Well hello again Clash people and thanks for returning to the blog. First and foremost please accept my apology for the gap between updates, it’s been a rather frantic week with a rush to find a new house in San Diego in advance of the impending move to a new town with loads of miles to drive, houses to see and negotiations to be made it’s been a pretty stressful time but luckily we found a place in the end. So effective next month ClashBlog Towers will have a new roof overhead and a new city to explore. I’m pleased as shit for dozens of reasons but getting back near the ocean and living in a city where the bands I like tend to play rather than skip is also appealing. Also we purposefully chose north of the city reducing the commute time to Los Angeles by half an hour. The bloggette’s job transfer cemented the move but I’m optimistic that I’ll find new clients there too and can still retain existing ones – so long as I have a computer I’m good to go. Needless to say the next few weeks will continue to be far more hectic than usual as we pack up our stuff and try and take care of other business but I’ll do my best to keep the blog on a near normal schedule over the coming weeks. Once I’m settled expect high volume if not high quality – the house and location is a blogger’s delight. I’ve included some road trip photos from the last few weeks of driving just for something a bit different.

Road trip photo 1, saw too many Joshua Trees. I blame Bono

I don’t think San Diego has much to offer in terms of Clash history though I could be wrong, the only musical things I know about the town is Jim Morrison grew up on Coronado Island although he’s always associated with Los Angeles. Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads also came from the same part of town.  I know the Zeros came from San Diego but I think most of the better known SoCal punk came from Los Angeles/Orange County. All I know is there are four concerts I need to see within six weeks of arrival including The Beat, The Wedding Present and Los Campesinos which works for me, I also need to explore the record shops in town. If any locals have tips please pass them my way. I previously lived in Los Angeles so this will be a similar but new experience for me. Right then, that’s enough of that – just thought I should explain why I vanished over recent days, far too much driving and looking at houses – simple as that. Now its time to pack.

So what have I missed? I’m somewhat counting on you to let me know but I did want to say thanks for emails and ideas over recent weeks. I’ll get to them and replies to you within the next week. Tomorrow I’ll definitely be back as I’ve got some sad news about one of the more inspiring websites in the early days of internet Clash fandom. I’ll explain that one tomorrow. There’s also some Strummerville news, Coachella lineup to discuss and rumours about SXSW that you might be interested in. For now I’m back in the saddle and checking all the stuff I’ve missed over the last ten days or so. Normal service is forthcoming. Cheers – Tim.

Road trip photo 2, successfully traversed this road four times in the last 3 weeks. Coachella is down at the bottom.

Good Morning London, Lisbon or Lima…or wherever this latest post finds you waking up with coffee and a grin on your face. I’m in fine fettle as I start this post with a strong mug of coffee following a superb Chicken Tikka earlier this evening. I’m beginning this post on Wednesday evening but I think I’ll probably wrap it up tomorrow. I’ve been sorting out my music collection in anticipation of the impending move and I am a bit embarrassed as to how many CDs I’ve got. There’s no excuse for it, some people choose booze or drugs and I’m an addict for music. I should really stop buying CDs. I thought seeing as the weather has been so nice it would be good to get an oil change, clean the windscreen and take a ride along the Westway for the first edition of Westway Traffic – our handy and easy to use guide to various Clash related snippets circulating on the internet. Its our 20th edition so let’s try and get through half a dozen or more along the A40. If you’re new to the idea it’s a series of shorter stories deserving of a mention but probably not an entire post. So…clutch is in so off we go.

Art Expo including London Calling cover shot coming to Allentown: I know we get a great number of readers from eastern Pennsylvania/Philadelphia, so some of you might want to get along to the ‘Who Shot Rock and Roll’ exhibition coming soon to the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley from Feb. 11 to May 13. The entire exhibit sounds pretty tasty but the original Pennie Smith shots for London Calling will be included. Check the link for more and also the art museum’s site right here.

The 10th Anniversary starts here (on Facebook): Just like it says on the tin – a facebook page looking to honour, celebrate and share in the fact that 2012 marks the 10th year without Joe. The page is off to a nice start and if Facebook is your thing you’ll surely want to take part. I seem some regular faces already. Perhaps the owner of the page can mention this old blog too…

Top 10 films related to Elvis (not Costello) that aren’t Elvis films: From the STL Today website (now we know where to find people in St Louis online) comes a list of the best films related to Elvis Presley. My number one is his number two as Mystery Train which is perhaps Joe Strummer’s best appearance on film finds it’s way to number two on the list and was probably Jim Jarmusch’s finest hour. Its a good list though and I’d recommend all of the top 5 with the exception of Forrest Gump – it’s so long since I saw that and I don’t have great memories of it.

Strummerville Winter sessions down at HQ: I meant to write about this when it was posted last week but…well..it was last week. Here’s the official blurb and the video is beneath that, it is well worth a look & listen.

