Well hello again and welcome back to the blog, or if it’s your first visit where the hell have you been? An absolutely perfect morning here and a 3 day holiday weekend has me in good spirits today and nothing it going to stop that until everyone else wakes up!

I hope you managed to drop in to the blog yesterday as those uploads of ‘I fought the law’ stripped into the individual parts was really something. If more if these get made I will try and get them shared. I did receive an email last night which pointed out another track did get the ‘treatment’ so we’ll look at that in the days ahead. Good enough? Alright then.

On tonight’s post we’re going to get a bit arty which suits some more than others, my artistic talent is limited to some bad cartoons and the ability to know a good album when I hear one but I have to applaud those who can do something a bit special. Before I get to that however, Steve Jobs. Is it me or are people going overboard with comparisons to da Vinci, Edison and the Wright brothers? Yes he made some good gear but he’s also responsible for the decline of social skills (i-phone obsession when you’re out with mates) and music (the i-pod does hurt the music industry, albums are dead). He may have bossed people around to make people friendly computers but it’s not going to define you. If you can write, research or use the computer in good and beneficial ways it doesn’t matter if it’s an Apple surely? It’s like thanking Fender instead of Joe Strummer. Speaking of whom, why didn’t people react so strongly when Joe Strummer died? Strummer can’t be replaced, Jobs’ work carries on without him. Besides which he wasn’t a bloody saint (child labour in China, lack of non profit support both as a person and as a corporation, a complete bully in the workplace) but perhaps they will have the sense to start a foundation called Jobsville (you worked out that clever link eh?) as millions of people could do with one. Failing to create actual Jobs it could be a foundation where budding techno boffins with no connections or cash are inspired to create new ideas.

I do appreciate Steve Jobs had ideas that technology should be fun, easy to use, look cool and be consumer friendly. Such shit, the head of Honda has had the same idea for decades and we wouldn’t eulogize him. Corporate heads who happen to be mega rich aren’t my heroes and the work will still be done when they pass on. If Apple really wanted to change the world they might have started with not having 14 and 15 year olds kids getting paid $4 an hour to work in their (unsafe) manufacturing facilities in China, or designed an app for non-profits on their phones which they wouldn’t as it didn’t fit their strategy.

Musicians often get labeled as being out of touch and elitist, but I’m going to defend Joe Strummer as being someone who was quite the opposite. It was he who wanted The Clash albums to be priced lower than CBS insisted, it was he who insisted ticket prices were 30% below the going rate so kids could afford to see the band. Then there was the US Festival, playing benefits for firemen, allowing fans in for free and letting them sleep on hotel room floors and so on and so in.  It is he that will still be inspiring people in 50 years time. Steve Jobs never said ‘let’s make sure the i-phone is the most affordable on the market so more people can benefit from it’ – he wanted it to look nice and make huge profits. The Clash wouldn’t have played at Live Aid if they were still together. If Steve Jobs was in a band he would have wanted to open and close the show.

Warm, tired and lacking in coherence. That might sound like the perfect combination for a blind date or perhaps describes your other household members but today it simply describes me. This heat has to finally relent before I can get myself into a very good writing groove again which is a great source of frustration for me as I’d like to update the Clash Blog every 24 hours or better if possible. More importantly there is enough information to do a daily post and the lack of reaching that goal means I’m not as current as I should be I think revert to the dreaded and dreadful 300 word updates to get me through the summer might be in order. Apologies in advance, I hope you’ll accept that but I think I should be back in the groove in a week or two. I’ve also got a mountain of work on my plate which is a good thing (fuck knows 1 in 10 on both sides of the Atlantic wish they had gainful employment…..the recession that keeps on giving) but the excess of work leaves me not wanting to face a keyboard for a second longer than is truly needed.

Tonight’s post should be part two of the Mick Jones in Minneapolis mini-interview but I’m missing part of the transcript of that conversation (I know…not good at all!) but I will find it and/or catch up with my source at the weekend so we can complete that tale. I do of course know the questions but I’d like to present the answers furnished by Mick verbatim. Look for that over the weekend.

Mick Jones at the Joe Strummer tribute in San Francisco

In the meantime I’d like to thank Gil from San Francisco (regular readers will know him as a wonderful friend of the blog, a man who seemingly captures on video anything Clash related that occurs along the Pacific coast). Not sure where my oceanic theme came from tonight but we’ll just need to ride that wave for another paragraph or two. Keen watchers will know that Big Audio Dynamite wrapped up their American tour dates at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco and from what I’ve seen you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque setting in this part of the world. It’s not Glastonbury by any means but certainly a nice location for a gig, namely San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I’ve only ever wandered through it for a walk as it is after all a park but I imagine it would be a really great place to see a band and I don’t even like outdoor gigs.

