Good evening ~ welcome back to the blog. At the end of a ridiculously hot weekend a huge thunderstorm is rolling in from the East. Hopefully it will both arrive and not take the power out, its still 101f as I type these words at 9pm. Funnily enough the Clash Bloggette’s daughter wants to go and see Green Day next month, but its an outdoor venue – which in Phoenix in August is asking for trouble and mass heat stroke. I don’t think I’ve been volunteered to attend that one yet. I’ll let you know.

I’m going to post the equivalent of blogging fast food tonight, reasonably quick to make perhaps briefly filling and guilt ridden and compromised afterward. Actually this better be a bit better than fast food – you tell me? That said somewhere between 30-40 Clash/Clash related videos are uploaded to youtube/vimeo/googlevideo/daily motion and other video sites each and every week. While many are already listed elsewhere I’m going to filter through them and share some of the best, worst and strangest things I come across about 3 times a month. I’ve long considered a video only page on the blog but the bandwidth restrictions would result in the need for a server just for the blog, as it is we come close to our single server capacity with normal traffic. Perhaps next year!

So let’s see what I’ve found this week. (It’s a mixed bag, if you haven’t seen 2/3 of what I add it will be mission accomplished)

Mick Jones interview clips from Summer 2009: Something really nice to start and this has just been added to youtube. Its a four minute plus b/w interview with Mick Jones at The Rock and Roll Public Library from last summer. Not an interview as such but more like clips from an extended conversation. Mick is really funny throughout and the focus seems to be as much on the cups of tea and scones as it does the Clash memorabilia.

Mick Jones playing ‘What’s My Name’ with Ebba Gröns 2003, Stockholm: I’d love to provide some information about this clip, I’m sure someone reading can provide many more details. Ebba Gröns were Sweden’s most famous punk band from the late 70′s – I had no idea they had reunited and that Mick appeared with them. More importantly Mick was having a great time it looked, along with the audience and the sound is a good blast of early Clash.

A Clash fan opening and showing The Clash singles box set: I really enjoyed watching this, he does such a nice job just being a fan. In short he opens up the box set, shows you the packaging and the cool mini replica 45RPM CDs that made up the box set. As you’ll see even though it was an expensive item for the collection the wonderful detail in reproducing all of the original singles sleeves is really brilliant as is the fact that the discs each look like a 7″ slab of vinyl. Bloody fun to watch even if you don’t stick around for the duration. Even nicer to own.

G.B.H. covering ‘White Riot’ in Chicago earlier this month: Bloody hell….I’ll warn you first to turn the audio down as the sound quality is pretty shite, but what an oddity this is!! In the Spring of ’84 (I think) I made a late dash to see some of the earlier 2nd wave of punk bands that were still playing live in London at that time. I need to dig out my journals to see exactly who I saw that year but I know I saw The Exploited and GBH around the same time. Even by 1984 a room full of mohawks and leather was looking a bit out of place but I’ve no regrets! Thus I had no idea GBH were touring this year in the States nor how many of the original lineup remain (at least two I think) but turns out they have a new album out on Hellcat! Good on them! Read more on the Hellcat Records site.

There we go then, I really enjoyed that…might do it more often. Let me know what you think, we’ll never get so short on videos that you need to see me trying (and succeeding) to ruin English Civil War on my Telecaster..don’t worry!

Tim