Good Evening Clash world, your blog is here for a Friday night and welcome to the weekend. You picked an excellent night to visit as I am handing the blog over to a guest writer for this update with a very personal first hand account of seeing Paul and Mick in the Gorillaz lineup on the recent appearance of the David Letterman show. You should know that this was by far the most intimate setting for the entire Gorillaz North American journey so a limited crowd of just 250 or so were permitted. I’d suggest you watch the performance if you’ve not seen it already, it represents the best footage you’ll see of Paul and Mick this side of Christmas. It’s especially good as my guest blogger Shannon is an exceptionally gifted writer which you’ll pick up on immediately if you are used to my slash and burn methods. Shannon has been a friend of the blog since the very early days and continues to spearhead a campaign to get Mick Jones to bring his Rock and Roll public library on the road and across the seas (please join that cause if you haven’t!). Shannon is one of those arty types and you can find out much more about her art and design work over at her Tulip Tree Studios website and blog which she’s just jazzed up big time – it’s full of good stuff that you’ll enjoy with a very Clash infused flavour. Her account of her night is epic and enjoyable and can’t be compressed into just one post so I’ll break it down to bite size clips and split it up over the next few days, all of the photographs are also from Shannon and her sister. Enough from me – let’s jump right into her story:

Not a bad view..and yes...that's Paul's bass ready for action!!

I apologise for the delay in writing this, I’ve had lots to digest and try to articulate, and it’s only after all this time that has gone by that I have been able to step back and put it all into words in some way that would be worth your time reading. As Tim (Clash Blogger) has mentioned previously, my sister Ady miraculously and last minutely won us two tickets to the Gorillaz Live on Letterman webcast/taping that took place on Thursday, October 7, this amidst plans to attend the two Gorillaz shows in NYC and NJ that weekend. A little more luck and our seats wound up two of four seats that were dead center in the front row. We would find ourselves ridiculously close at an already tiny venue (I was told there were 250 in attendance, including the journalists, record label personnel and CBS executives up top). Just so you know what being there meant to me, like so many of you, I’ve been a Clash fan, a Joe Strummer and a Mick Jones fan for as long as I can remember. I won’t give my exact age away, but I was 14 when Mick left the band and I remember it happening. So, it’s been a long time. However, unlike some of you, I was also just a hair too young to have ever seen them live, so this was my first experience of ever seeing anyone in The Clash on stage, a long time in coming. I am also a Gorillaz/Damon Albarn/Jamie Hewlett fan, so these seats were appreciated beyond what any words can express.

It took a lot of last minute scrambling and rearranging to get there (including an 8 hour drive from Cleveland to Philly on my and my family’s part) but we did it, we arrived in the city just in time to pick up our tickets, grab a bite to eat and get in line. The whole story, in more detail is posted over on my blog if you want to read more about the entire experience. For Tim for The Clash Blog I figured I’d stick to Gorillaz as it relates to this blog’s focus via parts concerning those two very special gentlemen, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon.

Entering the venue:

At about 7:30pm, after about two hours in line, we were led and corralled into the theater’s lobby and it was as if we were a bunch of kids waiting to open the world’s largest present together. Giddiness reigned supreme at this moment. Three of my senses were immediately bombarded. First was the sight of the lovely lobby of Ed Sullivan Theater. It is very beautiful, and was exciting just to be standing there, independent of what was going on, thinking of all of the history of that building. Then, the sound of Paul Simonon’s bass shook the place. Holy shit. That’s Paul Simonon I hear playing behind those doors! A tease of things to come. Then came some guitar, then some singing. We were all being treated to a quick last minute soundcheck! I pricked my ears to hear more when one of the doors opened and then, wowee, that smell! A tidal wave of smoke billowed through air. Someone was having a smoke back there and jokingly I breathed in as deep as I could, and then had a private giggle as the thought that I (along with a couple hundred others) could now claim to have shared a long distance bong hit with Gorillaz and very quite surely Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, by proximity. Heh. By now, excitement was reaching ridiculous proportions and starting to get the best of me and the show hadn’t even started yet. Then the floodgates opened. They removed the ropes and we were ushered into the theater, and here we were walking into David Letterman’s studio. It really is a beautiful place. And it’s very, very small. I heard a few people around us remark about the relative tininess of it compared to what it looks like on television, and it’s true, it’s very intimate. They had us file in straight down the front aisle, only to find that our seats were dead center, two of four seats that were the very best of the best in the house. My sister and I, the two guys sitting to our left, and our friends we had made in line were dumbfounded. Many one word expletives and rhetorical questions were passed between us. Wow! What? How? WTF?? The stage literally came up to our feet with a little catwalk area jutting out where our seats were and the stage was elevated by maybe two to three feet at most. They were going to be right in front of us.

