Monday evening here at Clash Blog Towers – nearly 7 PM and I’m finally getting around to the post I had hoped to get written last night. I apologise in advance if I’ve been a bit too wordy in recapturing the events of last Monday and Tuesday, to a certain extent I have been writing for myself just to ensure that I document as well as I can something that I hope will stay with me for many years to come. Thanks for your patience and enjoying the ride, if you’re a first-time visitor to the site you might want to page back and begin with part one.

It wasn’t until fully 60 seconds after the appearance of Paul Simonon on the stage that one final person join the assembled cast, even without significant lighting it was clear by his frame that Mick Jones was indeed here and my worries had proven to be unnecessary. What followed for the next two hours was not the greatest concert that I’ve ever attended but definitely the greatest concert of its type you could ever expect to attend and one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had the pleasure to see and hear. Like some of you I’m sure you’ve either already been to a Gorillaz concert earlier on in the tour or have had the chance to see much of the material performed live online or via that David Letterman special, but nothing really prepares you for the visual/aural and organizational brilliance involved with this particular tour. I’ll get back to that in a minute but first of all Paul and Mick. Above and behind the stage sits a video screen with image clarity that’s quite amazing, the timing of the images with the music and what’s going on a few feet below is really little short of magnificent. With that said I don’t think my eyes really left either Paul or Mick until at least the third or fourth song, such was the sheer emotional joy and oddity of seeing them down beneath us so many years removed from The Clash.

Paul simply dominated his part of the stage, I suppose a neutral observer would have just said ‘ah yes, the bass player seems to be enjoying himself’ – but there was far more to it than that. Simonon (when playing) was truly prowling around the stage and for whatever reason you could hear his bass much higher in the mix than on recorded output by Gorillaz. Even when he stood patiently still you couldn’t help but wait anxiously for him to return to slinging his instrument around like only he can. On the other side of the stage Mick Jones was continually trotting off his combination march/shuffle, his side of the stage in general had far more activity with guests coming and going while Mick moved to accommodate that constant traffic. The overall cohesion of the busy stage was a constant source of interest, with our vantage point providing excellent awareness of that. As early as the fourth song ‘Stylo’ started bouncing along my favorite recurring moment of the evening took place, with Paul moving some 50 feet to his right to play alongside Mick. Although I was a long way from the stage the significance of seeing them so close to one another meant that that was all I watched for the better part of the entire song, simultaneously and not for the first time that evening the thought of Joe Strummer entered my head and stayed there as if to remind me exactly why I was there. I’ve no idea if I looked as overcome by emotion as I felt at that moment, the more than 30 years of Clash songs and Clash interviews and Clash album sleeves all crashed into my head at the same time, I hope that others like me have had moments just like that during this tour where you reach back if only for a few moments to what brought you there. It wasn’t a Clash concert and there’s no point pretending it ever could’ve been, but it was a chance to get a direct glimpse back at some of the brilliance of these two chaps. It’s 27 years since they shared the stage in any true capacity, even if you saw the last proper Clash concerts at age 13 you would already be 40. I couldn’t help but think of the thousands of Clash fans who were born just a bit too late and never had that chance, just think about the joy they derived from seeing these two together at last.  Who’d deny them that opportunity – and unlike The Doors and others not some watered down version of the original deal with a guest vocalist filling Strummer’s place. Thank **** that we’ve never had to endure that. More than once I remember mumbling to the mug emptier about a “Clash moment ahead” as Paul decided to wander over to Mick….each and every time that sent a shiver down my spine.

What can you possibly say about Damon Albarn that hasn’t already been said? You can overlook his ability as a songwriter if you wish, you can

image courtesy Carrie Musgrave

downplay the fact that he manages to merge a remarkable roster of talent into a cohesive concert and idea, you might not even like the way he sings. What you can’t debate is the energy of his performance, if not quite the heyday of Blur but he hasn’t slowed down much that I can tell. He was all over the stage, from his piano to the lead mic stand, from the backing vocalists to the entire width of front stage – he’s simultaneously master of ceremonies, lead singer, welcoming committee and musician. If you looked away (invariably at Mick or Paul) chances are he wouldn’t be at the same part of the stage as he was where you left your vision just beforehand. The overall mix and sound was amazing, layers of vocals and instruments seamlessly filling the large hall. I essentially failed to watch the video screen for most of the show. I won’t detail each song and guest vocalist you can find out far more elsewhere and I wasn’t taking notes. Personal highlights were ‘Glitter Freeze ‘where Paul and Mick just took over proceedings for four minutes, Mick’s belly dancing during ‘White Flag’, a remarkable performance of ‘Empire Ants’ which took it far beyond where it is on the disc,’Punk’ was simply great, a minute and fifty seconds of racket that is more like early Blur (and via lineage The Clash) than anything else on offer. Paul continued to have issues with his guitar strap and Mick was always interacting with the guests and audience.

