Nice stormy night heading here and a double rainbow just before sunset, not sure what signifies but it looked pretty special to me. I noticed the delay between bouts of the Clash Cup was a bit longer than planned so lets get one of those in before the weekend arrives in earnest. Before the next pairing are pulled (these are all 100% random) we’ve got the results from the last match up to announce. Regular readers will know we are now in round 2 and the best runners up still might have a chance to make the final 64 Clash songs up for voting. That might be the case from this as it was really close:

Lightning Strikes defeated 48 Hours      27-24

This was a close run thing from the very beginning of the voting and the overall support for 48 hours should see it still perhaps remain though we won’t know until the end of Round 2 of course. Now for the next two, and if you’re new to this its just as easy as it sounds. No need to register just give both songs your serious consideration and cast one vote. This is the round that will sort out most of the legitimate contenders because when we’re done with this round we’ll be down to the some of the best Clash songs recorded. The two picked tonight aren’t too shabby either:

Round 2 Match 9

Radio Clash versus Ghetto Defendant

Not a bad pairing but like a horse at the starting line I can clearly spot an immediate favourite amongst these two. Both songs of course came late in the career of the band with Radio Clash filling in the time just post Sandinista! (and becoming a legitimate club hit) and Ghetto Defendant signaling the new twists the band would make on Combat Rock. Both feature a good amount of Joe while the former tacks on horns and a track that’s really showing Mick’s ability to take the sounds he’s hearing and mesh them into the sound of The Clash. I’ll never forget rushing out to get This is Radio Clash on 12″ single when it came out and thinking the future had just landed on my turntable.

Form book:

Round 1 – Radio Clash defeated Midnight to Stevens                  83% of the vote

Round 1 – Ghetto Defendant lost to Brand New Cadillac            (35% of the vote) but remained in the Cup due to high runner up vote total

Odds:

I don’t often feel a song is essentially a shoe-in for the next round but when I really line these two up against one another I can only see one winner. Radio Clash will make round 3 – it’s a stronger and more adventurous song and a key link between the last two Clash albums. Just my prediction mind you, it has no impact on the voting.

8 D batteries to power this beauty

Stuff:

I’m in the camp that says This is Radio Clash was a really important single, not just in terms of where The Clash were heading but also in the crossover between rap/funk and rock. I don’t know how it sounded if the first time you heard it was 1998 for example and not having the perspective of where music was in 1981/2 on your shoulders and in your ears. It’s a bit like when you now hear Run DMC or Schooly D and it might sound a bit boxed in by the production and sound but once again its looking at what was going on all around at that time. In the US Talking Heads were ahead of the curve in incorporating other styles of music and in England The Clash were picking up as much New York energy as anybody else. For historic benchmarking – 1981 was the year of Antmusic in the UK as Adam and The Ants dominated the charts, Radio Clash is far more lasting (to these ears). In addition the lyrics are a call to action rather than the banality that was order of the day in the charts of 1981. To refresh you, check out the clip on the Tom Snyder show in the States recorded in the summer of ’81 some 5 months before the single got released. Then there is Ghetto Defendant, not for the first time I’ve got more affection for the longer version on the Mick Jones Combat Rock sessions (Rat Patrol). Oh…and for those who say Gorillaz have no correlation to The Clash with the numerous guests on their albums, what do you think of The Clash recruiting radical poet Allen Ginsberg from the shadows in the 1980′s when his forte was poetry that shook society in the 50′s and 60′s. Another testament to the ability of The Clash to not follow the path of the expected. Before you vote here’s the longer version that I mentioned.

Please take time to consider your vote…and don’t give up on a song that’s trailing…that’s how Bush ‘won’ Florida….. Talk to you soon…..(if you get a chance to tweet or facebook the post I’ll be chuffed)

 Loading ...

Mick Jones image courtesy Tony Wolliscroft

Hello again and my appreciation for your visit. Not much going on here today,the summer continues to drain the life from everything not air-conditioned and shaded. People seem tense and edgy from the heat, the news is getting people down and it’s not quite July as I type these words. To counteract that I’ve a link to one of the best things I’ve read in months.

For all the exciting things that have bounced around The Clash in the last 12 months, one thing that has been sadly lacking is a really good and well thought out interview. Snippets and quotes are usually as much as we get and its been just over a year since Topper Headon gave a pretty lengthy interview with The Independent. We covered that interview here in case you missed it and I recommend you take a look if you did. I’m more than a bit excited about what I have to share this evening though.

Crawdaddy had time to sit down with Mick Jones recently for a very lengthy chat. This isn’t one of those pointless page fillers but an honest to goodness (fairly) well researched discussion with Jones. Mick covers a huge breadth of topics and I guarantee you’ll read a lot of things you didn’t know about. Mick talks about the R+R public library and some of his thoughts about art, exhibiting and collecting. Really funny stuff concerning the lack of good storage space in London.

“They put their stuff into storage places off the A40, and it’s quite sad because they go and visit their stuff instead of their parents at the weekend”

After discussing what he’s been up to recently and some of his hobbies he reflects on growing up as a obsessive pre-teen captivated by film, football and music probably in that order. Conversation then turns to The Clash and how the desire to offer value for money often outweighed covering the bills the band ran up. He also confirms a rumour that we’ve been wondering about.

“So, when Sandinista! comes out again at the end of this year, it might be the first time we get any royalties from it. It’s taken a long time to pay that off, but I’m glad we did that”

Jones also talks about the many changes he’s seen in West London, reflects on his time working with The Libertines and explains why he took the invitation to play with Gorillaz and just how much its meant to him in general but how much he has learned as a result. On playing with Gorillaz:

“I think I can learn a lot from it. I already have learned a lot from it, just in terms of my own self-improvement. It’s been very good for me”

He also is asked questions about being a fan when he was younger, learning the guitar and the evolution of Carbon Silicon. Its a great sincere interview and Mick seems happy to delve into topics from all corners and you’ll leave it wishing it was even longer than the sizable interaction it was. All quotes above courtesy of Crawdaddy – the link to the interviews itself is here, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It’s 3 online pages long so don’t forget to cycle through.

Much more soon ~ thanks for coming by. Perhaps tomorrow the internet, cable, and wordpress will all work in unison and I can do things at normal speed again!

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.