Right? I thought they were both really good, too. Nice to see professional, knowledgeable journalists who both care about the subject matter, know their history, and are able to put the interviewees at ease and get to the personal, interesting stuff. Somewhat of a rarity these days...
So I'm guessing Bern-ARD must be referring to MJ being the one standing in the way of any Clash II-related releases, as PS seems eager to correct the narrative and would hardly be opposed to let the songs get a new chance to be properly heard.
While I didn't think much of them at the time, looking back and listening to Clash II shows now I can enjoy them and respect JS and PS for achieving what they were after (even if they overdid it, especially at first) – a tighter, more focused, back-to-basics and more energetic Clash, after the drug-fueled, wandering erraticness of the late MJ-era band.
Either way – I'm glad you enjoyed the interviews!
Here's another one I enjoyed:
https://www.loudersound.com/features/th ... t-the-bandPS: “– But then again, after Mick left, we had a pretty good time. We did loads of shows around America with these new guys, and we did the ‘Busking Tour’ which was really exciting [in May 1985, The Clash hitchhiked and busked around the north of England, at one point following Clash-copyists The Alarm from gig to gig]. Why did we choose the Alarm? Why not? Just to wind them up, really. It was just being playful. We didn’t ever speak to them – they were probably very pissed off. Their bouncers were trying to get rid of us, red paint was chucked at us – it just made it more exciting. It was the last thing we should have done, really, but we had a lot of fun – it was as exciting as the Anarchy tour. You didn’t know where you were going to go next or what was gonna happen and I really enjoyed that.
PS “– I think the last show we played was probably in Greece at some festival and that was really great. We had three guitars by that point, so it gave me a bit more space in some ways. I’d been practising break-dancing for some reason and in the middle of The Magnificent 7, I took the bass off and started spinning around. We were just so comfortable on stage by that point, it didn’t matter – it just mattered that people got a good show.”