In these crazy times where the more retro sounding a band is, the more likely they are to be lauded as the future, Mike Skinner has achieved the unthinkable and created the real sound of the present. As with most truly great music you will probably love it or
totally hate it. If you love it then you are most likely someone that appreciates music for its originality, quality, fresh sound, great grooves, sweet melodies and fantastic lyrical content.

If not then you are most likely the guy that can’t see why anyone would listen to all this "new fangled music made by computers with some kid talking over it rubbish" when you can buy perfectly re-mastered 'Best of Wings' compilations in almost every motorway services for half the price! And after years of laughing at anyone stupid enough to get a mobile phone, your on your way up the M6 right now, stopping at every 'Moto' to upgrade your c.d. collection, proudly wearing your new motorola handsfree earpiece and praying someone will ring you. They won't.

'A grand don't come for free' by The Streets, there is no reason not to buy it.

Most music has a place it is best heard in. If you have just driven 100 miles to sail at your favourite beach, the sun is shining, a cross shore force six is blowing and you are coming round the bend that will reveal the days playground, then 'Give it away' by the
Chilli Peppers is going to sound more at home than ‘Simon and Garfunkels 'Scarborough fair'. Of course even that is a matter of taste. If you were unlucky enough to park next to me when you got down to the beach, you'd be rigging up to the 'duelling banjos' from the Deliverance soundtrack and wandering if it said anything in the Audi manual about leaving your vehicle next to people who drive pre-war pick up trucks and windsurf in cut down dungarees. I digress, but you know what I mean. Music conjures mood and mood needs a soundtrack.

That’s why I feel everyone should own a slice of good quality reggae. It is a music that is so versatile in its placement. Try it when your digging the garden, or when cooking your dinner, or on the beach at the end of a great days action. I am sure it will conjure you a mood. I just hope it’s not one of anger at this reviewer, if it turns out its not to be your preferred smoke.

Though if you feel you would like to experience the wisdom of the dub prophet style then Prince Far I is a good place to start. Heavy bass, great percussion, skanking guitars, eerie horns and organs and simple, timeless messages. These records can be hard to find though, so if your local vendor draws a blank on this one, then try him with maybe 'Best dressed chicken in town' by Dr. Alimantado, or 'C.B. 200' from Dillinger. If he is still staring with incomprehension, while pointing weakly to a rack of Dido CD’s, then bid him good day and find a new bar keep, or go on-line
and..... no, no, no, I didn't say that.

The Clash were a band that held roots reggae very closely, and as for times when its influence has blended with another genre, here being punk rock, and culminated in a perfect marriage, there couldn't be a finer example.

Check out the live footage on this special edition DVD of the classics, 'White man in Hammersmith Palais', 'Police and Thieves' , all the performances on this disc show a band with the kind of raw energy and emotion that most "rock" bands today would hand in their tight charity shop trousers and dirty plimsolls for. Joe Strummer is a legend. The Clash were amazing.

As for the film itself, it may not be a cinematic masterpiece but it does give insight to a time when things were really happening, in music, in youth culture and in those youths cultural understanding of political issues. In a perfect world The Clash would have received government funding for the education they gave a generation, but in a perfect world they might not have existed, what a consolation they are.