The Clash and Converse are collaborating together to produce a new collection of shoes. Leading the collection is a special tribute version of the Chuck Taylor All Star shoe in white, which marks the 20^th anniversary of the album London Calling. The album cover graphics are reproduced in rubber. Combat rock references abound on fresh high-tops with clean Clash skull and cross bones logos. An All Star Outsider has the look of legitimate military gear and a simple version of the classic Chuck in olive drab punctuates the band’s revolutionary style with campaign badges fastened to military drab uppers. The collection will be available in the shops from December 2009. More designs to follow check back here for updates.

Classic Album Covers - The Clash - London Calling

Great music and great art – Royal Mail will launch its 2010 Special Stamps programme with ten iconic album covers from the past four decades.

Classic Album Covers, released on 7 January, features some of the greatest examples of album design, created for UK music artists and brought to life on ten First Class stamps.

The design of each stamp shows a classic album cover, but with a musical twist – an arc of vinyl emerges outside the die-cut of the stamp.

For decades the album sleeve has been the canvas for some of the most imaginative graphic artists in the world, and this issue celebrates this unique art form and some of its greatest examples.

There will be a range of stamp products, including an illustrated Presentation Pack, a First Day Cover, and a unique stamp book.

More information will be available closer to the issue date from www.royalmail.com/stamps

2 ACKLAM ROAD, Portobello Green,

London, W10 5XL, (02077929626.)

Ladbroke Grove Underground.

18th July to 25th August 2009,

11am-7pm. Wednesday-Sunday (free.)

‘Rock n Roll’ and ‘Public Library’ shouldn’t mix, one phrase is brash, loud the other sedate and quiet. Yet these two cultures are about to collide. For the first time since the 1850 Library Act that much loved British institution the public library is about gain a loud, revolutionary 21^st Century companion.

The Rock n Roll Public Library is Mick Jones’s (The Clash, B.A.D, Carbon Silicon) direct artistic challenge to the likes of the corporate 02 British Music Experience. Rather than let his creative legacy atrophy Jones is ’transforming’ his own archive of near 10.000 artefacts into one unique ‘guerrilla-library.’ Set under the Westway motorway in 3000 sq.ft of former office space, Jones’s five-week civic endeavour will also encourage visitors to enrol, interact with the archive-exhibition (Jones began collecting well before he formed The Clash in 1976 to eventual international success, as such it forms an invaluable guide to the influences that informed Jones as a pop-artist). Also uniquely by request users will be able to scan (courtesy Genus, U.K distributor of the Book2net Kiosk) certain objects and via memory stick carry them away. Please note visitors to the world’s first, resolutely alternative, Rock n Roll Public Library shouldn’t expect peace and quiet.

Topper’s Red 2-Tone customized Mini Cooper is going up for raffle on May the 30th, with all proceeds going to the charity Strummerville  Joe Strummer’s New Music Foundation.

Strummerville is a registered charity that aims to create new opportunities for aspiring musicians.

Set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death, the charity seeks to reflect Joe’s unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them.

“This car has been my pride and joy. I had it two tone customized and it was the first car I drove when I got clean, so you can imagine I’ve been attached to it and have loved it a lot. But, I so love the great work that Strummerville are doing so am delighted to donate the car to be raffled and I hope it will make a fortune for the charity. Giving kids a chance is such a good cause.” Love Topper

If you would like to win the legendary Clash drummer’s near perfect condition Mini, you can enter via the strummerville www.strummerville.com website from May 30th, with the raffle running for six weeks.

The Heroes album features an exclusive version of “Straight To Hell” by Lily Allen & Mick Jones.

To listen to the track please head over to: http://www.myspace.com/warchildheroes

Where:

CHELSEA SPACE
16 John Islip Street
London
SW1P 4JU

When:

18th March - 18th April 2009
(Private View: Tuesday 17th March 6-8:30pm)

Mick Jones, guitarist and songwriter with The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite, and Carbon Silicon, takes on the corporate might of the 02 with his take on the British Music experience - “The Rock & Roll Public Library.” Jones’ has amassed a legendary collection of the paraphernalia of performance and marketing materials of the bands he has worked with. This archive sits alongside a parallel general collection of books, magazines, videos, ephemera, toys and games which mark out his life, times, and influences. In his west London recording studio and adjoining store, customised stage clothes, instruments, flight cases, records, amplifiers and recording gear, posters, books, boxes of correspondence, photographs and song lyrics, etc all vie for attention in a kind of Aladdin’s cave of popular culture.

In this exhibition, as much of the contents of his west London archive as possible will be transported lock, stock, and barrel to CHELSEA space. The installation of this material will create a remarkable visual spectacle that raises questions about the act of collecting and offers some small insight into the influences and interests of a musician and cultural icon.

For Mick Jones, this will represent a first attempt to unpack, look at, and think about a small proportion of the mass of material he has accumulated and decide what to do next. He envisages this collection one day becoming a freely available resource - a “Rock & Roll Public Library”

Click Play above to hear it.