Hello again, it’s already Christmas Day in most of the world as I write this which leaves me with time to really just send a quick message out about the season. I remember music and Christmas going hand in hand as a kid/teen and young adult. November and December always seemed to be the very best months for tours as bands tended to get a last tour in to fill their coffers/promote their albums but that’s a hindsight view. I just recall there always being a good full schedule of gig going once the autumn came to an end. New Years eve too has some great memories – Madness, Billy Bragg, Big Audio Dynamite, Ride being amongst the bands who I saw on New Years Eve in London over the years.

Christmas 1979 sticks in the memory as I was thrilled that my brother guided the gift giving that year and I was the happy recipient of the recently released London Calling, The Specials first album and I do believe a calculator watch. I know that sentence tails off as it ends but I was just twelve years old. What I remember then from that point onward getting some new albums or blank tapes was the highlight of Christmas — creative gift giving may have climaxed with a band shirt or tickets for a gig as I got a bit older. I still have much of the earliest vinyl I was ever given which takes me back to long ago.  My brother (in those days a bigger music collector than myself…he worked..that helped) was the master of the mix tape in the 80′s and would spend a lot of time making a personal 90 minute tape for friends, girlfriend and I knew I’d arrived when I started getting one made for me too. I wish I still had those. But yeah weird memories, television specials, advent calendars, those Cadbury stockings with different chocolate bars, top of the pops specials, John Peel’s festive 50, waiting to see what would be Christmas number one, special editions of the NME and MM and later on family drama, escaping down the pub and counting the hours until boxing day football matches.

I see that a lot about ‘these days’ that is easier, more convenient, more options…but if you’re anywhere near my age I think you’ll agree that Christmas was much better in the 70′s and 80′s. As for The Clash…they never made a Christmas single, and I don’t even think the word even pops up as a lyric does it? Their most famous yuletide event being the warm up gig for the Concert for the People of Kampuchea that they did on Christmas Day 1979 for 50p – which we talked about last year on the blog. ***correction – Christmastime in Ho Chi Minh City – Straight To Hell ***

I’ve no great knowledge about the holidays or 2011…I do know it’s been a difficult year for many I know and I really hope something will give next year. However I do think we’ve (as a society) maybe lost the plot in the last decade plus — or maybe that’s bitterness when you hit my age? I’m not sure? I do think that we need to make some big changes though and I can’t pinpoint what that means for any of you of course. I just think its time for me to rattle a few more cages in 2011 and get out to see more bands, read more and make sure I don’t avoid difficult decisions. I know those are the ones that matter. Wherever you are have a peaceful and happy holiday – enjoy your friends and family – think of those who are alone or without – and toast those you’ve lost or are far away from. Sadly my family are all over the planet and not near me but that’s alright I’m a big boy now. Cheers though to my Mum who never stopped believing in me and has tolerated me landing so far from home and to my brother for filling my head with brilliant music in the first place. Thank you all for following the blog all year (or longer) and for the friendships we’ve formed – you make the whole process worthwhile.

Cheers -Tim

If you watch this below you’ll probably understand why The Clash never did ToTP – although it negatively impacted their chart success in the UK. The weekly BBC program was designed to (and did) help singles move up the charts for over 40 years – I think that The Clash were fairly unique in their refusal to appear on the show – particularly amongst ‘major’ acts. Trivia experts let me know!

The Beat – appearing on Top of The Pops, Christmas 1981

This is a blog service announcement with keyboard! I rarely write at lunchtime but many of you have probably already seen the news as it crept in to all sources, I found out about 12 hours ago (thanks Clash fans in Australia) and now its hit the NME and The BBC and everywhere else of course. There will be a film made about London Calling, or more specifically The Clash and Guy Stevens and the making of London Calling and production work starts next year. The good news is that Paul Simonon and Mick Jones are executive producers (why no Topper) so that a initial feeling of quality control and authenticity is built into the mix. No casting has been announced but the film will focus on the relationship between the band and Guy and how the album came from that partnership.

I went to bed last night not knowing what I thought of the news and woke up no wiser whatsoever. I think this coming hot on the heels of the news about the Joe Strummer biopic is 50% calculated and 48% absurd…either way late 2011 or 2012 promises to be an interesting time to go to the cinema…or avoid it depending on your point of view. The first talked about film ‘Joe Public’ (change that title) has caused a lot of dissent and worry amongst what I consider most of you to be – deep and impassioned fans of the band. The risks seem greater than the reward for many of you it seems and is there even a point is another query I’ve seen. To suddenly within a few weeks hear of another film is quite astounding – two positive emerge instantly – the involvement of members of The Clash as a high level and the premise of a story. Having just completed the excellent book about the making of THAT album by Marcus Gray I’m not sure how you convert that into a film. What is not in doubt is that two of the most important characters are no longer with us – I wonder if its partly fueled by Mick and Paul wanting to set the record straight. But what needs to be set straight? Lily Allen’s mum is producing the film…I need to do some homework eh? We can debate whether London Calling was the best Clash album I guess (it was…just…but ask me tomorrow) but it is certainly one of the best albums ever made for reasons I can dive into and bore you to death. The chemical reaction with Guy Stevens was important but certainly so was the huge role that Bill Price played…if anything maybe as important picking up the pieces. That said the film could be fantastic – the story itself obviously is. Value in telling it on the big screen…I don’t know…I hope so. I like my gags that Sandinista! will be a trilogy and Cut The Crap reality TV. Maybe I can make this blog into a book?