I’ll throw up the full set list beneath but I wanted to share my personal highlight specific to this show, very late on during ‘Feel Good Inc’ one of the never ending guests De La Soul was standing on Paul’s lead to his bass. Simonon initially gave it a tug to free it up facing away from the singer, then seemingly bothered he turned and gave it an almighty yank which made the singer temporarily lose his footing. This was during one of the many times where Paul seemed to be exacting revenge on his bass for something long ago. A very fitting visual memory for me if that’s the last time I see Mr. Simonon on stage. If you get a chance to attend in Europe or Australia/N.Z. please do so, I’ve a feeling you’ll have a great time. For me – it was a chance to see a band I really like anyway complimented immeasurably by two members of the band that got this all started for me in the first place – a pretty perfect evening. All that was left was for me to see if I might get a bit closer outside.

Outside the crowd near the tour buses was big but not ridiculous, the corner where they were perched was too full already for additional occupants so we took up our wait across the city street. A few guest vocalists from the gig made brief appearances but after 25 minutes or so Damon Albarn came wandering over after chucking his acoustic on the bus. Our position enabled us to see that neither Paul or Mick had yet ventured out so we remained hopeful.

I’ll finish this up soon….cheers- Tim

SET LIST

“Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach”    “Last Living Souls”    “19-2000″    “Stylo”    “Melancholy Hill”    “Rhinestone Eyes”    “Super Fast Jellyfish”    “Tomorrow Comes Today”    “Empire Ants”    “Broken”    “Dirty Harry”    “Doncamatic”    “El Manana”    “White Flag”    “To Binge”    “Dare”    “Glitter Freeze”    “Punk”    “Plastic Beach”    Encore:   “Cloud Of Unknowing”    “Feel Good, Inc.”    “Clint Eastwood”    “Don’t Get Lost In Heaven”   “Demon Days”

I’d be an arse if I neglected to mention the news that Danny Baker has announced he is battling cancer, if you’re in England you already know Baker I’m sure. He took ever as editor of ‘Sniffin Glue’ from Mark Perry and I’ve always wanted the blog to be a bit of a fanzine for the modern age. Baker went on to write for the NME and was always a huge supporter of punk and post punk music, especially The Clash. Perhaps only beaten by his love for football and specifically Millwall. He’s now been in the spotlight in the UK almost as long as The Clash as a writer, DJ, radio and TV personality and is a throw back to my youth for all the right reasons. A good and intelligent man I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

ClashBlog reprise for Halloween, how is everyone doing today? I tried out a new Indian restaurant last night and slept like a baby, I swear I was born in the wrong country – at least gastronomically speaking.  Right let’s launch into part 4 so we can get this put to bed today and resume normal Clash transmissions for the week ahead. Parts 1,2 and 3 are naturally below so tuck into them first if you haven’t done so. On the last post I wrapped up the Monday evening which brings us to….

Tuesday: From the moment I woke up on Tuesday the level of anticipation was just stupid, feeling like an 8 year old on Christmas morning is an emotion I thought had escaped me forever but it seemed the clock was going to taunt me all day, still 11 hours before we even leave. I made coffee and was tempted to head back to the Bilton to see if Jonesy might be spotted having egg and chips or Damon and Paul outside in the morning sun sneaking a smoke and a cup of tea. I instead worked all day instead, the Gorillaz twitter account asked ‘what shall we do with our day in Phoenix’, a suggested ‘Clashblog interview with beer paid for’ didn’t elicit a reply so I worked away. Late morning there were no signs of  a radio interview or such (poor show Phoenix) so it was wait for the evening. One last bit of prep remained in determining the best post-concert spot to park close to and perhaps see the band outside the venue. With that done it was time to head into the city for our appointed rendezvous with friends and yes I was optimistic enough to still bring something to have signed just in case.

