Good evening Clash types wherever you may be and welcome back to the blog. I do hope that you have had a chance to watch the first of those Strummerville session video uploads that I wrote about yesterday, it really is worth a watch and is great to see the foundation seeking to continue the work that Lucinda Strummer and Damien Hirst first outlined almost 8 years ago now. I must make some inquiries to find out the likelihood of future endeavours on this side of the Atlantic also, after appearing at SXSW this past spring hopefully the profile of Strummerville in Canada and the US can be raised even further. Like most things obviously it will come down to funding which is an understood reality but it never hurts to ask.

Image Courtesy Eric Rife

I realised the other day I was little bit harsh about US television and probably unfairly so. Where America has excelled for generations was the format and concept of late-night chat shows. Stemming back to the eras of Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson there has been a legacy carried on in more recent decades by David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and others that have come and gone (plus some new ones that remain). It’s entirely fair to say that Jonathan Ross in the UK built his entire Fridays show originally on the foundation of what David Letterman has now been doing for over 28 years and he in turn will always nod in the direction of Johnny Carson as his mentor. You can argue that late-night chat shows in the US don’t always have the edge that they used to but from time to time Letterman, and these days Jimmy Kimmel and Conan still manage to satirise at a high-level yet still acquire some of the best and more casual celebrity interviews. It’s also one of the few forums on network TV in the States where you can often see more alternative/independent acts perform live, sadly it’s usually at the very close of the show and typically just one song. Nevertheless it’s the only time you’ll ever see someone like Billy Bragg on network TV here and notably Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros which I’ll get to in just a moment. Years ago Letterman especially was also very likely to interview the musician before they played live but now days that only happens on the rarest of occasions, a really good example was with David Byrne round about 1983, at short shift I can’t find the interview but you may like this. One moment some of you may remember happened on the Monday following the death of Joe Strummer in 2002, Conan O’Brien (a genuine lifelong fan of The Clash) signed off for the evening by expressing his sadness about the loss of Joe and also played a video replay of Joe and the Mescaleros performing London Calling on his show from an earlier live appearance in ’99.

I stumbled across a blog called ‘Spool Going Round’ in association with Chicago Now and it seems the author has been compiling a list of the 10 best live performances by acts on the Letterman show over the years. At number two he had what has long been my personal number one with Joe’s appearance on Letterman performing ‘Johnny Appleseed’ in October 2001 – don’t forget that’s the very same stage that Mick Jones and Paul Simonon were on with Gorillaz just a few weeks ago. Please hop over to his blog where he pays a classy tribute to Joe and The Clash and then make sure you watch the video below. It’s one of my favorite ever live performances of Joe with The Mescaleros – every part of it is just perfect from how he sings and also tries to communicate with an audience who are primarily there to see Letterman and whatever actor he interviewed earlier. It’s a great clip and worthy of repeat viewing. This definitely opens up a series of possible posts about Clash television appearances and of course post Clash camera time, there have been a number of really good ones – if it wasn’t for bandwidth I would’ve already tried to create the best video page possible, but it really does stress the site to the limits. Maybe sometime down the road (to quote Joe). Have a good one.

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

Welcome back you fine Clash people on this very special Tuesday, it’s election day here in America which reminds me of both an awful song and some equally awful memories. More on that later this week I’m sure, for now though the final installment of a 6 carriage train that departed the day after I saw Gorillaz in Phoenix last week. I know I stretched out the story quite a bit but with hindsight rather a lot happened over those two days. Catch up on the earlier posts if you like as it’ll be more fun or jump right in below.

Mick signing my London Calling inner sleeve

So it was that less than 30 minutes after the concert ended Damon Albarn was outside with a crowd that numbered probably about 60 people or so. It was a beautiful evening outside which further added to how shocked I was at the relatively small gathering of fans and autograph takers. Damon seemed perfectly polite and peppy throughout the 10 minutes or so he spent saying hello and signing memorabilia. Although a fair few years have passed for Damon also since I last saw him in  2002 I would give anything to know how he keeps his energy so high. Eventually he headed off toward the bus and I noticed that with his departure the crowd gradually reduced to about half of its original size. Two friends of mine Scott and Jessica continued waiting with the rest of us but they were in danger of missing the last train so they said they had to head off and hoped I would be able to meet the boys from The Clash. Jess said “don’t worry as soon as I leave they will come out, wait-and-see” Bless her for being such a clairvoyant.

