At The Black Swan

On Saturday night, 4th of July 2026, it was exactly fifty years since the Clash played their first ever gig, supporting The Sex Pistols at The Black Swan in Sheffield. The five man Clash- Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Keith Levene and a drummer (there appears to be some confusion about who occupied the drum stool, possibly Terry Chimes). The band were originally billed as The Weak Heartdrops but had become The Clash by the time they arrived in Sheffield. Paul Simonon said in the Westway To The World documentary that he was so nervous that he messed up the bass intro to Listen and an account by a reader in the NME a week or two later said they were 'a cacophonous barrage of noise'. As well as Listen it seems that The Clash played Rabies (From The Dogs Of Love), a song brought by Joe from the 101ers, a Mick Jones song Ooh Baby Ooh (It's Not Over) that was subsequently dropped and Protex Blue. 

On Saturday evening we gathered at The Black Swan for a guerrilla gig by a Sheffield band named after that song, Mick's tribute to a brand of condoms. Protex Blue busked a six song Clash set in the street outside The Black Swan (now very much an ex- pub, formerly known to locals as The Mucky Duck).

Someone had fly postered the building. A blue plaque (later raffled) was pinned up. Bemused motorists and cyclists stopped at the traffic lights. A crowd gathered and sang along. The band powered through their set and it was all gloriously good fun. Joe Strummer would surely have approved. Sheffield's main police station was just across the road. I think everyone was quietly hoping they might have shown up and moved us along. 

Protex Blue repaired to The Harlequin, a pub a few minutes walk away where at 9 pm they played The Clash's debut album in full to a raucous and appreciative, all ages, crowd, the pub getting hotter and hotter as they blasted and hollered their way through Janie Jones and White Riot, What's My Name and Career Opportunities and all those other songs  from 1977 that make up that album, ending with the mighty Garageland. 'Back in the garage with my bullshit detector...'

Protex Blue 

An encore was demanded. Clampdown, London Calling and White Man (In Hammersmith Palais), all also played outside the Black Swan earlier, plus Clash City Rockers and I Fought The Law. One more song? One more song. Complete Control, one of the zeniths of The Clash's back catalogue, a righteous blast of fury, furious guitars, a high octane complaint about dirty record company dealings. Well played Protex Blue.

Monday's Long Song

Another Monday, another long song, another Four Tet track to start the week... this one dates from 2009 when Four Tet and Burial released a two track 12" single. One of the two tracks was Moth, a nine minute excursion into the inner worlds of Burial and Four Tet. Moth starts out with ambient sounds, sounding like the noises that get caught when someone pocket dials you. A synth stab riff comes in and dubstep drums break through. 

There's lots of detail, lots of sounds and FX that enrich Moth, make it what it is even if you can't put your finger what exactly they are. A snatch of a vocal. Background washes. A bell ringing. Drop outs where suddenly the drums are the focus. Sections where an electronic squiggle and wordless vocal become the foreground. Rumbles of bass. Signals. Abstract, shape shifting and repetitive but also never settling still for long. 

Moth

Forty Five Minutes Of The Clash In Dub

A simple concept for today's Sunday mix- The Clash in dub. The band were steeped in their influences- dub, reggae, rockabilly, blues, rock 'n' roll, glam, garage rock, soul, disco- and once they got past Give 'Em Enough Rope and punk's orthodoxy they gave their influences free rein, their record collections filtered through the unique combination of Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon, each man bringing his own thing. Paul Simonon especially brought the dub and the bass. 

The dub began to surface with Armagideon Times, London Calling's B- side and then with Bank Robber and an association with Mikey Dread that brought some genuine Jamaican vibes, vocals and production to the sound. By the time they got to Sandinista! and they'd decided it would be six sides of vinyl, each side six songs long, the dub experimentation became as much part of The Clash as anything else. 

