Good Evening everyone hope things are sitting pretty wherever you might be. I’ve only got a few minutes for a brief post this evening so pardon me for my curtailed update. Not much to report here personally although two quick Clash related items are worth you knowing about. Did I mention we beat Spurs 4-1 yesterday?

Today marks the last day of summer and in fact it may well be autumn whereever you are reading this, so it seems a good time with the assistance of Trish over at Strummerville to look back at her video which captures a good deal of the flavour of the Strummerville campfire at Glastonbury this past summer. The video beneath is self-explanatory and chronicles the atmosphere of the campfire and the nearby stage, I for one hope this continues for many many decades to come.

Trish from Strummerville captures the sun and fun from Glastonbury

Tymon Dogg

Speaking of Joe Strummer a key individual in his life is playing a small gig in London tomorrow night that you might not be aware of (Sep 23). I’ve been doing a lot of reading about punk and The Clash recently and for whatever reason the combination of coincidences and ‘what ifs’ keep running through my head. The moving pieces and individuals, circumstances and chance meetings that allowed Mick Jones to meet Bernie Rhodes, Joe Strummer to have played on a bill supported by the Sex Pistols and even the unlikely circumstances that led to Topper Headon becoming the drummer for the band at the second time of asking. It might be a bit redundant of me to state that things only had to be marginally different for The Clash to have never existed in the first place although I guess the same logic applies to many things in life. It’s hard to know if Joe Strummer would have had the confidence to develop as the guitarist that eventually could bluff his way through the most rudimentary chords with the 101′ers if he had not befriended Tymon Dogg in their shared flat in North London in 1971. Dogg by that time was already an accomplished musician and he used to bring Joe along with him on his busking sessions in the pedestrian tunnels that led to station platforms at various central London tube stations. Joe apparently was there ostensibly to collect coins but also was armed with a ukulele and learned enough basic chords from Tymon to eventually busk on his own. Although many years passed before Joe became the front man for the 101′ers and eventually The Clash it may well have been the friendship with Tymon Dogg that began the journey itself. As you’re aware the old friendship was maintained over the years with Tymon recording with The Clash on Lose This Skin from Sandinista! Many years later the journey seemed to come full circle when Dogg became a full-time member of The Mescaleros with his old friend towards the very end of Joe’s life.

Tymon remained actively involved in music and is playing tomorrow evening at the Slaughtered Lamb pub right in the City of London (EC1). He will be performing with Alex Walker and Alex Thomas what looks to be soundtrack material and there will also be a book and CD signing event in conjunction with the gig. Information is below: (and here’s a map)

34-35 Great Sutton Street
Clerkenwell, London EC1 london EC1V0DX
Read more: http://events.myspace.com/External/Twitter/Event/View/7564444#ixzz10JxxqWG8

A Wave of Dreams – performance by Tymon with Alex Walker and Alex Thomas of musical soundscapes created as a ‘soundtrack to the imaginary films Louis Aragon’s eponymous text evokes in your mind’ (TD). Book-CD for sale at the event and on Amazon or www.thinmanpress.com

You can find out more about Tymon’s most recent work via his myspace page. He has a brand new album out next week – official blurb below, please make sure you listed to the song “Appearances” on his myspace page to hear his distinctive voice.

‘The Irrepressibe Tymon Dogg’ is a retrospective featuring a wide range of tracks and demonstrating the development of this extraordinary singer-songwriter, from the psycho-pop tracks penned when he was 14 in the 60s to the deeply political anthems of more recent times. Three tracks from the album are now on the playlist.

The record is available from Cherry Red, Amazon and all good record stores from 27 September 2010.

Tymon is also featured on a new book-CD from Thin Man Press. He composed five of the eight tracks on the accompanying CD. Book-CD available from Amazon, book stores and www.thinmanpress.com.

Sunday afternoon here at ClashBlog Towers so I thought it would be a good time to get another post to help you with the weekend just in case its raining there on something, not raining here just don’t feel like playing in the hot sun. On Friday night I had written about the Ann Summa photography exhibition of icons from both the Los Angeles and general punk scene, sounds like the first night was a big success and don’t forget you can order a copy of her book with many exclusive photographs via this link

I finally got around to checking my inbox/lists this morning and realised I’m far more than a few days behind on Clash features, so many in fact that the only good option is to check how much petrol we have and jump on the Westway for a new edition of Westway Traffic – volume 9 would you believe and our first since August 19. Westway Traffic posts if you are new to the blog are a series of shorter stories that are worth a look at, so just click the header of each story if you captures your imagination. Off we go to then…

Do you have a passion for vinyl? If you weren’t around with the rest of us in the 70s and 80′s you may have missed out on the joy of buying music  back when they were arrived with 12 inches of artwork and inserts in addition to the vinyl itself. If you looking to collect a decent back catalogue of new wave and punk artists it can take forever going from used record shop to used record shop, or you can pay well over the odds at Amazon.com. I think perhaps the best online marketplace if you’re after a specific single or album is often Gemm, though I would suggest having a look at this site that packages up collections of vinyl by individual artist. It’s called backstage auctions.com and for example you can get the first four XTC albums including special editions plus the first three 7″ singles all bundled together for $75. Still not cheap but a convenient way of filling in the gaps in your collection, plus it’s less than I’d want for mine! Lots of early English and US punk is listed much of which has been out of print for decades.

Finally a US release?

