Good afternoon, another warm one in the desert. I’m just watching Arsenal playing in Portugal with Russian commentary. Talk about global-a-go-go. I found myself listening to Streetcore last night, three times in a row. First time I’ve done that in years with that album.

When the album came out in 2003 I must confess I was still far too downhearted about the loss of Joe Strummer to properly enjoy the album, it was more a case of a record to mourn with and to feel sad or even despondent about. The entire year was darkened by the events late in 2002. I’m sure others instead rejoiced with it but for many years the album while I knew it was good only served to make me feel hollow. Until more recent times the best I could say for Streetcore was that the Mescaleros along with Lucinda Strummer did an amazing job at pulling together partially completed songs and make them release worthy. The sessions were at their very earliest stages and yet the album sounded hauntingly complete. Since Joe passed away I’ve always been more likely to listen to the first two albums with the Mescaleros. I think mostly for sentimental reasons, you know how you associate albums with a certain time? Those three years before Joe died were the most exciting time to be a Strummer follower since the days of Combat Rock in my opinion. He’d found a band (especially by the time of Global) who complimented him and expanded on his goals for the music, the layers of sound and the flow of ideas. Skilled, adaptable and flexible Joe even told Bob Gruen that he felt the Meskys were the most talented group of musicians he’d ever worked with. That is quite an accolade but I think there are a number of reasons to properly consider that statement. As he approached fifty he had (ironically) more fully taken on a characteristic of Mick Jones – pull on your influences and experiment to your hearts content. He found musicians who would take that path as freely as he dare. It resulted in some remarkable music. What hurts is that I have every suspicion that the best was yet to come from Joe’s “second busy phase” of activity, the band had found their feet on Global-A-Go-Go and you felt that they would go on to produce even more remarkable albums very soon.

It was a great time – Joe was touring almost constantly and having a brilliant time with it. Giving loads of interviews and seemingly finding himself comfortable (perhaps to his own surprise) in the shoes of punk’s senior statesman. What made that even better was he was humble enough to acknowledge just how much other music continued to not just influence but truly impress him. He also understood that as the writer of some of the greatest songs ever whilst with The Clash that there was nothing wrong with working or reworking some of those songs into his then live set. Can you even imagine what sitting in on a session in the studio must have been like those last few years when Joe knew he had found a pack of guys to play with that could build upon the sounds he wanted?

You’ll also probably remember there were rumours floating around in 2004/5 that there was quite a lot of music left on the tapes in the studio. Uncompleted songs and experiments that never became a finished article. At that time rumours were that Lucinda was going to work with Sony and Damien Hirst to get some of these songs released. Then the rumours died down until last year. At that time Lucinda revealed that ultimately a book with sketches, notes and song ideas from Joe would eventually be released. Something for the collectors then and again with the involvement of Hirst.

Streetcore remains an album forever associated with the final chapter of Joe’s life, seen as that it’s strong, full of fire and invention. Seen as an album without a date stamp it might have been the best Mescaleros album of all if fate didn’t intervene that December afternoon. An unfinished masterpiece or another bold step forward. Either way we weren’t ready for the floodgates to be closed so unexpectedly and suddenly. When I feel brighter thoughts about Joe I feel thankful that he met Richard Norris and started working with him again in the first place, a reawakening of Joe’s need to write and a rebuilding of his confidence that led to those last wonderful years. It’s plausible to consider that without the part Richard Norris played that Joe might have stayed on the sidelines. I’m thankful that we have those great records to still listen to. Tim

Coma Girl – Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

Good morning it’s Saturday at last I believe? Must be otherwise the usual detritus of life would never have afforded me the eleven hours sleep I’ve just had, either way I needed it and feel refreshed for a weekend of football, music, watching Walker again and garage converting tactics. It did mean I didn’t get a new post out last night but we’ve been inundated with fair weather Les Paul fans the last 48 hours anyway.

Tomorrow I’ve got some guest input from the recent Joe Strummer exhibition at the frankly wonderful Subway Gallery in London and news of a forthcoming Clash exhibition on the other side of the Atlantic too. Tonight should see the long overdue return of The Clash Cup to the blog as firstly its proven to be rather enjoyable and secondly I really want to get the idea progressed to round 3 and 4 when the decisions get harder. In fact now that the football season is over I should have more time to blog both here and elsewhere seeing as I’m not getting up at 5am at the weekends to watch Arsenal lose another match.

I’ve a few quick things this morning which will go nicely with your coffee although its probably siesta time already wherever you’re reading this.

Endless Strummer Tour: I don’t mind a slice of plagiarism if its coming from the right place and in this case it is so it would be worthy of a mention. The Surreal McCoys are back on America’s stages for the first time in years with a tour they’ve deemed ‘Endless Strummer’. The band tag themselves quite accurately as Johnny Cash meets The Clash and having listened I’m on board with that definition and also agreeable to the resultant sound. Check out this review of their gig in Los Angeles last week which featured a cover of the cover ‘I Fought The Law’ and see if they are playing in a barn on pub near you soon.

