“Sunday morning Camden Town. Perfect time to hang around in London ...” A day out in London. To start this sequence Louis Philippe is back to suggest we start out in Camden Town. Thankfully he doesn’t mention the market in his song Sunday Morning Camden Town. And he wins us over with the closing couplet: “I make a poor Romeo. Forget my lines and let you go. Cutting your way through the crowd ...” Among the many things Louis has done since is arrange the strings on God Save The Clientele. The video for the big hit from that record, Bookshop Casanova, features just about all you need to know about the finer things about London life. Bookshops, cafes, music, dancing, romance. And maybe, just maybe, the bookshop in question could be the sadly missed Compendium bookshop in Camden High Street, where eyes would furtively meet over the expensive Kerouac import editions, searching, appraising, hoping. As for cafes. Well, I bet there are people reading this who even know which cafe it was filmed in. I hope so.
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Allow me to return your gentle serve by revealing that the cafe in question is Bar Bruno on Wardour Street.
ReplyDeleteThere are many, many references to the streets and postcodes of London throughout the Clientele's ouevre. 'Emptily through Holloway' particularly resonates for me, as a former denizen of N7. But more of that over at A jumped-up pantry boy soon...
Nicely returned Dan. Have a number of Clientele songs on the pending list for when they fit in theme wise. I'm sure there's several I've missed and others I'm unsure about (Victoria Street? Which ...) so feel free to suggest some less obvious ones.
ReplyDeleteYou're right to be wary as sometimes it's Edinburgh being referenced rather than London, but I've a feeling that the Victoria Street in question is the SW1 one.
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