We stopped for a bite to eat on the way to the gig but I must confess I was lost in my thoughts, as I’ve written about on the blog for months now the very idea of seeing Mick and Paul sharing a stage once again more than justified going to the show. The last time I saw Mick Jones on stage must have been round about 1992 and for Paul the gap was even larger having seen MKII of The Clash twice in 84 and 85 I think. I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about them playing with what they neither see as a real band nor a particularly relevant one (relevant to The Clash). I’d argue with both statements but especially the second one, I think what Damon has accomplished with Gorillaz ranks right up there with decisions you would associate with Mick Jones if not Joe Strummer as well. The diverse path that Damon took from the early days of Blur through to the indie/funk/rap/pop that is Gorillaz compares favourably with the path trodden by The Clash from a song like London’s Burning through to Magnificent Seven for example. So much of that is due to Mick Jones being such an addict for music and culture that constraining the sound or the musical style of The Clash simply to where they were in 1976 would have been completely against his instincts. In fact you don’t need to look any further than Big Audio Dynamite to draw a really strong parallel between the two situations. What makes it even more remarkable is that The Clash made that transition from early punk to soaking up Grandmaster Flash and Chic in just four years. Add to the mix Paul’s existing relationship with Damon and then he and Mick Jones playing with Gorillaz seems perhaps the most natural thing to me. I probably come at this with a degree of bias, I’ve always enjoyed Blur and purchased each Gorillaz album upon release. Then again I also don’t think music history stopped in 1983 or at any time since, good and interesting music will always be made, it might be harder to find than in the past but it’s definitely miles easier to hear.

We parked two blocks north of the venue on purpose, knowing that any post event opportunity will present itself on the northwest corner of the hall. As we walked down the realization of what a big production the concert was hit home, five luxury tour buses and three giant lorries were parked alongside the building. I had read that in excess of 45 people appear onstage during the shows and the touring party with crew numbers over 70 all told. While I understand the complaints about ticket prices, this wasn’t just one man and his acoustic guitar. We did slow down by the crash barriers but there was no sign of anybody apart from security and associated riffraff. As for the venue the Dodge Theatre had just changed names a few weeks prior to the Comerica Theatre, I really must find sponsorship for the blog eh? It’s a big boat of an arena but thankfully located right in the heart of the city rather than stuck in suburbia surrounded by car parks. I think it’s only six or seven years old and holds about 5500 people on three levels, this was to be my first visit and I’ve heard previously that the acoustics were poor which I am glad to say didn’t apply that evening. We waited out front to meet friends and it was a beautiful evening to be standing around watching the punters walk up from all directions. The audience was younger than I expected with most fitting into the 20-30-year-old bracket plus a fair number of little kids (!!!) and a handful of old punks. To my surprise I only saw two Clash shirts all evening but of course I only saw a few hundred of the entire crowd.

The tickets said 7:30 but it was probably 8:15 before we ventured in, there was no coherent desire to see N.E.R.D. so urgency was not applied. The lobby was squeaky clean in that homogenized way you only ever see in America, you could’ve been about to attend a movie or a baseball game such was the blandness of the construction. They even sold popcorn which made me laugh about how much things have changed since I last saw The Clash. Forgoing the hot buttery snack of some popcorn, I did part with $24 for two bottles of beer and we didn’t even get to keep the bottle. So this is why I don’t go to venues like this often. As we stood and chatted it seemed like we might be missing N.E.R.D. so made our way to our seats which were up in the balcony. I didn’t want to part with the equivalent of half a mortgage payment for four seats close to the stage so I decided balcony seats would give us the best possible view for the investment. The good news was we were in the very front row of the balcony so our sightlines were perfect and unobstructed the entire time, the bad news for the Clash Bloggette and the Mug Emptier (barcuicci’s name for the duration) was the seats were really high up, much higher than we could’ve expected and both of them (I found out later) were impacted greatly by a mild case of vertigo for the next 2 hours. What didn’t help was the wall in front of us couldn’t have been more than 30 inches high so the feeling that you might tumble over to your death at any moment just added to the experience. It really was a low balcony wall, it didn’t feel like you were in a box like at the London Palladium but more like you were a downhill ski jumper about to compete for a medal. The first Clash moment of the evening occurred when we found our seats (N.E.R.D had finished) as the between set music was some really good heavy heavy dub, no points for guessing who may have selected that.

Shortly after 830 the rear curtain was raised to reveal the giant GORILLAZ lettering at the back of the stage, soon after that the house lights dimmed and the string section started up with the introduction to the new album, then the giant video screen appeared with Snoop Dogg getting things started but my eyes were fixed on the stage, first the brass section, backing vocalists and drummer appeared followed by keyboard player and Paul Simonon stage right, the extra guitarist preceded Damon and at that stage all that was missing was Mick Jones. As you recall the last I heard was that Mick wasn’t guaranteed to be there that night, I elbowed the mug emptier to my left and said “oh shit, I don’t see Mick!’

To be continued (it’s just like the end of an episode of Kojak isn’t it)….. more this evening.

Friend of the blog Gil (who has a fantastic track record of chronicling all that matters in San Francisco) captured some great footage the following night, I think you’ll love the video below – especially between the two songs. Check out Gil’s youtube page, lot of great stuff including Strummerville events in the bay area.

