Hello again welcome back to the blog for a quick update although quite an important one. I prefer when the blog brings good news but some things are far beyond my control of course. It also seems rather salient that just the other day I had been writing about landmarks – locations or concert venues that were a large part of the story of The Clash. One such place that we’ve talked about on the blog but not had a specific feature dedicated to it is sadly at risk of closing in the near future.

It’s happened to venues both large and small in cities as large as New York or towns as small as St. Albans, with each closure a piece of the history of music becomes shuttered up along with the stage and the memories. No matter where you live if you’ve been attending concerts for many years you surely also seen somewhere close down due to a change in the environment or a neighbourhood, new management, escalating costs or the eradication of a scene that was synonymous with the club or concert hall. Each and every time it happens we lose something almost as precious as the bands that stood on the stage and recorded the records that we bought.

Joe Strummer at The 100 Club

Any study of the London punk movement that gathered speed in 1976 and into the following year would surely focus upon the only venue prior to the opening of The Roxy that supported and welcomed the acts that were at the heart of the scene. One of the busiest shopping streets in central London is Oxford Street and just north of there down a flight of stairs resides The 100 Club. If punk had a headquarters in London during its first year the closest it came to an official residence was The 100 Club. It’s not just about the bands who played there during the early days of punk but often who was in the audience also, a virtual who’s who of first-generation English punk artists attended one another’s shows and supported a scene that by definition was initially very close knit. The punk festivals that took place at the club weren’t always attended by that many people, but it provided a platform that often represented some of the very first gigs in front of a live audience for so many bands that set up the scene which was to follow.

September 20, 1976 was the date that put the venue family on the map, for just £1.50 a bill headlined by the Sex Pistols but supported by The Clash, Subway Sect and Siouxsie and the Banshees was Malcolm McLaren’s proving ground that punk could fill decent sized halls on a regular basis. This was borne out by an attendance larger than probably expected which led to regular showcase evenings at the club. The venue went on to become almost almanac like for a few years in terms of the artists that it hosted. In the last decade or so The 100 Club has seemingly been privy to a renaissance of sorts as a series of artists looking to play warm-up gigs or special reunion events have chosen the venue at least partly due to its history. We even covered a memorable one last summer that featured Mick Jones, Glen Matlock and Steve Diggle.

Therefore the news that the venue faces potential closure in the coming months should bring alarm to all Londoners but more importantly people anywhere who love the history of music. The club owner has reported that the landlord has raised the rent by 45% which sets the current rate at £166,000 a year. You don’t have to be an accountant to realize that is nearly £500 per day every day of the year, completely ridiculous for a venue that only boasts an official capacity of 350. The owner explains that unless a new buyer or sponsor is found in the next few months the famous club is looking at being forced to close its doors in late December. Surely someone or a group in London will want to have a holding in an establishment nearly as famous as the bands that once played there but as just as importantly the many artists that still do.

There are many organizations that will own and maintain a house where an artist was perhaps born but no such support is evident for the buildings where some of these artists came of age. New Yorkers still complain about the loss of CBGB’s and The Mudd Club, I just hope London isn’t about to repeat such mistakes. While I of course mention punk the venue has a fantastic lineage of supporting jazz artists that goes back over 60 years.

You can read more about this over at the NME website and join a brand-new Facebook campaign to keep abreast of the news and help out.

Hello again and welcome back to the blog. Sorry for the 48 hours of inactivity but I caught some type of bug that left me with sore throat, limited voice, hot and cold spells  and sleeping for more than 90% of the weekend. If it happened to a woman you’d say you caught a cold but as a bloke let me tell you it made for a miserable weekend. I’m about 40% now, coughing and sneezing every few minutes but not needing a nap every 90 minutes as I did over the weekend…well enough for a blog post anyway.

it just won't run without fuel....

I’ll confess I’ve not actually had time for any great research since the last post so it leaves me to share the winner of the Strummer tattoo competition that we had about a week ago – and the winner in a very close event was tattoo number 2 – The black Strummerville logo (Joe on the Diving Board) just edged out one of the most impressive tattoos I’ve ever seen. I’ll try and locate the owner and offer them a lifetime subscription to the blog via RSS feed or something. In another poll we held recently it seems that the fine readers of the blog are well clued up on things other than The Clash as our preseason premier league poll (English soccer for some readers) showed the favourite pick to win the league this season as Chelsea, which I think is wise money. I’ll still stick with my prediction that Arsenal will take 2nd spot with some aplomb – to see the full results and my banal predictions have a look at this link. I warned you at the start of the post that I’ve not got a great deal of news for you this afternoon but on a personal level I wanted to share my newest Clash related pride and joy. You may recall about six weeks ago when my car tags expired I decided to order a new (mystery) Clash themed license plate for the car. Some suggestions I received and considered myself included H8FUL   TRNVAIN  COMROCK  WMiHP  PRTXBLU  CASBAH1 4HRSMEN   JIMJAZZ  MAG 7 and others, I made my decision thinking I’d only need to wait two weeks and not six – but when it arrived last week I must confess it felt like Christmas for a 6 year old for a few hours. The results are below – sorry the photo isn’t too wonderful, I’ll take more when its on the car itself. I’ve just have had an awful time finding a 1975 Ford Cortina.

