A good Friday morning to you then, I’ve had better weeks but a cold isn’t enough to stop me from getting an update out to you fine people. There are a few things to get to some of which we’ve looked at before. I’m glad to say we broke the news of Julie Delpy being given the reins on the forthcoming Joe Strummer biopic before many of the other sites but over the last 48 hours it’s been given some coverage by many outlets. Here are a selection of those stories:

 BBC News gives a straightforward ‘just the facts as we know them’

The Guardian had a long and interesting article which they’ve now removed….very curious as to why

The Telegraph (honestly!) must now appeal to older Clash fans too

Rolling Stone (former Clash lovers) offer three sparse sentences

Variety suggests Delpy will be in the film itself….as Gaby I’m guessing

Spinner suggests the film will cover from 1982 right up until Joe’s death in 2002. That’s a new spin…

It would seem that official word is hard to find and a lot of speculation is beginning to dominate and I’m guilty of that too to some extent, but my biggest concern is the working title of the film. It’s a poor choice.

As I mentioned on Facebook that above and beyond being concerned about how the project will turn out I also think ‘The Right Profile’ is simply the wrong title for it. Yes it’s a Clash song but it also happens to be very specifically about troubled film star Montgomery Clift, thus the title (to a Clash fan) refers more to Clift than it ever could to Joe Strummer. I think we need to concoct a better title, I think simply ‘Strummer’ would work or even go back to the original ‘Joe Public’ which I didn’t think was great at the time but certainly more apt than what’s now getting selected. I don’t know how we contact Julie Delpy although we could try and bombard her facebook fan page although I doubt she reads it. Anyone well connected enough to have Julie’s ear please drop me a line and while you’re doing that I think I’ve come up with the ideal title for the film. How about just calling it ‘Joe’?

image courtesy hitsville uk 08 http://www.flickr.com/photos/26858003@N04/

The film is on track to be in production around the same time as the film about the making of London Calling which could make for a very interesting or disastrous 2012 at the cinema depending on how these projects actually turn out. Let’s keep our optimistic goggles in place at least until we find out who is being cast for the films then we can make an immense racket. I still think the wisest solution for both films is to cast an unknown actor in the key roles as it would be more believable than the calls for John Cusack and James McAvoy that I’ve seen thrown around. Also, nothing personal rest of the world but the actors needs to be British and preferably Londoners, I don’t want my Mick and Joe having a UCLA background thanks very much. What has been confirmed is that ‘The Right Profile’ will centre around the period of time when Joe Strummer went missing in Paris in 1982, again a strange part of The Clash story to focus in on if you ask me. Especially when you could I imagine easily build a film around the creation of the band, the early tours, conquering the US or even the extended stay at Bonds. 1982 wasn’t the peak of the tale and is strange era to zoom in on. Right then, I’ll be back tonight or early tomorrow with lots of news about the Justice Tonight tour.

In the meantime a huge thanks to those additional kind hearted Clash lovers who have donated to the blog in recent days (over on the right margin), it’s greatly appreciated and I’m flattered that you were able to help the blog out and view it in such a good light. Remember there’s no ‘minimum donation’ if you care to help out every penny counts. Thank you! If you’ve got a good idea for that film title please add it in the comments. More soon – Tim

Good morning and welcome back to the blog. We had rain last night for about six whole minutes, which if you live in a desert is a big event in July. I’m still excited about it. Speaking of July today is of course July 4th, so well done America and all that but it’s also a special day for Clash fans who also like to recognise special anniversaries as today marks exactly 35 years since The Clash first played live. Just typing the phrase ’35 years’ seems almost absurd to me but it is a fact, on this day in 1976 the band made their first official live appearance in Sheffield with The Sex Pistols at the Black Swan. I previously wrote about this in depth on the blog so if you happened to miss it part 1 about that gig in Sheffield is here with the conclusion here.

I’ve just brewed some coffee and I’ve a small pile of random things to cover so if you have a few minutes please indulge me.

Firstly, if you go back to the last post and beyond we’ve added a lightbox feature to the blog so that you can see larger versions of the images used on the post (if applicable) and if there are multiple photos you can scroll through them. It will be especially nice when we get a series of photos from an event such as when Pete heads out in London and beyond. So check it out, I hope you’ll like it I’m trying it today on this post so fingers crossed.

Next a few things that you might not have seen if you don’t also follow the Facebook page and I realise not everyone does, those with a life for example! We had featured a video linked here of Billy Bragg performing ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ at Glastonbury last weekend as it was nice to hear a Clash song played at the festival (were there any others?) and because it was Billy of course. Some chap comes on playing ‘old school authentic punk rocker’ (probably has the official badge) and spewing out about Billy Bragg being a sell out and such. Therefore it was nice that Billy Bragg dropped in to set the record straight about his politics, voting, The Clash and his own activism as a result of seeing the band. Some of the exchange is over on the left, I don’t mind if people disagree and debate here or on the facebook page. Nothing will be censored but it does help to get your facts right. I’ve said it before and it is because I believe it, Bragg does as much as anyone to keep the passion and the spirit of The Clash alive in 2011 and encourages his audiences to learn more about what is going on. Regardless of your politics he says get involved, don’t wait for someone else, which is in keeping with The Clash as far as I’m concerned.

