Welcome back to the blog as we leap into a new week and a new month all at the same time. I’ve got just a few minutes so I thought I’d continue with our collective quest to determine the best Clash songs ever recorded. If you are new to the blog it’s a simple process one vote per person, the song with the most votes progresses to round 3. The simple part ends there – some songs were seeded (and will enter the competition in round 3) and some of the runner ups with the best vote percentage will also stay in the hunt. Before I find out the random songs for match 3 we need to review match 2 from February 19th. It wasn’t as close as I expected – and if you want a song to lose just ask me to handicap it by suggesting I think it will win! Hence the result was:

1977   defeats   Koka Kola      33-15

A rather convincing win and we’ll say goodbye to the track from London Calling as a result. Match 3 then and these (don’t forget) are pulled at random. The pitted pair are:

Clash City Rockers   vs   The Card Cheat

That’s an interesting pairing as I know both are loved by a lot of fans. Could you pick more extremely different Clash songs if you tried? One is a straight ahead rocker which heavily ‘borrows’ from the past while the other is as close to the ‘wall of sound’ as The Clash ever got due to the recording process for The Card Cheat. I like both so can’t see an easy way to make my selection so please don’t rush your decision!

Form:

Round 1 – Clash City Rockers defeated Remote Control  29-14       (67.4% of the vote)

Round 1 – The Card Cheat lost to The Prisoner 29-18      *stayed alive due to runner up support in round one.

Odds:

Clash City Rockers has got to be favoured, I’d forgotten that The Card Cheat only remains due to the best runner up support and thus I can’t see it beating the odds a second time. I’ve got to back Clash City Rockers as an odds-on favourite at 7-4 on. Then again I’m not you and I’ve only got the one vote.

Best Lyrics:

So don’t complain about your useless employment, jack it in, forever tonight

He only wanted more time, Away from the darkest door
But his luck it gave in, As the dawn light crept in
And he lay on the floor

Listen and watch here if you need any refreshing Clash City Rockers and The Card Cheat

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Polls are open for a week – please be responsible. Thanks for taking part.

This is a public service announcement…but without guitar. You may have noticed a few issues with the blog in recent days, especially if you are trying to navigate around the site to view different pages/older stories or tried to leave comments. We’ve experienced a number of coding issues with the system we use that we are in the middle of repairing. You should see most things resolved or at least improved and we’ll continue trying to get everything back to normal. One critical thing I would suggest if you visit the site often – please delete the cache on your web browser, this will ensure you are viewing the most recent (fixed) version of the blog. If you experience any issues please provide as much information as you can and email us at webmaster (at) theclashblog.com     We will do all we can to address any problems you see. Deleting your cache is straightforward enough but if you need help just drop me a line. Thanks to those of you who have let me know – and sorry it’s been a bit of a mess these last few days.

Right hopefully that is all sorted out then! For no apparent reason we’ve had a few posts recently with a bit of a sporting theme, I blame Canada. So this is my last one for now, you’re probably aware that London is hosting the 2012 Olympics and as with all things in England that concern

Stratford, the jewel of East London

sport there is a need for an official theme song for the event. Interestingly the rumours a few months ago were that Damon Albarn (Blur etc) was being put in charge of composing the music for the opening ceremonies for the big bash in Stratford. Not sure if that was ever made official though? How on earth did Stratford get selected as the best location, what a toxic and dismal part of London that was (is?). I like urban grit as much as the next man but Stratford had no soul and only promised late night fights spilling out of the pubs at closing time. Many moons ago I was with a girl who was living in Stratford at the time that we met. Thankfully she wasn’t from that part of the city and moved up to the West End with me soon after. She lived about fifteen very scary minutes walk from the tube station and you always felt you were taking your life in your hands if your Fred Perry gear wasn’t just right. What a dodgy area that was – although a brilliant Fish and Chips shop on the way to her old place. Perhaps it has improved beyond recognition as I’m referring to a period round about 1986, bloody hell where has the time gone? Totally off on a tangent there – I mention

Paul and Mick....borrowed by Damon

the Olympics in London as the BBC is opening up the debate about what the official song for the games should be. Remarkably it seems no decision has yet been made so surely London Calling is a natural fit? I’ll see if we can make that happen then shall I? Facebook to the rescue although I fear it might be irrelevant by 2012.

