The London Nobody Sings ...

A suburban relapse ...

2010-06-24T02:06:00.002+01:00

"Harmful elements in the air. Symbols clashing everywhere ..." Or is it cymbals crashing? Never was sure. But if you were to pin me down and force me to pick one London song that summed up this project it would have to be Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees because when this was a hit back in 1978 it seemed so absurd that here was this achingly hip song in the Top 10 basically about a Chinese takeaway in Chislehurst High Street, out in the south east London suburbs, just a short bus ride away. The beautiful thing was that so many people didn't realise, thinking the song oh so mysterious and enigmatic, and if they did know they probably weren't aware the place was so nondescript. Siouxsie down the years has made no secret of the song's subject matter, often referring to the local thugs that would harrass the restaurant's staff. "I remember wishing that I could be like Emma Peel from The Avengers and kick all the skinheads' heads in," said Siouxsie some time later. Oddly, as far as I know, the restaurant's owners never seemed to cash-in on its 'fame'. It was there for years and years, even though the name changed along the way. I kind of liked that sense of obliviousness. It's one of the attractions of London's outer regions. Being able to hide. Except of course some are desperate to escape. And the whole Siouxsie/suburbia thing, the Bromley Contingent, the dressing up and being outrageous angle - it's all part of punk mythology, of course, with Billy Idol and Generation X which is where this all started and this project ends ...

London, Queen of My Heart

2010-06-23T02:19:00.004+01:00

"London, queen of my heart. Too much laughing and tumbling down upstairs on the night bus from Camden Town. Plague rhymes and Hawksmoor's lost underground and you, London, queen of my heart. London, queen of my heart. In your secret streets I've seen you naked and asleep on late nights lost in the rain and from early morning trains but you won't leave me - leave me - I keep moving but you won't let go. Who'd have thought that I'd miss still those sickly summers and that old, damp chill that loves to creep in beside you while you sleep ..." And then there are those who have fallen in love with London, fallen in love in London, and left but not forgotten, having found that you can leave the Capital but it won't leave you. Cath Carroll's haunting song London, Queen Of My Heart captures this feeling perfectly. It makes me think of places you can't go back to because they are so special. Places that are so special because you can only think of having been there with someone special. So there are places in London that are off-limits. London, Queen Of My Heart comes from Cath's self-titled 2000 set, which would have been released around the time LTM's excellent series of Cath Carroll/Miaow reissues/releases was underway. More recently Cath has returned to the London/exile theme on Moon Over Archway, which is a prequel to London, Queen Of My Heart ...

Nan I Am London

2010-06-22T01:14:00.003+01:00

"Yeah, I know Nan, I know you always told me come out of London, but I can't ... I am London ... ask London ..." There is a certain genius in being able to throw together a track that immediately makes the listener feel that they're eavesdropping on a private conversation. That's what Wiley aka Eskiboy achieves on Nan I Am London, from his mixtape Tunnel Vision Vol. 5. Part of the genius of it is using the word Nan. One of the most widely used words, but how often have you heard it in a song? It takes a Wiley old soul to get away with it. And actually without that one word, Nan, it would all fall flat. I like the split personality of a Wiley/Eskiboy. Most great performers can do pop or underground, but few manage to do the two at once. Is it too pretentious to suggest that duality is a bit like the London Wiley can't leave behind? Like, for instance, Dagenham rapper Devlin will chat about putting on his Lyle & Scott to go up West for a night on the town in London City. But then on the other hand there's his track Community Outcast about the lost of London ...

Relocate

2010-06-21T02:41:00.003+01:00

"I look out the window and see the streets below. Cars and the people. Lonely church steeples surrounded by grey. We need to move away ..." Ah the eternal debate couples seem to have. It's the gist of the dialogue Sarah Cracknall and David Essex have during Saint Etienne's Relocate. Do we move out of London to the countryside for a better way of life? Or should we accept the city for all its faults because at least we've roots here and it's got a bit of life after all. From what is surely the group's finest work, Tales From Turnpike House, this wasn't the only time they worked with David Essex. David (along with Linda Robson) provided the narration for their film What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? Set on 7th July 2005, a unique day of national celebration and horror in London's history, it captures something of an east London about to disappear for better or worse just before the preparations for the 2012 Olympics begin. David Essex, of course, is one of the great London pop figures, but did he record any London songs at the height of his fame? Similarly, the Saint Etienne lads, for all their London related works, did they really write about the Croydon suburbs that wrought them? Well, if they didn't at least Danish progressives Burnin' Red Ivanhoe did at the start of the '70s with their unexpected track, the wonderful 2nd Floor Croydon from an LP that even saw a UK release via John Peel's Dandelion label. "And when she moved her head in a certain way outside her window she could see Big Ben ..."

