Hello once more Clash fans and others, cheers for dropping in. I’ve got quite a few odds and sods to get to so lets just leap right in shall we? There are some official breaking things surrounding Sandinista!

Uncut Magazine features The Clash – If you’re in the UK you already know about this (and thanks for your emails) – the new edition of Uncut has an in-depth interview with Mick, Paul and Topper about the making of Sandinista! thus I find it quite funny that the cover promises ‘the untold story’ of the making of the album, as opposed to what exactly? 1980 was such a hectic year in Clash history that the making of the 4th Clash album has never been reviewed properly by the band with most commentary to date referring to the fact that it had too many songs / would have been better as a single or double album etc. I wouldn’t change a thing as it happens, its perhaps the album that I’ve grown up with and returned to more in the last decade than the others. Incidentally the bonus CD with the latest issue features fifteen tracks that Joe featured during his London Calling BBC broadcasts, my favourite of which is this by Cornershop and I think the lyrics sound like something Strummer himself might have written.

Leave Chattanooga
Walk in to New York City
Aeroplane down to Nippon ground
Meets some friends in Tokio-town
Across to West Maluva
Showboat to West Malay
Leave my foes to their woes
Sometimes “that’s how it goes”
It’s good to be on the road back home again

Speaking of Sandinista! its as good as official that a special 30th anniversary edition of the album will be released this year with requisite bonus tracks and some demos and remixes (plus I would expect remastering of some sort). I had to purchase another copy of the double CD recently to replace my worn out CDs just a few years ago so in addition to the vinyl and cassettes it looks like a 5th version will he heading to the household in time for Christmas. I think we’ll make the month the reissue comes out Sandinista! month on the blog. I’d love for the reissue to feature a live concert from late ’80 or early ’81 but I haven’t read anything that indicates this might be the case (grumpy return to my keyboard).

Returning to Uncut (I’m not in the UK so please don’t spoil my anticipation in reading the article when I get an imported copy in a week or two!) I hope the interview addresses the oft-circulated rumour that the album was essentially the work of Topper and Mick with session musicians and a well known Blockhead taking up much of the remaining slack during the recording process. I don’t buy that suggestion and I never really have and while its likely that the group cohesion during the recording of London Calling was no longer in full evidence as it had been in the summer of 1979 I don’t think the triple album was Mick Jones and Topper simply working with hired hands for the most part. Yes there were guest musicians but it is certainly a Clash album as a finished product. Others have said the evidence is that live versions of songs from this era bare little resemblance to the studio equivalents but once more I think that is the sound of a band expanding their limits and looking to break the confines of simply recreating a song in a live setting. Naturally I could be 100% wrong on both my assumptions so I’d be happy to hear what you think. Don’t however spill the beans on the magazine interview just yet – I’ll cover that when I get my copy!

Worth a mention and a link to a story is the fact that this summer did mark the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista uprising in Nicaragua which The Clash brought to a new audience. On July 21 1979 the first events associated with the uprising took place which eventually led to the overthrow of the existing dictatorship. This revolution this was one of the youngest and most independent rebel situations in recent history as most of the key people involved were little more than teens who didn’t have a plan B so much as they knew plan A had to be evicted. As you can predict the story didn’t end in ecstasy but it did mark a significant positive change in the history of that central American republic.

What else….today is September 1st – the least glorious day in Clash history as it marks the date in 1983 when the official word of Mick Jones being sacked from his own band was made public. Apparently so Paul and Joe could get The Clash back on track towards the original goals of the band…we know how that ended. I’ve written about that at length in the past and will do again I’m sure but its burned on my calendar as the darkest day during the time the band were a going concern. With that said let’s talk again September 2nd yes? Thanks for dropping in…

Let’s end on a happier note – check out this chap’s memory of meeting Joe Strummer many years ago.