Just a few minutes later the glass door about 40 yards down opened once more, I may have been the only person looking for I was definitely the first to react by yelling out “Jonesy” at the top of my lungs. He looked up the pavement and grinned as he stepped towards the bus he held up one finger indicating just a moment. Suddenly my brain started swimming with the incredible rush of emotion you only feel every so often in life, some that they first love you times with tragic news like an unexpected death, or at times such as when somebody first reveals that they are in love with you. This is one such rush as all I could think of was staring at that first Clash album cover, studying the lyric sheet and photographs that came with London Calling and endless hours (hundreds? thousands? more?) I spent listening to all of their music and trying to perfect my own lacking tonal ability to sing along. Especially I remember as a 13-15 year-old to Mick Jones, the higher notes better matching my own limited range. As he walked nearer all I could think was ‘bloody hell it’s Mick Jones’ (I don’t know what I was expecting) and then suddenly he was just a few feet away smiling, chatting and signing autographs. The remaining crowd were patient but initially I felt frozen to the spot, unable to move or really even comprehend that I had a chance to say hello. I did manage to lift up the mobile phone and get some typically poor photographs from above head height. Then at last there was an interlude between his exchanges and a chance to say something. As I wrote before it would be great to tell you that your Clash blogger pulled out a microphone and asked the most interesting questions ever posed to Mick, stopping him cold and insisting I come on the bus for a full interview post-haste. I’m sorry to tell you that never happened, I knew I’d be excited if I ever met any member of The Clash, what I didn’t expect was to be completely overcome by emotion. The emotion was palpable and throughout the 15 minutes that they were outside (Paul was to follow) I basically felt like I was 15 again and transported back to a time when we were all waiting for the next Clash album. So what came out of my mouth when I first met Mick?

“Shepherds Bush”

Yes at the very moment I’d waited 30 years for I blurted out the part of London I used to live in when I first got my own flat. The ground floor flat

Damon....and the Edge?

off the Goldhawk Road was just a few hundred yards from where Mick and Paul were first introduced to Joe in 1976. Although The Clash were no more when I moved there in 1985 I chose the neighborhood specifically to be in west London and near where it all began. But maybe I just chose it so a quarter-century later I could tell Mick? God knows?

“Mick how are you, lovely to see you finally. I used to live in Shepherds Bush”

He grinned in a way that said he’d seen it all before, but was more than happy to see it again. I think he said ‘nice, that’s great’ and extended his hand to shake mine. I then recalled saying ‘it was a great show, thanks so much for everything, just everything’. What struck me most on the night and again a week later was just how sincerely happy, courteous and warm both he and Paul seemed to absolutely everybody who was around. In Mick’s case I would add the adjective gentle, his whole persona was remarkably so.

Luckily I did have a second extended opportunity to talk to Mick which I’ll get to in a moment for by this time Paul Simonon had joined his former (and present) band mate. Seeing Paul in the same view as Mick was just lovely, I can’t think of a better word to describe it. Both smiling and laughing not just at those gathered but also with each other, Paul also was extremely patient with each person who wanted him to scribble his name, or grab a quick photo. I’ve never been one to collect for autographs and the whole process feels a bit daft and really obtrusive. Reluctantly I was part of that pack, and watched Paul patiently sign one piece of Gorillaz merchandise after another. I finally caught his eye and holding the lyric sheet to London Calling I asked

“Paul would you mind signing this?”

I swear his grin got a bit bigger and he replied

“Yeah of course”

He finished signing yet another photo of Murdoch or 2-D or whatever character and then grabbed the London Calling lyrics. He turned it over a couple times before deciding just where to sign and then handed it back to me. By now my composure  was about the equivalent of a three-week-old puppy so I managed to hold at least part of a conversation. As you’ll know Paul has got a very unique speaking voice, as if standing next to him wasn’t strange enough chatting certainly was. It went a bit like this.