We’ve been chatting about the contribution of Mick Jones and Paul Simonon to the forthcoming Gorillaz album and specifically the track Plastic Beach. We even had that annoyingly curtailed video snippet a few weeks back, hopefully we’ll see the full version of that (You listening Damon?). Thanks to friend of the blog Shannon for pointing out a track-by-track preview of the new album appears on the Gorillaz site where Mr Olympic Theme’s band (*unconfirmed) discuss the song and The Clash connection. I remember the buzz I heard before The Good The Bad and The Queen even released their first song – as a devoted fan of The Clash and Blur it was like someone was trying to make me happy specifically, thus the continued relationship with Paul Simonon wasn’t such a shock and Mick seems like he’ll help out anyone at the moment (chap!). Anyway, you can visit the site to read about everything or just cast your view below for the critical bit.

`Plastic Beach’ (featuring Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)

It’s a special moment for fans of Gorillaz and the Clash. How did this come about? Well, I had commandeered Paul Simonon from the Good, The Bad And The Queen. And it made sense. Gorillaz were always influenced by The Clash. They were always my favourite band, I loved how they took the heart and soul of punk and reggae smeared it in London graffiti and paint and then sailed it round the world. I don’t think that’s a million miles from what Gorillaz do now.

More to follow, and hopefully no more bugs on the bloody site. Cheers all and THANK YOU for your support of the blog.

It’s probably a sign that you are thinking about The Clash Blog too often when you find yourself in the shower singing ‘Guns of Brixton’. That in and of itself isn’t such a bad thing until I tell you it was the excerpted version from Sandinista! as sung by the child. So there I was singing the kid’s version out of key and at the wrong speed looking for that perfect match – the acoustics of our bathroom lending credence to my poor poor effort. Easy money trivia question for you – who sings this version on the album and who are they (in relation to the band). Off topic from The Clash but football is relevant to some of us, based on this story where do you think this situation is going to end? My area of expertise if I have one was apparently economic and based on that information something is going to give quite soon and I fear it might be the whole house of cards.

So where did the Clash stand when it came to football (soccer to one small percentage of the planet)? I know that the beautiful game was seen as the ideal team building exercise during the rehearsals for and recording of London Calling in the Summer of 1979. By all accounts Mick was the closest the band had to a natural player with a fair amount of flair to his game but perhaps lacking in physique to take much punishment in a midfield role. I think Joe was a very casual player and there’s little account of him being terribly ’sporty’. Paul loved art and I don’t think had much time for football, also worth noting that football in England in 1976 was nothing like today, a very white and British streak ran through 98% of teams as players from elsewhere were a luxury (or novelty) depending on your point of view. Prior to 1979 there were but a handful of players in the league who were back much to the discredit of the game. Thankfully that is no longer the case, the game is completely integrated and racism on the terraces is greatly diminished and in most circumstances essentially eliminated (I should add an asterisk for Spain). I can’t imagine Simonon relating to a very brutal game and segregated scene as it was in that era. Topper? I’ve no idea….perhaps his autobiography will reveal more.

Mick is by all accounts a pretty loyal Queens Park Rangers fan who does attend games, the once fashionable yet small West London club had their

Stan Bowles in action for QPR in 1975

best spell in the mid-late 1970’s (sounds like The Clash?) and over the last two decades have been away from the top flight and out of the public eye. For a few short years Q.P.R. were not only playing some great stuff but also attracting some of the more flamboyant players in the league, this was in the day when mixing booze, gambling, women and long hair was all in good standing so long as you did the business on a Saturday afternoon. Rangers home stadium is a long goal kick away from Shepherd’s Bush and the Westway making it a natural club for all things Clash related.

As for Joe despite naming a song Tony Adams (if you have to ask who he is I’ll be insulted…so try google) he wasn’t an Arsenal fan although Johnny Rotten most certainly is. Strummer showed a moderate interest in the fortunes of Chelsea, who occupy the rich and famed end of West London. It wasn’t always so in the 1970’s and 80’s Chelsea were the third biggest side in London rarely rising above average and nothing like the current bankrolled team. I used to always worry that if I ever met Joe Strummer would I be able to keep my dislike for Chelsea to myself? Being a football fan is the most annoying heritage sometimes if you meet someone and you know who they support. Twice in my life I met musical legends (to me anyway) and both times I put my foot in my mouth about football almost before saying how much I loved their musical talent. So thanks to Billy Bragg (West Ham) and Damon Albarn (Chelsea) for humouring me and especially Damon who wrote 1-0 Chelsea repeatedly on my arm and anything else nearby worth signing when I met him in Chicago many years ago.

I’ll explore the Clash/football aspects further for the blog – if you’ve anything to add the usual way to contact me applies!

Cheers