We're Going To The Country

2010-06-20T02:38:00.001+01:00

"It's called evacuation. They take you to the station. They put you on the train ..." sing the evacuees and mums in We're Going To The Country from Lionel Bart's musical Blitz! The evacuation of many thousands of children from London (and indeed other large cities and towns) during World War Two is something that makes the head spin. For many children this remained the biggest thing in their lives. Being uprooted from their homes, often split up from brothers, sisters and parents, deposited with strangers in far away places with very different ways of life. My own mum was evacuated to south Wales at the start of 1941, after the heaviest part of the Blitz when the family's flat was destroyed and they were pretty much left with nothing at all. She has never forgotten leaving London by train, with a luggage label tied to her like Paddington Bear, arriving in Cardiff the night it was bombed (and a lot of Londoners thought sod this we might as well go 'ome and be killed there), going on to their new locality, being petrified at seeing the miners with their coal blackened faces, and let's not forget the kindness of strangers who took all these cockney urchins into their homes. Some kids were lucky, some were not. But honestly the immensity of the operation, and the way it changed people's lives. And yet how many songs are there about it all? Well,there was the Harry Phillips/Gaby Rogers number, Goodnight Children Everywhere, which was written "with a tender thought to all evacuated children ...", and performed by Vera Lynn, Gracie Fields, and even dear Gert and Daisy ...

Leave The Capitol

2010-06-19T03:31:00.002+01:00

"Showbiz whines, minute detail. It's a hand on the shoulder in Leicester Square. It's vaudeville pub back room. Dusty pictures of white frocked girls and music teachers ..." sings Mark E Smith at the start of The Fall's Leave The Capitol from the 1981 10" Slates. While the sleeve may claim it's any capital this still seems a very London song. It's a very London record actually for some illogical reasons, not least for the fact Adrian Sherwood produced one track and I spent a large part of my youth in London pub function rooms watching young hopefuls play their hearts out. I can remember buying it in the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street on its release where it was prominently displayed. There was a piece in Smash Hits too. It may have been around the time Julian Cope was a pin-up and namechecking Pere Ubu in that mag, and there was always that link between the Liverpool groups and The Fall despite the lyrics to Slate, Slags, Etc. which echo Dexys' There There My Dear. And actually Slates is the pivotal record of the 20th century, not just my favourite record by The Fall. As a 10" EP it turned out to be too long for the singles charts, which seemed like a typical Rough Trade own goal because if it had been a hit the world may have turned out a different place and we may have seen Josef K, Fire Engines et set go on to have the impact the Soft Cells, Adam Ants and ABCs did. Instead the world shrugged its shoulders, the great pop moment passed, and The Fall understandably went all perverse with Hex Enduction Hour. There's some great lines on Slates, such as passing references to Arthur Machen and Albert Finney, and the one about plagiarism infesting the land. Then there's the one about feeling like Alan Minter. There was a piece of graffiti by the side of the railway between Blackheath and Lewisham stations in south east London which simply said "I FEEL LIKE ALAN MINTER" in four feet high letters. It must have been there for well over 20 years, and may be still there now for all I know buried by the buddleia, the rail network's national flower. Just think of the number of people passing through south east London who saw it during that time who would never have heard The Fall perform Fit And Working Again or indeed any of the tracks on Slates ...

Leaving London

2010-06-18T02:58:00.001+01:00

"Last night the Troubadour was so full they barred the door. And I sang a song she knows quite well. But it wouldn't take too long to make up another song for a lonesome and a last farewell ..." With a nice reference to the folk club/coffee bar on the Old Brompton Road Tom Paxton's Leaving London is a beautifully bittersweet number in which he endures our "cold, hard town" while hoping to get enough money to travel home to his love assuming she remembers who he is. Tom may never have been as photogenic as Bob Dylan or Phil Ochs but many of his songs are right up there with the very best in the folk or any other world. He could write the most tender of love songs and the most scathing of political songs, and better still sometimes those lines got blurred ...

London Leaves

2010-06-17T03:18:00.002+01:00

"Soon the wind will be blowing. And the snowflakes will come drifting down. It's been a long hot summer. But your cold love has chilled me to the bone ..." Now before you say it I am aware that there is rather a strong possibility that London Leaves by Boxcar Willie may not be about England's capital. There are, after all, several Londons in the US for starters, and seeing as ole Boxcar is from Texas, well ... Does it matter? The lyrics fit our London rather neatly. And even if it is about London, Ontario or wherever have we ever said we're exclusively about the UK? It's just London ain't it? Anyway, Boxcar Willie the hobo troubadour is an adopted persona like many Londoners reinvent themselves. And our London has always had a thing for country music, from Joe Brown in the '60s to '70s country rockers Brinsley Schwartz singing about their Country Girl or London legend Wendy May with the Boothill Foot Tappers letting their roots show ...