Here is a short video taken at our Winter Sessions 2011 gig down at our yard. We were thrilled to have Kai Fish (of the Mystery Jets) headlining proceedings alongside some of the fine talent we have supported throughout 2011:

Breadstealers
Gaz Brookfield
Huw Olesker
Hysterical Injury
Leon Fender Walker
She Makes War
The Gun$how
The Promenade

Punk Art expo starts today in Cardiff: A great story from Wales online explains how a then teenage Gerrion Jones traveled around the UK to see as many punk bands as he possibly could from 1976 onwards to escape the prevalent boredom of music at that time. Along the way he’s been carefully collecting and maintaining as much print, press and photographic memorabilia as he can to create what is now quite the archive featuring of course a fair bit of Clash. Happily hes putting it all on exhibit now in Cardiff starting today and running through Feb 2. Details are as follows: Punk Art Forever runs at the Howard Gardens Gallery at the Cardiff School of Art & Design from Thursday, January 12 until Thursday, February 2. The gallery is open Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm. Entrance is free.

Clash letterpress artwork on sale: Sometimes you see a bit of art and think I could do that and you’d probably be half right. Other times you hear music like Coldplay and you think why do they do that and you’d be completely right. As for me I’ve got a minor obsession with looking at creative ways to create art that focuses on The Clash if not the budget to acquire any. Wasted and Wounded have added a series of three punk pieces featuring The Clash, The Ramones and The Sex Pistols now for sale on their site, just click the link at the head of this paragraph.

 Clash and B.A.D. make playlists for Portlandia stars: I’ve never watched Portlandia but heard very good things about the comedy. Hopefully one person reading this can attest to that. I’m more tempted to try and watch it now as a recent piece on Stereogum revealed that the two stars have a musical taste that includes B.A.D and The Clash, even more specifically some knowledge about the bands and songs. In the case of Fred Armisen it was ‘E=MC2′ and for Carrie Brownstein it was ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ which makes her my new pinup. To be fair she was previously a key member of sometimes good Sleater Kinney and has always been nice enough to look at.

Right then, that should be enough to be going along with. If you happen to visit anything listed above or have other thoughts I’d welcome them. Have a superb later part of the week. Tim

A very good evening to you wherever you may be reading the blog from ClashBlog Towers. An unseasonably warm (almost hot) day today had me looking for my shorts much to the excitement of the girls on the street I’m sure. I don’t want to miss new Clash happenings so I thought I’d boldly proceed with the review of 2011 started yesterday and looking at the most read posts each month from the year just concluded. Before that though two quick thoughts and one of which is also a thank you. Thanks are owed to a good friend in Toronto who was kind enough to send me a 2012 Joe Strummer calendar from Strummerville. I don’t know how many of you already have one or have perhaps been on the fence about acquiring one but now that I’ve seen it in person I can’t encourage you in strong enough terms to rush and get one before January winds down. Not that I intend to use it as a calendar though and write birthdays and Arsenal fixtures on it (is there anything else?) – it’s far too beautiful for that. The photography is remarkable but it’s the overall quality and presentation of the whole package that makes the calendar such a collector’s piece. Others have said they’re going to be framing some of the best shots although it would be hard to limit yourself to just two or three of the images on offer. It’s that good. Again my deep thanks to the sender -I really appreciate it. If you’re not convinced yet you really should be but here’s a reminder and a link to purchase one.

Also worth noting is that Strummerville are organising a music festival this summer to coincide with Joe’s 60th birthday, more on that later in the week. Needless to say it has the potential to be something very special indeed and might be taking place in Somerset. Right then, back to the 2011 ‘best of’ with April, May & June.

April 2011 -

‘Joe Strummer mural damaged‘ (April 7)

I’ve written a lot on the blog about how I feel that The Clash deserve more official recognition, it might sound trite to some but such recognition creates a symbolic place for fans to gather or simply reflect. In Joe’s case that’s even more specific since his passing but in general I think England really needs to get more done to pay tribute to the band and/or Joe. Glastonbury has the Strummer stone but that’s only key during the festival, you might be aware that Soho Square in London has a bench for the greatly missed (here at CB Towers) Kirsty MacColl. London needs to be doing more. I’ve got some hair brained scheme that we could start a campaign of signatures to present to the Mayor of London to get such a tribute taken care of – perhaps that idea will brew more completely this year. Anyway, back to the post in question – New York’s Joe Strummer mural has become such a gathering point for so many since it was created and when it was vandalised in April it caused a lot of anger. Happily the guilty party was caught which I wrote about later and the mural was repaired although maintenance of the piece of art remains an ongoinf challenge.

May 2011 -

‘Ebay listing for early Clash/Mickey Foote sessions tapes’ (May 8th)

I must confess I’m not sure what the final outcome of this one was. I think the person selling these had no right to do so and common sentiment was that he’d have been better off contacting Mick Jones as such an artifact should really have been in the hands of one of the band. There was some intrigue as to how he acquired these but the exact details now escape me. Nevertheless the photos are rather brilliant. If you remember more than me (not hard to do) please add it to the comments.

June 2011 -

‘Joe Strummer mural vandal caught and served jail time’ (June 4)

Ah, there it is – part 2 of the April story. I told you we care about that mural. It was a strange tale though, so if you missed it please go back and have a look.

Right then, that’s all I’ve time for at the moment but I do find it enjoyable looking back at last year and I hope you feel the same. I’ll have part three very soon and after we wrap up the year normal service will be resumed. Thanks as always for dropping in and don’t forget you can keep up to date by  Facebook, Twitter or get the RSS feed which will see the blog sent to you directly. Keep on kicking – Tim.