Hello and welcome back again. A strange day as the Clash blogette had a painful trip to the Doctor and now I’m playing nurse…if you know me you realise that’s probably not a sentence you would want to hear from my lips.  She’ll be fine….right! Okay then on to matters Clash and there are a few pieces for your persual. First off -  don’t forget that this Thursday marks the debut of ‘Breaking Rocks’ the JGD film in Camden. If you are in London or nearby I’d highly recommend you take the tube to Camden Town and the short walk for a great event. As far as I know tickets are still available, if you know different please let me know.

It seems Mick Jones made a short trip to the South of France last week to appear at the Festival Marsetac with Rachid Taha (as his guest I believe). Video clip is below and as you can see it seems to have been a splendid time -- I’m waiting to learn more. That sounds like the perfect weekend, a music festival and Marseilles which is such a lovely city. It’s really great to see just how public Mick Jones has been since I started the blog, it makes you wonder where he might show up next. I hope it means the Carbon Silicon album is ready to go and not that he has other time to spend elsewhere? Further info on Rachid Taha on his myspace page. Additional video of Rock The Casbah has now surfaced too along with other great clips though not sure about Mick Jones doing an Algerian dance!!!

San Francisco has always been an interesting city for music and along with Los Angeles had it’s own very vibrant punk scene back in the day. With that in mind this book review sounds great (and of course reference our boys). Gimme Something Better is available now in the US from $12.25 on Amazon.

Billy Bragg sits down with the Newham Recorder (East London’s finest) and further explains the inspiration behind the Jail Guitar Doors project.

Visitors to the blog who live in the New York area should try and visit the following exhibition which starts October 30 and runs through til the end of January. Amongst the collection of Rock and Roll photography are some Clash pieces by Pennie Smith which would be nice to see first hand. Full details with address and hours etc are here.

Finally….I learned a new word today - Rhotacism. It’s the inability to properly pronounce the letter ‘R’ and no I’m not making light of it. The examples that come to mind Jonathon Ross in the UK or Barbara Walters in the US (or Elmer Fudd globally). Why am I mentioning this? Well I found a list of famous people with speech impediments and Joe Strummer is on the list for Rhoaticsm. I’ve seen dozens of interviews with Joe and of course all the songs…surely I would have noticed it?? Does he actually sing White Wiot? Am I missing something? Answers on a postcard or via comments please.

More soon -- Tim

Hello all and a happy Sunday to you. I’ve got a lot of bits and pieces scattered about due to a lack of posts the last few days sorry about that. I’ll work to get current and reply to your emails and posts in the days ahead.  I will try and review Clash stories from around the net Monday though there was nothing major over the weekend. Just one quick piece of news this evening; I’m excited to announce that I’m scheduled to have a short phone interview with Alan Miles, the Director of Breaking Rocks (the Jail Guitar Doors film) this week. Entirely worth being aware of is that Alan also was behind (accidentally) ‘The Last Night London Burned’ the short documentary that captured the night that Mick Jones joined Joe Strummer (Nov 2002) onstage in unplanned fashion shortly before Joe’s death. This famous event in Acton (Acton Town Hall pictured right) was captured by Miles and given the historic nature received great plaudits upon release. If anyone reading the blog has a question they’d like me to offer to Alan Miles I’d be happy to try and include it when we speak. Breaking Rocks of course has been formed in a far more natural style and I look forward to seeing the finished product. Please email me or leave comments before Tuesday evening with ideas.

Lastly, have a look at this article from Wonkavision and help me determine if they are being serious or not. I thought it was a joke but I’m not certain, I think it might be legitimate stab at the moral fibre of ‘punk rock’ in which case…come off it! Not much else, sorry for lack of news – I’ll make up for it next week. Cheers – Tim

Trellick Tower

I know I know, I missed a few days…completely unintended – combination of a lot of work, not feeling too brilliant and the excitement around the Jail Guitar Doors events earlier in the week. Back to the Clash Cup this morning as we seek out (via your educated voting patterns) the best Clash songs of all times. I should really be moving at full speed as round one is nearly over – you’ve got some tough decisions to face in round two – trust me the final 64 is bloody strong !!!   I’ve got 4 new songs under the hammer today and we’ve also got to review results from earlier pairings – so let’s start with that shall we?

Cheat defeats Overpowered by Funk 26  -  17

This Is England defeats Version City 29  -  14

Both results essentially as expected and good support for all four tracks. Not sure how much further either of the winners will progress but we will wait and see. So if you’re new to the blog – all I ask is that you use your Clash expertise (or click on the tracks below) and decide which of these 4 should progress through to the next round:

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment. Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Sean Flynn – You should know me by now, yes the link provided is to the Rat Patrol sessions for Combat Rock. Why? Because I think for the most part those versions are stronger than what eventually surfaced for the final (proper) Clash album. It’s up to you of course but I like this version a lot as it is so much more expansive. As for the song itself, it fits into the Montgomery Clift list of Clash songs motivated by an individual in this case war journalist Sean Flynn.

Mensforth Hill - For me, this  an example of excess from Sandinista! Taking a good song (Something About England) and playing it in reverse doesn’t make for a good time for me. When the Beatles did it I wasn’t impressed and The Clash don’t change my personal feeling on that. I’m sure someone is gonna tell me otherwise but I think there were dozens of better songs by the band that were never recorded.

London’s Burning - Not sure if a better song has ever been written about a part of London I know so well. Strummer’s captures the frustration, boredom and alienation that 1976 West London showed him in a song that will live forever in terms of a perfect snapshot of social observation. Brilliant song…simple as that.

English Civil War - What a difficult choice between this and the above. Some critics were very cynical about The Clash taking a traditional folk song and making it a protest song. I’m not one of them. It was a stretch lyrically but still a really powerful song that I think is full of energy and paranoia – a perfect blend for England circa 1978.

Thanks for your votes – should be fun (especially the 2nd match up) – you have until Tuesday morning…I promise another Clash Cup within 24 hours!!

Tim