Ray Lowry - Clash draft (courtesy RayLowry.com)

That will be Tuesday almost in the rear view mirror then….when did 2010 decide it was going to pass more rapidly than any other year ever? I’m having some moderate trouble with this new decade thing and the symbolic aspects of it being 10 years since 2000, twenty since 1990 or thirty since 1980 thinking “I remember each of those years, it can’t be that long ago can it?” 21 years since Tiannemen Square, nearly 22 since the Lockerbie disaster, 28 years last month since Combat Rock was released!! Just how can that be?

Some Clash news I have…yes yes sorry for rambling. One of the the many members of the peripheral Clash entourage who in truth actually helped make it even more memorable was cartoonist/illustator Ray Lowry. Perhaps most famed for his work on the London Calling artwork he was also the bands mobile reporter at times using cartoons to capture the band rather than the established tool of photography. Almost as if it was the 18th century and a traveling explorer would need the ability to sketch what he had seen, so it was with Lowry and The Clash who made personal the events he witnessed. As a Clash fan or an NME reader you’ve seen his work perhaps without knowing it, check his gallery and site if you’re in doubt. Sadly we lost Ray in October of 2008 but his work lingers on with renewed interest and a new exhibition brings it back into the spotlight. A number of artists and creative types have contributed to an exhibition celebrating Lowry and the famous London Calling sleeve. The Idea Generation Gallery will be hosting this event from June 18th to July 4th. Below is the official blurb:

In support of the Ray Lowry Foundation, our next major exhibition is a unique exhibition paying tribute to the life and works of iconic illustrator, Ray Lowry. Manchester-born, Lowry began his career drawing for Punch Magazine, International Times, OZ, NME and Private Eye creating a cult following for his celebrated illustrations and cartoons. Most famously, Lowry created the unforgettable art work for The Clash’s seminal 1979 album, London Calling.

As well as an extensive look at Ray’s back catalogue – including paintings, drawings and sketchpads – the exhibition will feature contributions from the likes of Billy Childish, Nick Hornby, Tracey Emin and Harry Hill, as 30 creatives pay tribute to an unforgettable artistic influence.

It seems you can even RSVP via this link for the opening night June 17th which also features live music.

Preview some of the art and learn much more via these articles in the Evening Standard and The Independent and The Evening Standard. The Standard adds more which should whet your fancy:

This month, 30 artists, musicians and general roustabouts are producing images inspired by, in celebration of and in tribute to Lowry, who died in 2008. Works by Tracey Emin, Keith Allen, Billy Childish, The Stone Roses’ John Squire and the Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon will appear at the Idea Generation gallery, alongside Lowry’s original sketches, cartoons, illustrations, paintings and designs for albums that were never to be. After the exhibition, the interpretations will be auctioned for the Ray Lowry Foundation, which supports further education projects for the underprivileged

Image Courtesy Idea Generation Gallery / Ray Lowry London Calling Exhibition

I sincerely hope some of you might be able to get along to this, if so please let me know how you enjoy it. Gallery is near Old St tube in the City, directions and such are on the gallery website. Follow Ray Lowry on Facebook. If you need further incentive to go look at this photo on the right, I’ve contacted the gallery to see if we can post a few more.

Lastly we chatted about the Tom Robinson Band yesterday in relation to the Victoria Park gig with The Clash. ‘McMutton’ shared with me a (weekly?) show that Tom Robinson hosts on BBC 6Music that I wasn’t aware of where he highlights new music. It comes with high recommendation so do check it out via the BBC or download via Ichoonze (iTunes).

Alright then, I need some sleep and food not sure in which order, but I’ll be back soon and cheers for dropping in.

It’s been pouring with rain the better part of 24 hours, weather like this makes me long for a ride on a double decker down to my local pub. The Sunday papers to read all about the football and have a nice flaky sausage roll. If you’ve always lived in England and bemoan the clouds and rain just trust me when you live in the sunniest place imaginable you do miss the rain. So I’ve been happy as can be this wet winter while the locals can’t stop complaining about the weekly rains.