Forty Five Minutes Of The Clash In Dub

• Mensforth Dub
• Radio One (Reprise)
• Outside Broadcast/ Radio 5
• Silicone On Sapphire
• One More Dub
• The Crooked Beat
• Robber Dub
• Living In Fame
• Justice Tonight/ Kick It Over

Mensforth Dub is a dub version of Something About England, a song that more and more seems like one of Sandinista!'s peaks, Joe and Mick duetting on a song about immigration, the 20th century, the impact of two world wars and post- imperial Britain. It fades in with FX and echo, Mick's voice in the distance and a swirl of radio static and noise. Possibly named after Menwith Hill, an RAF listening post in North Yorkshire that is operated by the US air force still. 

Radio One was the B-side to Hitsville UK, a re- working of a Mikey Dread tune from his album Rocker Station, cavernous space and crashing echo. The Roland Space Echo is doing a lot of work. Gloriously dubbed out stuff. 

Outside Broadcast and Radio 5 were two of four versions on the 12" of the 1981 single This Is Radio Clash, Joe on the mic like a radio announcer and then FX, New York radio station samples, backing vox, a laid back early 80s rap courtesy of a very English sounding voice, 'I am the Lord of the dance, the lord of the dance said he'. It goes on for seven minutes, as dub often does, before seguing into Radio 5. 

Silicone On Sapphire is a dub of Washington Bullets, another key Sandinista! deep cut. Joe's lyrics are an account of superpower intervention and destabilisation in the developing world and the Cold War that gave the album its name. Silicone On Sapphire came out of the endless nights of dub experimentation during the Sandinista! sessions. Joe added a new spoken word vocal, a stream of consciousness piece that starts out wondering who holds the key that winds the clock on Big Ben and goes off into early 80s computer lingo, hardwired logic, RAM, data, input, system debugs and many other things that he possibly read out from a magazine or manual. One of those Sandinista! dubs that was overlooked for years and now sounds like a quintessential part of that album. 

One More Dub is a Mikey Dread at the controls dub of One More Time. On Sandinista! they run together, Mikey Dread linking the two with a shout of 'stop wastin' time!'. Bass and phasing to the fore, Topper's drums as ever on point. 

The Crooked Beat was a Paul Simonon follow up to Guns Of Brixton, his way of ensuring he got a cut of the songwriting income. Lovely roaming bassline and a tale of South London blues parties. 

Robber Dub is a dub of Bank Robber that didn't make the single release, eventually coming out on the 1980 compilation  Black Market Clash, a six minute version with drums and bass pushed up front and snippets of Joe's vocal. Classic Clash dub. One of the bar staff at The Golden Lion rushed up to us last weekend asking about it when I spun it as part of our seven hour long ALFOS warm up. 

Living In Fame is another Sandinista! track, a Mikey Dread vocal commenting on the various ska bands the UK had thrown up at the time, challenging them to live up to their names. If you call yourself The Specials he reasons, you better be pretty special, and so on with The Selector, The Beat, Madness and then turns his attention to The Nipple Erectors and Blockheads. Gary Barnacle plays bursts of wailing sax, Strummer joins in with shouts and cries and there's acres of Mick Jones echo- treated guitar.

Justice Tonight/ Kick It Over were the first real Clash dub experiment, a dubbed out version of their cover of Willie Williams' Armagideon Time. Spooked late 70s dread and fireworks, and Joe shouting 'OK OK, don't push us when we're hot!'. 

It often feels like we need The Clash more than ever. 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame.

Which led in a round the houses kind of way to Half Man Half Biscuit's Eno Collaboration from 1997, Pet Shop Boys in 1987, Talking Heads and Johnny Marr in 1988, and Bob Dylan with The Band back in 1971. 

The joy of this series is in the comments box. Last week's suggestions from the Bagging Area Oblique Saturdays community took in Cowboy Junkies doing Sweet Jane (thank you Walter), Nick Drake's Bryter Later (Ernie, muchas gracias), Aztec Camera's Just Like Gold (courtesy of the shape shifting but definitely human LizLozLaz, and thanks to C for her questions about his comments), Matt Berry's cover of the Blankety Blank theme tune (thanks to Al G and Mrs G), Rol who offered Jason Isbell's 24 Frames, John Cage's 4' 33'' (ta The Swede) and over on social media Chris who jumped from Les Dawson to Andrew Weatherall via Field Of Dreams. 

