Good evening from a soggy and pleasantly cold Arizona. Almost makes me think of winter today and definitely has me reflecting on the fact that 31 years ago today (or more likely tomorrow by the time I get this written and posted) I acquired my copy of the only triple album I’ve ever owned - Sandinista! Last year we were all drawn in to the rumour and then soft confirmation that a 30th anniversary special Legacy edition of the 4th Clash album was going to surface with added ‘rare’ material. Speculation was rife that we’d get unreleased tracks or better still an excellent live document of the band circa 1980/1.  However more than a year later that ship has obviously now sailed with Sony confirming it wasn’t to be. Perhaps the 35th anniversary will see the vaults finally opened up.

I mentioned it on Facebook today (the anniversary) and it led to some good discussion as to the merits of the album which are worth a look. As I wrote there I remember clearly buying it on release and being a bit confused, a bit shocked and rather annoyed that this wasn’t The Clash as I knew them or at least expected. I was only 13 at the time and if you asked me then or even a few years later I would have placed Sandinista! as my least favourite Clash album (excluding Cut The Crap – different parameters altogether). As the years rolled by and my maturity arrived the album was revisited time and time again, instead of my initial feeling of five or six good songs, there were suddenly a dozen. A few years later more than half the album was obviously brilliant and by the time the 90′s rolled around I realised that most of the album was excellent – one of the most ambitious, challenging and bold records ever made. You can argue that it’s not the best Clash album but it may well be the most interesting and certainly contains some of Joe’s best lyrics. Beyond all that remember how quickly it was made and so soon after the brilliance of London Calling, also think of how many new barriers were broken down in particular by Mick and Topper. The band released 55 songs plus Bankrobber within 12 months, unheard of output. Brilliant stuff indeed, at a later time we’ll try and determine the best Clash albums whilst remembering there are no wrong answers. Happy anniversary then to Sandinista! and its far reaching, sometimes ugly beauty – an album that will last a lifetime.

Image courtesy WrongEmBoyo

Sorry for the brief detour there, I owe it to myself and to you to share a few more guest contributions about the Justice Tonight tour, specifically the final night in Glasgow which ended everything on quite a high. Glasgow as you all know holds it place high in the list of cities with Clash lore and with that, great affection for the band. There are a number of rumours/quotes doing the rounds about whether this concept might be revisited in 2012 and whilst I naturally have no inside track on that knowledge I’ll say only that many rumours concerning Mick Jones in the last few years have come to fruition. We’ve just been through the most active 3 years Mick has seen since I don’t when, the early 90′s I’d guess. I hope that doesn’t signal the end of that spell but only Mick knows what he’s doing next – what is apparent is that he is thoroughly enjoying playing live. Glasgow then; please join me in thanking Geoff (via Martin who provided us with his summaries of London and Liverpool) for the overview beneath:

Based on the Liverpool start time we arrived at 8.20 only to find The Farm ending their set with All Together Now. Pete Wylie then launched straight away into his set of: Come Back, Better Scream, The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies, Story of the Blues (with a neat little segued start of Drift Away as a tribute to Dobie Gray who passed away this week) Heart as big as Liverpool and ended with Sinful. I Have to say I was really impressed with his set, fantastic sound and vocals (despite the ‘hometown hangover’ from the previous evening) ably backed up by Joe, Paul and co Mick then took centre stage sharing vocal duties with Pete and James Allan from Glasvegas.

As a side note James Allan was a footballer playing in the Scottish lower leagues including Queens Park (not QPR). (ClashBlog ed: that’s news to me, but then again so is the overall interest in Glasvegas, looking a bit like Joe doesn’t make you Joe).

Immediate set after Pete Wylie was: Train in Vain/Stand by me, Stay Free, Clampdown, White Man (in Hammersmith Palais) – which is James Allan’s favourite Clash track. Then we went into a short break forJustice Tonight speeches and a single Glasvegas song – Daddy’s Gone. This was followed by the return of Mick and Co for Bankrobber, Armagideon Time, Should I Stay or Should I Go and London Calling before launching into All Together Now, at the conclusion Mick shouts ‘see you next time’.

