Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

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Marky Dread
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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Marky Dread »

Silent Majority wrote:
04 Jun 2018, 12:30pm
Ralph, the extremely belated release of your book has coincided with my having some very minor surplus income* for the first time in about six years, so that's another sale to take into the bank.

*Despite being deep into an overdraft, I might have access to as much as £20.00 before my next payday comes around, a shocking and disturbing proposition.

Oh get you Lord Snooty bragging about his wealth! ;)
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101Walterton
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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by 101Walterton »

Chairman Ralph wrote:
04 Jun 2018, 8:12pm
No idea, but I can't help but think that authors actually get a lower royalty rate because the number of copies available is unlimited or somesuch nonsense.
I'd have to look at the contract again to be sure, but as I recall, it's lower -- and it's driven by the lower price point, not so much on availability. At any rate, the more the merrier.
But surely the lower price point is driven by publishers lower printing cost (their margin is therefore greater) you didn't write any less?

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Chairman Ralph »

But surely the lower price point is driven by publishers lower printing cost (their margin is therefore greater) you didn't write any less?
Not necessarily, at least on those third party platform sites -- I do know, for instance, that Amazon takes 40 percent of the cost of all sales from a particular book, with the rest going to the publisher. I don't know if they make a great distinction between ebook and traditional book sales.

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by 101Walterton »

Chairman Ralph wrote:
04 Jun 2018, 10:36pm
But surely the lower price point is driven by publishers lower printing cost (their margin is therefore greater) you didn't write any less?
Not necessarily, at least on those third party platform sites -- I do know, for instance, that Amazon takes 40 percent of the cost of all sales from a particular book, with the rest going to the publisher. I don't know if they make a great distinction between ebook and traditional book sales.
Good point.

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Inder »

Preordered. Really looking forward to this. 😎

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Chairman Ralph »

Just a few more updates before I go and hit the road for a string of bookstore appearances with Mark, so, here we go:

Friday, July 6, 2018 | 7:00 PM Politics & Prose, 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC.
Hometown launch event for We Are The Clash.

Tuesday, July 10 | 7:00 PM Brickbat Books, 709 S. 4th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Live interview & book signing.

Friday July 13, 2018 | 7:00 PM WORD Greenpoint, 126 Franklin Street BROOKLYN, NY
New York launch event for We Are The Clash.

Monday, July 30, 2018 | 7:00 PM. The Book Cellar, 4736 N Lincoln Avenue CHICAGO, IL
Chicago launch event for We Are The Clash.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018 | 7:30 PM Powell’s City of Books 1005 W Burnside, PORTLAND, OR
Mark Andersen presents We Are The Clash.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018 | 7:00 PM Elliott Bay Book Company 1521 Tenth Avenue SEATTLE, WA
Mark Andersen presents We Are The Clash.

I will be present for the Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York events, and the Chicago date, as well. Regrettably, I won't be doing any of the West Coast dates, for boring (economic) reasons.

At any rate, if you're in any of those neighborhoods -- feel free to stop and say hi, and take a look around.

More dates to come, I'm sure, which I will post as soon as I get the relevant info. There's also talk of an event this fall at the Crooked Beat record store, to tie in with the CTC anniversary, with a special guest or two that will be of interest to this group, I suspect. More info on that when the times comes, as well.

Last, but not least: Rolling Stone has made We Are The Clash the lead pick of its new books section, so: onward and upward.

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Flex »

Probably not a prime market, but count me there if you make it out to Colorado!
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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by JohnS »

I forgot to say, I received my copy (in the UK) a few weeks ago not long after ordering, so it’s readily available.
It’s next up in my towering pile of ‘to be read’ books.
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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Heston »

JohnS wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 6:29am
I forgot to say, I received my copy (in the UK) a few weeks ago not long after ordering, so it’s readily available.
It’s next up in my towering pile of ‘to be read’ books.
Where did you order it mate?
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Marky Dread »

Heston wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 6:51am
JohnS wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 6:29am
I forgot to say, I received my copy (in the UK) a few weeks ago not long after ordering, so it’s readily available.
It’s next up in my towering pile of ‘to be read’ books.
Where did you order it mate?
Yes JohnS spill the beans, maaaaaaaaan!
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Forces have been looting
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We're the flowers in the dustbin...
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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by JohnS »