London Homesick Blues

2010-06-16T02:22:00.001+01:00

"Well, when you're down on your luck,and you ain't got a buck, in London you're a goner. Even London Bridge has fallen down, and moved to Arizona. Now I know why. And I'll substantiate the rumor that the English sense of humor is drier than the Texas sand. You can put up your dukes, and you can bet your boots, that I'm leavin' just as fast as I can ... " I first heard the song London Homesick Blues via David Pajo's Papa M project at the end of the '90s. Pajo's progress through that decade is quite fascinating, playing with Slint then Tortoise (and it's easy to forget now just how remarkable those groups sonded at that time, with that Ry Cooder/Paris Texas thing going on etc.) then doing his own electronica/folk/country thing with his Aerial M/Papa M personas. I have to confess I've not kept up with his work since. The song itself was written by Texas troubadour Gary P Nunn, who was working with Jerry Jeff Walker's band. I was just thinking how an interest in Texas troubadours was stimulated by The Clash and their support for Joe Ely. The astute among you will at this point mention that, of course, Joe Ely and London Bridge get a mention in The Clash's lovely If Music Could Talk, but then what doesn't ...

London Blues - Pt. 2

2010-06-15T02:14:00.002+01:00

"When I asked you here for dinner. And you brought all your friends. I said here I am feeding half of London. And all I should be feeding here is you ..." sings Alan 'Blind Owl' Wilson in Canned Heat's London Blues. A true story apparently. And one of the last songs he recorded before his tragic death. What I love when you read about the Canned Heat guys, apart from making some great music, Al Wilson and Bob Hite were real blues obsessives, and not just a couple of schoolkids who wanted to be the Rolling Stones. The Stones themselves were blues fans, but Blind Owl and The Bear were true blues scholars and collectors. There's that lovely story about how when Son House was 'rediscovered' Al Wilson sat down and lovingly taught him all his own songs. Am I the only person in the world who has occasionally been reminded of Canned Heat when listening to Stereolab? Mind you Tim Gane was a bit of a musicologist too ...

London Blues

2010-06-14T03:03:00.001+01:00

"No one here is sipping tea but me ..." claims Margie Anderson as she sings about the London Blues. Hats off to soul spinner supreme Jo Wallace for suggesting this one be included. And a tip of the hat to the YouTube contributor (wally1435) who has helped bring Margie Anderson's name back into circulation, even if plenty of mystery remains. It seems this track comes from an LP shared with the great Pearl Bailey. Would Pearl have sung about having the London Blues? Well, she married the Italian-American big band jazz drummer extraordinaire and composer Louie Bellson here in 1952 four days after they met, and they remained married until Pearl's death in 1990. They married at the famous Caxton Hall registry office, and Louis recorded his Caxton Hall Swing shortly afterwards in celebration. In 1970 Louie recorded a wonderful concept LP about London, called Louie In London. Predominantly swinging big band sounds, one track (the epic London Suite) features the Mike Sammes Singers. Other tracks include Carnaby Street, Kings Road Boogaloo, Sketches From National Gallery and the gorgeous Proud Thames.

I'm Trying To Make London My Home

2010-06-13T02:19:00.002+01:00

"I put in for my citizenship papers and I'm going back to London for sure because if the good Lord lets me live I'm not going back to the States no more ..." I'm Trying To Make London My Home sings Sonny Boy Williamson with a little help on guitar from Hubert Sumlin on a live 1964 recording. Unfortunately the great bluesman died the following year while back in the States on tour so didn't get to live here full time, despite adopting the trademark two-tone, city gentleman's suit (complete with bowler hat, rolled umbrella and attache case full of harmonicas). The track was recorded on one of the famous American Folk Blues Festival appearances. There is a lovely little book by David Williams called The First Time We Met The Blues which tells the story of young London electric blues fans. Part of the book details a 'pilgrimage' the author made up to Manchester in October 1962 to see the first UK appearance of the Festival. Travelling up in the van with him were Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Keith Richards, and they would meet David's old school friend Jimmy Page there. Guy Stevens and Dave Godin make great cameo appearances in the book, and there's even a September 1962 pic of the Rolling Stones trio (possibly) in Dave Godin's Bexleyheath home. Val Wilmer's Mama Told Me There'd Be Days Like These gives an alternative insight into growing up as a blues fan in south London and seeing some of the greats performing in the Capital.