Mick all smiles on the Ed Sullivan theatre stage

As you can imagine, the room was abuzz. It was also very, very cold (I’ve read since that is how it always is at David Letterman’s request) and the room was slightly hazy (I imagine because we had just arrived on the shores of Plastic Beach . . .) Paul’s bass was right there in front of us. Paul Simonon’s bass! I could see the mermaid painting on it from my seat and I snapped a photo. Over there was Mick Jones’ guitar, and over there a pile of melodicas on one of the pianos. What a site. They allowed, and even encouraged, photos and we were given a flyer with info how to tweet to Gorillaz account for those tuning in online, so now the dilemma was no longer how to sneak a picture, but how much time did we want to actually spend photographing versus enjoying the moment. My sister graciously took over photo and video duties for the evening (I have to stop and thank her again for taking care of her sister who was well on her way to losing her mind!)

The show:

A video loop of the Live on Letterman logo with Gorillaz characters began playing in the monitor at our feet, and the camera men got in place. Then an announcer’s voice, “. . . Ladies and Gentlemen, Gorillaz.” and then the lights went black. Murdoch’s giant eyeball appeared on the big screen on the stage and we were treated to brief animation sequence by Jamie Hewlett. Then one by one we could see Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Damon Albarn as they crept on stage along with the rest of their crew. The lights came back on, the video reel rolled, and blamo! they launched immediately into “Kids With Guns.” We went wild, and not one person in the house was sitting from that moment forwar and physically there was barely a division between who was on stage and who was in the audience from the very start. The mood was very much that we were all there in one fantastic moment together, grooving, dancing, singing. And Smiling! Smiles were huge and genuine and constant, and were passed back and forth between audience members and everyone on stage because we could all see one another so clearly. Mick Jones was ear to ear smiles and if you caught his eyes, the smiles got even bigger. He played and trotted along with such lightness and exuded such delight it was a treat to watch him. The women in the string section also never stopped smiling, oh to be a string player that evening! Paul Simonon, the epitome of stage cool, held his bass as if it were a weapon at the attack, firing those sonic bullets at us throughout the entire show. Such intensity. He kept a serious poker face as he played, but that easily gave way as soon as another performer would come near him, and then he would also break out into Cheshire grins. Everyone was having a blast, and it was one of those shows that you never wanted to end. “Kids With Guns!” Damon sang and came over and pointed at the guy next to me, “Kids With Guns!” he pointed at me. Cripes, they really are right in front of us!

And that’s where I’m cutting the action for now…..Thanks so much Shannon for sharing this and bringing us right into the Ed Sullivan theatre with you, I’ll have part two for you very soon.

Good Evening everyone, I can’t quite believe it’s November 4th already. Have a safe Guy Fawkes day back in the UK tomorrow, I can’t help feeling his plot was just 405 years too early – but perhaps lightning strikes (not once, but twice). There’s an array of great photos and stories that revolve around Mick and Paul and that continuing tour with you know who. A month after it started Gorillaz have now finished the North American leg of the tour and my assumption is that the Clash lads will continue on all forthcoming dates which kicks off in Dublin on Nov 11th, then the UK and Europe for two weeks. Another break follows and then SE Asia and Australia, all the details are right here and as I’ve mentioned if you’ve been on the fence about the chance to see the tour and have the cash I really do recommend it. I’ve seen lots of tweets and updates from people who couldn’t afford it which I understand. Concerts in general have escalated horribly in price over the last decade, much of that is due to artists not making what was once possible from record sales though. I guess you can’t have it both ways, but the part I resent the most is the booking fees/service fees/etc which have increased even faster than the tickets themselves. That’s another topic for another post I think so let’s concentrate on something good instead.

