We are one of only a handful of record shops celebrating International Clash Day on the 7th February. We were asked, I love the band, made a poster and an event and there you go.
Edinburgh’s Burning! Na na na na na…
We will be playing all of The Clash studio albums chronologically over the day including the final disowned (Quarter-Clash) album that everyone tries to forget, Cut The Crap. There is likely to be some live music too so check in for updates.
[Update – Jon MacKenzie will come and strummer a few Clash tunes for your pleasure at around 2pm]
If you have any memorabilia of Clash gigs in Edinburgh or hereabouts, photos, gig tickets, posters, wild stories (or just fond memories) and so on, please share them with us. They seemed to have played the Odeon a lot!
From the Edinburgh Gig Archive.
Most of the older record buying population of Edinburgh are punks. We are a Clash City if ever there was one outside of London. These are some of our favourite customers and sadly, many of the nicest original punk rock record collections that have come in lately were brought in by the widows of recently deceased original punk rockers.
The day itself had been set up by Radio KEXP in Seattle in 2013 as an annual celebration of the band and it seems that the UK is late to the party. This year’s date is to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of London Calling.
As they put it: “This year, KEXP will broadcast live from London from February 4 through February 7, featuring many UK bands that we think embody the spirit of The Clash”.
“This is anti-racist, and anti-fear. This is pro-solidarity, pro-unity, and pro-inclusion. This is a public service announcement with GUITARS.
This is International Clash Day 2019, and all day long, all across the globe, we’re celebrating music as a tool for social consciousness, a band that made it sound so damn good, and an iconic record that still changes lives 40 years later.”
More info on the website: http://internationalclashday.com/
The Clash would never have been labelled snowflakes in the past or present and it is worth thinking about why that is. They are great role models and I would be happy if my two young boys and heirs to the VoxBox empire followed the morals of The Clash. Well mostly…
“Black man got a lot of problems, but he don’t mind throwing a brick”
White Riot
Police on my back!
There will be no brick throwing allowed in the shop, St Stephen Street or Stockbridge. In fact, no riots, no burning and no fighting the law will be allowed on International Clash Day or any other day. Any punk caught throwing bricks will be put on the shop’s naughty step for one minute for every year of their age. That could be 55 minutes or more for most of those that were at the original Clash gigs and is a significant proportion of an old Scottish Punk’s remaining life.
So get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked. Get on some meds to help your pressure drop then get your old gear out (those safety pins may come in handy) and come down to VoxBox for International Clash Day on the 7th February to hear the band played LOUD and to talk all things Clash. Crack a beer and enjoy yourselves even though it’s a school day. Here is Joe Strummer doing exactly that outside of the now demolished St. James Centre.
RADIO CLASH:
Join us the day before on Wednesday 6th when we will be playing only Clash with record shop chat included on the VoxBox Vinyl Show on Freshair Radio from 2100-2200. www.freshair.org.uk
Anyone wondering what the fuss is about the Clash should check out this sweaty performance. They were all sweaty performances…
Clash bricks made with the stencil from Straight To Hell 12″ single.
Our poster features an image of Beltane Fire Festival 2012 and this was altered under Creative Commons Licence. I was not able to find the owner of the photo of Notting Hill Riot that I titled “Police On My Back”.
