Welcome to my new blog, I’m really excited about this and I hope that if you’re reading this that you come back to the site in the days and weeks ahead as things take shape. Ideally you came here as you share a passion with me for The Clash,  it’s why I decided to start the blog and I genuinely want to create a community of Clash fans to share memories, opinions, images, video, audio or simply how the Clash impacted you.

I’ve been blogging related to my work for quite some time and always had a great interest in music. I thought why not write about something I’ve cared about for 30 years? The Clash have quite literally played a part in my life since I was about 11 1/2 years old. Until that time my older brother always had a giant variety of music emanating from his room, I was exposed from an early age to Bowie, T Rex, Elton John, Roxy Music, Barry White, Labi Siffre (honestly), Mott The Hoople, ELO, Queen and from my Mum a bit of Beatles, Tom Jones and some Motown. I remember Bowie seeming the most avant garde of the pack and remember looking at the album artwork as much as the songs themselves.

It was probably the winter of 78-79 that I first heard Tommy Gun from the 2nd Clash Album ‘Give Em Enough Rope’.  Suddenly music had a new face, a new urgency and an audible fury. Within 12 months London Calling was released,  by then I owned the first 2 albums and The Clash along with The Specials and The Jam were part of my daily bread. I have some regrets that I wasn’t old enough to have been a part of the earliest Clash history but the impact on me as an adolescent and a teen was pronounced and lasting.

Without the Clash I don’t think my musical obsession with post punk, early synth and C86 brand Indie would have been as likely. Without The Clash and ambassadors like John Peel I’m not sure Factory and Rough Trade Records would have turned into the landmark labels they became. Without the Clash I’m positive the anthemic rock of U2, Simple Minds and The Bunnymen might have never left it’s own local scene. Without the Clash I know I would have been politically more sheltered and less active. Without the Clash I don’t think I would have believed music and musicians had a role bigger than combining D A G chords and adding some lyrics.

I know The Clash shaped who I am today, and I’m not sure the memories of what they gave to my youth will ever leave me. I’m starting this blog because I know the same applies to thousands of people like me who grew up around the same time and also knowing the impact the Clash had on the industry as a whole.  I want the blog to be a resource for Clash information, a forum for Clash fans and ideally a place to have these memories and opinions combined for better understanding and bugger it – some activism too. These are dark times we live in – we could do with The Clash today, instead we’ve got our own hopes and agendas. We do still have Carbon Silicon and recently the superb The Good, The Bad and The Queen. Also as you’d expect we’ve got news relating to a band and it’s members that still impact music constantly. I want the Clash Blog to be a resource for that as well.

I really hope this blog connects some people with what we already share and better still brings on some new blood too.  I’ll do my part in bringing the threads together – and if you want to participate I’ll hand you the keyboard.

This blog is about the past but what we’ve got is the future, as Joe wrote Crashing head-on into the future, it won’t even leave a dent / Just walk in like you own it, remember it ain’t set in cement”

Tim

1. You better leave town if you only wanna knock us
2. What a great traffic system…(Vol 1)
3. Talk of The Town, Carbon Silicon
4. What did punk change? The whole record industry…
5. Mick Jones on the BBC, Best Double Albums ever, and Clash fans in the desert
6. From Gibson Town to Fenderville – The Clash Guitars (part one)
7. Carbon Silicon new album information (at last)