At some point there's an Oblique Saturdays mix/ compilation/ box set and your names are all on it. 

Just Like Gold

Roddy's never re- issued (to the best of my knowledge) the two singles Aztec Camera did for Postcard, never included them on a any compilations. His view is they are best as they were, a pair of 7" singles from 1981, the magic found solely in those artefacts.  

This week's Oblique Strategy from Mr Eno and Herr Schmidt is this- Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them. 

I can see how a band or musician in the studio could approach this. Take the mistake or the part that makes you cringe (a vocal yelp maybe or a hackneyed chord sequence) that you want to cover up or remove and make it the new centre of the song/ track/ recording. 

I found it more difficult to apply the suggestion to songs to post here and spent some time while commuting to and from work thinking about it. I don't buy into the Guilty Pleasures thing much- you shouldn't feel guilty about liking any piece of music. If you like it, you like it. The fact that someone else doesn't is just that it all comes down to taste. 

Eventually, this song came to mind...

Fight For Your Right

The Beastie Boys themselves became somewhat embarrassed by the success of this song, the fourth single from their debut Licensed To Ill. They became even more embarrassed, annoyed even, by the fact their audience were taking the song seriously, as a statement of fact. They spent a long time trying to distance themselves from it. One way or another it led them to the sampledelic brilliance of Paul's Boutique though so maybe it was worth it. 

Everything about Fight For Your Right is amplified, from the opening guitar power chord and the shout of 'Yeahhh!', the instruction to 'kick it!' and then the riff, Rick Rubin turning everything up as loud as it will go. And then there's the lyrics....

I played Fight For Your Right while DJing at a friend's wedding reception, many many years ago. The groom's mother loved it, pogoing round the venue's dance floor,among the rest of the party rights fighters. 

As a Saturday fourth of July bonus I'm posting this, Galaxie 500 back in 1990 with a song that is just wonderful in every way. 

Fourth Of July

Aidan

Sister Ray Davies are a duo from Muscle Shoals, Alabama and make a glorious shoegaze sound inspired in large part by the early Christian, pre- Norman world of the Northumbrian coast. If you think that all sounds unlikely for a band from Alabama, I'd agree. They released an album in late 2025 called Holy Island, named after Lindisfarne, Medieval home of Saint Aidan, an Irish monk who is said to have converted the Anglo- Saxons of Northumbria to Christianity in the middle of the 7th century. 

Sister Ray Davies followed the album with an EP called Holy Island Baby in April, five new versions and remixes of tracks that include two Pye Corner Audio remixes. The Pye Corner Audio remix of Aidan is something else, a six minute channeling of the spirit of New York's Suicide crossed with Pye Corner Audio's analogue synth drones topped with blissed out, barely there vocals and Sister Ray Davies' guitar drones peering through. It's a beautiful way to spend six minutes of your life

Aidan was known for his strict asceticism and utter conviction in talking to the people of the region at their own level, taking an interest in their lives and slowly converting them to Christianity. What he would have made of 21st century ambient/ shoegaze is anyone's guess but I'm fairly sure if he heard it while near the altar in the monastery on Holy Island he'd have taken it as evidence of the divine. 

There are more versions on the EP- a Pye Corner Audio remix of Morning Bell that shimmers and sways in a shoegaze drift. There is a guitar version of Big Ships that echoes Ride's Vapour Trail with nine acoustic guitar players creating an epic wall of strings and hollow bodied guitars, and a Malaphors version of Nave that is fractured and abstract. The EP is at Bandcamp, digital and vinyl (the vinyl is sold out at Bandcamp but there are copies to be found elsewhere). 

