Hello once again, nice to have you back. If it’s your first visit to the blog where have you been for the last 2 and a half years? Not a problem, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do over next few weeks. I must admit that I’ve got my blogging hat back on, I struggled to find time last month and got a little bit frustrated as I knew I was ‘falling behind’ with Clash news. I know it sounds a bit daft, we’re talking about keeping current on a band that essentially ceased to be more than 25 years ago but the reality is with the rise of blogging, social media and the simple fact that you can read articles from newspapers throughout the world online there is always something to write about. Thankfully and purely coincidentally it seems that the last two plus years have seen Mick Jones more consistently active with a huge array of commitments than at any time in many moons. In addition so many of you have furnished me with other stories or even first hand accounts, photos and experiences to keep things busy. If you ever feel like contributing to the blog and have something you think may appeal to readers please let me know as I always welcome guest posts. It can be a Clash related opinion, bit of research or simply a personal experience relating to the band. There’s no wrongs or rights, if you think Combat Rock was their best album you can explain why, if you wish Paul Simonon took on lead vocals more often just say so. I’ll never manage to cover everything and we won’t agree on all views (Charlie Don’t Surf is one of their five best songs, Mick Jones had the best hair circa 1980) which is fine. I’d love to host a guest post or seven, so please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Right then, a few things on tap today and then (finally) some more focused posts in the days ahead. I’ve found myself scurrying from one thing to the next this month and wonder about the important stuff I might be missing?

File this under early warning (very early) but I love the 2012 Strummercamp logo so much (featured left) that it merits coverage. The astute amongst you will have seen already that next year’s event is the 7th annual celebration of Joe up in Manchester. As ever you can expect an excellent lineup at the event which seems to grow in popularity with each passing year. Full details will be added to the official site in the months ahead in the meantime the facebook page for Strummercamp 2012 is a good place to keep in touch and contact the key people. We’ll look to have more comprehensive coverage here on the blog in 2012.

Few people namedrop The Clash more than me on this blog but I think Billy Bragg would run a close second which is fine with me. I’m a long standing fan of Barking’s finest and in my humble opinion the very fact that Bragg hit the scene right at the time when the original lineup of The Clash was splintering has always been symbolic to me. It’s meant that I’ve had a protest/political artist playing a huge part in my life for over 30 years and Bragg embodies many of the things that The Clash were trying to accomplish. Just like The Clash there have been some adventurous adaptations which don’t always work our according to some listeners but I’ll forever feel indebted that The Clash expanded beyond the sound they perfected on those first two records, so similarly did Bragg expand far beyond one man and his guitar to become a modern folk singer who was even tasked with adding music to the unfinished songs of Woody Guthrie. In interviews it has become clear that most well researched journalists really want to explore that connection between Bragg and The Clash so it’s not Bragg’s ‘fault’ really and such was the case in this great interview with Sabotage Times. Make sure you read all of it beyond the obvious question about The Clash as you’ll enjoy it I think plus The Clash get mentioned elsewhere.

Finally today can’t end for me without mentioning the anniversary of the death in 2004 who meant a great deal to me and to many of you too I’m sure. All of us who grew up being obsessed with music and certain bands can speak at length about how we feel concerning artists we have never had the chance to meet or get to know in many cases. I never met Joe Strummer or Topper Headon and until last October I hadn’t even experienced my 90 seconds or so chatting to Mick and Paul when they visited town (this time last year). We’ve all got a list of singers and guitarists who changed our lives for a summer or maybe forever.

However seven years ago today someone who was just as important to my youth and musical education passed away although he never played on my favourite records, although he did play so many of them on the BBC. John Peel was a marvel, everyone related to him and respected his (amazingly broad) taste. If you spent more than a handful of hours listening to Peel when you were younger and didn’t benefit then you can’t have been paying attention. The list of bands that he helped to break is as long as it is excellent, Billy Bragg for example got a demo tape played by dropping it with Peel at the BBC along with some Indian food after Peel had remarked on the air about his hunger for said grub. John Peel was the gatekeeper for so many great bands and his enthusiasm never waned right up until the end. Beyond The Clash one of my very favourite bands for over 25 years has been The Wedding Present and knowing that they remained one of John Peel’s top choices always made me feel that much more ‘in the know’. However that was the magic of John Peel, we all have such stories about him. I miss him still, I think he was one of the most important people I never knew, but then again I knew him so well. Every time I flick through my collection of records and CDs it’s obvious he will stay with me.

