The Clash Blog

In association with The Clash Blog - The Clash Blog Tumblr page for all those things that don't quite make it to the main site. Think of this as a place for all the extras, a new site for Clash City Blogging.

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Joe Strummer remembrance night beside the seaside...tonight

Joe Strummer remembrance night beside the seaside…tonight

Good morning all, I just woke up at 530am again (what’s that all about?) and wanted to take time to write something that I had planned to get posted last night. That didn’t work out needless to say but work tends to grab you by the back of the head after a new years mini-celebration. Speaking of that I hope yours went well and that 2015 is off to a decent enough beginning.

Tonight (very short…

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Almost back in the saddle...

Almost back in the saddle…

Good afternoon wherever you may be and welcome back to The Clash Blog. Been ages since we’ve talked hasn’t it – and I take full responsibility for that. I just wanted to take a minute to wish all of you the best of holidays whatever you care to celebrate or not celebrate as the case may be, more important than that I hope you have some time to spend with friends, family and those that you cherish.

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The Rise and Fall of The Clash DVD reviews

The Rise and Fall of The Clash DVD reviews

Hello good readers and welcome back to the blog. Playing catch up now at full speed and as I mentioned the DVD release for ‘The Rise and Fall of The Clash’ took place at the end of last month.

Having finally seen it I have two immediate comments and I may try and put together a full review although that has been done at length elsewhere which I wanted to link you toward today. For me the film…

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New Clash mural in Los Angeles - good news and bad

New Clash mural in Los Angeles – good news and bad

Another weekend rushes past and another mural to report on, I’m only complaining about the first part of the sentence you understand. Happy to announce the details of a new mural in Los Angeles and while I love the numerous Joe murals that have popped up it’s nice to see one that includes the whole band.

As for the mural itself – a nice mixture of the colour-scheme from ‘Give ‘em Enough Rope’…

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Reformed London SS playing gigs and receiving a venue ban (no Mick though)

Reformed London SS playing gigs and receiving a venue ban (no Mick though)

Good morning and welcome back to the blog and today a rather unlikely tale for you. Before The Clash existed you’re all familiar that Joe was in the 101′ers, Paul wasn’t a musician yet and Mick had been trying like mad for about three years to form a band that would succeed primarily because that’s what he always wanted to do. Whereas Joe was able to get valuable live experience (and a bit of…

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John Lydon joins touring cast of Jesus Christ Superstar

John Lydon joins touring cast of Jesus Christ Superstar

I was probably a teenager during roughly the same era as most of you reading this and at that time it was impossible to predict where some of those we looked up to might be in thirty or thirty five years time. Come to think of it I don’t even know that it was a consideration as things felt more in the moment, so much so that it seemed 2014 might never even arrive.

Decades later on the music front…

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In the studio with Jones and Simonon Good morning, I feel like I slept in a shoe box last night such is the pain in my neck and joints.

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Westway Traffic 27 - Mystery Train, Richard III and Jewish Punk Roots

Westway Traffic 27 – Mystery Train, Richard III and Jewish Punk Roots

Well hello again and thanks for stumbling back in through the door. The lights were off and the blinds closed for a few days but I saw a shaft of sunlight today and thought I ought to update the blog a bit and have a tidy up. I’m digging my way out of the work backlog as I write so expect more frequent transmissions again starting this weekend. For now I thought we’d gather up a few loose friends…

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Good evening and thanks for dropping in, take a seat, smoking is allowed and by all means you can take control of the stereo if you like. A short post this evening and I’m doing this as a favour for the potential seller but also because it’s well overdue that we took time to remember Ray Lowry on the blog again.

Most of you will already know much about Ray, the unique illustrator had worked for the NME and is well known to fans of The Clash. As a good friend of the band he became part of the traveling entourage when they toured North America in 1979 to document the events as only he could – by drawing them. You’ll all have seen his artwork even if you didn’t realise it at the time and he was famous for conceiving the album art  & layout for London Calling. Sadly we lost Ray back in 2008, the year before I began this blog.

I’d certainly recommend that you explore raylowry.com to learn and see so much more and there’s also a rather good occassional blog on that site so get along and visit, they even have a great online shop.

Tonight I wanted to let you see some photos of a one of-a-kind piece of Lowry’s work – an oil painting of Joe Strummer. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the gallery of images below. The chap who owns it purchased it personally from Ray in 2007 and has decided to sell it. He felt that readers of the blog would love to see the piece and perhaps amongst you there might be an interested buyer and collector of Clash memorabilia and before you ask, of course you can gift it to me.

[button color="blue"] Click on any image to open gallery, arrow L or R to navigate, ESC to exit [/button]

If you are interested in the piece and would like to contact the seller directly you are welcome to email him via this link for more details, his name is Stuart and if you can just mention you saw it here that would be helpful. We may add it to the shop on this site in the weeks ahead but wanted to give those with serious interest a chance to speak to him first. I regret I don’t know the exact dimensions – I should have those in the morning. Any other questions feel free to contact me or leave comments below. If you do purchase it I’d like to look after it for a few nights each year, like the European Cup or something.

Thanks as always for reading, back tomorrow I’d expect.

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    One of a kind Ray Lowry oil painting of Joe Strummer (now for sale) Good evening and thanks for dropping in, take a seat, smoking is allowed and by all means you can take control of the stereo if you like.

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Release date finally confirmed for Rise and Fall of The Clash DVD

Release date finally confirmed for Rise and Fall of The Clash DVD

It is Friday and Kiev is a bit calmer today, or so I read. That’s hopefully good news. If any readers are in Ukraine I hope that the protests continue but the murdering ceases immediately, perhaps that’s not realistic of me – it is indeed a torrid and tragic time and if memory serves there were very similar troubles there only a decade ago.

In other news I wanted to share news of what might be…

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Devo mainstay Bob Casale dead at 61

Devo mainstay Bob Casale dead at 61

I just wanted to express my sadness at hearing about the death of Bob Casale of Devo today aged just 61 from heart failure. I know this is The Clash Blog and Devo weren’t one of the formative English punk bands and for many people Devo were hard to categorise or label but music shouldn’t be about that ultimately.

Devo are far too often overlooked as an absolutely essential American exponent of…

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Westway Traffic 26 - Roskilde, The Exploited, Ade Edmondson and Prince

A very good Sunday to you and thanks for dropping back in to the blog. Just a few loose ends to tie…

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Rock The Casbah very special Red Stripe advert

Evening all…how goes it? A very short post tonight with the simple instructions to just hit play on…

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Best punk, post-punk or indie front men of all time

Hello, here we are again – thanks for dropping in. I just got back from the supermarket, didn’t get…

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Strummerville All Dayer in Southampton February 15

A definite yawn-filled sort of a morning here so I imagine the same worldwide. Beginning to get…

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Photos from 'Pretty Vacant' exhibition

Last week I wrote a feature about the ongoing exhibition of Punk art/graphics in Philadelphia featuring the collection of Andrew Krivine “Pretty Vacant – The Graphic Language of Punk”. At the time I thought that the collection, which is on display through…

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