Good morning and it is a pleasure to have you drop back in to the blog. Have you been following events in Egypt? I went to asleep with the BBC coverage from Cairo and awoke to the same thing, looks to be the dawn of some serious changes in that part of the world although the hesitation from the media to call it a revolution is a bit strange. When the army watch on and let you spray graffiti on their tanks and the police pack up and go home you’ve got a revolution – I just hope that a peaceful solution (involving a resignation from your top man) is found rapidly.

Anyway I need to break away from the news and make a statement of intent about the weekend, even if that’s simply having a shower and brushing my teeth. First though I wanted to get a quick update out.

Things are hotting up in Cairo (Jan 25, 2011)

London Calling – one of the best albums of all time had seen what I thought was every conceivable reissue method with the original version on vinyl and cassette, CD when those came along years later and now a 25th and 30th anniversary reissue with bonus tracks and DVDs. Incidentally was it released on 8 track? My rusty memory says 8 tracks were discontinued around 1978 but if there was a London Calling 8 track some self-defeating part of me would love to see a photograph. If you have kids or still haven’t grown up you might be aware of the fact that another version of London Calling is getting released next Tuesday Feb 1st. Depending on your point of view you might be excited, dismayed or indifferent to learn that the entire album is going to be released for Rock Band 3 as a play along game so that you can pretend to play along to Lover’s Rock, Death or Glory and Hateful. I have it on good authority that the game (album?) to be released on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii is causing great excitement amongst those who spend their lives imagining plastic game controllers are in fact instruments and a measure of musical skill. The Rock Band ‘community’ are buzzing about London Calling with many saying it was the most important album still not released as a game. I don’t mean to belittle those who play Rock Band (well, perhaps I do) but if you have a child or niece or nephew in your life who is really excited about these games why not get them an acoustic guitar, keyboard or drum kit instead? If, on the other hand you understand anything about these games, then hopefully this will make sense to you:

Out of the legendary album’s 18 tracks, five have “Pro” guitar and bass functionality available for an extra $1 each, while all of them have thoroughly enjoyable music and lyrics. As per usual, individual tracks are available for 160 MS Points/200 Wii Points/$1.99, and the entire album can be purchased (at a hefty discount) for 1600 MS Points/2000 Wii Points/$19.99.

So while the youth in Cairo and Alexandria are plotting revolution the cities that share their names in Virginia and Illinois will be downloading Rock Band updates.

The rumour mill has been working overtime lately and I deeply hope this one is correct; early in 2010 Sony issued the Legacy deluxe edition of  ‘This is Big Audio Dynamite” and it looks like the repackaging won’t cease with just that debut album. It seems that ‘No 10 Upping St” will be getting the same treatment later this year and I hopefully don’t need to explain just how significant that might be due to Joe Strummer’s involvement with that record. More as I learn it.

Hope that you had a chance to listen to yesterday’s podcast and found it vaguely informative and entertaining. I’ll work on polishing up the presentation I promise, I’ll get better equipment and learn the software – so for the time being perhaps think of these as the demo tapes? The Apple police have approved the podcast being uploaded to iTunes so you can get it there for free within a few hours of me adding it. Here’s the link if you are an iTunes person. That’s all for now – enjoy your Saturday. Tim

It’s the best song I could think of for today. The Cure – Fire in Cairo (1981)

Good evening and once again thanks are in order taking the time to visit the Clash Blog. A fairly normal Monday here except the fact that I managed to impale myself on the garden gate earlier (really it’s not as sexy as it sounds) but my scrape to my midsection did draw blood (heroic blogger) but not to the extent where I felt I would need an updated tetanus jab (cowardly blogger). It did hurt though and I am going to blame the clashblog dog as it was her I was trying to block from making a daring escape from the back garden. Tonight I had hoped to get ‘ official’ approval on using the text associated with a new gallery exhibition of Clash photographs – I didn’t receive it in time for tonight’s blog post but I don’t think it will present an issue.

You may be familiar with the name of “Proud Gallery” which is situated in Camden Town just on the northern fringe of central London. I always associate Camden with the first stage of long ago late night walks home after missing the last tube – typically after seeing a band or practicing in the ritual of trying to chat up a girl at the Camden Palace despite the fact you could not hear a word she said all night and vice-versa. When you screamed out ” I’ll meet you outside in a bit” you could just as well have been shouting ” I’ll beat you down side you shit” – which will may or may not have resulted in a bad first impression. Always hated nightclubs for the simple reason that it was impossible to start conversation with anyone – good bad or indifferent. I understand you supposed to go and dance, but if he can’t dance what’s left to do? Anyway Proud is not only on our radar as it previously hosted a Jail Guitar Doors event last year (or was that earlier this year?) but the gallery also sits upon fairly hallowed ground for Clash fans – in the same block of buildings that included rehearsal rehearsals where The Clash originally practised, wrote and in some cases slept during the very early days. The space was dug out by Bernie Rhodes and backs onto the railway tracks heading to the North.

