Good morning and thanks for dropping in. It seems that the weekend is once again upon us which I’m sure will bring a collective sigh of relief for many. It’s not been a very good week, a number of major cities in England saw looting and rioting, Arsenal enter a new season with seemingly two of our better players to be sold in the next few hours and a combination of bad timing and the need to be responsible meant that I was unable to jet over to Los Angeles to see Big Audio Dynamite. I’m a glass half full person these days however so I’m glad to have a job, a brilliant bloggette and a chance to listen to a bunch of music as I work today.

I’ll have some busy days ahead as we try and catch up on the missing/missed B.A.D. gigs at both ends of California, (today’s image is Mick at Club Nokia in Los Angeles this week). If you attended/will attend any of those on offer and would like to contribute your thoughts, videos or images to the blog please feel free to contact me. I must also get my arse organised so that a suitable preview of all of the Joe Strummer events is on the blog and the calendar – look for those next week.

A little bit of housecleaning then first. Over on the right hand margin you’ll see a new addition of a Joe Strummer icon/picture badge. This little but lasting affiliation with Joe is a simple add-on to your Facebook or Twitter icon if you enjoy such things. They do look rather cool once added to your image, there were only four people enrolled when I added it to the blog and facebook page and now there are 45. Let’s get to 100 by the end of the weekend, you can either click on the image on the right or follow this link.

Glad to see that things seem a bit calmer back in England, although it was rainy the last few evenings. Tonight and tomorrow should be a good test to see if things have settled down although the conditions haven’t changed of course just due to extra policing. If you’re not in the US you may not be familiar with The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart. A nightly satirical program about (mostly) the news. The other night he did a 5 minute bit on the London rioting which if you can get past his cliched view of the UK is quite funny, he’s very funny in general…..remember when New York had some fire in it’s belly Jon? Yeah I know…it’s been a while. Anyway here’s a link to that clip which about a minute into it features a fairly weak pun/fake album cover in relation to The Clash. Have a look.

This blog only came up on the radar due to a newsfeed on Mick Jones. I think the author is correct about the identity of young girl but why on earth is there a need for the final paragraph of the article? It’s negative, insensitive and quite at odds with the story itself. I don’t think it merits more comment than that but I ask that you visit the site, read the piece (especially the last paragraph) and leave a comment if you will. Leave the shit raking to the gutter press. Blogging (ironically) can rise above that.

Okay lets end on something positive. How about Jimmy Cliff covering ‘Guns of Brixton’ just uploaded to soundcloud. Very nice indeed. I’ll be back soon. Tim

Guns Of Brixton by JimmyCliffMusic

Monday….and all that. Shit I was all set to share a really happy and uplifting post tonight which would get your week off to a top drawer beginning when I saw news making the rounds on Twitter/Facebook over the last few hours that we might be instead mourning one of the nicer/more important members of the class of ’77. It was only six or seven weeks ago that I read about (and I think quickly mentioned) a new album and really great interview with Poly Styrene (real name Marian Joan Elliott-Said) best known as the lead singer of X-Ray Spex, themselves a key band in the London punk scene of 76/77 and the band pressed on until 1979. I liked her new track and the interview in the Sunday Times was revealing, exciting but also revealed that she has recently been battling breast cancer.

Over the last few hours unofficial announcements that Poly had lost that battle were added to Facebook and naturally started zipping around Twitter just as quickly. Even her Wikipedia page announced the sad news for a few hours which was later retracted?? As I write this (5am GMT) there are rumours, denials and confirmations each doing the rounds and all simultaneously. Speculation from some is that an article published this morning on NPR was recirculated and excerpts perhaps used/quoted incorrectly which sounded as if she had indeed passed away, indeed the opening line itself does read like an obituary. That may just be coincidence I should add. I don’t have it on any authority that the news is correct so I’m in a strange place as I write this, hoping above hope that it’s just confusion, I’m sure by the time you read this some official news will be published and I really hope it will be something positive. Although her illness was confirmed recently it wasn’t apparently as advanced as this sudden sad outcome would suggest.