Return To Bass

A week of new album reviews hits a hat- trick today with the second album from Craig Bratley, an eight track excursion called Return To Bass. Craig's first album came out in 2014 so it's been a mere twelve years waiting for a follow up. In the time between the two he has put out some singles and EPs including Play The Game (with Danielle Moore) in 2016 which had an Andrew Weatherall remix, as did 2018's 99.9% (Andrew's remix was titled the 100% Remix, based on Andrew's advice to Craig that you should only put out music if you're 100% happy with it). You can find 99.9% (Andrew Weatherall's 100% remix) and the rest of the EP at Bandcamp. 

In 2019 Craig released a four track Italo/ cosmic inspired EP called A Message From The Outpost and then in 2021 a fantastic 12" with New York singer Amy Douglas on vocals, No In Between. 

No In Between turns up in dub form on Return To Bass, the slo mo, fuzzed out, dubbed out crawl of the Ashigaru Dub, Amy's voice fed through the delay FX as ghostly piano and guitar chords get the same treatment. The album is, no surprise given its title, a tribute to the properties and power of bass music in various forms- Jamaican, electronic, acid house and electro. First track Plasticine Dub marries deep Jamaican bass with North African melodies and vocals, dub from the souk and the Atlas Mountains. A voice gives instructions about love and harmony, living in unity, no more war. 

Everybody Pushing is a nod to the halcyon days of the early 90s, the acid house vibes of The Beloved and Finitribe, the voice of Thomas Gandey recalling the singers of both those bands. On S.A.W. Craig gives us throbbing, buzzing Roland TB- 303 acid qne Thanks For All The Fish is a dance floor monster resplendent with four four drums, hi hats, pumping bass, a cackling voice and tumbling percussion- eventually synths stabs blare and sirens go off and a chant breaks out, 'you gotta beat the clock/ you gotta beat the clock'. 

The album ends with Everybody Pushing Reprise, a version of Everybody Pushing, the drums, bass and vocals dropped out leaving just the synth chords, a New Age/ ambient cinematic ending that chills the album right down, a kiss goodnight. 

More Songs About The Sun

The newest Pye Corner Audio album came out ten days ago and in some ways it works as the flipside to yesterday's post, Boards Of Canada's Inferno. More Songs About The Sun was timed to release with the summer equinox and just as with the gloom and end of days song titles of Inferno, Pye Corner Audio's track titles promise something more optimistic- hope and renewal- with Euphoria, Greet The Dawn, Rays Of Sunshine, As We Begin and My Shimmer all offering positivity. 

Andy Bell appears (again) providing guest guitar on four tracks. Album opener Euphoria fades in with sunlit analogue synth sounds and vibrato and then some distorted chord changes- cosmische and indeed euphoric. A drum machine patters into life and the floating becomes more propulsive. Third track in is Cycle, one with Andy Bell, the thrum of drums and bass, cosmische guitar, epic synth chord changes and a blissed out vocal. 

In the past Pye Corner Audio has made much more dystopic sounding tracks, subterranean ambient, inflected with a similar hauntology to where some of Boards Of Canada's sounds are coming from but on More Songs About The Sun, he's very much heading towards the light. Ambient shoegaze, radiophonic workshop vibes, modular synths. Eight Thousand Years has a rhythm part that blips and blops beautifully accompanied by chord change straight out of West Germany in the 1970s. 

On The Breath Of Now Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin gives a spoken word performance, low key and soft, 'no heroes come out at night', and a moment where the album has some shade to contrast with the light. 

The final four tracks form a serene ending with Rays Of Sunshine giving way to As We Begin (another one with Andy Bell and his guitar), a warm drone offset by distant chord changes and keys. Echoes of My Bloody Valentine's string bending/ head rush sensation. The drums kick in and synths and guitars suddenly switch to sounding all golden. My Shimmer is three minutes of ambient wonder, layers of drones, chords and notes, a choral finale, and we're left to come down with the fifty seven seconds of Blooms Fade, recognising that in nature all things must pass, the seasons change the end of summer, the cycle continues, the autumn equinox must surely follow. For the moment though, 1st July, More Songs About The Sun is exactly what this summer needs. 

More Songs About The Sun is out now on Sonic Cathedral and can be found at Bandcamp, available digitally, on CD and in an array of gorgeously packaged and presented vinyl versions.