Yes, yes, I’m here. What did you manage today? I hope something worthwhile? Thanks for dropping in to the blog, I’ve just got time for a quick update as I’m distracted by the wonderful noise of the the pouring rain outside, it doesn’t happen often round here so when it does you tend to open the doors and windows and simply listen to it. (written last night, normal solar service resumed)

In England we called them badges, in the States they seem to be called buttons (why?) or pins. I’d love to know what the correct term is in French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian and the myriad of other tongues you readers consider your first language. I’m also curious as to whether music badges or your favourite slogan (I wore ‘Fuck Art Let’s Dance’ quite proudly for ages) were quite such a big deal when you were growing up?

I wish someone had tapped me on the shoulder when I was about 14 or 15 and told me to hold onto every badge, concert ticket stub, magazine and t-shirt that I owned as a young music nut (as if I need more crap), but I’d love to still have all the ticket stubs and badges at the very least. I’ve got perhaps a third of my earliest concert tickets but for some reason I’ve not got one single badge to my name. I think I had about a dozen Clash badges plus The Jam, XTC, The Specials, Madness, UB40 (they were good at first), Buzzcocks, and so many more. What happened to them all? At what juncture in my life did I leave them all in a drawer with the promise I’d come and pick them up at a later date? I don’t need them now although I’d still wear one from time to time but I wish I had them to look at still. It seems that if you did hold on to your band badges from the 70′s and 80′s that you might want to ask yourself if selling them on ebay is worth your time? Not The Clash ones of course but as you can see from this link (Guns on The Roof – original $29) and this one too (a pretty naff London Calling one which I did own) you can make a fair amount of cash out of them. I even wished I kept my dodgier badges (Ultravox anyone?) as I’d surely sell them to someone who wanted them as badly as I’d like to have my original Clash ones. There’s also a fairly vibrant reissue market for some of these badges which makes them quite affordable, again just have a look on ebay as most of the sellers seem to be in the UK. Better still if you have your own 14 year old lazing around the house right now, go and order a few badges so that the next time they go off to see Arcade Fire or Bon Iver they can cause a distraction with a Clash badge or two.

Did you keep yours? Did you collect them too? Stories below I hope.

Sunday Sunday here again in tidy attire. It’s as usual a warm and uncompromising day in the desert, predictable yes, pleasant not especially. Fortunately this time next week I’ll be out of town enjoying a slight break from the day to day blast of 105-115 degree weather. Enough of that, I noticed there’s been a lot of blogging elsewhere in the last week or two about The Clash and/or Joe Strummer, a sure sign that we’re getting nearer to his birthday as it’s the same every summer. I’m also finding myself on a mission to revisit a lot of early era British punk from 76-78 including albums that I always relegated to the ‘get to later’ pile because I was so busy waving the flag of The Clash, The Damned, The Jam and Buzzcocks. I’m curious on a personal level about investing more time on some albums from that era so see if they will leave a different impact all these years later. I’m expecting yes. The Adverts, Anti Pasti, Angelic Upstarts and the Anti-Nowhere League are all on my list this week. As you can see I’m taking an alphabetical approach.

What lesser known first generation punk band did you feel perhaps deserved a second (or first) listen. Of course there were dozens of bands who only release a single or two and as many again who made just one album and then splintered. I seem to have some good memories of Chelsea (the band, not the soul destroying football club) though I can’t quite recall why, another one to revisit. I’ll be doing so mostly because my prime record buying years didn’t really begin until about 1983 when I started working and had some cash to spend. As a result the vast majority of my collection misses out on the first generation of punk with the exception of the more likely names from the UK and of course The Ramones and some of the more seminal US bands. From elsewhere I’d always insist that everyone owns a Saints album, the Brisbane band made punk records that we associate with the sound of ’77 before essentially anyone else and arguably created a sound that few improved upon. A strange organic thing then as there is little likelihood that most bands in the English punk scene were hearing Australian bands. We should do a punk cup on the blog, pairing off bands until we find a definitive list of twenty. I know, that takes time but it would still be fun. I’m on this path because they’ve finally released spotify in the US so I can listen to entire albums once more for $10/month before deciding where the gaps in my collection really do exist.

