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

Everybody’s waiting for a Happy Monday or so the lyrics went so I’m going to do my best. Hope your weekend went well and you’re all recharged for another working week. I’ve got so much to do this week but an untold desire to do it so we’ll see if that lasts beyond Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for your responses to the ‘best of’ 2011 posts, I always find it remarkable that every single person I hear from who manages to briefly meet or be around Mick or Paul or in the case of last year Don Letts et al has nothing but good things to say about how friendly and accommodating the experience turned out to be. As you know I only had a short time with the two aforementioned during the tour with Gorillaz in October 2010 but the same sentiments would be attached. Friendly, patient and happy to be with people who essentially were complete strangers even if some strangely blog about them almost every day.

When everyone seems to say the same thing you realise that’s just the way Mick (especially as he’s been most active as far as touring etc) and Paul are. It’s good to read and hear and reaffirms that being ‘fans’ isn’t the one-way street it can often seem, they genuinely appreciate the support and interest as far as I can tell. Right then on to this morning’s post which will be very short as I’ve only got time to share a video which came to my attention via Gil W who not for the first time digs out some great stuff. Outside the UK you might not be familiar with the concept of a pantomime but every Christmas you’ll find them in towns throughout England (do the Welsh and Scottish do this…I’m not even sure) and they’ll be plays heavily reworked for slapstick comedy and strong audience participation. Often featuring celebrities in unlikely roles such as Aladdin or Dick Whittington they are a strange event which remain popular as part of the festive routine. So it was with Mick Jones’ daughter at the Portebello Panto production of Robin Hood this year and a certain someone makes an appearance as King Richard. Press play below for the rest….

The event was for a good cause with funds benefiting the Shepherds Bush Families Project deep in the heart of Clash territory. Mick obviously was having a good laugh with this but not sure it’ll rival the Shea Stadium version at any time.

The cause: Shepherds Bush Families Project works with families in severe housing stress, including those living in B&B hotels, hostels, refuges and living in temporary accommodation which are in unsuitable and affected by overcrowding and disrepair.

Thanks go to Roughler TV who chronicle a lot of cool stuff from Portobello, so check out their YouTube page to learn and see more. I’ll be back with more soon – Tim