Clash bootlegs without the downloading: If I had enough time in my life I’d probably already have a giant collection of Clash live bootlegs and I admire those who have amassed such collections over the years from tapes and bootleg vinyl back in the 80′s, burned CDRs in the 90′s and of course downloads since then. I’ve never been a fan of downloading music and at Camden Market I was always saving my cash for vinyl rather than tapes of recorded concerts. As a result my music collection of studio work by lots of artists has grown and grown but I’ve few Clash live recordings. Black Market Clash is the place to go for downloads with a remarkable collection gathered over years. If you’re like me and don’t want to fill your hard drive(s) with downloads YouTube is becoming increasingly more reliable as a place to find live versions from these same recordings. Of course you’re going to need to weed through duplicates but one of the primary sources on YouTube is TheDudeStrummer’s YouTube site (Nicola from Italy) who has recently added Clash concerts in Tucson, Jamaica and San Antonio. Check out the link below with a typically electric version of Magnificent Seven from San Antonio on May 22, 1983. Make sure and comment if you can as these people spend a lot of time adding these clips online and helping spread the availability of the music.

Ted at the Controls: From the Daily Mail (sorry) comes a rather cool tale about a 12 year old boy (below) named Ted Lavender (dilly dilly) who is a DJ with a growing pedigree. He recently manned the deck at a Strummerville event organised by Lucinda Strummer and today will be the DJ at the wedding of Joe Strummer’s god-daughter Lily Allen today. You can read the whole story via this link and then of course clear your browser cache so nobody can accuse you of reading the Daily Mail – fascist!

Ted at the Controls (image courtesy Solent News)

Books to get: In addition to trying to see more concerts this year I’ve been also trying to make sure I read more books and drag myself away from the computer more often (also a success, 15 books read since September). I’ve been trying to brush up on my music history especially 1975-1990 and I’ve found another that sounds like it would be worth the time called ‘Retromania’ by Simon Reynolds. Much of the focus looks to be pre-punk but I’d like to read more about his ideas based on this review in the Telegraph. It may help answer why music seems to many to have stalled in its progress. If you get to it before me let me know.

Finally a small favour to ask, as you know I want to make sure as many people as possible know about the blog and help keep it growing. You’re already aware of the help you can give it via facebook, twitter and the other icons at the top of each post. I’ve just added another one called Google+1 which is google’s answer to ‘facebook likes’ but will also appear in search engines. So if you have a google/gmail account I’d appreciate if you can click on the +1 button if you like the post you read. If you don’t like the post you read…comment and tell me why. Thanks.

Enjoy the weekend, do something out of character. You can catch up with the blog in the comments, on Facebook and Twitter. You can also daily blog fix mailed direct with a nice cup of cocoa by subscribing to my RSS Feed here.

Good morning, its one of the days where as you’re up early you’d like to take on that endless list of tasks that is always demanding your attention. I write this from the precipice of that decision, brewing a giant vat of coffee and more likely to get this post written and then do some less important stuff because, well because its Sunday I suppose.

Thanks for your comments on yesterday’s post, a strange story no doubt and one that drew a lot of venom (myself included) when the deed was committed back in April and then, when the perpetrator was caught a feeling we should throw the fish back in the water. Let me stress that while I’m no fan of the jail system and attached theory in particularly the US and the UK (if you build more prisons and fill them up we’ll all be safer) I do think that what the chap did had to have a coincidence beyond ‘say you’re sorry’. No this wasn’t Michelangelo’s ‘David’ having a bucket of paint thrown over it or but for fans of Joe Strummer in the US it has become the nearest thing to a shrine that exists. The only reason I now think its funny versus offensive is that he got caught although perhaps a fortnight in prison would have done the trick with the added sentence of being forced to learn everything there is to know about The Clash. I mean we’re doing that by choice and didn’t deface anyone’s art. I still insist Joe would have found it funny and then Gil reminded me why at just after the 3:30 mark on this video interview with Strummer which is part 2 of what remains one of my favourites with him for some reason. Anyway enough of that, for now at least.

Coldplay's new look....oh dear

On to better things, if I can call this that. After the serious tones of yesterday I thought something funny might be in order. Coldplay. Yes I know that’s pretty funny to begin with and you’ll know that I consider that band to be the equivalent of driving a Ford, they’ll get you somewhere but in a terribly boring and predictable way. With all that you care to know about Coldplay what other band do you think they aspire to be? How about The Clash? As far fetched as that seems this hilarious piece in The Sun shows that Chris Martin and his troop have all found the wonder of hair gel and are taking on a sneer to face 2011. Check out the new ‘image’ which makes you recoil and feel like being sick in your own mouth just a bit. You can make your own mind up as to whether the repeated Clash/Strummer comparisons are the work of the journalist or of the band. I’d guess a bit of both. Bear in mind it’s The Sun we’re talking about.

Here’s a question for anyone on the ‘inside’. Years ago rumours were afloat that Lucinda, Joe Strummer’s widow had a still sizable collection of Joe’s partially completed, demos and unreleased songs via I’d assume a home studio. I recall reading after Streetcore was released that the dispute was whether all that music if it was to be released would have to be negotiated with the record label. I wonder if the delay is due to trying to circumvent the record contract(s) or if the timing just hasn’t been right. I still hope it will happen some day.

Another question, do you think that adding a forum to the blog might be a good idea? It would need to be moderated of course but it might be a great way to suggest ideas, ask questions, look to buy or sell Clash memorabilia or simply discuss/debate whatever is on your mind. If its easy to add to the blog format I’ll give it a try then the conversation may be far more broad than whatever I tend to be blathering on about. If people use it all well and good, if not we’ll pretend it never happened.

Right then, I’ve decided what I’m going to do. Swim, continue sorting out the garage and then a film. Have a good Sunday, I’ll be back or see you in the comments – cheers. Tim