Festivals, films and merchandise will go into overdrive in 2012 to mark 10 years since the Clash singer's death.
Orlando Bloom wants Clash's Joe Strummer role
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Orlando Bloom wants to play Joe Strummer in a biopic of the late singer.
London calls for Clash exhibition
Thursday 02 December 2010
A unique photographic portrait of The Clash by Adrian Boot goes on display this week.
Don Letts: 'It's never too late to be a punk'
Friday 13 August 2010
It feels like punk never happened!" Don Letts is spluttering over his breakfast, and not because of an annoying headline. The cultural revolutionary is up in arms over the closure of rural post offices. Or, more accurately, he is up in arms that the rest of the country is not in arms over the closure of post offices, or schools or other public services.
London Calling: Tracey Emin and friends pay tribute to The Clash's 'official war artist'
Wednesday 16 June 2010
A host of British artists and musicians have embraced their inner punk to produce a reinterpretation of The Clash’s 1979 London Calling album cover in honour of its designer and the band’s “official war artist” Ray Lowry, who died in 2008.
Andy Gill: It didn't sound good to me – so thank God for infamy
Monday 31 May 2010
I'm sure I can't have been the only British viewer who sprang to their feet and punched the air in triumph when, late on in the Eurovision Song Contest voting, some clearly tone-deaf national jury – Portugal's, or maybe Israel's – took pity on the Belarussian entry and awarded it douze points, shunting "our own" Josh Dubovie to the bottom of the pile. Yesss! At the eleventh hour, true notoriety was grasped from the jaws of mere ignominy. What a relief!
Album: Mama Rosin, Bruie Lentement (Voodoo Rhythm)
Sunday 11 April 2010
Forget questions of authenticity and credibility, this Swiss Cajun/zydeco trio make a thrillingly souped-up racket with the standard Cajun weaponry of guitar, banjo, melodeon and rub board.
Oldies aren't always goldies
Monday 05 April 2010
Observations: Musicians rip it up and start again for Destroy Rankin
Friday 06 November 2009
If you had your portrait taken by Rankin, would you turn round and destroy it? Didn't think so. And yet, that's exactly what 73 musicians have done for Destroy Rankin, part of the 10th anniversary celebrations for Youth Music Charity. Alex James has given an old Dazed & Confused cover a lavender and thyme hairdo and beard; Alanis Morissette has burned a hole in hers, and Alex Zane has used his medical-school training to turn half his face into a colourful skin and bones zombie.
Rankin: When two-faced is a good thing
Sunday 18 October 2009
They are some of the world's most recognisable faces: defaced. A series of revealing photographs show pop stars rejecting their polished images in order to create original artworks to sell at a charity auction.
Los Lobos, Jazz Cafe, London
Tuesday 11 August 2009
Think of a gang from LA and some pretty negative images come to mind, but the smiles on the faces of the punters throughout this gig spoke of a welcome to one particular gang of Latinos that was reciprocated in an exuberant performance that combined accomplished musicianship with undiminished enthusiasm. This quintet has been playing together for more than 30 years, and it showed in the way the original members – Louie Perez, Conrad Lozano, Cesar Rosas, David Hidalgo and Steve Berlin, supplemented by the muscular and inventive drumming of Cougar Estrada – played a set that they seemed to be making up as it went along.
My Fantasy Band: Mikel Jollett, Airborne Toxic Event
Friday 22 May 2009
Vocals - Joe Strummer
Not because he had the best voice or anything, but there's something kind of unhinged and totally rock'n'roll about him. He had fire in his belly. You want a riot to break out in the audience or something, otherwise it's just folk music with a back beat.
The Dr Feelgood factor
Friday 13 February 2009
Ones to watch - music's rising stars
Saturday 07 February 2009
Magic Arm
Magic Arm's early singles may have been released by Switchflicker, the label that launched The Ting Tings, but there the comparison ends. Though Manchester's Marc Regisford does have one foot in the world of pop, it's of the more DIY variety; besides, the other is very much in the world of folk.
Los De Abajo, Islington Academy, London
Monday 14 July 2008
It is when Los De Abajo don the Mexican wrestling masks that things start to make sense. I am just thinking how these also look like the sort of balaclavas you might hijack a plane in, when this Mexico City collective's female singer Odisea Valenzuela cries, "Viva Zapatista!", and a cacophony of sirens, dogs and techno-funk leaps from a laptop. The band hug the stage for the second time tonight – this time as if on the run for their lives. But, like the music, the experience seems fast and exciting. They are acting out the thrill of rebellion.