Off stage at last, Jones record shopping

I thought a wrap up of Gorillaz stories/reviews seems to be in order and include our tried and tested 4.0 monkeys rating system with bonus points for noting that 2 members of The Clash are surely the most prestigous part of Damon’s traveling army. Don’t let me forget but there is also some really fun/funny inside stuff from the tour I must share later. It covers the entire thing but there are enough good Clash related moments that are worth your time. Right onto some monkeys to hand out.

The source I won’t name featured Gorillaz video from Phoenix even: There’s one post I won’t rate nor mention the source as I vowed to never officially give any credits or links to as its essentially a tabloid rag that causes a lot of division and hatred. However, they did a short (and banal) write up about the fact that we in Phoenix were treated to the first ever live performance of ‘Doncamatic’ with vocals by Daley. Questionable hair at best but a cool moment in the show, the article has a video attached which is the main reason I’m providing a link in the first place. 2.5 Monkeys

Seattlepi.com reviews the concert in Oakland: This is a fun review to read and includes some really good photos as well. The author (DJ Scribbles) obviously got his moniker from taking copious notes and does a great job capturing the night’s events. Better still he’s obviously a Clash fan and is at pains to point out the contribution made to the evening by the two gents in question. He also points out that he’s sure not many know the significance of them sharing a stage, a sentiment I’d share from seeing them last week also. Read it…good stuff and worthy of 3.5 Monkeys

The Linernotes reviews the Denver gig: This is what we like to see, a resident blogger not earning their crust for a big city paper or magazine writing a good review of the show in the mile high city. Seemed to be business as usual but the lower stage with split screens and what looks to be a more intimate setting but it might just be the photos? Wasn’t that a big venue…memory says yes. What I will suggest is the video for ‘Punk’ in the post, the spikiest Gorillaz song by far and a direct offshoot of a Blur idea it also allowed Mick Jones to bash away at some quicker chords. 3.0 Monkeys

Lastly an event that got a little coverage and left me going ouch, Paul Simonon took a pretty nasty spill during the same song mentioned above during the gig in Los Angeles. He definitely had a rapid slip which looked pretty painful but as you see from the video below he dusted himself off and hammered the strings from a prone position for a bit before finding his feet again. Here’s another video which captures the tumble, the culprit you’ll surely see is Damon’s time honoured habit of splashing the audience (and the stage that night) with bottled water just like the earlier days of Blur. The evidence is there Paul if you wanna have a word with Damon, it’s not 1995 ‘Boys and Girls’ anymore, hope that elbow is better. Also noted neither Albarn nor Mick Jones came to see if Paul was alright, charmless man says this blogger.

Paul Simonon’s ouch moment in Los Angeles – Guilty party is Damon

Once more around the houses re: Gorillaz North America over the weekend and lots of new stuff to come. Take care with your Friday everyone.

Welcome back you fine Clash people on this very special Tuesday, it’s election day here in America which reminds me of both an awful song and some equally awful memories. More on that later this week I’m sure, for now though the final installment of a 6 carriage train that departed the day after I saw Gorillaz in Phoenix last week. I know I stretched out the story quite a bit but with hindsight rather a lot happened over those two days. Catch up on the earlier posts if you like as it’ll be more fun or jump right in below.

Mick signing my London Calling inner sleeve

So it was that less than 30 minutes after the concert ended Damon Albarn was outside with a crowd that numbered probably about 60 people or so. It was a beautiful evening outside which further added to how shocked I was at the relatively small gathering of fans and autograph takers. Damon seemed perfectly polite and peppy throughout the 10 minutes or so he spent saying hello and signing memorabilia. Although a fair few years have passed for Damon also since I last saw him in  2002 I would give anything to know how he keeps his energy so high. Eventually he headed off toward the bus and I noticed that with his departure the crowd gradually reduced to about half of its original size. Two friends of mine Scott and Jessica continued waiting with the rest of us but they were in danger of missing the last train so they said they had to head off and hoped I would be able to meet the boys from The Clash. Jess said “don’t worry as soon as I leave they will come out, wait-and-see” Bless her for being such a clairvoyant.