Speaking of cover versions there was also the rather bizarre sight of ‘London Calling’ being performed at a punk festival in Estonia which has surfaced. Which isn’t that odd except for the fact that the song has a conductor, an orchestra and a ‘choir’ or at least a few hundred choreographed singers with lyric sheets interpreting the song. I’m not sure what to make of it, the intention of course is good. It is worth a viewing so I’ve included it beneath.

London Calling performed at Punk Laulupidu in Rakvere, Estonia last month

This is in danger of turning into one of the most random posts I’ve written in a while and I blame that on the coffee being a bit too strong this morning. I also wanted to include some really nice photos of Big Audio Dynamite from Glastonbury last weekend. So this is my first chance to try that new gallery feature, so click on one and use the arrows to look at the others. These were sent over by Vicky Baker, please take some time to check out her blog at goinglocaltravel.com, she is a travel writer for The Guardian and elsewhere who writes about some amazing places in addition to being a serious Clash aficionado.

Please click on image to open gallery (image courtesy Vicky Baker)

Not much else to add this morning, I’ll wish you a good holiday or a decent Monday dependent on your location. More tonight if I get time, until then I hope to see you in the comments or on Facebook and Twitter. You can also have a daily update sent direct to enjoy with your bowl of Alpen by subscribing to my RSS Feed here

Hello…..anyone there? I just thought I’d briefly check in from my cold syrup induced stupour and get a quick post composed. How on earth I catch a stinking cold when it was 105f outside this week I’ll never know. Hope your week is going better than mine and unless you’re in jail or surrounded by members of Coldplay (or both!!) chances are it is.

I’m going to make this a very short post but ideally will be back to something more substantial shortly. (lie…I continued it the next day) You know that video clip of the interview with The Clash where Bernie Rhodes is asleep? That’s how I feel this evening. Speaking of Bernie Rhodes please drop in soon for a chance to get your hands on a very special bit of Bernie related Clash memorabilia, I don’t quite know what the owner is asking for it but I think it will create quite a bit of interest.

In the meantime I’ve a few good things to share. Put your hand up (with me) if you are old enough to remember fanzines? Before the dawn of the internet and blogging back in my youth fanzines were the journals of the youth when it came to punk music for a while, into the 80′s some bands even had their own (very good) fanzines full of typically 32 pages of xeroxed content stapled together. The content was often good especially for the obsessive fan, special interviews, gig reviews, rumours and opinions. In the same decade fanzines became really popular in the world of football (soccer for some) with loads of excellent choices full of funny and insightful writing. I can remember a time when Arsenal had no fewer than 10 different fanzines being published and sold around the ground or down at Sportspages on Charing Cross Road (is that still there?). Fanzines had a wonderful DIY mentality and still contained lots of excellent writing the like of which wasn’t available elsewhere. When starting this blog creating something akin to a fanzine was always a goal – opinions, ideas and some strange stuff mixed in but essentially focused on a specific topic to be shared with like minded people. How important were fanzines to punk? Hard for me to say because of my age but I think if you look at the idea behind the music that anyone could do it, you didn’t need to be connected and versed to start a band then the fanzines were the written equivalent. I’ve been drawn into that long diatribe by a cool feature currently in The Guardian that looks at the ’50 key events in the history of indie music’ there’s been a number of good features but do go and check this one out which looks at Mark Perry’s (and Danny Baker’s) important contribution to the punk/indie landscape by starting up ‘Sniffin’ Glue’ back in 1977. Worth remembering The Clash were treated like lepers for signing to CBS at the time in the oracle, also worth remembering there was no Rough Trade or Factory Records in 1977 the only proper independent options were Chiswick Records (who signed The Damned), Stiff and arguably Island or Virgin but if memory serves me they were already associated with EMI by that time. I wondered if any of you still have any of those old fanzines? I bet they fetch a tidy sum on eBay now, I’ve got some old Echo and The Bunnymen and Wedding Present ones and a pile of football ones but nothing that predates about 1985. Check out the entire feature ‘A History of Modern Music’ on the Guardian, it will keep you occupied for ages.

The other link which is definitely worth your time is over at Dangerous Minds.net who look back at The Clash performance at The Elizabethan in Manchester in November, 1977. This makes many lists of great earlier concerts although it helped that Granada TV had cameras there to capture some of the best quality footage of the band that year for ‘So It Goes’. I recommend the article as it’s some of my favourite footage of the band, as if you shook up a bottle of Koka Kola and twisted the lid off….explosive, amazing. A couple of clips are on that page. Thank goodness for Tony Wilson.

I’ll have more soon, perhaps too soon to make up for the gap. I also will probably be adding a forum to the blog next week so you can make friends with each other and play nicely.  Thanks for stopping in and don’t forget to say stop by the comments section or on Facebook and Twitter. You can also have a daily blog fix mailed direct to enjoy with a nice spoonful of cough syrup by subscribing to my RSS Feed here. Cheers – Tim