Hmmmm wonder if he meant as B.A.D. who were brilliant earlier this year at the same venue or another cause that is deserving of the Clash set. Either and I’d be happy, just keep getting on stage, Mick. They left the stage to ‘make way for the disco’ only for them to return with Janie Jones. Disappointingly a fair number had left immediately after or during ATN. Another reason you should never leave before the final whistle. (Eds note: Anfield ’89) They’ll never be the same without Joe though I’m sure he’d have approved of the cause. Despite having mixed emotions as I did when the Skids reunited without Stuart Adamson I’d rather see Mick and Paul belting out Clash songs than some tribute band. More please……

Image courtesy mckingv on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/44867841@N02/

Thanks so much for that, a great review I thought cheers Geoff. I also have another short summary from Murray which I liked, he may be a bit more forthright than some but just remember opinions about music are simply that and everyone is entitled to one. After all you’ve been digesting mine for the better part of three years now. Does he like Glasvegas? Read along and find out:

The Farm – I never bought into that baggie nonsense the first time round and other than Altogether Now this just washed over me. Pete Wylie was brilliant, a greatest hits set worthy of the price of admission. The Clash set was great, better than I’d imagined. They took a break and the guitarist and singer from Glasvegas got on to do “Daddy’s Gone” – their one great song it seems ! He didnt get the best reception, while he was havin trouble plugging in the guy next to me was repeatedly yelling “you are a wank” at the top of his voice to much laughter around. He’d maybe win a Joe Strummer lookalike competition, but he was struggling with Bankrobber, fluffing the lines he had to read off the page, but then Strummer was always prone to fluffing lines so maybe it was some kind of homage ! or maybe the event was just too much for him. The night ended with John Robb taking a mic to the crowd for Janie Jones. Good fun and by what Mick was saying onstage I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again sometime ….

 Thanks for that Murray, I can just hear a Glaswegian punter shouting that at James Allan in my head. Made me laugh I’ll confess, but as a guest I think he merited more class or am I getting soft? Right then I’ve got to go and drive with the lunatics in the rain this morning but please join me in thanking our guest reviewers for taking the time to write. Speaking of John Robb – his tour blog on Louder than War has been exceptional from the first night in Cardiff and provides so much insight you’d be a fool to miss it so please check that out. I’ll be back during the week, things are going to be hectic around here for the next six weeks as it looks like ClashBlog towers will shortly be relocating to new accommodations in California (more on that soon) but I want to keep up the momentum on the blog – we’ve had an exceptional number of visits over the last month for which I thank you and if you ever want to help our your humble blogger there’s a small banner ad over on the right. Thanks so much to those who already have. Also remember you can keep up to date by  Facebook, Twitter or get the RSS feed which will see the blog sent to you directly. Cheers – Tim

Good evening, a late night update from the desert from me(*typing by moonlight and a tall/cold glass of water). I know I owe you part two of the Mick Jones in Minneapolis piece and I will get to that tomorrow. Earlier this evening though I was looking through my records, you remember, vinyl. It struck me as how beautiful album (and even singles) sleeves were, I grabbed London Calling and realised just how much of an impact those 4 pages of lyrics and photos had impressed upon me as a teen.

I hadn’t revisited some of these records for quite a few years, each small black and white photo on the London Calling inner sleeve and the (Ray Lowry) fonted lyrics reminded me of how many hours I’d spent with these pieces of paper all those years ago. While the record was doing it’s thing at 33 1/3 rpm we would sit and look at the record’s artwork. We’d smoke cigarettes and drink cider as we wondered if there was ever going to be anything as important as our records and although I realise I’m supposed to grow out of that I’d still argue that the answer is still no. Nothing mattered as much as music then and I don’t know if anything has ever mattered as much to me since. Through music came a feeling of action, of involvement, of excitement, of possibility and usually a reaction. I looked at the 7″ sleeves of some of The Clash singles I have (so sadly dog-eared now) and the simple but expressive beauty of some of the early Two-Tone singles by The Specials. I found myself shocked at the majestic quality of everything I still own on Factory Records and 4AD, heavier cardboard, beautiful construction, art for the sake of it – and no wonder Tony Wilson couldn’t keep Factory afloat.

I slid the three slabs of Sandinista! out of their sleeve and laughed at the fact that The Clash insisted on making sure the record was affordable so their fans didn’t need to save up to purchase the thing, perhaps a triple album would be their folly but the fans shouldn’t need £15 or $20 to get their latest offering, it was of course marketed (if memory serves) at £5.99 in the UK and $9.99 in the US much to the ire of CBS records, about half of what the label wanted it to cost. The Clash meanwhile had to make peace with CBS by skipping royalties until 200,000 copies had sold, that moment didn’t arrive for more than two decades. I briefly panicked when I couldn’t find my copy of ‘The Armagideon Times’ booklet until I recalled that it was stored away with all my box set stuff.

