Welcome back to the blog on this very sunny and warm day. In fact its 115 F out in the back garden as I write – good weather for the lizards who dot our garden wall but not so good for your friendly ClashBlogger. Just to test my common sense we’re off to play football tonight – although I’m sure we’ll do it at a snails pace and with lower exertions – perhaps we’ll just model our play on Italy? That’d be good.

I’m predicting a few days of posts coming short and fast as I really do want to keep on top of Clash related events for you and this might not be our typical weekend. With Glastonbury, the Strummerville campfire and the usual array of random events I might just zip off posts as they happen to hit my head, hope that works for you. If not sit tight and catch up with the blog in a few days! First of all a couple of loose ends.

Something New – Clash Headlines..…You have to love the internet….hopefully you enjoy some of the photos and such on the blog as much as I enjoy finding them? Today I’m going to start an occasional series of ‘headlines’ from newspapers and magazines from back in the day. We’ve tried this before on the header on the blog and it looks nice, not sure if it will work within a post (below) let me know what you think? Click on it for a better experience.

The Ray Lowry London Calling exhibition in…London. The posters are available as previously mentioned for £5 however unfortunately they cannot ship the posters. I’m sure we can start a Clashblog network and get some kind soul to pick up a few and perhaps work something out. I’m also waiting to learn the pricing on the prints from the Bob Gruen exhibition at Subway Gallery. More information as I receive it.

Sandanista! 30th Anniversary Rumours….This one has been doing the rounds since last year. Will CBS/Sony/Legacy find a way to add more tracks to what is already the longest album most of us own? Does BP need a name change? Logic says that they will do something, especially seeing as LC got two makovers in the last two opportunities. Rumours that Sony have ’something really special’ lined up make me wonder if Mensforth Hill really needs a Gospel version but we can all wait and see. What we do know is that the label should and by all accounts do still have a sizable amount of demos, alternates and a healthy stash of live recordings in the vaults.  I’ve never been much of a bootleg lover but am told it would be easy/beneficial for more live recordings to at least see the light of day. I’d just like more of the ‘official’ live options to include more Topper and less any replacement drummers. Nothing personal and yes they were difficult times for the band but when you hear anything other than Topper its like seeing the Tories be considerate of the social services in the UK. More I’m sure in the weeks and months ahead. I don’t know that Sandinista! needs a special edition, the only thing I’d love to see would be footage of them working on it.

Would you like to help the blog?……I’ve reluctantly accepted I can’t cover everything on the blog that I’d like to sometimes due to time and otherwise due to expertise. One area where we have a gaping lack of information where I know there is a lot of interest is downloads. Let me preface that by saying I’m old school when it comes to my music. I visit record shops to buy my cds….always have and if they don’t all close down I always will. I’ve never been a big collector of bootlegs, I think this stems back to feeling  revolted by some dirty goths at Camden Market many years ago – and I don’t like downloading music. With all that said, thousands of people and thus many of you love downloading concerts, bootleg versions and other rarities. Some of these come as partial files, zip files, torrents and the rest. None of these things fall under my skill set – but I’m a bit of a dinosaur in that regard. So here’s what I need if you can be so inclined:  (and talented)

Someone who is familiar with downloading and testing the downloads. Rating the download for reliability and audio quality. Optional – if you feel like writing a review – please have at it – I’m not the authority on that by any means. I’d like to accomplish one of two things and perhaps both. Focus a page on the site on links to downloads, include a few notes that are useful to people who visit the blog. Write an occasional post for the blog talking about what you’ve found and what you thought of it. If you might be interested let me know – either via the comments, email, twitter or the facebook page.  This wouldn’t be limited to The Clash but all related projects and bands.You’d need a good working knowledge of how to find things and/or I can send you links which I so often just simply bypass at present.

It might be fun…it could be shite….but it would make the site better for Clash fans. Final plug for a different band – if you are in the UK this Nov/Dec please try and see the very seasoned but still brilliant band The Wedding Present. A fan since the very beginning, I still think David Gedge writes some of the best songs of the last 25 years and you really should see them live if you can. The tour details are here and the myspace site is here if you want to listen to some stuff.

More soon ~ cheers for stopping in.

Good Morning and this would be Sunday I believe…and guess what it’s not even raining this time. First things first in my previous post I reference an interview with Alan Miles via the See it Loud site and in the most amateur styling I forgot to include the link – thus you’ll find it here and sorry about that mistake. I’ve got a Clash Cup planned for later tonight and also warmly encourage you to forward questions for the Charity Director over at Strummerville - Trish Whelan that we’re going to be interviewing for the blog (read more about that here).

Quick blast from Carbon Silicon first, per the update on their site and Tony James’ sporadic twittering a new 4 track EP is fairly imminent entitled ‘What Are You Thinking’. More news as we get it but its fair to say that CSi are in a vein of productivity which is really good to see.