Loneliness of London

2010-06-12T02:17:00.001+01:00

"The night people going home greet me with a yawn. A tramp in a doorway huddles up and mutters ..." sings Peter Reeves on his 1969 single Loneliness of London. It's a song I came across via the Living For Pleasure Alone site where when it was posted I spectacularly failed to seem knowledgeable about the London songbook. I still suspect this was the actor Peter Reeves, a stalwart of the London stage, having a bit of a go at a Richard Harris/Jim Webb thing. If anyone's got a spare £20 or so then why not show how much you've enjoyed this project by treating me to the Peter Reeves LP, The Way I See It? Oh please yourselves. This particular song may have a happy ending, but it's certainly not the only time the words London and lonely have been linked. Ralph McTell and Sam Selvon spring to mind. And then there's Dave Edmunds' London's A Lonely Town, an adaptation of The Tradewinds' NewYork Is A Lonely Town. Was this really a 1976 session featuring Bruce Johnston, Terry Melcher, Gary Usher, and Curt Boettcher? And how did it end up on a Pebbles compilation? Oh well, there'll always be a place in our hearts for Dave Edmunds - for his part in Stardust, his work with the Flamin' Groovies, and of course for his time with Nick Lowe ...

I'm Going To Get Lit Up (When The Lights Go Up In London)

2010-06-11T03:52:00.002+01:00

"I'm going to get lit-up when the lights go up in London. I'm going to get lit up as I've never been before. You will find me on the tiles. You will find me wreathed in smiles. I'm going to get so lit up I'll be visible for miles. The city will sit up when the lights go up in London. We'll all be lit up as the Strand was, only more, much more. And before the party's played out they will fetch the Fire Brigade out. To the lit-est up-est scene you ever saw ..." Our old friend Carroll Gibbons with the Savoy Orpheans captures a certain mood in the WW2 number I'm Going To Get Lit Up (When The Lights Go Up In London). Apparently there were questions asked in the House about this song. One time Nazi sympathiser Lady Astor asked if this was an appropriate way to carry on. Hmm. The song itself was written by Hubert Gregg, who for many years presented the delightful Radio 2 show Thanks For The Memory. His most famous composition was Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner, one of the Capital's anthems. Among his other numbers is this one sung by his wife Pat Kirkwood ...

A London Sumtin'

2010-06-10T02:59:00.002+01:00

"Just for you London ..." While passing on some kind comments about the project Charlie Weisfeld did gently take us to task: "It seems you've missed some very important tunes. Well they were very important if you spent the late '80s and '90s travelling to warehouse parties in and around London in dilapidated business/industrial parks. These tunes are absolute documents of the time, of rave culture and the birth of Jungle music. They might not have much in the way of lyrics but they bag loads of vibe ..." Charlie had made a very valid point. While on a personal level I may not have been haring around London to events (due to shiftwork and various practical reasons) the music was nevertheless a vital part of daily life. The tracks Charlie refers to were heard via the pirate stations which I would have on all the time, and still in my head I can hear the incessant babble of MCs urging London town to 'old tight and keep it locked. The music itself hasn't dated, and the rush and rattle of the tracks Charlie specifically referred to in his message is still incredibly uplifting. He picked Code 071's A London Sumting Dis on Reinforced, Bodysnatch by Euphony, and Sacred's Do It Together. All Junglists: A London Somet’ing Dis is the title of a documentary made in 1993, directed by Rachel Seely, on the origins of the very underground Jungle scene, and available in three parts on YouTube. And for those interested in some Hardcore Londonism ...

London Rock

2010-06-09T01:22:00.002+01:00

"Don't need Manhattan. Just give me Leicester Square. 'Cos I know that the rock 'n' roll is universal, everywhere ..." Ah rock 'n' roll as a universal language. As the wonderful London Rock shows Tony Crombie was quick off the mark to realise just that. Now we all know the British rock 'n' story about the kids graduating via skiffle and the Two I's. But Tony Crombie, who arguably with his Rockets released the first British rock record, is something else altogether. Born in Bishopsgate, he started playing drums in the London jazz clubs as a kid in WW2. Still in the '40s he played with Duke Ellington, was involved with starting the legendary London jazz haunt Club Eleven, went on to play with Ronnie Scott and Johnny Dankworth among others. In the '50s he started his own jazz orchestra, played regularly at places like The Flamingo, recorded with Annie Ross, before veering off at a tangent and starting a band called The Rockets in response to Bill Haley & The Comets' success. Among the participants in this project at various times would be Tubby Hayes, and it's no surprise Crombie soon returned to jazz, playing with the likes of Stan Tracey, had his number So Near So Far adapted by Miles Davis, and played with organist Alan Haven on a TV special of Beatles adaptations. He also did some great soundtrack work, including the theme for the TV series The Man From Interpol.