I quickly looked at Combat Rock and remembered the bittersweet relationship I had with what always felt like an early goodbye from a band I wanted to have beside me for many more years, after The Clash my collection was dominated for a while by acts on Rough Trade, Mute, Factory and Beggars Banquet – my loyalty went to movements and labels (stables?) rather than a single band for a while but The Clash were still my gateway to all of that.

When CDs eventually replaced vinyl I resisted for a while but since felt sorry for those who never had the proper association with having amassed a record collection. Yet now twenty years later with a CD collection in excess of 2,500 titles, I’m told that nobody buys CDs anymore which isn’t true based on my local music shops. Even that is now obsolete and I thought it was hard enough to connect with an artist when the inlay card measured just 5″ x 5″ – is there anything more soulless than a downloaded collection of music then compressed onto your i-pod? Besides which you’re taking a huge hit in sound quality you’re also taking the media down to the lowest common denominator. I put my records back on the shelf with the mixed feeling of sadness but also gratitude for having them in the first place. I might even start a new blog called 144 square inches when I find me some time.

Hello again Clash people, hope the week is off to a decent start and the summer is not as hot wherever you are as it has been over much of North America for the last few weeks. It’s a bit like the famed summer of ’76 in England for hot weather and we all know what the result of that was don’t we?

I really hope that you had a chance to watch the videos of Big Audio Dynamite at the Royal Festival Hall on yesterday’s post. Most of the time I can swallow the fact that I miss this concert or that event in London but I really wish I was there at the weekend to have seen this one. It just looked and sounded right and from all accounts it felt right with the consensus being that Mick Jones seems so vested in the band once again and it shows in every sense. I’m becoming fairly convinced that we’re going to see an album as a result of the reunion, purely idle speculation on my part but I can see now that they’ve tested the water for fan reaction (and the addition of new/younger fans who never saw the band first time around) and the chemistry within the band that new music might well be the result. We’ve already seen the first new song being performed live.

I’d like to once again thank Pete Stevens for the excellent photography below from the weekend, I know he also was able to see the soundcheck in full. He must have an equity card or something. I think it’s the 4th time he’s seen B.A.D. this year – I’m sure someone will now write in and tell me they’ve seen them five times in 2011. Go on then.

Prior to the photos I do want to start sharing some of the recent blog posts that I’ve seen and enjoyed. I always enjoy reading about people’s experiences of The Clash and how they impacted them or briefly met a member or perhaps saw a gig or two. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of that as every experience is different and exclusive to the author of it. In addition, these days with the internet and being able to see photos and videos or read brief accounts of a concert anywhere in the world within a few hours via twitter or facebook things are never going to be as they once were again as any sense of exclusiveness has all but evaporated. That in itself is both a good and a bad thing. How many people saw The Clash in Dundee in January 1980? More importantly how many have written about that experience? How many people had a chance to share a cigarette or a beer with Mick or Joe during the earliest Clash tours outside the UK – and again how many have committed those nights to memory and shared them? It’s those experiences that make me look to see what’s written on smaller blogs or social media, everyone has a story to tell and a lot of them are really good.

I know that a book was being compiled about fan’s accounts of The Clash, that was last year but I’ve not heard more of it since. I must find out where that stands. Anyway, another ramble off topic here instead is a link to a the Clicks and Pops blog where the author speaks of a friend named Julie and her love of The Clash. It’s a simple tale but no less special as a result, although I knew a lot of people (perhaps a lot is a slight overstatement) who owned Sandinista! I also remember getting my first ever Sony Walkman in about 1982 (?) and rushing to the record shop to purchase a tape as I was very loyal to vinyl only at that time, I ended up christening my new Walkman with a copy of Sandinsta! on cassette. Partly because I liked the album but mostly because I was impressed by the fact it was on just two tapes instead of three records and came with a nice cardboard outer sleeve for both tapes. I still have it in a box of tapes. It was odd sequencing as the 36 tracks compiled essentially sides 1-3 of the vinyl on tape one. Years later I got sand in the cassette inner plastic somehow whilst on a beach near Barcelona, it made the tapes screech and groan and as a result and tape two was never the same again although I kept playing it.

Hope you enjoy the photo gallery beneath, just click on the first image and navigate your way through. Thanks again Pete, simply brilliant shots. All these new additions due to  technology to the blog, soon I’ll be made redundant. I just read that The Psychedelic Furs and The Tom Tom Club are coming to town on the same bill and my first reaction was “I must go”, is this the first sign of a midlife crisis? More soon – Tim

All images the exclusive copyright of Peter Stevens