I ordered it directly from the publisher as quoted by Ralph earlier in this thread:

http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/we-are-the-clash/

Simples.
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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by white man »

JohnS wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 6:29am
I forgot to say, I received my copy (in the UK) a few weeks ago not long after ordering, so it’s readily available.
It’s next up in my towering pile of ‘to be read’ books.
Mines getting smaller Just finished Keeping The Flame By Steve Brooke(The Jam) and just started From Fulwell To Fukuoka By The Toy Dolls

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by Marky Dread »

white man wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 8:58am
JohnS wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 6:29am
I forgot to say, I received my copy (in the UK) a few weeks ago not long after ordering, so it’s readily available.
It’s next up in my towering pile of ‘to be read’ books.
Mines getting smaller Just finished Keeping The Flame By Steve Brooke(The Jam) and just started From Fulwell To Fukuoka By The Toy Dolls
I'm thinking there will be fisticuffs in frederick st. after you've read that second book.
Image

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

"Without the common people you're nothing"

Nos Sumus Una Familia

white man
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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by white man »

Marky Dread wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 10:35am
white man wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 8:58am
JohnS wrote:
04 Jul 2018, 6:29am
I forgot to say, I received my copy (in the UK) a few weeks ago not long after ordering, so it’s readily available.
It’s next up in my towering pile of ‘to be read’ books.
Mines getting smaller Just finished Keeping The Flame By Steve Brooke(The Jam) and just started From Fulwell To Fukuoka By The Toy Dolls
I'm thinking there will be fisticuffs in frederick st. after you've read that second book.
Its full of Solicitors offices now and bespoke cafés.

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Re: Clash II Book Coming Soon...Summer 2013

Post by IkarisOne »

Ralph, you and Mark really have to be commended for a fantastic work of journalism and a definitive reckoning of the history of this band.I really applaud how sympathetic you are to Joe but at the same time fully demonstrate how severely mentally-ill he really was. I don't know what really went on in the Mellor home but I get the strong feeling it wasn't good. But whatever the problems he was having, they certainly fueled those incendiary performances. They used to call that "art."

Conversely, Bernie just comes off as the insane, pathetic cunt we all know he really is and Kosmo comes off as the oily snake you and I know he is as well. Nick is his usual salt-of-the-earth and Vince and Pete seemed to have mellowed quite a bit with age. And so they were able to present a far more holistic view of their experiences than they had in past interviews.

The biggest surprise was Michael Fayne, who comes across as deeply insightful, perceptive and worldly-wise. He had some brilliant insights into the band's psychology, on a personal and a depth-level. Really appreciated his observations. Sometimes you need to have someone on the inside but on the outside as well to really get the full picture.

The historical context is immensely useful since too often this band is removed from their environment and their times. You really brought a lot of memories flooding back and really put me back in that headspace that this lineup existed within. I don't think you can understand this story without looking at what was happening around it.

There was always a kind of otherworldliness about the Clash and this lineup all the more so. What they were doing was creating a kind of liminal space in which the tectonic movements of 80s rock and pop were subverted, if not totally ignored. Joe and Mick were messed-up, introverted kids who grew up to create their own parallel realities. As is always the case with that there wasn't enough room for one personal reality in the other.

The only fault I find with the book-- and it's not yours or Mark's-- is the burning frustration I had with Joe and Bernie's appalling cluelessness. This ridiculous, self-defeating contempt they and Mick had for professional producers is just so mind-numbingly moronic and narcissistic it staggers the imagination. Joe had far more material in hand to take into the studio than he needed if they had hired a real producer. By many band's standards (including the Clash's) he had enough more than enough material for another Sandinista.

A Chris Thomas or a Glyn Johns could have fleshed out the material with the band in the studio and smoothed out the clunkiness and beefed up the hooks. But I still maintain a Clash record wouldn't have made any sense in 1985. Any Clash record.

Even though the scope is obviously limited to the post-Mick period I think this is by far the best-written book on this band and an astonishing time capsule of the early 80s.

Everyone else, you're in for quite a treat. Five years late? So what. Serve no wine before its time.

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