Hello hello from The Clash Blog!! I’m like a kid at Christmas on the first day of the football season – and I’d be remiss to not mention this little stroll.  It’s got to be the inspiration of having London Calling recorded in the shadow of your home stadium. That said I’m here to write about The Clash so back to basics.

The mixing desk at Wessex Studios

It’s been a while since I scoured the web for other blog posts about the band and indeed I’ve found a few I want to share. Extending my football/Clash theme a bit further (I’ll stop soon I promise) check out this post from Du Nord. It starts out talking a bit about footie, then zooms in on Sandinista! back to football before becoming a full on political fanzine. It’s a good read, the comments are entertaining too – and to think this all began due to an album title. Equally inventive was seeing the Effigies and Naked Raygun get a mention. Two crucial early wave Chicago Punk bands…oh how that takes me back…..surf combat indeed. Here’s a quick link to Naked Raygun. All of that reminds me why I typically keep politics away from the blog – I could bore you all day with some of my theories and start a long thread about anti nationalism and the inherent destructiveness caused by greed – but I’d end up spending all day trying to justify it via comments. So…keeping  it simple – Imperialism: bad – people: potentially good.

More writing about the impact of Les Paul the man and the invention bearing his name here. If you read through you’ll find Mick Jones sharing some unlikely company. Mick never struck me as a big chap – so I’m shocked that a Les Paul was his guitar of choice…they are so heavy. In terms of his guitar sound though, well done Mick!

Stuart Bailie from the BBC has blogged about a trip to the Westway – so you can probably guess what that’ll be about. Do log a visit though – some nice images are included.

More information about the new Don Letts documentary is here, I’m still waiting/hoping for the promised (hint hint) press kit for ‘Carnival’ so I can give you a proper review rather than ‘this might be good’. Stay tuned.

This post by Jay Stringer made me laugh. Titled simply ‘Please don’t suck Joe Strummer‘ it reminded me immediately of that period back in the summer of 2003 when Streetcore had yet to be released. I relate to the anxiety that came with waiting for Strummer’s posthumous album hoping it wouldn’t tarnish the memory. We needn’t have worried.

One last post away from West London but someone I’ve always been fanatic about. Former Talking Head David Byrne sits down with The Guardian and covers a variety of topics. I like his comments about Talking Heads reunions and how he ‘enjoyed’ his 20′s. I always has this weird hope that one day he might work with Joe…alas it wasn’t to be.

Talk soon – Tim