Good Friday evening to you and thanks for dropping back in at the blog. I’ve had to shelve my planned post for this morning as we’ve had some issues with the blog so I’ll get to that one tomorrow but I did want to say hello anyway and wish you (and The Welsh Rugby team) a brilliant weekend. If you’ve visited the blog over the last 36-48 hours you were probably greeted by a malfunctioning website. Sorry about that, we were visited by a hacker that impacted all wordpress sites at our hosting company. We thought we had it fixed last night only to find there was more errant code hidden elsewhere so the site was down today. I realise this is about as interesting as a Phil Collins album but I wanted to let you know where I’ve been.

Anyway, it is indeed Friday so I hope your week flew past.

As it’s October I can’t let the month pass without mentioning the importance in my life of radio and especially John Peel. The 7th anniversary (already?) of Peel’s death is coming soon so I always find myself paying more attention to ‘radio’ stories at this time of year. Peel loved music and fortunately he loved brilliant music and for tens of thousands of kids growing up within range of BBC radio he changed everything for us. Punk most probably and certainly post punk plus the growth of independent labels owe much more than a gentle nod in the direction of Peel. Before the internet or even the (slightly) more progressive and expansive of radio that for the most part didn’t arrive until the 1980′s. Unfortunately I live in a city that has truly comatose radio, it’s beyond bad but thankfully due to moving around a bit and the web I’ve found that many cities in the US still have an outstanding radio station or two. One of the best is KEXP up in Seattle who never pigeonhole themselves and also seem to have great studio sessions by seemingly every meaningful band that visits the city.They even seem to be Clash inspired in their slogan ‘Where the music matters’. If you’ve never done so dedicate an hour to their online stream you’re sure to hear some good stuff. Better still their audience seem to know their stuff as based on this recently compiled list of the top 500 songs of all time The Clash get more than a passing mention.What impresses me most about that is the station isn’t especially aimed at the vintage of listeners who may like many of us have grown up on The Clash.

Bonus points for telling me where KEXP 'borrowed' their logo from

Here’s a link to the full list where you’ll see that The Clash make an impressive thirteen appearances. The list goes down to number 539 for some reason and although the thirteen Clash selections won’t mirror yours it’s interesting to see which songs received the votes. I’ll let you study it in detail but the highest ranked song was number 8 – try and guess it before you click on the link. I did start counting how many of the songs on the list I owned but got distracted. Let me know if you managed to compete that task.

Right, hopefully the blog will avoid further sabotage, I’m playing football this afternoon so will either be back late tonight or tomorrow early. Don’t forget that you can keep current via Facebook, Twitter get the RSS feed for the blog or email me and as ever I appreciate you sharing the blog wherever you can.

Sunday night already? Where did that weekend go then? (Started last night, finished tonight-Monday) I recall playing football, watching Arsenal lose (again) and clearing out the garage which served as a timely reminder that I happily spent every spare coin I had for a large part of my life on attending concerts as I came across loads of my old concert ticket stubs. I wish I had them all….but I’d hazard a guess that upwards of 50% have gone missing over the course of too many moves to different homes in different towns. I should have kept a log of every gig, there’s a chap online who does that and it’s a remarkable website that I wrote about over a year ago – he was in London and had a good selection of punk in general and The Clash specifically on his list. I’ll need to dig out the name of that site again and share it.

Tonight is a bit of an occasion as this marks the 700th post on the blog since I started it back in late June 2009. Considering we were offline for about six weeks upgrading the site last spring it works out to about just over a post per every 24 hours in the nearly two years since, I never thought there would be so much to write about.  Encouragingly in recent weeks the blog is visited by someone on Planet Clash about every 80-85 seconds for 24 hours a day too – so our global community such as it is continues to grow slowly but surely. I know that 700 posts doesn’t represent a finish line too as I feel we’re just getting started and there’s a lot more to do on the blog – as ever I’m very happy to also open it up to you if you want to write about a Clash (or related) experience, review an album – a c0ncert -a film or an exhibition or simply reflect back on seeing The Clash or any of the subsequent projects. I’m convinced that the views of others add a another dimension to the blog, so don’t be shy please get in touch to contribute and help me get through the next 700 in double quick time.  As I said it’s been a really busy weekend so I’ve not really had time to research that much this weekend although I do know that the Mick Jones interview that aired on The First Time today with Matt Everitt is now loaded on BBC Six Music.

(image courtesy D Plummer)

Here’s the link to the interview – it runs for a full hour so I’m about to fire it up and have a cup of coffee for a late night listen. It’s supposed to be pretty in depth so I’m really looking forward to it. The archive is available in all countries I believe but it’s only online until next Saturday May 21st so don’t forget to take the time before the archive is removed. As ever I have to gently applaud the BBC who are finally doing more to heighten awareness of The Clash in recent years than they ever did when the band were together, beyond John Peel you would rarely if ever hear the corporation play or positively mention The Clash before about 1981.

More tomorrow including competition winner and talk of a ‘where are they now’ series on the blog. See you in the comments….Tim