Anyway, Gil was down in Los Angeles to see B.A.D. and then followed their itinerary back up North to the San Francisco festival concert on the Friday. It just so happened that the following evening saw the annual Joe Strummer Tribute event in the city with proceeds going to Strummerville. You may recall from last years footage (compiled by Gil) that the event features a rather brilliant raffle and numerous acts paying respect to Joe Strummer/The Clash, I’m often a bit unsure about many cover versions of Clash compositions but for whatever reason this event seems to bring out some of the best in people/acts. Optimistically or confidently (??) Gil had asked Mick if he might be able to attend the Strummer night and the results of that as well as many of the videos of the evening are beneath. This wouldn’t be more than a footnote on the blog if it weren’t for Gil and I must thank him once again and if you haven’t previously clicked over to his YouTube page I recommend that you do – dominated by Clash related videos that are well worth a look so here’s the link. Enough of my babbling have a look at the videos beneath and make sure you watch the last one! (incidentally these may be aligned oddly depending on your browser, it’s me – not you) It’s a long weekend here so I’ll be back with more I’m sure. Thanks for dropping in.

B.A.D.  ‘C’mon Every Beatbox – Los Angeles

Interchords ‘Sightsee MC’ – Joe Strummer Tribute San Francisco

B.A.D. ‘The Bottom Line’ – Outside Lands Music Festival

Clash City Sirens ‘Medley…’ – Joe Strummer Tribute San Francisco

B.A.D. ‘A Party’ – Los Angeles

Montage of bands & Mick Jones at the Joe Strummer Tribute

Hello everyone and welcome to a weekend/murdoch free/no wiretapping edition of The Clash Blog. Not sure if readers outside the UK for the most part are following the immensity of what has been happening with the News of The World and their Murdoch empire’s assault on decency in the name of ‘freedom of the press’. Complete bollocks if you ask me, I wish Joe Strummer were here to sing about it. The best related elements I’ve seen thus far were Steve Coogan’s appearance on Newsnight and Billy Bragg’s new song about The Sun newspaper (which is likely to now include a Sunday format to pick up the former readers of the now defunct paper), additionally worth a watch as it features the Jail Guitar Doors acoustic. That sort of gutter journalism breeds nothing but hate and intolerance and the shit hitting the proverbial is long overdue. Anyway, enough of that, it’s sunny outside and there are better things to be doing.

As I mentioned previously there are going to be a fair number of events next month to celebrate what would have been Joe Strummer’s 59th birthday and I ask that anyone who knows of a local event to please contact me so I can share the details. By last count I’m aware of four different nights that have been planned but to this point only in the US and Australia so I’m hoping the UK and other countries have something in the works, by all means if you are in Rio, Mexico City or Moscow you can use this forum to try and get a few like minded Clash people together for a few pints in the name of Joe. I’ll post the updates as they come in and probably build out a temporary page on the blog so some of us can (hopefully) find an event nearby.

It’s funny how some companies will use the images of The Clash to raise their hip factor without acknowledging much awareness of the band or what they were about, on the one hand I think any opportunity to perhaps introduce new people who may have been too young to The Clash is a good thing, on the other hand perhaps do so and also provide a link to a place to purchase their music or send a few coins via the internet to Strummerville or something. Two kinds of companies do it, those with a genuine affection for the band and those who just think the numerous excellent photos that are available bring their own internal marketing to a new level of cool (which to an extent it does, but you should do so with some measure of creativity perhaps?). Two examples this week, one who is a genuine Clash fan and uses the company blog to say as much and why, the other just collected an assortment of photos of The Clash in leather jackets over the years, added some sarcastic comments and moved on, simply because they sell clothing. I’ll mention the first example…a Clash City Rocker and genuinely cool business Tellason.

Image courtesy Simon Goldey http://www.flickr.com/photos/billielolasorcha/

The other example doesn’t deserve so much as a little wrath. I’ve no bones at all with someone discovering The Clash last week, take your time with it, purchase the albums in order, read the lyrics and check out some old interviews. You don’t have to have seen the band in 1977 to be a fan, or even have been born then. Arriving a bit late isn’t a problem whatsoever and it keeps the deserved legacy of the band rolling right along as it should, christ knows we really need a band like The Clash today. I’m still looking for a contender, I’d welcome your suggestions. I just take issue with people who know one song, or post a photo of Joe on his knees and say ‘I’m a punk rocker’. It’s only natural that it happens but it doesn’t make it any less annoying. All these years later it’s remarkable how often you talk to someone and their knowledge of The Clash is limited to Rock The Casbah or feel it’s ‘AMAZING’ that Joe Strummer had that last name and turned out to be a guitarist. Then again the same thing was happening in 1983 so I’m not sure why I’m surprised, the point is when people do it that’s one thing but when a company does the same it’s really taking the piss.

I should wrap it up there, back with a far more positive approach later on! Cheers for dropping in, please tell me I’m not imagining this stuff? Tim

On a side note, has anyone seen/heard any Topper Headon news recently?