The gallery will be hosting a special collection of photography featuring the work of Adrian Boot. From December 8th 2010 Proud Camden will present London Calling: The Clash by Adrian Boot. This exhibition is a photographic portrait of the band and will include a number of never before seen images. Photographs include them rehearsing rehearsing in the Gin House at the Stables Market in Camden which was also the site of the original Proud Galleries in Camden, so the exhibition represents a homecoming in the truest sense of the word as only the calendar has changed but the location has not. Here is the official blurb underneath you can find the address and contact details:

Proud Camden presents London Calling: The Clash by Adrian Boot. This unique exhibition is a photographic portrait of the most influential punk rock band, credited with pioneering the advocacy of radical politics in rock, and includes never before seen images. Referred to as ‘The Only Band that Matters’, The Clash was a band like no other. Pioneers of British punk-rock; their incendiary gigs, definitive style, intelligent lyrics and passionate idealism captured the spirit of the time and their album ‘London Calling’ was labelled one of the best albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Adrian Boot’s photographic portrait of The Clash reveals a softer side of the punk rockers as they relax and rehearse together as well as shots of them during their legendary performances. Photographed rehearsing at their studio in the Gin House at the Stables Market in Camden which was also the site of the original Proud Galleries in Camden, this exhibition marks a true homecoming for Boot’s extraordinary images of this cult band. Admission is free.

The exhibition runs right through until the later part January so that many of you will have a chance to drop in and have a look – by all means please let us know on the blog what you thought. Sounds like an ideal chance to do a bit of West End Christmas shopping, or crawl round Camden Market or maybe even up to see the Arsenal – topped off with a trip to the gallery. If you have any other questions about the exhibition please get in touch and I’ll try and find out extra details. Not sure about The Clash being a ‘cult band’ they really need to contact me to write their press releases. Talk to you soon -

Here’s a link to Proud for further information. (My thanks to Sophie @ the Gallery)

Hello again and cheers for stopping back at the blog – highlight of my day was learning that cats and dogs still tend to fight like…cats and dogs. It might be a cliche but these sayings are formulated in truth somewhere along the line right? ClashBlog Towers resident pet until recently was a solitary (and very content) cat who is named George but I refer to often as Fulham as said cat looks like it is wearing the kit of the west London club. We’ve now been joined by a dog who is finding out the hard way that even old cats are pretty quick and have sharp feet. My money is on the cat. Hopefully harmony will arrive in the days ahead.

Speaking of that how did our boys in The Clash feel about pets? To my limited knowledge; Joe of course had and loved his dogs, it was the last thing he did (walk his dogs) on the afternoon that Joe Strummer passed away back in December 2002. I now notice (because people post any old crap on youtube and twitter that many people now call their dogs Strummer although I think such an excellent moniker is somewhat wasted on a dog. Maybe if it was a intensely cool greyhound or great dane but I see people tasking their little toy dogs with the name Strummer, Cornwell would be better suited. If you’re going to name a dog after Joe surely it should be a canine with some presence and a voice you have to listen to. Now beyond Joe I know Topper owns (or has owned) dogs. I see Mick as a cat owner, although I’ve no basis for that whatsoever it just sounds right to me. Which leaves Paul Simonon – I can’t even speculate as to what he might have. Oddly though I need to know and if you do have such trivial knowledge please write to the blog.

I’ve got some exciting stuff on tap tomorrow especially if you are in London and we also need to update the Gorillaz tour and The Clash Cup is lined up for Tuesday if all goes well. Finally I’d like to thank Tony for sending the image on the blog tonight over to me this morning for the forthcoming student protests. I’ve definitely got  my feelings about the student rate hikes being handed down from the sitting coalition government in the UK which I’ve written about on my other blog linked here. Let’s just say I wish politicians would stop making deals with (having their strings pulled by) the banks rather than eradicate every single semblance of a social system that provides affordable education and healthcare. If further education is allowed to price out the average person in Britain what makes anyone think it will stop there? It is disgusting and ill advised and makes me wonder if it can possibly stand. I hope the protests are unending and well organised – if property gets damaged for Downing Street to take notice then so be it. I don’t advocate people getting injured but nor do I advocate tuition fees tripling to make up for decades of chaotic government allocation of resources. I believe that the occupation at Sheffield University is now heading into its sixth day so my hat goes off to that wonderful school and those protesting. The poster doesn’t need any explanation except to say I think it is perfect that The Clash are still being used to help rally people to a worthwhile cause, I bet Joe would absolutely love that.

Back tomorrow, do your best to have a fine Monday.