The new ClashBlog license plate

I’ll definitely be back on a more regular basis in the days ahead, we’ve got Clash Cup, Video Clash, Westway Traffic, Clash Shopping, Gorillaz tour preview part 3, an NME feature, and news from Carbon Silicon and the UK press all coming up this week plus more I’m sure. Thanks for being patient – oh and the ClashBlog cat is doing a bit better (I won’t tempt fate and say she is well yet) it is a proper infirmary around here lately.

Hello again and welcome once more to the blog. After a busy few days it will either come to you as a relief or a shock to find that this post isn’t exclusively about Joe Strummer. Indirectly a decision that Joe made in 1983 led to what I’m about to write about, but that would be splitting hairs. I finally got around to getting a copy of the Legacy edition of the Big Audio Dynamite debut “this is Big Audio Dynamite”. Few things scream louder about the passing of years than these special editions that are getting released to celebrate anniversaries of the initial release. I suppose that only cuts to the quick when you have a clear memory of purchasing the album (on vinyl) at the first time of asking. I don’t feel so bad about that knowing that so many of you are in the same boat.

The album was originally released with great anticipation in October of 1985, although you could argue the official 25th anniversary is not for a few months CBS/Sony/Legacy actually released the special edition in April of this year. I don’t quite know why I didn’t pick up it earlier but that’s neither here nor there. I would’ve been 18 when the album was released and that two year spell between what was essentially the dissolution of The Clash and the release of this album was a spell where I found myself listening to some great music but still lamenting the end of the band. After The Clash split you could rely upon the NME and Melody Maker to provide at least occasional gossip about the future of Mick Jones, what was clear from the very earliest days was that he wouldn’t be rejoining The Clash and that Joe and Paul with some new recruits would keep the band name if not the quality. Late in 1983 or early 84 it was reported that Mick was working with Topper and a new plan was being formed, when the rumour fell quiet the next thing I recall reading was that he would be working with Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger from The Beat as a member of the newly formed General Public. That turned out to be far more than a rumour and Mick did indeed work with them on their new material and featured on their debut album “All The Rage” which I believe was released in the summer of 1984.

I get the impression that Mick’s involvement with them may have been more a case of helping out than his next career move. By all accounts simultaneously in 1984 Mick had continued to sow the seeds which were to become Big Audio Dynamite. He had certainly approached Don Letts very early on and the remaining members of the band were in place that same summer. Leo Williams had been playing with Mick since very soon after he left The Clash whilst drummer Greg Roberts was added later during ’84, plus Dan Donovan on keyboards in ’85. Reading the music papers compulsively combined with the fact that I worked in a record shop at that age resulted in me frequently asking our CBS rep if he knew anything about Big Audio Dynamite and when something might be expected. In hindsight it seemed like an awful long time had passed between the rumors of the band working and recording and the actual release late in 1985. Strangely, during that same period of time the new version of The Clash had been equally quiet in terms of recording output but they had played live as a now five piece lineup extensively during 1984. That in itself kept The Clash under the spotlight and while the glare was not on Mick Jones it’s now very clear just who was producing the more worthwhile record.

It’s also interesting that while The Clash with a revamped lineup hit the road in earnest in 1984 some of the tracks that eventually made up the final Clash album were in existence very soon after Mick got the sack. I remember thinking that the delay between Combat Rock and that album seemed almost endless, especially for a band who had released so much material between 77 and 82. If anything the feeling was that the new Clash would get a head start on Mick by releasing some new material first but in a strange twist of fate it was actually Big Audio Dynamite that released their first album about three weeks prior to The Clash. Working in a record shop at the time and knowing a lot of Clash fans it is hard to believe that we used to debate whether the Big Audio Dynamite album could possibly be as good as whatever The Clash did next. I also recall still being pissed off about the way Mick was ousted and had a quiet suspicion that his project would actually turn out to be better. Probably the only time I was ever 100% correct when forecasting events connected to The Clash. It’s a bit hard to relate just how different things were in 1985 perhaps Mick Jones sums it up best in the sleeve notes for the newly released Legacy edition: “What do I remember?… Reagan was president, Thatcher was Prime Minister and we were Big Audio Dynamite”

I will scribble up my review of the Legacy edition later this week focusing on the bonus artwork, the special packaging, the fully remastered first album and the bonus disc which probably drew the most attention. That’s all for now-Tim.

July 20, 1984 story from the 'Ottawa Citizen'