16 bands above are from Manchester, Sheffield or Leeds (and surrounds). Either way thank you John Peel and my brother David for making me as prone to make lists as the next person.

More over the weekend including some lists I hope, come on Holland!

*** additional insight below from a visitor Steve N *** (really useful)

Good post and I know exactly what you mean about lists.

Re Peel and The Clash, they were asked to record a session for Peel in 1978 I think, but Mick was going through one of his perfectionist stages and the session over ran and they ran out of time. Peel was always a bit pissed off about this and thereafter never had much time for The Clash. I think this is all documented in Johnny Green’s  book as he says that Joe always regretted not getting it together to do the session. I remember hearing him play ‘White Man’  in 1979 and then sardonically saying on the lead out ‘The Clash, turning rebellion into money there’, so he obviously didn’t have much time for them then. I remember him playing ‘Pressure Drop’ alot when ‘English Civil War’ single came out as well, saying he thought it was much better than the A side.

The Festive 50 tracks were never chosen by Peel, they were voted by the listeners firstly as their top 3 tracks of all time, then after he got bored of the same tracks reaching the top spots, he changed the criteria to the top 3 tracks of the year (in early 80′s I think). He used to get quite grumpy with the lack of some of his favourite tracks either not making it or being too far down the list as I remember, so he was always scrupously honest.

Hello again and thanks for stumbling upon the blog (or welcome back). This was going to just be a journal entry but then I thought I’d share it. I was writing yesterday about time passing too quickly…and it got me thinking. Why is it that I can still clearly remember riding with my brother in his car to the record shop to purchase Combat Rock, peeling of the price sticker, fawning over the logos and cover photo of the band and squinting at that lyric sheet as Strummer’s words were squeezed in on that black background? Why is it that I can remember really acutely specific events from nearly 30 years ago and yet I can’t remember a thing about so many more recent events? I think I’ve established some sort of halo effect for certain spells and artifacts in my life. Cruelly I can’t say its been people who stick in the memory as jaggedly for me, there just wasn’t room with all the records and concerts. That makes me sound a bit of an arse but a memory only has so much space right?

Where so many good nights out began.....

With the advent of Facebook I’ve had people contact me and recollect trivial shared events from 1982 that I can’t even pretend to remember. Drunken nights or fights from 1985 are forgotten also, its just a blank space where a memory should be. But ask me about purchasing the 12″ single of Confusion by New Order in the Summer of 1983 and I know which shop it was and how I felt when I heard it (too electronic and tinny production….the legacy of Joy Division fading by the time of the run-out groove). Ask me about the first time I saw James in concert (they supported New Order coincidentally) and I’ll tell you where we had drinks beforehand, though not with whom I was with. This Factory Records analogy is just a coincidence but I realise I’ve tagged my life with singles and albums, concerts and football matches. Hearing new music and seeing new bands was never more vital for me than from around 1980 (when I first had some money to spend on records) til around 2001 when I’d left Los Angeles and the rich fountain of concerts it offered almost any night plus the restaurants, the people, the art, the scenery and all the rest. When you have lived in London, Chicago and then Los Angeles living anywhere else is going to seem a bit arid.

Since then I’ve kept buying too many CDs (downloading is just soulless for me) and reading about music all the time. I still have huge a passion for football and music of course but what I really am missing is going to 25 or 35 concerts a year – Its not my age, I blame this town, and the bands I like simply skip Phoenix. It’s not on the way to anywhere or from anywhere. Too close to Los Angeles to merit a separate stop and too far from anywhere East to fit within a tour schedule. It wouldn’t be far fetched to say every couple of weeks a band plays in L.A. or San Diego and I am forced to wonder how the gig was. Its 350 miles away…a tough argument just to catch 75 minutes of live music. But I really miss it!

So with that in mind during this new decade some sort of changes need to be made, fortunately its possible for us so the discussions will need to escalate, no hurry I’m a patient person. Southern California, the Bay area or Seattle seem to be the biggest and most logical contenders at present and any would be satisfactory so long as a goal is agreed upon. Its not just about the music, I need to see the ocean when I want to and be somewhere a little more welcoming to everyone  in general (not that I’ve suffered as a result of being English here), its a better place for kids (education, social environment) and a more rounded lifestyle. Perhaps most importantly I always felt strangely very much at home in Los Angeles and miss that dearly, I didn’t realise how vital that was. Its just that a cultural chasm exists and Arizona isn’t winning any awards for open arms or urban hip. With recent events here bands are even boycotting the state to protest the immigration issues. Think of the gulf between Swindon and London for some sort of comparison. London for a second spell is also tempting…maybe next decade!

I’ve got Clash news for you later, but I was just venting…so there you have it! Lots of news later I promise…thanks for reading, or skipping to the closing sentence as the case may be. Today’s video won’t win any awards for style but look away from the screen and remember it was recorded in the Summer of ’76 in Brisbane of all places.

ps – sorry Swindon.

pps – If you want to win in the World Cup, try using Cesc Fabregas

Tim