Good evening and welcome back to the best blog that I write, although today that might not be entirely true as you might find my other post today on Word Service Bulletins about the Tufty Club to be critical reading also. I was in the supermarket earlier and just as I was deciding upon which cereal to purchase the collective trio of snap crackle and pop asked me “when was I going to do another edition of The Clash Cup“. Alright I made that last bit up but it was when I was in that aisle then I remembered it was really overdue and hence it’s making a long-awaited comeback this evening. For the newly initiated to the blog is our ongoing quest to determine the best songs that Clash ever recorded, we began with more than 180 different tracks and an are now in round two which will get us closer to the finish line or more specifically the final 64. I’m making a pledge tonight that The Clash Cup will feature far more regular updates I have been able to find time for (the last pairing was back in December to my disgust). Let’s revisit that specific contest first of all before reviewing the next two tracks.

White Riot defeated Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad 67-10

Well, as you and I probably expected it wasn’t really a close run thing was it? With a margin of victory in keeping with the South Sudanese quest for independence White Riot bounces on to the final 64 (even money on it making the final 16) with the GTER track losing by a hefty distance. I think that the vast majority of songs recorded by The Clash stand up well to the test of time but for some reason “Julie’s Been Working…” has long sounded to me as if it belonged to a different era entirely. Poor thing. With the help of the random number generator I have a fresh twosome for your perusal tonight:

Clash Cup Round 2 Match 15

Deny versus The Guns of Brixton

While there I was hoping for an edge of the seat thriller in terms of two songs that are perfectly matched and then the random number machine manages to squeak out the equivalent of Wigan versus Tottenham. I know you’re thinking that Wigan can beat Tottenham but they really shouldn’t and nor should Guns of Brixton have much trouble beating Deny. Having said that I know that there is a huge level of support for all tracks that date back to 1976/1977 so it might be closer than I think. However I don’t think I’ve ever met a Clash fan who doesn’t have a special spot for Guns of Brixton which not only offers that famous and brilliant bass line but also a rare vocal appearance by Paul matched up with lyrics that are timeless in their menace.

Form Book

Round 1 – Deny lost to Innoculated City but remained due to best runner up with 44% of the vote
Round 1 – Guns of Brixton lost to Train in Vain but remained due to best runner up with 44% of the vote

So it turns out that this is almost the *asterisk matchup that we’ve all been hoping for. I allowed certain songs in round one that lost in the general voting to remain in the cup so that we would have to equally divisible ratios to see out the tournament (just like the FA cup or the college basketball March madness in the US) – thus I needed 8/16/32/64/128 tracks to allow for a straight knockout competition. Only songs that received a certain percentage of the vote were allowed to continue and as chance would have it both of these scrape through with 44%. Also worth noting that Guns of Brixton lost out to a far more difficult opponent in round one, I’ve got a feeling that Deny won’t repeat its early luck so I’m guessing Guns of Brixton will tally at least 70 percent of the vote. Match fixing allegations will not even be listened to however. Also why does my computer not accept the word Brixton? pffff….

Stuff

Personal preference? When I was 12 years old I would have chosen Deny simply because my listening skills at the time didn’t have the patience for slower or reggae tinged Clash songs. When I first heard London Calling it was my first experience of actually hearing Paul’s vocals and after being exposed to just Mick and Joe up to that point it also took a bit of getting used to. Thirty years of hindsight though have taught me that Guns of Brixton is the richer song of the two. I think it holds a fairly unique place in the fact that it wasn’t released as a single at the time of the original release of London Calling but was eventually released as a single in 1990 in both its original format and extended dub versions which made use of that famous bass line. I could write a whole post about the history of the song and subsequent uses by other acts, chances are I’ll get to that at a later time. As for Deny it was one of the five tracks that CBS ingloriously elected to remove from the original album when eventually they decided to repackage The Clash with extra singles, b-sides and a re-record of White Riot. Rotters!

Before you click the button below to vote (which you can only do once just like in Florida) I think it’s always a good idea to have one last listen to both songs that are on the chopping block. For Deny why not try this ancient and slightly slower version recorded at the Roundhouse in London in late summer 1976. For Guns of Brixton why not the Return to Brixton version just to unsettle you a bit and remind you why remixes aren’t always the best idea. This isn’t technically election rigging.

