Hello and welcome back to the centre of all things Clash. Thanks for dropping in although I’m not sure if I can live up to that initial pronouncement. I hope your day went well (Wednesday as I write, probably Thursday when you read this), mine was kind of like the Morrissey album Southpaw Grammar – it looked okay on the outside but the contents were similar to the feeling you get when you’ve stepped in dog waste. So the less said about today the better although I did have a revelation and determined the root cause – Mick Jones.

Perhaps I should explain, although my eyesight (still 20/20 and a great source of personal pride) serves me well at my old reasonable modest age of 43, my hearing is not faring quite so well. I guess I’ve been aware of that fact for the better part of seven years, in the office where I used to work I would always cradle the telephone to my right ear because it was easier to hear the other party that way. It seemed like common sense but it just became a habit to the point where I now never use my left ear if I’m on the phone, more recently I’ve noticed that if somebody’s sitting to my left it can be slightly more difficult to hear them, but seeing as I drive in preference to being a passenger I can always hear whoever is sitting in the passenger seat, regardless of wanting to. I don’t have a solution for that should I move back to England however.

I probably should have it tested but have reluctantly accepted the fact that it’s probably been this way for many years and chances are that it was set in motion when I was in my early teens. When I first went to concerts my priority was to be nearest the part of the stage that would be inhabited by Mick Jones or at least (if it were another band) the most likely location for the band’s guitarist. The trend became the norm and looking back I probably have headed to the front left as you face the stage 80% of the time at all concerts I’ve attended. It’s ensured that I’ve had up close views of Will Sargent, Johnny Marr, Graham Coxon and loads of others too numerous to mention but it’s also placed the left side of my head nearest in exposure to the PA stack at countless concerts over the last almost 30 years. It makes perfect sense to me now and of course I don’t regret a single thing, although I do wonder just what I was thinking when I would settle down 10 feet away from the noisiest possible place when seeing My Bloody Valentine or The Wedding Present. Within the last decade I’ve now spotted younger concertgoers downing their pint of Stella and adjusting their ear plugs before the headline act arrives on stage. I can even recall scoffing at their tenderness and wondering when everything changed although I’m sure they are capable of ambidextrous (is there a word for both ears?) telephone use. I guess I don’t mind really but I’ve just given away the game as to how I feel about you if I insist you sit on my left. As for Mick Jones, there’s no hard feelings I just wonder if a high ratio of 40/50-something female Clash fans are suffering reduced  hearing on the right side due to their insistence to be near Paul Simonon whenever possible.

Not for the first time I’ve gone completely off track but I do have three short things to attend to all of which can be related quite quickly.

One – The Clash feature in the newest edition of Rolling Stone. It’s nice to see the bands name on the cover of the formerly esteemed publication, but why there’s a photograph of some young lady named Justin on said cover is beyond me. As for the article, do what I did at the supermarket the other day, after grabbing some pears and a selection of fine cheeses make your way to the magazine aisle and save the $4.99 and read the article in-store. It’s not that good anyway, however a note to Rolling Stone – if you had put The Clash on the cover I might have purchased your magazine.

Win Butler...comparisions with Joe?

Two – The NME is still going strong and apparently the new issue features a list of the 50 best front men of all time. If you happen to be in England and want to try the same shopping trick I’ve outlined above could you please advise exactly where Joe Strummer ranks on that list? I’m hoping and assuming he’s in the top five but you never know with the modern and forgetful NME writers. Incidentally you can see those who ranked 26 through 50 on the NME website if you’re so inclined.

Three – Win Butler should be a name you know (if not, he is the vocalist of the recently Grammy grabbing Arcade Fire). I’m seeing a number of tweets, articles, comments and posts that the Californian/Texan/Canadian front man of Arcade Fire is somehow channeling the convictions, spirit and/or the appearance of Joe Strummer. Does anyone else support this concept? At the risk of being beaten down I’ll confess that I do like Arcade Fire very much but as an authenticity measure let me point out that I bought their debut album within a week of its release and saw them at a venue (Modified) a few weeks later that holds fewer people than the average Burger King. Having seen him at close quarters and of course subsequently apart from the semi-Mohican hair currently being sported I don’t find any of the connections with Joe to truly be applicable. So please tell me where I’m going wrong? A related note – I do like the bands cover version of Talking Heads ‘This must be the Place (naive melody)’ I wish that they had never tackled The Guns of Brixton. It doesn’t work for them.