I’ll read more about it and formulate thoughts during the week – so much for a quiet day in Clashblog Towers! Best – Tim

Alright then it’s a Friday night at Clash Blog towers and I just brewed perhaps the strongest cup of coffee I’ve ever tasted outside of Italy, it’s very good but I might not sleep again until next Thursday. I do hope your week went well and that the weekend promises some excitement or relaxing moments subject to your preference. I think I’m off to see Tim Kasher (the singer from Cursive) on Sunday night and I really should as he puts on quite a brilliant show and I think Cursive and his other act The Good Life are two of the best American bands of the last decade. Check them out if you haven’t.

Gotta get The Clash in the top 5 !

I had intended to do some proper writing tonight and then another poll popped up that I wasn’t previously aware of that really needs your participation. It seems that the next edition of the NME will have their rendition of the best 20 debut albums of all-time which will be definitely worth a look. In the meantime you can vote for your preferred choice for the best debut ever and you won’t be surprised to see the first Clash album from 1977 amongst the contenders. All things considered the current ranking of ninth isn’t all that bad although for me I think it is one of the three or four best debuts of all-time. I don’t think it’s the best debut album ever, but I will tell you that my choice for that particular prestige does make the NME list that appears to the left. With enough high scores there looks to be a chance to move The Clash into the top five but to do so it’s going to need to leapfrog Jimi Hendrix, The Smiths, Joy Division and The Stone Roses. I still find it absurd that an album that is almost guaranteed to make these type of lists never got an official US release back in 77, with the eventual release matching the UK version in title only as the content was so shuffled by the thinkers in suits over at CBS records.

What do you think of the list overall? What obvious titles do you think it’s missing? I would definitely include Jesus and Mary Chain and The Streets in my list amongst others after I gave it some brief consideration. From 1977 and 1978 the two obvious titles are there (The Clash and The Sex Pistols) which doesn’t leave any room for The Stranglers, The Damned, Buzzcocks or any other contemporaries. Of the 20 albums 13 are from the UK and 6 surprisingly were released in the last 10 years. I’m surprised that REM, Talking Heads, U2 and some others aren’t on the list although each of the debuts by those bands were occasionally patchy. I think for a band to have the best debut ever it suggests that the first album may have been the pinnacle of their output which I don’t think you can say for The Clash although I do think that the first Clash album was the most important record released between 1970 and 1978. Last fact if you actually care, I own 14 of the 20 listed although I’m sure some of you can top that. But also be really interested to hear what debuts you think should have made the list but were omitted. I’d be prepared to bet a pound against a penny that when the NME publishes its list The Clash debut will rank higher than ninth and it should in this poll as well, so that is up to us. In the best rigged elections outside of Florida in 2000, here is the link to the NME list itself and here is the link to vote for that famous green black and orange charge of energy from 1977. (don’t forget to select your ‘score’ for the album als0). We could also vote lower for the albums above The Clash but that’s a bit nasty innit?

One last thing tonight, I wanted to do a little bit of shameless self-promotion for a new blog that I am now writing. Although I write other blogs for other businesses, I wanted to have a forum to write about topics other than The Clash from time to time. Please don’t view this as any sort of infidelity, more a case of me needing both an additional creative outlet for writing but also to improve my writing style as I seek to add more freelance writing gigs to my portfolio (so to speak). I’ll be writing about a broad range of topics including music, the media, blogging, society and news and politics are sure to creep into the mix as well. It started with the name which won’t surprise you has a very strong Clash connection and we were excited to find that WorldServiceBulletins.com was available in the first place. If you’ve enjoyed the Clash Blog and there’s at least a reasonable chance that you’ll enjoy parts of the new one too and I welcome your visits, your comments, your feedback and any support via the usual social media methods (Facebook, twitter, etc) to get the blog better known. It will also help me keep The Clash Blog more on task I would think, although that remains to be seen. Anyway, please click over to WorldServiceBulletins if you can and have a look – there’s already a fair few posts to get you started and the site is still being fine tuned.  Thank you.

That should do it for now and hopefully I’ll have time for more than two more updates over the weekend as I realised the backlog of things to get to is a bit absurd. I know that Gorillaz played in Dublin last night and in Manchester this evening with London to follow, if you happened to attend any of the gigs and wanted to write in or share photos etc. please contact me via the usual channels. I’m especially interested to know how the audience reacted to seeing Mick and Paul onstage again although I daresay the UK press will be full of that over the coming days as well. Cheers – Tim