Good Evening and thanks for stopping by the blog. Its just ticked on over to Saturday as I write this at the end of a quite brutal 48 hours ~ complete with 48 thrills. Our house is falling down, the clash blogettes ex is a pathetic lunatic and I broke an E string on my guitar. Tomorrow will be better I’m sure of it. So let me try again to share some news cos I owe you that.

Thanks to Prince Blanco who is the man behind the Shatter The Hotel project for sending me a great article I wanted to share. Mark dug out this piece from the SourceMag.net about the ‘West London Rock and Roll Tour’ which heavily features The Clash. London as you’d expect is literally full to the rafters with locations relevant to Clash fans or in truth music fans of all persuasions. When I was younger I used to frequently have to drive past the tree where Marc Bolan lost his life and sing (out of key of course) a bit of Telegram Sam, you just feel the history around you. The article is a good introduction to places connected with Clash folklore but the list is endless, I might need to expand on that as an idea within the blog. I’ve always loved to visit pubs, clubs and music venues armed with a bit of knowledge about the history of the place, it just adds to the enjoyment. West London naturally is crawling with Clash points of interest from the squats occupied by Joe right through to Acton Town Hall where he played one last time on stage with Mick Jones. It wasn’t coincidence that I lived in West London throughout my twenties, I’ve always preferred North London but felt a need to be in Clash territory.

South by Southwest has rolled out of Austin for another year and for Clash fans it was the most relevant event yet. Jail Guitar Doors USA got an introduction, Strummerville had music showcases to promote the mission (and the acts) associated with the charity, and the premiere of the Don Letts documentary about Strummerville was unveiled. On that topic don’t forget to send in any questions you have for me to ask Trish Whelan the charity director of Strummerville who I’ll be interviewing for the blog in the very near future, additional details are right here. I’ll put aside some time this weekend to tie up the loose ends of SXSW, for the time being can I recommend a fantastic article written by friend of the blog Cathey who made it to Austin and wrote her account of events from a very Clashcentric perspective. She’s a great writer and her piece made me kick myself in the arse once again for not being there to share a pint and enjoy the festivities. Best of all it served as a reminder that great music didn’t stop in 1978, 1982, 1996 (I’ve heard all the arguments) but that it continues every single day – we just have to perhaps look a bit harder than before to find it as we lose our John Peels and Joe Strummers who served as our guides.

A quick favour if you have five minutes and enjoy the blog? Seems we’re nominated for “best pop culture blog” and I’d love if you can cast a quick vote. Apparently its quite painless if you can visit this site and choose ‘pop culture blogs’ from the left hand margin you should fine me. Thanks ~

I’ll be back after what I hope is another Arsenal win in a few hours with more stuff ~ have a splendid weekend and cheers for stopping by. Emancipate yourselves!

Tim

Good Morning, I had nowhere near enough sleep but efforts to extend my snooze were completely unsuccessful. I think it’s the time zone, I’m always aware that even if I wake at 6am more than half the day has already passed in London so I fear I’m missing something. Still – it’s a beautiful morning and will make for a longer day.

So I have to ask – did any of you make your way down to SXSW in Austin? I know Texas isn’t one of our biggest states for support on the blog (those would be California and New York respectively) but I’m hoping we can get a

Billy Bragg and Wayne Kramer in Austin

Clash fan’s views of the festival – let me know when you get home. In the meantime I do have another brief Don Letts video interview/article and more promised according to the ping wi-fi article.  I must say that in Don Letts Strummerville have the ideal spokesman and chronicler (is that a word?) for all things Joe. Don Letts has seen the best and worst of Joe and knew him almost as long as the other members of The Clash but from a different vantage point.

If you live in the States you probably know what an oasis NPR is in the American desert that is radio in 2010. One of the best sources for any level of deep news analysis and attention to the arts NPR (National Public Radio) does yeoman work in keeping the public informed. Their website is a goldmine of archived material about topics both far reaching and near to my heart. Yesterday they ran a feature including an interview with Wayne Kramer about Jail Guitar Doors getting started in North America. Definitely worthy of a listen if you can spare a few minutes today. The associated article is also really good.

I miss vinyl, I miss buying it and adding to my collection. I miss the artwork and gatefold sleeves. I miss the lyric sheets and messages in the run out grooves. I even miss looking after the records themselves, if I ever became a little obsessive about anything it was taking care of my records. With that said I think I’m about to buy some new vinyl for the first time in years as both Streetcore and Global A Go-Go are being issued for the first time ever as records in the US next month. These look like they will be hard to find but I checked that my local shop will hold me one of each. I can’t wait…photos to follow.

Vinyl rules….and Blackburn just scored…I have to go!! Back soon…

Good Evening All, welcome to the weekend and The Clash Blog. I’ve just recovered from Arsenal drawing Barcelona in the European Cup (more 80′s lingo for you) and decided we have to beat them to win it, so it may as well be now.

Right, so hot on the heels of the brilliant Don Letts interview  (see previous post) I’ve cleaned out my inbox of Clash/Strummer/Strummerville related topics coming from the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas and wanted to share the goodies with you. I’ll warn you now that this is a bit of a linkfest but I wanted to get you up to speed.

First up from the music blog ‘The Riverfront Times’ is a review of the first night of the festival in the rain which of course featured Strummerville’s first showcase or ‘The British Music Embassy’. A well written piece though you’ll need to jump through the first few pages to get to the meat of the feature. There was definitely some sad symbolism with Alex Chilton passing on the first night, especially as I didn’t learn until the next day that an appearance by Big Star was actually scheduled for the festival tomorrow. That’s really sad. On a brighter note, there are rumours that a festival of this scope (more than 1,500 bands this year – can you imagine??) is being looked at for the UK – although a location is undetermined. London and Manchester see too obvious, but something smaller such as Oxford or Brighton might be better ideas…or Sheffield? God know…but it would be great to have a UK equivalent. This just in, Big Star will still play in tribute at the festival without Alex Chilton.

Next I found an interview on Spinner with Nat Jenkins who is closely supported by Strummerville. His folk(ish) sound I’m pretty partial to and its interesting to hear his thoughts about The Clash. Check out ‘Spit’ via this link, you’d never guess he was from London. While on Spinner I also saw their video of Rogue Wave who are at the festival, a truly brilliant band that you should check out…I’ll have to remember to blog about them at a later date. Great band to see live, though that rhythm section need to see a barber post haste.

A good (if brief) article on the Wayne Kramer/Billy Bragg led trip to a local prison on Tuesday of this week on behalf of the Jail Guitar Doors initiative. Tonight in Austin is the official opening event for JGD USA – best of luck to them, I think the artwork (on the right) is rather brilliant.

Nice interview with Pablo Cook from Los Mondo Bongo in the Bournemouth paper about the band and of course Joe Strummer. Speaking of which they are playing London on Sunday night, that should be a good turn out. Bournemouth would be a nice town for SXSW*UK come to think of it, I had a few cider filled nights as a late teen on the beaches in Bournemouth I must confess. There’s nowhere else quite like it, its like the south of France without the French, or wine, or good food.

“He’d spend hours at the back of gigs talking to people after shows and he’d always make sure everyone had a chair and everyone had a drink. We’d book into fancy hotels and end up building campfires outside and sitting there talking it all out – that’s when the work took place, between the hours of 11 and five in the morning.”           Pablo Cook speaking about Joe Strummer

“Help Save The Youth of America” seems a good way to end tonight’s post – so with that said enjoy some Bragg on the Strummerville stage from the other night. I’ll be back soon, cheers for your visit.