Clash Blog….handbrake off, checking mirrors, drop clutch and we’re pulling away from the kerb of American Idol and X Factor and back into the fast lane to celebrate the best band that ever existed. On our journey tonight we’ll see how Topper Headon is doing and preview the Ray Lowry auction. Trust your week is a good one, I’m pleased/shocked that 2010 is half way over – from Haiti to BP, the economy to Cameron ‘winning’ an election its hardly been a classic year so far. Highlights…..I like my job, can afford my bills and have wonderful friends and a woman who puts up with my twin obsessions with music and football.

I referenced again yesterday (see that post) that interview from last Summer with Topper Headon and the usual messages came in about how great it is to see him doing so well & looking so well – and it really is. Headon assumes a fairly low profile these days which I think even adds to the affection with which he has held. We all saw him looking simply awful a decade ago and I’ll never forget an interview after Joe died where he said something to the effect of  -Losing Joe was such a sad eye-opener and most people thought I’d be the first member of The Clash that something like that would happen to- and in saying that he seemed to almost read our thoughts. But really it is great seeing Topper looking well and happy and I’m sure many of us relate to seeing friends or loved ones go down a path that if not as devastating as Topper’s perhaps similar. Some people recover and some we just lose to drink, drugs or a combination of the two. If you read that interview you’ll see just how low things became for Topper which adds to our support from afar. Now if only he’d get behind the kit more often, after all we are talking about one of the greatest drummers ever. I understand an autobiography is in the works which I hope is more than rumour. As ever I’ve been long winded and wanted to share this picture from last weekend of Topper at the current Ray Lowry exhibition (shown on the right) and he looks really good, the picture is with the curator of the exhibition Julian (last name…pending..will advise).

I don’t usually clutter up the blog with too many photos for fear of becoming too much like facebook and it strangles my need for incessant chatter to you good people but I’m going to take the liberty just this once as I like so many images I’ve come across this week. So let the pictures speak for themselves and there will be a little bit more of me nearer the bottom of the post. All images are from the delightful people at the Idea Generation Gallery who have been really kind in keeping me abreast of these events. You’ll see a recent photos of Bernard Rhodes, comedian Phil Jupitus with Clash roadie Johnny Green and Pennie Smith. Click on any image to make larger. I’ll be back tomorrow with more on the auction plus all sorts of other news. Sorry for late post I got sidetracked by a long trip back to the 1970’s tonight with a friend.

Topper june 2010 Idea Gallery

Phil Jupitus and Johnny Green

Pennie Smith june 2010

Bernard Rhodes and Johnny Green

Yawn……….Good Morning….this World Cup thing is too early, what is South Africa thinking with these early kick offs? A very good morning to you – with my coffee today I came across a photo of the piece de resistantance from the Ray Lowry London Calling exhibition. If you’ve been following the blog you know that the a special focus of the exhibition was artists interpretations of the famed artwork to London Calling of whom Lowry was the creator / Pennie Smith the photographer.

Paul Simonon was asked to contribute to the exhibition and did he ever. Happy Father’s Day (if you are) and you know London Calling is the daddy of all rock photographs, the blurred image of Simonon taking out his frustration on his instrument that night in New York has become one of the best known album covers ever. What I never knew was that some of the shattered fragments were kept by Paul and he’s incorporated a piece into his contribution.

A strangely moving thing to see and I’m sure you’ll feel the same. Image courtesy Chance Collective. The auction price on this is sure to be stupid, why don’t we start a collective Clash Blog fund and make a bid – then we can have it tour our homes!

Simonon's contribution to the Ray Lowry London Calling exhibit - image courtesy chancecollective.wordpress.com

Have a smashing day!

Tim

Saturday morning (congratulations Spurs on your 0-0 with Hull) and the kind of post you love most as I’ve got little to say but lots of great images to show you. I wrote back on Christmas Eve about The Clash appearing at Acklam Hall for 50p on Christmas Day 1979 which was followed by another gig there on Boxing Day. Wayne, a good friend to the Blog wrote in to say he’d been to the concert on Dec 26th and had kept his ticket for these 30 years since, I think he’s got a collector’s piece on his hands. The Pennie Smith photo was the reverse side of the ticket. I rifled through my old tickets last night and found some treats but nothing that predated 1981 so I feel very trumped. Below is the front and back of what Wayne was kind enough to send in – Enjoy !! (We did the best we could with the image quality as he had to scan them…I’ve offered to take this from Wayne for safe-keeping but been rejected)

I simply love that – especially “DINNER DANCE”

Another piece of ‘donated’ memorabilia for you then, some old old Clash concert flyers from the very early days. These appear in the big pink Clash book (seems I need to get a copy) and I just can’t get enough of the DIY fanzine feel of these. Not sure when we went from homemade to corporate with concert promotions but it must have been 1981-2? I got copies of these from Jeff who’d rather be known as DUBWISE72 (fair enough) and they are as old something rather old. No real explanation needed I assume but such joy to see them…..

Talk to you later…oh…a quick reminder about the concert in San Francisco tomorrow featuring the Beat – all proceeds to Haiti disaster relief. Hopefully someone reading will make it along.