Just a few minutes later the glass door about 40 yards down opened once more, I may have been the only person looking for I was definitely the first to react by yelling out “Jonesy” at the top of my lungs. He looked up the pavement and grinned as he stepped towards the bus he held up one finger indicating just a moment. Suddenly my brain started swimming with the incredible rush of emotion you only feel every so often in life, some that they first love you times with tragic news like an unexpected death, or at times such as when somebody first reveals that they are in love with you. This is one such rush as all I could think of was staring at that first Clash album cover, studying the lyric sheet and photographs that came with London Calling and endless hours (hundreds? thousands? more?) I spent listening to all of their music and trying to perfect my own lacking tonal ability to sing along. Especially I remember as a 13-15 year-old to Mick Jones, the higher notes better matching my own limited range. As he walked nearer all I could think was ‘bloody hell it’s Mick Jones’ (I don’t know what I was expecting) and then suddenly he was just a few feet away smiling, chatting and signing autographs. The remaining crowd were patient but initially I felt frozen to the spot, unable to move or really even comprehend that I had a chance to say hello. I did manage to lift up the mobile phone and get some typically poor photographs from above head height. Then at last there was an interlude between his exchanges and a chance to say something. As I wrote before it would be great to tell you that your Clash blogger pulled out a microphone and asked the most interesting questions ever posed to Mick, stopping him cold and insisting I come on the bus for a full interview post-haste. I’m sorry to tell you that never happened, I knew I’d be excited if I ever met any member of The Clash, what I didn’t expect was to be completely overcome by emotion. The emotion was palpable and throughout the 15 minutes that they were outside (Paul was to follow) I basically felt like I was 15 again and transported back to a time when we were all waiting for the next Clash album. So what came out of my mouth when I first met Mick?

“Shepherds Bush”

Yes at the very moment I’d waited 30 years for I blurted out the part of London I used to live in when I first got my own flat. The ground floor flat

Damon....and the Edge?

off the Goldhawk Road was just a few hundred yards from where Mick and Paul were first introduced to Joe in 1976. Although The Clash were no more when I moved there in 1985 I chose the neighborhood specifically to be in west London and near where it all began. But maybe I just chose it so a quarter-century later I could tell Mick? God knows?

“Mick how are you, lovely to see you finally. I used to live in Shepherds Bush”

He grinned in a way that said he’d seen it all before, but was more than happy to see it again. I think he said ‘nice, that’s great’ and extended his hand to shake mine. I then recalled saying ‘it was a great show, thanks so much for everything, just everything’. What struck me most on the night and again a week later was just how sincerely happy, courteous and warm both he and Paul seemed to absolutely everybody who was around. In Mick’s case I would add the adjective gentle, his whole persona was remarkably so.

Luckily I did have a second extended opportunity to talk to Mick which I’ll get to in a moment for by this time Paul Simonon had joined his former (and present) band mate. Seeing Paul in the same view as Mick was just lovely, I can’t think of a better word to describe it. Both smiling and laughing not just at those gathered but also with each other, Paul also was extremely patient with each person who wanted him to scribble his name, or grab a quick photo. I’ve never been one to collect for autographs and the whole process feels a bit daft and really obtrusive. Reluctantly I was part of that pack, and watched Paul patiently sign one piece of Gorillaz merchandise after another. I finally caught his eye and holding the lyric sheet to London Calling I asked

“Paul would you mind signing this?”

I swear his grin got a bit bigger and he replied

“Yeah of course”

He finished signing yet another photo of Murdoch or 2-D or whatever character and then grabbed the London Calling lyrics. He turned it over a couple times before deciding just where to sign and then handed it back to me. By now my composure  was about the equivalent of a three-week-old puppy so I managed to hold at least part of a conversation. As you’ll know Paul has got a very unique speaking voice, as if standing next to him wasn’t strange enough chatting certainly was. It went a bit like this.