Polls will be open until Sunday and I hope you can take part and perhaps explain your vote in the comments section. Back with more soon – have a splendid day/night etc. Please share this one as voting is our right!!  Tim

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Good evening and welcome back to the Clash Blog from a very chilly and windy Phoenix, I mean seriously you don’t live in the desert so that you can enjoy nights with temperatures expected to drop down to about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Not that I should complain as fully half of North America seem to have been hit by the incredible blizzards of the last 24 hours, I just received a message from a friend in Chicago saying they’ve had 22 inches of snow since the storm began. Bloody stupid if you ask me. Plus our friends in Queensland are currently navigating through a cyclone it would seem. So hopefully there’s still some people with Internet access able to read tonight’s post. I won’t cover too much just in case!
Great feedback from yesterday’s post of the video featuring The Clash on children’s television programme Tiswas back in 1980. Some of you have got much better memories than you really have any right to possess, although I wasn’t sure whether some of the sentimental reminiscing was mostly about The Clash, Tiswas itself or some teenage boy memories of Sally James the host. Although I’m in danger of sounding a bit like Richard Keys, she was indeed quite lovely circa 1980. Even the weather was better back in 1980 it seemed. I think my favorite thing about the clips was the sleepy Saturday morning demeanor of the band coupled with kids who were far too young to have any discernible interest in the four men on camera. Didn’t those freshly pressed CBS copies of London Calling on vinyl look rather brilliant though?

Sally James, Tiswas host and a friend to buckets

As I mentioned yesterday I was able to find some old online discussions about the Clash appearance on Tiswas in 1980 that I wanted to share with you. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that almost any cultural phenomenon of the last forty years has been discussed in depth in some forum somewhere, the comments I’m about to relate to you would posted quite a few years ago on a Tiswas appreciation page. So remember every time you post on a forum your comments will be there forever. I’ve had a few Americans ask me was there a US equivalent to Tiswas for children on Saturday mornings? The answer is a resounding no; according to my memories it was one of the few things on television where you felt hip to be a kid for once and although focused on children’s entertainment it was also strangely the proving ground for a number of comedians in the UK who went on to great success in the 1980′s. Unconventional low-budget television at its finest. Right then on to those memories which I will reproduce in full below. The first is from a chap who with a group of friends was allowed to be essentially an ‘extra’ for the day’s filming. Following that are some of the responses on the forum.

Dave: “The Clash were the musical guests for the morning and I can remember before they turned up there were a number of journalists asking us if we were The Clash – they weren’t that well known then – and of course we played them along a bit and said yes, but refused the interview! For the rest of the show, we were allowed free access in the studio and spend a lot of the time standing behind Sally and Chris at their presenter’s desk – just in front of a bank of monitors that they used to use as a backdrop. So consequently, we were on telly during most links and spent the time waving, making silly faces and throwing things at Chris – it was a blast. The rest of the group were in the cage and had their moments of glory as they were periodically showered with water and pies. There was also a closing sketch, but I just can’t remember what that was about, other than getting soaked from head to foot and I recall stuff being dropped from above, which contained small pieces of polystyrene and what looked like garden soil or peat or something, among other stuff – we were filthy but having a great laugh – what fun! ”

Peter:  “Not only were you on the show I always wanted to be on, you got to meet my favourite band! And you were mistaken for them as well! (Only one member of the Clash had long hair – that’s pretty funny the media made that mistake!) There’s a photo of the Clash appearing on the show in one of the annuals. I’m fond of editions were good bands were on. I hope that one day I’ll get that edition!”

Andrew: “I know that some material from this show exists – I googled the Clash on Tiswas list year and managed to find some trading lists of Clash fans. However, I still can’t tell from their lists whether it’s audio only, video of the whole show, or just the clip with The Clash. I suspect it’s not the whole show, sadly…And I can’t get any Clash fans to trade with me!  PS. I too was a 16-year-old in the audience when I was told that 14 was the absolute upper age limit. I remember the tiny changing room very well. While we were changing (after the opening flan fight on the show) we missed musical guests Matchbox. Ah well. Heartbroken…”

Basher: “Hi Dave, The Clash appeared twice on Tiswas – Show 188 from 25th Nov 1978, and Show 224 from 5th Jan 1980. So you

Tiswas Annual...remember getting annuals at Christmas?

were probably on the second of those shows. Sally James’ interview with them was supplemented by their video for “London Calling”, and the programme also included music videos by The Sports (“Who Listens To The Radio?”) and The Tourists (“I Only Want To Be With You”). Sorry, I don’t have a copy. But I hope that helps, ”

TG: “We met The Clash outside after the show, then followed them into the holiday inn next door, topper was playing up in the reception, then we got thrown out! have a great photo somewhere of topper signing my autograph book, will get my mates to sort out their photos too and bring them with us to the recording. have got about three autograph books full from our days outside ATV Land and loads of great memories”

Wayne: “Wow, Just reminiscing about my forgotten youth (drink related). Checking for the episode I was on with the Clash. I was one of the long haired gits from the Dive in Coventry. I was in the opening scene and standing behind Sally James. How yer doing Dave? Bloody long time. My nickname was Nog. I’ve still got really long ginger hair (anyone see the programme F@@k Off I’m Ginger?) I run a biker/ rock pub in Stevenage now. There was an owl on that episode as well. Yes there were drinks afterwards and yes we were nearly all U18′s. Some drunk Irishman thumped me outside I remember. Cheers for the memories.”