CB “Hello Paul how are you?”
PS “I’m great mate, really great cheers”
CB “It was a great concert Paul, really good, you were great tonight”
PS “I’m glad you enjoyed it, it was a good time”
CB “I first saw you lot years back, I was just a teenager” (I then proceeded to give him probably far too much information about my earliest Clash experiences)
PS ‘Nice, you saw some great shows, those were the days eh?”
CB ‘Yeah, I never thought I’d get the chance to see you sharing a stage with Mick again so tonight meant so much to me it was just brilliant”
PS “I’m glad, its been really nice…really good fun”

Me and Paul

Luckily the bloggette was paying attention and asked if we’d be able to get a photo, Paul stood beside me and put his hand on my shoulder, I was in tears by then if I remember rightly and as we were preparing for the quick photo I told him how The Clash practically reared me, and I’ll never forget them or Joe and then thanked him once again. He said something like Cheers…and Thank You.

I must have told him my name as when I said ‘see ya Paul enjoy the rest of the tour, thanks for everything’  he replied with

‘All The Best Tim’.

Maybe the only time I’ll ever speak to him so it ended a treat. The next part is told to me rather than my own recollection, after saying goodbye to Paul I marched around the corner against the wall of the building and was leaning against it with my hands over my head. The emotion was just too much for a few moments and I was crying a bit…just lost it…totally. Kim came over and asked what I was doing and that Mick’s still here…so is Paul. I think I said “I’m not coping, that’s what I’m doing”. I guess some might say I was star struck, but it runs deeper than that. I sincerely feel that The Clash have been maybe the most constant thing in my life. No other thing (apart from Arsenal) that I was mad about in 1979 am I still mad about now. You could play one of 60 different Clash songs right now and it will impact me and my mood, almost always for the better. Starting this blog has perhaps brought that into sharper relief and I thought of all of the wonderful fans the band has, and just how much passion remains for the band and its members. I know that all was whizzing through my head as well.

Kim managed to get me to come back round the corner and Mick and Paul were together again, with many grabbing photos as they chatted and relaxed. There were not many people left when I went back to Mick and asked if he could sign my  sleeve and he did so right with Paul’s signature. I’ve committed to memory our brief chat that was surely less than a minute or two but apart from one private thought it was essentially this.

CB “Thanks Mick, just so much, for all of the music and all the memories for so bloody long”
MJ (Shyly) “ah of course”
CB “I wondered, do you think the Rock and Roll Public library might eventually make it over to the States?”
MJ (eyes lit up) “I really hope so, we’d like to do that, a lot, maybe next year”
CB “Oh brilliant, that would be great, East Coast? West Coast? (like a dick) Somewhere in the middle?
MJ (laughing) “Not sure yet but we really hope so”
CB (I rambled longer and harder than this but essentially) ‘That would be cool, I keep in touch with Ade back in London via email about it, I also am friends with Pete the photographer…who came out last summer and took loads of pics of the library and met you”
MJ “Oh right, great…yeah”
CB “Yeah and I wrote about it on the blog…my blog…The Clash Blog…I write it you see….(whoops!)
MJ “Oh….it’s you….! Nice one…nice one mate, that’s great”

His recognition seemed sincere enough, whether he thought oh it’s YOU who writes all that…or just was being very polite I’ll never know, but he seemed to smile a bit more anyway. I think he meant it in the former manner.

I ended up reeling off far too many thank yous and far too few words of logic but said something about how you’ve always been there Mick and that really mattered. He just smiled and took it in, I could never had said the right thing but I had a go. I did say ‘Stay Free Mick’ as he walked away…completely without intending it.

Soon after the two of them headed off to the buses and Los Angeles, and we made it back to my car. I don’t know if I’ll see them again, but at least I did that night. I’ve been regretting never meeting Joe Strummer now for nearly eight years, and on the rare chances when I could have I convinced myself I’d not know what to say and Joe was too great – he was Joe. I was a stupid reason and one I curse myself over, but I feel some of the pain has lessened.

My favourite memory of the night wasn’t the concert, or the brief exchanges I managed to have with the two of them, but it was of standing just five feet away from the two of them and seeing them happy – happy and on top of their game, just like it’s always been, just as it will always be…and somewhere in the dark night I remember hoping that Joe – or the energy of Joe that is everywhere could somehow see me and know my passion was also about him of course – and I’ve finally met you too now…at last.