Right that’s me checking out for the time being, much more to follow including a podcast and other news as it comes in. Cheers – Tim

Good morning and welcome to your Monday, I’m just getting my own head around the idea too on this Sunday evening. First things first, I wanted to say thanks so much for your continued support of the blog. The continuous growth never ceases to motivate and inspire me to continue writing this thing and this week just ended with the most visits ever for one week and January starts 2011 off right with the most visits we’ve ever had in a single month also. So please keep sharing the blog with those who might enjoy it and submitting your ideas and comments – they add so much to what the blog has become.

Image courtesy of & created by Aaron Gilmore http://gilmoreart.com/

I finally had a bit of time this evening to around the interwebs to see what’s been blogged about The Clash and specifically Joe Strummer in recent weeks and I’m glad I did. It also reminded me that I need to do it more frequently, I’ve noticed in the last decade that magazines such as Q and the weeklies are writing shorter/safer articles and most people want short 80 word reviews in magazines and online sites. As that unfortunate trend has continued instead I’m seeing more and more detailed writing and research popping up on blogs. It applies to music just as much as it does to sports, cinema or any other particular part popular culture. As newspapers and magazines continue to lose readership more and more people tend to gather their headlines and talking points from traditional resources and then go elsewhere online to get more thorough analysis. For example I read a blog this weekend (name escapes me….) which wrote in depth about the Coachella music festival lineup for 2011, actually that’s not accurate – they went on to study many of the major acts who are appearing in depth and even had a podcast/video interview with a 4 person panel that for 55 minutes (yes…that was overkill to be fair) discussed this years festival roster. I didn’t get through the whole thing but I did learn a lot and again it offers far more depth than an NME or Rolling Stone article that often does little more than list who is playing. At the fine end of my point about blogging let me give you the example of Arsenal who if you visit often you realise are a football team in London that I support. At last count there were more than 30 blogs devoted to nothing but Arsenal, some update daily and all at least two or three times per week. Some are excellent, many are good and all have an audience. My point being is that people will read about something they care passionately about if the content is original and thought provoking. The very traditional mediums of newspapers and magazines simply can’t provide that depth of coverage and opinion to every topic. Not quite sure where things will land but I can’t see newspapers in a ‘paper’ sense ever recovering that lost ground. Magazines perhaps have more flexibility and therefore a longer lifespan yet to come. It pains me to say it as I used to be a passionate daily reader of a newspaper or two and many magazines but things really are different now. It’s so different from Europe in the States though of course, the simple size of the country doesn’t allow for a dozen daily national papers like in the UK for example. There’s essentially one local paper (perhaps two) in most cities plus USA today and the Wall Street Journal. I’ve gone miles off track as usual so let me get to some of the best things I found this weekend.

Music ruined my life is consistently a fantastic blog but this piece looking at the parallels between Joe Strummer and Bob Dylan is simply brilliant. I’ve noticed on many occasions that people I know who herald Joe Strummer often also share similar passions for Bob Dylan. The mutual affection between the two men was (as this article further demonstrates) also very much in evidence from about 1978 onwards when Dylan was first made aware of The Clash. However anything I write is dwarfed by the article I’m referring to so get over and read, listen to and watch that. Especially fascinating for me was a radio broadcast where Joe and Stevie Wonder discuss Dylan during the same segment. Hearing Strummer interact with the Motown legend is absolutely priceless.

Blogcritics.org is another site I find myself returning to from time to time especially for film reviews and I stumbled upon this review of The Future is Unwritten: that I’d highly recommend. Make sure you thumb through the entire thing as it is spread over three pages but Elizabeth Periale does a fine job overall of capturing the essence of a film I’m assuming you’ve all seen numerous times but takes perhaps a different spin. Fact checkers will find a few errors (go easy) and I don’t automatically agree with everything said but it is well composed and beyond that entirely sincere.