I’ve been reading (again) the excellent Chris Salewicz bio of Joe Strummer recently, nothing certifies a great book as much as being able to read it again and still find a lot to enjoy. The complexities of Strummer are something to behold but the sincerity and dedication of the man can’t be questioned. If you haven’t read it – it is a book that will at times make you recoil at times as you learn about Joe up close from those who knew him, and while it’s not a book that seeks to put a halo above Strummer’s head it is still a book that needed to be written. I mention this as I was reading about how Joe was perfectly happy as a late teen (and again in his 40′s) to visit a 3-4 day music festival or even an extended country party. It might involve just a sleeping bag on the grass somewhere but his borderline nomadic tendencies probably made being in a band that was constantly touring that much easier to adjust to. Much of it was also possibly because he moved so often before the age of ten (and from country to country) and then felt that he was ‘discarded’ into a boarding school. If that represents the first seventeen years of your life it is fairly easy to understand that Joe probably never felt settled anywhere/felt at home anywhere depending on your point of view. I went the long way round to get there, but knowing and wet and gloomy the English weather can be, how did he manage to rough it when needed? Was the weather that much better in the late 60′s? From my memory (1974 onwards) the only summer England has ever had that was very warm and dry was 1976 which was also the summer that punk germinated in London. Just a coincidence? It does make you wonder. Incidentally there are 10 signed copies of Salewicz’ book Redemption Song – The Ballad of Joe Strummer being given away in a drawing via his site – so drop on by.

I’ve only one other short thing this evening (Clash Cup tomorrow) and it’s something definitely worth a read. The blog ‘Ariff Minds The Gap’ has written a good article about ‘Cut The Crap’. He has more of an opinion on the album than I can compose at present, well at the very least he explores some of the legend behind the making of the final ‘Clash’ album. I’ve got to be honest, if I was introducing someone to The Clash I’d most probably suggest they stop their historic education with Combat Rock. Am I being unfair?

Finally, I found myself in the mood to at last tackle the film ‘Control’ this weekend by Anton Corbijn. As you are no doubt aware the film focuses on the last 7 or 8 years of Ian Curtis and the formation of Warsaw who were to become Joy Division. I read a great deal about the film when it was released in 2007 and then partly by intent never saw the film. I’m pleased I waited, it gave me distance from all the reviews and recommendations and I was able to watch it with my knowledge of Curtis and Joy Division as it previously was – fairly in keeping with the film. I must say I thought it was incredibly creative in it’s production and the major character of Ian, his wife and his mistress were all superbly cast. The film has a brutal starkness to it and the use of Black and White only adds to the desolation of the story itself and the settings of Manchester and Macclesfield in the mid-late 70′s. My only complaint was the minor characters (example, the rest of Joy Division!) were somewhat shallow and bordered on cliched but that scarcely detracted from a stunning film, my comment is tempered by the fact that the film was truly about Ian Curtis after all. The palpable sense of despair and confusion circling his life almost brings you to frustration, but the final feeling is one I’ve had since I first heard he died when I was just a kid – what a tragically brief life. You almost sense that Curtis was dying as soon as he joined the band. Sam Riley as Curtis and Samantha Morton as his wife Debbie are simply remarkable. I hope you’ve had the chance to see the film, if not you should.

Yes it was thirty years ago today that Strummer/Jones taught the world to play…..

Jan 5, 1980 heralded the  US release of London Calling which considering the debut album never got a proper US release and Give Em Enough Rope was far from a huge success in America was probably much smaller news then than the anniversary of the event all these years later. London Calling was received to universal critical acclaim in the States; most notably within the pages of Rolling Stone and sat on the the cliff edge linking the 1980′s to what had been happening in the UK for the previous 3-4 years. London Calling bridged the decades because it was ultimately one of the most diverse Rock and Roll records of the era, perhaps ever. For a Clash fan it merely hastened the journey that the next two albums (and singles that were released during that time) would provide to send us bouncing around with the musical experimentation that the band were embracing, some fans bailed after the debut and many more after London Calling and Sandinista!. Perhaps more clearly it showed a growing love of the US and especially New York City which influenced the band far more than any of their British contemporaries up to that point.

London Calling was the record that paved the way for so many other British bands to succeed in the US and tightened up the links between punk and rock as opposed to Punk Rock. The English version of Punk was (in my opinion) something that was more in tune with the British market,  boredom over the Westway, dole queues and the riots in Notting Hill were always going to lose something in the translation. The US merited (and had) its own unique punk bands/scenes and I think this is why London Calling crossed over so effectively. It had much broader horizons, with lyrics and songs that resonated whether you were in Des Moines or Dundee. According to the critics it was The Clash at their very best, according to sales it was another rung on the ladder of success that peaked with Combat Rock, according to me it was simply the soundtrack to being 13,14,15,16 and it has never left my side since.

If someone knocked on my door tomorrow who had lived in a cave for their entire life but wanted to understand music from the last 50 years this would be one of the 5 albums I would hand them…and also tell them to play it first. Enough from me – have a look at what the New York Post had to say on this anniversary. It would also be neglectful of me not to link ‘that review’ from Rolling Stone.

For all its first-take scrappiness and guerrilla production, this two-LP set–which, at the group’s insistence, sells for not much more than the price of one–is music that means to endure. It’s so rich and far-reaching that it leaves you not just exhilarated but exalted and triumphantly alive.              (Rolling Stone, January 1980)

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