The Saints – Stranded – 1976

I’ve got to get some lunch as it’s already 130pm, but I’ll be back tonight with some of those blogs I mentioned. Cheers – Tim

Hello…what brings you back here then? Nothing to see here, just keep on moving moving moving your feet. I was chatting with a friend about The Jam yesterday and agreed that few songs are as brilliant as Ghosts.Which, brings me to my question for the day (I might start doing this more often as I really enjoy both reader participation and your collective expertise) – if you’re at or above the same age as me and British you surely remember the semi-rivalry between The Clash and The Jam. I like both bands intensely but I’d take The Clash overall, but I do think The Jam were/are truly brilliant in their own right.

Why did The Jam resonate in terms of net ‘success’ in the UK more deeply? More records sold, bigger hits and (at the time but maybe not in hindsight) a profile that was just as high? Were they more adept at writing a ‘pop’ single and therefore sold more records to casual record buyers? Did they maintain a better relationship with the very important music press? I do know they were more TV savvy so were they better managed? Don’t forget just how many management changes The Clash went through.The Clash were the darlings of the weekly music press throughout 1977/8 and it then started to fragment as early as 1979 which strangely was when they started making a move to far more diversity in their sound. Less coincidentally it was also when The Clash started making some serious progress in North America. Perhaps it was that The Jam and/or with the help of Polydor were choosing/making better singles? I do think that The Clash were much the better albums band. Also interestingly The Jam saw no real success in the USA even while they were becoming huge in Britain. I do remember how apt it seemed that The Jam were allowed to bow out when they called it a day and reissued all those singles as final celebration. A much more gloried conclusion than what befell The Clash. I’m sure there are those of you with much better memories than me so please add your comments.

You may have noticed but I’m not about to mention either football or the backwards coastal town of Ipswich today, for reasons you can gather yourself (bloody Arsenal). Speaking of Ipswich I hope blog readers in Queensland and any other extremely sodden portions of Australia are reading this today and are keeping safe and dry. The situation there looks awful and I hope it improves soon.

The Guns of Brixton getting some ink

Lastly a quick flashback to yesterday’s post about tattoos – I hope you read the comments section on the blog (you should as the contributions are often more interesting than my own) but I’d like to extend huge thanks to Frou (Frau?) who wrote in yesterday to shed some extra light on the news about tattoos as they specifically apply to Paul Simonon anyway. She even sent a photo which you can see on the left of Paul getting his latest ‘piece’ ? – I’ll save you time and reproduce her entire comments. (Is Frou a she? I do hope so)

Paul has a tattoo now to commemorate the Gorillaz tour – I don’t think Mick got it. It says “Die Kunst” (the art) with an anchor between DIE and KUNST –
too bad it’s gramatically incorrect (Das Kunst would be right). Paul designed it and lots of other people of the Gorillaz crew got it.

*and then part two after I had asked for more info

Haha no, someone of the Gorillaz fanbase got it from the Facebook of the place they got their tattoos (Damon Albarn got it, Jamie Hewlett, Darren Evans the bodyguard, Roses Gabor UK R&B/dance artist, Yukimi Nagano singer of Little Dragon, and probably more people… I didn’t get to check a lot of arms) at. The incorrect tattoo still means “the art”, it’s just incorrect. The German “Kunst” is a sexless (Die is female) word, therefore it should be “Das”.

So thanks for all the extra information, tattoo chatter seemed to come thick and fast from there on and I felt like a little kid looking through the shop window at the colour television that we don’t have. I’ve no tattoos so can’t add to the dialogue! Right that’ll be me done for tonight and we learned a bit of German, but I will be following up on Topper watch shortly. Cheers – Tim