With all the recent goings on, i’ve not had much headspace for many things, let alone music.
So, whilst I picked up on the rumblings back in September of Paul Simonon’s new venture (his first in 13 years) called The Good, The Bad and The Queen - with Blur’s Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, The Verve’s Simon Tong and production by Danger Mouse - I missed the unveiling of the band entirely. Most unlike me that, particularly with anything vaguely Clash related.
Almost by accident I caught them on Jools last week and sat mesmerised at the sight of Simmo complete with his original beat up Clash bass working his killer reggae basslines whilst bobbing and weaving like a Ska boy. I was too young to actually see the Clash before they split, but have managed to catch both Joe & Mick with their post-Clash efforts, but Paul’s been the most elusive since his retirement from music and a move into painting. Anyone who paints gasworks is fine by me regardless if they were in the only band that mattered.
So now playing rapid catch-up. The debut single Herculean is on heavy iPod rotation and a wonderful dark, brooding piece. There are some shows in the new year that i’m trying to score tickets for on the Bay, and there’s a growing library of performances on YouTube
Check them out. Watch the moves. Here’s Herculean at the BBC’s recent Electric Proms night.
Update: Scored tickets for Bristol. London still proving too expensive for my conscience. Will crack i’m sure.
I saw them live the other week. They were very good indeed.
The album is out January 22nd I think. One to pre-order from the ‘zon.