Joe Strummer with a Pogue

Friday and such…well done and welcome back. Before we get started I wanted to set you with a challenge. Go to the Quietus website – they’ve created a ‘album cover quiz’ but not in your normal style. You get 30 second video clips to watch one bloke try and mime the famed album cover. It was a lot harder than it sounded – I managed to get twelve correct, but it really is a teaser. Wasn’t I just writing about Mick Jones being very keen to lend his time for a good cause…..well he’s at it again.

Seems that Shane MacGowan has enlisted the help of a few mates to record a single to benefit those impacted by the recent earthquake in Haiti. According to this article in the Belfast Telegraph Shane has recruited Glen Matlock, Chrissie Hynde, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Mick Jones. There’s even a rumour that Johnny Depp played some guitar on the recording but I imagine they didn’t plug him in. MacGowan flew to London to record his version ‘I Put A Spell On You’ which along with two other songs will form a charity EP for the Irish organisation Concern Worldwide. Nice one! *** This just in….I have video evidence of the gathering ***

You might like this interview with another friend of Mick Jones – the French Algerian musician Rachid Taha who talks about his latest record as well as The Clash and music in general. One of those chaps who breaks down the walls of nationalism he’s always got an interesting point of view. Below you’ll find the video of him performing with Mick Jones in 2006 – a stellar version of Rock El Casbah (How much would Joe like this one!)

Taha has been around as an artist for over 25 years now and I guess when I was a lad he would be categorised under world music, whereas he is just brilliant at blending sounds from all different cultures. Worth investigating if you don’t know him, start here with his myspace page.

“I did ‘Rock el Casbah’ because I like The Clash, and it was my tribute to Joe Strummer,” “It’s extremely pleasant to play with Mick Jones, because he was one of my childhood idols. It’s a dream come true!”

Hope some of you made it to the Shatter the Hotel launch event tonight. Let me know if you did!

Back with more during the weekend….Tim

(John Terry…..ha ha ha ha ha couldn’t happen to a bigger ****)

Good day to you wherever you may be, sorry I didn’t have time to get a post together yesterday as work was rather busy but I did spend some time thinking about the blog if that is any help. Technology being what it is I’m patiently waiting for the Microsoft update where my thoughts just automatically transfer to the blog and you’re all set with a new article to read. Odd are that would be an Apple product though eh so I’m out of luck? I’ve been thinking about new things to try with the blog – regular features and such, plus for budding Clash journalists a structure to get your stories, recollections and opinions posted on the blog also. My thinking is this is a community for fans and the more we share and post the larger that audience then becomes. I’ll find a way to balance output and available time and look for the blog to become more active in the months ahead.

Speaking of active – that’s a very appropriate word for the lovely people over at Strummerville and while (I hope) many of you already receive their newsletter if you don’t there is rather a lot going on which I’ll summarise and link below and you can pay them a visit to learn more. So in to particular order here’s whats new:
The Don Letts movie about Strummerville has been previewed and by all accounts it’s going to be something else. It will be premiered at the SXSW music festival in March. If you can get to Austin Texas then you really should. I’m hoping to go myself but I need to juggle a lot to make that happen (more about that in the next week or so). Also at the Festival there will be the ramping up of the Jail Guitar Doors project North American style, which looks exciting as Billy Bragg is heading the charge. Back in Britain don’t forget the Shatter the Hotel album launch event is this Friday at Inn on the Green. Other news about the Strummer music rehearsal space in Somerset, and lots more. Check out the Strummerville site for additional information on all of these items….oh yes – and do some shopping!

I’ll be back later today if I can. Don’t forget to join our facebook page – it’s an easy way to track me down, make suggestions and chatter with the other people who support the blog – we just reached 200 ‘fans’ today. We’ll form our own republic soon….

Hello again and welcome back, if you are a regular visitor you already know I’m in a good mood today and that was primarily due to this. For those of you with no interest in football in general or Arsenal in particular there are still a few good reasons to read the Clash Blog today, in fact more than a few.

To get you started Dubwise 72 was kind enough to email me with the details of links to a vast list of live Clash concerts. He says that the quality is good so by all means jump right in and see what you think. I’ll gradually sip through them like a fine wine. Here is the link to the site and in due course I’ll get them added in detail to the AudioClash page on this site. You can see the list of cities and dates currently at the foot of that page. Common consensus amongst audiophiles is that better Clash live performances are doing the rounds online and/or sitting in the vaults and that many surpass those that were issued as a regular release such as ‘From Here to Eternity’ (can you believe the prices on Amazon…snap that up!). By all means if you have the time, feel free to do a live review of one of these gigs and I can post it on the site. Just email me if you are interested.

Next up, a band with a very direct connection to The Clash who were as crucial to the music scene in Britain in 1979-1981 as any act I can think of have announced that they are playing the Coachella Festival in the deserts of Southern California. The Specials are playing on the opening night (why they aren’t headlining is beyond me) and to the best of my knowledge this is the only US date confirmed at this time. I’ll keep an eye on that and I’m sure there will be other dates added if only a handful. I’ll write much more about Coachella in the weeks ahead as the festival has a history of a rapidly changing lineup during January and February. Can’t imagine seeing the Specials after all these years but I am most definitely tempted and it’s only a 3.5 hour drive from here.

In conjunction with Strummerville the UK launch of the Shatter The Hotel CD (the dub inspired tribute to the songs of The Clash) have confirmed their launch party at Clash Central (The Inn on the Green) for Feb 5th at 8pm. We’ll dig into this more nearer the time of course and I should add that this will be sold out – tickets are just a fiver! More details are currently posted on Strummerville and the official Shatter The Hotel page, I’ll work on an interview with the creator/curator of the project also beforehand if possible, Mr. Mark Matthews. Please support this if you can make it to London that night, it will be great I’m certain.

Lastly, I’m reading a lot (an awful lot) of posts and reviews the last few days tying in Vampire Weekend with The Clash. What sort of filtering system can be doing that I was thinking? It seems the keys components are a political song called ‘Contra’ and a new album that people are interpreting as a not so subtle tribute to The Clash. I don’t know what to think yet – read one of the opinions here on the Musicfile.com site and you can also listen to the track in question there. **Update…the song is a stunner**

Final thought…would you go and see a (fully) reformed form of The Libertines? Looking more likely as I’ll explain in the next post. Hope Mick Jones has been informed! Up the Gunners…Cheers…