The only band that mattered, but of course I highly recommend taking some time to read this article by Gillian Garr over at GoldmineMag.com. Well thought out with some good quotes and details it records the earliest years and releases of The Clash. As you’re well aware the eponymous UK debut album was never given a formal release in the US due to CBS records not being content with the album this resulted in (at that time) the biggest selling import album in US history. The debut album was ultimately repackaged with a completely different track listing and released after ‘Give ‘em Enough Rope’ for the US market. It looks like history is finally being corrected with a limited-edition release for the US of the original album on 180g vinyl as it was meant to be. Sony/Legacy will be releasing 5,000 copies of the British version of the record in the States and there are potential plans to be doing the same for the rest of the catalog in the future. The article explains it in more detail so have a read as this might be one of the most overdue records ever.

Sandinista! 30th anniversary edition While the rumours continue about the exact contents of the 30th anniversary edition of Sandinista! A few things look to be at least partially confirmed. I’m sure the official details will be released in the next two weeks or so in the meantime based on this site it can be confirmed that the release will feature three discs two of which will be CDs and one DVD. The bone of contention is just what we’ll be getting in addition to the original album? Live tracks are almost a guarantee but the fear is many of the tracks will be outtakes and demos versions which most of us have already heard before. The pricing also looks incredibly steep but we are looking at Japanese import at ¥4400, I imagine it will be about 30% less than that $51 price quoted on that site. Not sure how reliable that release date of October 27 is however stay tuned as soon as more is confirmed I will get it to you via the blog.

Old Clash tour bus footage Yes I know this more correctly belongs on a video Clash posts but I don’t trust myself to remember it nor even to be able to find it again. My usual disclaimer applies if you have seen the video before my apologies, if not I think you’ll like it. Set against the backdrop of ’48 hours’ it’s a short two-minute clip of the band on a coach mucking about, I would guess the video to be mid or late 1978 and it features primarily Strummer with a short clip of Paul and Topper. It’s definitely in the UK and if you wanted to see Joe Strummer having a pillow fight now is your chance.

I’ve got loads more but don’t expect you to spend all day clicking and reading…but I’ll be back before you know it. Chelsea top, Arsenal 2nd…I think I may have predicted that….

Hello once more Clash fans and others, cheers for dropping in. I’ve got quite a few odds and sods to get to so lets just leap right in shall we? There are some official breaking things surrounding Sandinista!

Uncut Magazine features The Clash – If you’re in the UK you already know about this (and thanks for your emails) – the new edition of Uncut has an in-depth interview with Mick, Paul and Topper about the making of Sandinista! thus I find it quite funny that the cover promises ‘the untold story’ of the making of the album, as opposed to what exactly? 1980 was such a hectic year in Clash history that the making of the 4th Clash album has never been reviewed properly by the band with most commentary to date referring to the fact that it had too many songs / would have been better as a single or double album etc. I wouldn’t change a thing as it happens, its perhaps the album that I’ve grown up with and returned to more in the last decade than the others. Incidentally the bonus CD with the latest issue features fifteen tracks that Joe featured during his London Calling BBC broadcasts, my favourite of which is this by Cornershop and I think the lyrics sound like something Strummer himself might have written.

Leave Chattanooga
Walk in to New York City
Aeroplane down to Nippon ground
Meets some friends in Tokio-town
Across to West Maluva
Showboat to West Malay
Leave my foes to their woes
Sometimes “that’s how it goes”
It’s good to be on the road back home again

Speaking of Sandinista! its as good as official that a special 30th anniversary edition of the album will be released this year with requisite bonus tracks and some demos and remixes (plus I would expect remastering of some sort). I had to purchase another copy of the double CD recently to replace my worn out CDs just a few years ago so in addition to the vinyl and cassettes it looks like a 5th version will he heading to the household in time for Christmas. I think we’ll make the month the reissue comes out Sandinista! month on the blog. I’d love for the reissue to feature a live concert from late ’80 or early ’81 but I haven’t read anything that indicates this might be the case (grumpy return to my keyboard).

Returning to Uncut (I’m not in the UK so please don’t spoil my anticipation in reading the article when I get an imported copy in a week or two!) I hope the interview addresses the oft-circulated rumour that the album was essentially the work of Topper and Mick with session musicians and a well known Blockhead taking up much of the remaining slack during the recording process. I don’t buy that suggestion and I never really have and while its likely that the group cohesion during the recording of London Calling was no longer in full evidence as it had been in the summer of 1979 I don’t think the triple album was Mick Jones and Topper simply working with hired hands for the most part. Yes there were guest musicians but it is certainly a Clash album as a finished product. Others have said the evidence is that live versions of songs from this era bare little resemblance to the studio equivalents but once more I think that is the sound of a band expanding their limits and looking to break the confines of simply recreating a song in a live setting. Naturally I could be 100% wrong on both my assumptions so I’d be happy to hear what you think. Don’t however spill the beans on the magazine interview just yet – I’ll cover that when I get my copy!

Worth a mention and a link to a story is the fact that this summer did mark the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista uprising in Nicaragua which The Clash brought to a new audience. On July 21 1979 the first events associated with the uprising took place which eventually led to the overthrow of the existing dictatorship. This revolution this was one of the youngest and most independent rebel situations in recent history as most of the key people involved were little more than teens who didn’t have a plan B so much as they knew plan A had to be evicted. As you can predict the story didn’t end in ecstasy but it did mark a significant positive change in the history of that central American republic.

What else….today is September 1st – the least glorious day in Clash history as it marks the date in 1983 when the official word of Mick Jones being sacked from his own band was made public. Apparently so Paul and Joe could get The Clash back on track towards the original goals of the band…we know how that ended. I’ve written about that at length in the past and will do again I’m sure but its burned on my calendar as the darkest day during the time the band were a going concern. With that said let’s talk again September 2nd yes? Thanks for dropping in…

Let’s end on a happier note – check out this chap’s memory of meeting Joe Strummer many years ago.