GORILLAZ – “Glitter Freeze” / “Plastic Beach” @ Gibson Amphitheatre, LA, 27/10/10

Well good evening to you then following a day which has really been the opposite of Tuesday, but we can’t grumble is days as good as that only come along every once in a while. It looks like the trilogy needs to be started then as I recollect what turned out to be almost the best possible outcome for somebody who spends 365 days (or bloody close to it) a year writing about The Clash. I’d be lying if I said I thought meeting Paul and Mick would simply happen that night but events did reinforce my belief that karma has a funny way of making itself known.

As I wrote yesterday, the weeks and months leading up to Gorillaz actually playing in Phoenix was filled with some abortive attempts at trying to schedule a way to meet with the former members of The Clash. Indeed when I heard from a few people just how difficult it was to get anything arranged back on the East Coast and elsewhere I wondered if maybe it just wasn’t to be. People far better connected than myself were unable to get through all of the hoops presented by promoters, record label people and the like and although I knew this is one of the smaller venues on the entire tour I didn’t presume it would be much easier on local soil (actually we don’t really have soil in the desert it’s more like sun-dried clay mixed with rocks, hence the exceptional surfaces on which we play football). With the gig being on Tuesday by Sunday night I realized it was time to do a little bit of reconnaissance. (as for the photo below…it was taken with a phone, Mick moved…I’m sure my hand was shaking also)

I know it's a blur...but there they were in front of me !!

When Monday rolled around the some of the logistics had been planned or least we thought so, Monday was an off day on the tour schedule and I’d assumed that the band (which apparently numbers in excess of 50 performers in total, which after the concert does seem to add up and help explain the ticket prices) would begin the drive from Denver where the last gig was either on Sunday night or more likely Monday morning. Therefore we checked the drive-time from Denver to Phoenix and pegged it at around 11 or 12 hours and decided a likely window for arrival was early afternoon through until mid-evening. Yes the distances between cities in the western half of the states is absolutely ridiculous, you can drive for hours and see little more than petrol stations in parts of Arizona, Arizona itself is covers more than twice the square mileage of England. It’s big and only houses two larger cities both in the Southern third. Guessing their arrival time I then made sure that tweetdeck was all set to scan for updates on Jones, Simonon, Albarn and Gorillaz in case any clues were being keyed into twitter accounts somewhere. Brandon and I determined that as the venue is right downtown the most likely hotel would be on of the four larger ones closest to the venue itself, each within a few blocks. I looked online and found no mention of any interviews or appearances so then just tried to act like it was a normal day. Later in the afternoon with not a crumb of information I felt the need to do something, bounced some emails back and forth with Brandon wondering could we create a strategy to scour Phoenix that evening and only being half serious we bounced some ideas around. Here was our email lead up to the decision to go prowling:  (BA is Brandon)

ME: Yeah…what would you do if you were Mick Jones…and had an evening to kill in PHX??? It’s fucking tempting to go stalking…maybe keep an eye on twitterfeed? I’m semi serious about going looking..it’s a Monday for fecks sake.

BA: Take the Clashmobile down Central Ave and all the side streets blasting Give ‘Em Enough Rope and see who emerges from the shadows?
Or call all the swank hotels downtown asking if an, ahem, animated bunch recently checked in? Or which floor currently reeks of spliff?

ME: Both ideas are absolutely stellar !!
Am I being childish by being tempted? I take it you think so….. but when will they ever be here again? what are the odds of us finding them? 5 to 1 against?

ME: (later) You realize Jones/Simonon are probably in town now…Should we go to George +Dragon tonight?? Or downtown bars?

BA:  Have you considered calling hotels? You’ve the composure, elan, and accent to make any efforts instantly credible…  Tell ‘em you’re Mick’s dog handler and this was the only number he left…LOL

ME: no…i can’t do that….Mick does like his lager…I’m sure he won’t just sit in his room…..
tell me i’m being daft and it would be a waste of time

BA: Not childish at all – granted the suggestions I made seem daft on the surface, but we have to find a good lead or nugget of hope confirming they’re here…

BA: (later) Who will know? You just want to know if they’re staying at the hotel…you’re not ordering 10 Porterhouse steaks and a crate of Veuve Cliquot to be charged to their rooms! We could get that pint we’ve been talking about AND do some simultaneous sleuthing…
lemme know…I’m in

Thus it was with those last two words that the night was on, operation ClashStalk had officially begun and all we had to do was find a lead. It came unexpectedly…

More later (part two) and I regret this may run to four pieces but I’ll finish them up by Saturday latest…. honest!

Tim