Finally I wanted to give advance warning to a very special concert being organised by Hope Not Hate in Manchester this March. Speaking of Joe Strummer I can’t help feeling if he was still with us he’d be rather involved with Hope Not Hate who actively campaign in the UK against the most extreme elements of the right wing such as the BNP and the EDL. Both represent a serious concern and have gained ground with disaffected voters in recent years stirring the seeds of dangerous nationalism and intolerance. Hope Not Hate have had impact beyond words however, during  last year’s elections they worked tirelessly in areas where the BNP had been seeing growth and helped remove them from office in many cases.  On March 12 there will be a concert featuring Billy Bragg and Brianna Corrigan (formerly of The Beautiful South) at the Manchester Academy 2 on behalf of the organisation. Bragg’s lineage to The Clash is more than slight and I hope you might be able to make it along to a good cause if you can, more details and ticket information is available here; while you can find out all about Hope Not Hate here

That should be enough for a Monday morning, thanks for visiting and I’ll be back soon. Tim

Good evening to you from Clashblog Towers, a beautiful sunny day that would have been perfect for a beer outdoors so that is exactly what I did at 530pm – Newcastle Brown in honour of my troubled youth. For some reason in the States they serve Newcastle at a point just above freezing which diminishes the taste horrifically, thankfully I wasn’t offered a ‘frosty mug’ as I was already wearing one as I waited for the warm sunshine to bring my beverage up to a drinkable temperature. That helped.

As you’ve gathered from the blog over the last few days things have had a very Big Audio Dynamite shadow cast over them which is rather appropriate, it has been an extremely long time and seemed far-fetched a few years ago. As you’ve seen it will be the original lineup (“as we’re all still alive” per Jonesy) and I assume the songs chosen will be from the original incarntation of the band as a result, but you never know – BADII had some significant success in the States so it remains to be seen what tracks are chosen. That is of course assuming they add US/Canada dates to the Coachella excursion, signs point to yes but we should take a wait and see attitude I suppose. Mick will be drumming up some serious air miles at this rate. Tonight I wanted to point you in the direction of some of the many articles that have been scribed about the reformation of Big Audio Dynamite over the last week, I found it interesting that the buzz doubled (maybe tripled) when the UK tour dates were announced as opposed to the Coachella news. Perhaps before that point most outlets wondered if the festival appearance was for novelty value only. What this means is over the next couple of months driving around rehearsal spaces in West London might be time well spent in case you hear a beatbox or see grown men trying on old baseball caps. I’m counting on London readers to be very alert and keep me posted! Right then, over to those links:

The NME rather yawningly delivered just the facts and the tour dates, rather a surprise from an editorial team who seem to have been priming a Clash mania pump for the better part of 5 years.

Punknews.org wrote a snappy little piece but like many others rambled on about the band ‘reforming after 25 years’. I don’t understand where that figure (keeps) coming from; 1986 was neither the year the band (original lineup) last played or formed. So after 25 years perhaps makes for a better headline but makes no real sense.

Jon Stickler at Stereoboard had a bit more to say in his announcement which provided more info about the history of the band and ticket prices. I’ve seen a few groans about the £27.50 and £28.50 prices but in all honesty it is a bit above the going rate but to be expected in 2011 for a band who probably won’t play again after these dates. Edwyn Collins by way of example is playing the same venue in London next month and tickets are £19.50 so yeah perhaps a few quid over the odds. Drink at a nearby pub first, problem solved. The Descendents are playing Shepherds Bush in April…when did they reform?

According to The Clash Online the reunion “represents unfinished business for Mick Jones” (???) does it indeed? I’m not sure that’s so but I guess we’ll see. What unfinished business could there be…now I’ll be up all night.

Clashmusic.com at least churn out a new angle “a mixed race group at a time of great tension in the UK” to describe the origins. Not sure 1984 was especially a tense time for race relations…for miner’s yes but Brixton and Toxteth were years earlier. Anyway from what I’m hearing it’s a bloody tense time in the UK once again…so perhaps they can add that on to the gig reviews.

MTV.co.uk really came up with the worst headline “The BAD men are back” before following up with a few sentences of the same information as elsewhere.  If you are a budding music writer contact MTV in the UK and tell them you’d like to apply to be their new webmaster.

Hmmm….most of the other ‘official’ stories seem to rearrange most of the same sentences so I think I ought to leave that there for now, I’ll scan the blogs tomorrow and see if they are a bit more engaging. I’m guessing that they will be. Right….more tomorrow including some Strummerville news. Be good – Tim