All of which goes to show me that I’m still amazed at the powers of recollection some people seem to have. I can’t remember things I did in 2008 never mind back in 1980. I just thought some of the stories above help add another dimension to the video featured yesterday.

On a separate note I’m still looking for any volunteers who might be able to help ensure that the blog has some extra special coverage of the Big Audio Dynamite dates coming up around the UK. As mentioned before if you might have time to scribble a few lines about the gig, perhaps take a few photographs and share anything you think may be of interest to the blog if you could please get in touch via the usual channels. I’ve got volunteers at present for Glasgow and London but would love to be able to fill in most of the nights as a special celebration of the tour itself. I hope you can help. That’s about it for now, I’ll be back tomorrow with either a rummage through The Clash Blog mailbag or perhaps The Clash Cup (back at last). Be good….Tim

Good evening everyone, cheers for stopping in at the blog. I seem to remember making commitments to keeping some of the regular features on the blog rotated on a more frequent/consistent basis but not for the first time a combination of other interesting news or my own sense of chaos seems to have prevented me from fulfilling that. In this electronic age I really should be far more organised than I am when it comes to the blog, but what I’ve determined that what I really need to do is purchase an old fashioned paper calendar to remind myself of tasks. Between work and the various blogs and projects I try and maintain eight email accounts to which I often email myself reminders, only to find my reminders are often opened a day or two after intended. Does this happen to you too? Is my technical skill level permanently going to reside in 2004….will a smart phone somehow make me feel less saturated or more so? Answers via email…no…scratch that…

One ‘regular’ feature on the blog was/is Video Clash which I just noticed I haven’t managed to get to now for sixty days which in itself is impressive in a ‘just what have I been writing about the last two months?’ sort of way. I realised today when I finally got around to adding the first video beneath to the facebook page. So…standards are as ever that these are more recently uploaded Clash related videos to YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion et al that I hope most of you have not seen before. I’m sure you’ve seen some perhaps but I’d sincerely doubt all unless you’ve simply got too much time on your hands. My loose commitment as of today is to try and run through these a few times per month. Or…once a month at the very least.

Mick Jones with Rotten Hill Gang at the Tabernacle on New Year’s Eve 2010/11: This video reminded me just how overdue my update was for the blog. Mick as ever looks as happy as the proverbial at the tail end of what was a very busy and travel filled year for Mr. Jones. While I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that ‘Should I Stay..’ remains a huge crowd-pleaser do you think it’s often chosen as a sing along when Mick appears because the band he guests with tend to know the song or that the crowd aren’t anticipating Atom Tan? The Tabernacle (that I’m not familiar with) incidentally is tucked away behind Westbourne Park Road, Ladbroke Grove (West London).

The Clash at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea: While I’ve read and written a great deal about this appearance at the Hammersmith Odeon on December 27, 1979  I’ve never handed over the cash to own the video nor the DVD that (I think) was released later by Miramax. This was The Clash right on the cusp of a new decade and an album (London Calling) that while receiving favourable press had many asking exactly what had happened to The Clash as a punk rocker’s concern. This stunning version of Armagideon Time shows a band that have the song as fresh in their repertoire as can be….still (to this writer) the best later Clash song never to make it on a studio album by the band. Can you imagine (or perhaps some of you actually) did have tickets for that evening and then the following which featured The Specials, The Pretenders and The Who? Heady days indeed.

Chap ranting about Mick and Paul’s time with Gorillaz: This shows that you can upload anything whatsoever to YouTube. I don’t have time to explain this video although I wish that chap watched the AOL sessions instead of ASL? It’s funny on balance…does he have a guitar plectrum in his mouth perhaps? I know that his opinions were shared by many when Paul and Mick were added to the tour roster but I think the tide gradually turned after concerts were attended and Paul and Mick showed what a great time they had. Damian (sic) Albarn has been warned….

Notting Hill Carnival mini-documentary: In the dark days of winter the Notting Hill Carnival seems a long way off but this short documentary might cure your midwinter blues. Loads of great vintage footage and a Clash provided soundtrack kicks off about half way into the video. Old newsreels and modern video from the carnival peppered with some clips from the White Riot inspiring events in the summer of ’76.

That’s all I have time for this evening…your thoughts, ideas and suggestions all welcomed. If you prefer a debate about gun control you can join that (already in progress) on my other blog….sigh. Thanks for swinging by…more tomorrow I’d say.