Image courtesy Life Magazine

My back hurt a bit the other night after playing football and I wished I lived near South Woodford (East London if you’re not from the smoke) so I could pay a visit to see Terry Chimes and fix my back. Notice I said near South Woodford and not in it, as most of East London is simply a good place to get your face smashed in, or so it was during my youth. Needless to say my back is fine again now and my thoughts of moving to E18 have eroded as quickly as they arrived.

I saw ‘Alice in Wonderland’ with the chap who plays guitar on the Mick Jones/Shane MacGowan Haiti charity single yesterday. I don’t mean I watched the film with Johnny Depp but that I watched the new version of the Lewis Carroll book yesterday starring the actor/guitarist. I’m not a film critic but if that moveit was an album it would be Sandinista! – all over the bloody place but essentially rather good. Note to self – a six year old still crap themselves at the site of a pretty imposing dragon. Spinner.com put together a fun list of songs ideal for an Alice In Wonderland soundtrack although I think they should add ‘If music could talk’ based on my review. Spinner also weigh-in on the Clashrillaz rumour that is getting to be a bit silly now.

Finally for you a quick interview with Don Letts from the Yorkshire Evening Post. I imagine Letts along with other notables will be arriving in Austin this weekend so I’d expect to hear more from the filmmaker with his finger on the Clash pulse. Oh…we also raced past 400 strong on the facebook page for the blog – thanks all

Lots of other short things to get to over the next 48 hours so please drop back in.

Tim

It’s probably a sign that you are thinking about The Clash Blog too often when you find yourself in the shower singing ‘Guns of Brixton’. That in and of itself isn’t such a bad thing until I tell you it was the excerpted version from Sandinista! as sung by the child. So there I was singing the kid’s version out of key and at the wrong speed looking for that perfect match – the acoustics of our bathroom lending credence to my poor poor effort. Easy money trivia question for you – who sings this version on the album and who are they (in relation to the band). Off topic from The Clash but football is relevant to some of us, based on this story where do you think this situation is going to end? My area of expertise if I have one was apparently economic and based on that information something is going to give quite soon and I fear it might be the whole house of cards.

So where did the Clash stand when it came to football (soccer to one small percentage of the planet)? I know that the beautiful game was seen as the ideal team building exercise during the rehearsals for and recording of London Calling in the Summer of 1979. By all accounts Mick was the closest the band had to a natural player with a fair amount of flair to his game but perhaps lacking in physique to take much punishment in a midfield role. I think Joe was a very casual player and there’s little account of him being terribly ’sporty’. Paul loved art and I don’t think had much time for football, also worth noting that football in England in 1976 was nothing like today, a very white and British streak ran through 98% of teams as players from elsewhere were a luxury (or novelty) depending on your point of view. Prior to 1979 there were but a handful of players in the league who were back much to the discredit of the game. Thankfully that is no longer the case, the game is completely integrated and racism on the terraces is greatly diminished and in most circumstances essentially eliminated (I should add an asterisk for Spain). I can’t imagine Simonon relating to a very brutal game and segregated scene as it was in that era. Topper? I’ve no idea….perhaps his autobiography will reveal more.

Mick is by all accounts a pretty loyal Queens Park Rangers fan who does attend games, the once fashionable yet small West London club had their

Stan Bowles in action for QPR in 1975

best spell in the mid-late 1970’s (sounds like The Clash?) and over the last two decades have been away from the top flight and out of the public eye. For a few short years Q.P.R. were not only playing some great stuff but also attracting some of the more flamboyant players in the league, this was in the day when mixing booze, gambling, women and long hair was all in good standing so long as you did the business on a Saturday afternoon. Rangers home stadium is a long goal kick away from Shepherd’s Bush and the Westway making it a natural club for all things Clash related.

As for Joe despite naming a song Tony Adams (if you have to ask who he is I’ll be insulted…so try google) he wasn’t an Arsenal fan although Johnny Rotten most certainly is. Strummer showed a moderate interest in the fortunes of Chelsea, who occupy the rich and famed end of West London. It wasn’t always so in the 1970’s and 80’s Chelsea were the third biggest side in London rarely rising above average and nothing like the current bankrolled team. I used to always worry that if I ever met Joe Strummer would I be able to keep my dislike for Chelsea to myself? Being a football fan is the most annoying heritage sometimes if you meet someone and you know who they support. Twice in my life I met musical legends (to me anyway) and both times I put my foot in my mouth about football almost before saying how much I loved their musical talent. So thanks to Billy Bragg (West Ham) and Damon Albarn (Chelsea) for humouring me and especially Damon who wrote 1-0 Chelsea repeatedly on my arm and anything else nearby worth signing when I met him in Chicago many years ago.

I’ll explore the Clash/football aspects further for the blog – if you’ve anything to add the usual way to contact me applies!

Cheers