CB “Hello Paul how are you?”
PS “I’m great mate, really great cheers”
CB “It was a great concert Paul, really good, you were great tonight”
PS “I’m glad you enjoyed it, it was a good time”
CB “I first saw you lot years back, I was just a teenager” (I then proceeded to give him probably far too much information about my earliest Clash experiences)
PS ‘Nice, you saw some great shows, those were the days eh?”
CB ‘Yeah, I never thought I’d get the chance to see you sharing a stage with Mick again so tonight meant so much to me it was just brilliant”
PS “I’m glad, its been really nice…really good fun”

Me and Paul

Luckily the bloggette was paying attention and asked if we’d be able to get a photo, Paul stood beside me and put his hand on my shoulder, I was in tears by then if I remember rightly and as we were preparing for the quick photo I told him how The Clash practically reared me, and I’ll never forget them or Joe and then thanked him once again. He said something like Cheers…and Thank You.

I must have told him my name as when I said ‘see ya Paul enjoy the rest of the tour, thanks for everything’  he replied with

‘All The Best Tim’.

Maybe the only time I’ll ever speak to him so it ended a treat. The next part is told to me rather than my own recollection, after saying goodbye to Paul I marched around the corner against the wall of the building and was leaning against it with my hands over my head. The emotion was just too much for a few moments and I was crying a bit…just lost it…totally. Kim came over and asked what I was doing and that Mick’s still here…so is Paul. I think I said “I’m not coping, that’s what I’m doing”. I guess some might say I was star struck, but it runs deeper than that. I sincerely feel that The Clash have been maybe the most constant thing in my life. No other thing (apart from Arsenal) that I was mad about in 1979 am I still mad about now. You could play one of 60 different Clash songs right now and it will impact me and my mood, almost always for the better. Starting this blog has perhaps brought that into sharper relief and I thought of all of the wonderful fans the band has, and just how much passion remains for the band and its members. I know that all was whizzing through my head as well.

Kim managed to get me to come back round the corner and Mick and Paul were together again, with many grabbing photos as they chatted and relaxed. There were not many people left when I went back to Mick and asked if he could sign my  sleeve and he did so right with Paul’s signature. I’ve committed to memory our brief chat that was surely less than a minute or two but apart from one private thought it was essentially this.

CB “Thanks Mick, just so much, for all of the music and all the memories for so bloody long”
MJ (Shyly) “ah of course”
CB “I wondered, do you think the Rock and Roll Public library might eventually make it over to the States?”
MJ (eyes lit up) “I really hope so, we’d like to do that, a lot, maybe next year”
CB “Oh brilliant, that would be great, East Coast? West Coast? (like a dick) Somewhere in the middle?
MJ (laughing) “Not sure yet but we really hope so”
CB (I rambled longer and harder than this but essentially) ‘That would be cool, I keep in touch with Ade back in London via email about it, I also am friends with Pete the photographer…who came out last summer and took loads of pics of the library and met you”
MJ “Oh right, great…yeah”
CB “Yeah and I wrote about it on the blog…my blog…The Clash Blog…I write it you see….(whoops!)
MJ “Oh….it’s you….! Nice one…nice one mate, that’s great”

His recognition seemed sincere enough, whether he thought oh it’s YOU who writes all that…or just was being very polite I’ll never know, but he seemed to smile a bit more anyway. I think he meant it in the former manner.

I ended up reeling off far too many thank yous and far too few words of logic but said something about how you’ve always been there Mick and that really mattered. He just smiled and took it in, I could never had said the right thing but I had a go. I did say ‘Stay Free Mick’ as he walked away…completely without intending it.

Soon after the two of them headed off to the buses and Los Angeles, and we made it back to my car. I don’t know if I’ll see them again, but at least I did that night. I’ve been regretting never meeting Joe Strummer now for nearly eight years, and on the rare chances when I could have I convinced myself I’d not know what to say and Joe was too great – he was Joe. I was a stupid reason and one I curse myself over, but I feel some of the pain has lessened.

My favourite memory of the night wasn’t the concert, or the brief exchanges I managed to have with the two of them, but it was of standing just five feet away from the two of them and seeing them happy – happy and on top of their game, just like it’s always been, just as it will always be…and somewhere in the dark night I remember hoping that Joe – or the energy of Joe that is everywhere could somehow see me and know my passion was also about him of course – and I’ve finally met you too now…at last.