Tuesday 9 March 2010

Pie and Mash

"I went down to Canning Town. George does the best pie and mash around. Try it once, you'll soon get 'ooked. Waiting outside for the pies to cook. Pie and mash every Saturday. 42 pence is all you gotta pay ..." sing The Gymslips on Pie And Mash, their tribute to the other Cockney culinary favourite. There is a case to be made for The Gymslips as the missing link between Gert & Daisy and The Ramones. While the group's irreverent approach may have been misinterpreted, they were at times very much in the music hall tradition with their send-ups and character play, and as a consequence in the archly aspirational '80s ridiculously undervalued. "We're the renees and we don't care," they effectively said to the world in their monkey boots and red tab Levis. Now renee is a piece of east London slang you don't really hear anymore. I have to confess I didn't know until recently that Paula and Karen were later in another group called The Renees, with Jacqui Callis from the later incarnation of the Delta 5 ...

3 comments:

  1. The best Pie and Mash I ever had was from Cooke's 41 Kingsland High Street,Dalston, just round the corner from my nan's (although she always could them rubber pies) - delish. Gone now, well a Chinese called 'Shanghai', but with the untouched and still-tiled Cooke's interior and booths

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  2. My favourite's gone as well. Goddard's in Greenwich. Now a burger bar. Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be ...

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  3. I interviewed Paula almost ten years ago now. She was playing in Sam Fox's band in the time... I have the Renees album somewhere as well. Not great. Had (veggie)pie and mash at Manze's in Peckham a few weeks back.

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