I fear the worst but hope I’m wrong. I think an unofficial story perhaps got leaked too early which has in turn led to a very sad and strange evening. If anyone reading this has genuinely accurate information please be so kind as to share it. I saw that Kris Needs confirmed it, which has me very worried. If it’s true we’ve lost someone who was the definition of innovative, this would be such bitter news after losing Ari Up so recently also.

Cheers. If I learn more I’ll update this evening – Tim

Hello again and welcome back to your Clash Blog, I feel a bit like a man without a mission tonight as I’ve spent the last seven posts writing exclusively about the events of last Monday and Tuesday. I think it was worth it though and certainly represented the most important Clash related news here in the desert since I started the blog, let’s be honest the only Clash related news here since that time. But like a good war correspondent we spent one night on reconnaissance and another behind enemy lines and finally meeting face-to-face with the German soldiers, okay my analogy ends there but you get the general idea. I hope you enjoyed my retelling of events, when I’m old(er) and even grayer I’m sure I’ll look back on last Tuesday with fond memories and now I’ve got the summary written down forever along with the photographs.

I’ve also got my super slick London Calling lyrics sheet signed by Mick and Paul which I must get scanned and get up on the blog for you to see. I plan on framing it so I must do that this week and frame it at the weekend. I know we all have unique experiences if and when we get to meet certain musicians or others of note, if anybody reading wants to share their experiences perhaps during this Gorillaz tour or better still from years gone by with any members of The Clash during or after their existence as a band please write in and I’d love to post it.

So what’s been going on in the world of The Clash during the last week then? I’m supposed to be telling you right? Normally I like to think I’m a few steps ahead with general Clash related happenings but I’ve been dragging my feet putting together that 8,000 word essay. As a result I’ll probably need 48 hours (and 48 thrills) to get back up to speed and provide your normal information and opinionated prose. For tonight then just two short pieces one of which we’ve covered before but so what.  Before I forget the Strummerville documentary (part 2 I believe) is on Sky in the UK just 1245am (the after midnight version) tonight (Thursday) if you’re awake and somewhere near a television. Don’t forget!!

Joe’s Strummer’s BBC world service shows have now been uploaded by some courteous soul to iTunes and are available for free download. I don’t think it covers every season but there’s a good batch of episodes to enjoy if you like that downloading lark and have one of those i-Tune player thingies. Recently I was in the world’s most soul destroying shop (Best Buy) and looking at MP3 players and iPods or whatever they’re called. The bloggette was explaining how I can transfer my entire CD collection of several thousand discs onto this chunk of metal that was thinner than my wallet. It wasn’t extravagantly expensive but the whole notion of listening to my music in a way that I just don’t relate to (shit I feel older saying it) made me get a cold shiver and head for the exit rapidly. I like vinyl and I’ve learned to like CDs but I don’t think I’ll learn to like a little personality free box filled with every song that I’ve ever loved. If you are giggling at my age restrictiveness just remember I’m the one tweeting and Facebooking and soon maybe podcasting myself to death in the name of The Clash. Technology fears be damned, we’re heading for 2011 or so I’m told.

One last thing before I get out my old cassettes (they were small plastic rectangles filled with tape on two spindles which contained albums and were popular in the 1980s, in truth they were crap and I always had suspicion of people with large tape collections but only a few records). Paul Simonon’s son noted model Louis Simonon has been at it again and he’s a dead ringer for his dad although Paul probably looked better and was in a rather good band! Have a look at much more via this link and also on your left. Seems Simonon Jr got with photographer Sharif Hamza to recreate a series of retro looking album covers, I must confess they remind me of my mum’s vinyl collection. Pretty cool stuff and well worth a look at the whole set.

I’ll be back within the next 24 hours with much more and the normal groove will continue. Thanks for all of your feedback on the Clash prowl/Gorillaz concert posts, I hope it was half as much fun to read as it was to experience and write about. Cheers – Tim