She Wears Red Feathers

2010-06-08T02:07:00.003+01:00

"I worked in a London bank. Respectable position. At half past three they serve you tea. But ruin your disposition. Each night at the music hall. Travelogues I'd see. And once a pearl of a native girl kept smiling right at me ..." sings Guy Mitchell (here looking suspiciously Suggs-esque) in his 1953 hit She Wears Red Feathers. There is still a tendency to think pop music began with rock 'n' roll. But Guy Mitchell, like Johnny Ray and Frankie Laine, was a great pop performer, pre-r 'n' r, with a little bit of an edge. He was certainly one of my mum's favourites. This early British number one hit was a bizarre tale of a London banker falling in love with an exotic hula girl at the music hall, sets off around the world to follow her, then the happy couple return to London and live happily ever after. It was written by Bob Merrill, who was also responsible for (How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window, If I'd Known You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake, and Mambo Italiano. He also had a hand in Breakfast At Tiffany's and Funny Girl. Another of Guy Mitchell's big hits was Singing The Blues, which has a certain London resonance as Bermondsey boy Tommy Steele also had a number one with it in 1957, and I assume the last line of The Clash's London Calling refers to it ...

Back On The London Stage

2010-06-07T01:12:00.001+01:00

"Back on the London stage. We sailed away, oh we sailed away. Back on the London stage. Maybe one day we'll have time to argue. Looking for London pride. We'll watch your day but we'll keep away from you. Back on the London stage ..." sings the great Jayne Casey on the Pink Military track Back On The London Stage from their classic 1980 LP Do Animals Believe In God? I loved the 'hit' single, Did You See Her, from that LP so much. Played it endlessly. Over the years I've read an awful lot about Patti Smith, and come across lots of people who talk about the impact she's had on their lives. I respect that. But I've never really felt the same about Patti. For me Jayne Casey captures that whole thing better. From Big In Japan to Pink Military to Pink Industry to Eight Productions and beyond Jayne's vocals and presence are remarkable. She has been part of some of the best music ever made ...

Drums Over London

2010-06-06T02:25:00.002+01:00

"The natives are restless. They're brandishing their Spear & Jacksons. Their primitive chants thinly disguised as national anthems. Things are getting slightly less than British in the towns. Soon it will be time to stop the rot. We've got to put our foot down ..." sings a one-time MOJO editor on the Disco Zombies' Drums Over London. Caused a bit of a controversy this track at the end of the '70s, if I remember rightly. Being sung from the perspective of a racist, conservative, little Englander the number was open to misrepresentation, and the subtlety was lost on some. The Disco Zombies were called on to explain themselves to some of the fanzines of the day. This Disco Zombies single was released on their own South Circular label, which was a great south London name. The South Circular being one of the great London roads running from Woolwich in the east out to Gunnersbury-ish in the west. Together with the North Circular it forms a sort of inner London Orbital. There was a mod fanzine called South Circular around the same time, I seem to recall, which made a case for The Teardrop Explodes' Treason and the 'mutant pop' Dave McCullough was writing about in Sounds. That single, of course, came out on Zoo Records. One of the Zoo keepers was Dave Balfe, who would later start the rather less appetising Food Records where later one of his partners would be an Disco Zombie. The Messthetically inclined will find more to investigate Disco Zombies-wise on #107 ...

Sights And Sounds Of London Town

2010-06-05T02:34:00.005+01:00

"Oh Jean-Paul he came over from Toulouse. They told him that London was the golden goose. He never got his hands on enough to eat. He never did get his arse up off the street. Wanted to be a rap DJ. They took his pulse then they turned him away. Under the radar of your fellow man. With all that charisma it ain't worth a damn ..." That's the Sights And Sounds Of London Town according to Richard Thompson. Or, if you like, the side of the Capital they don't promote to tourists. Richard has a gift for writing about the darker sides of city life, and has a number of London songs in his portfolio. There's a case to be made for early Fairport numbers like Meet Me On The Ledge and Genesis Hall, for example. While more recent numbers like Old Thames side and Cooksferry Queen fit the bill nicely. The latter song's title refers, I believe, to a hotel up Edmonton way that was part of the '60s live circuit. For someone as important to the history of popular music as Richard Thompson it's a little ironic that I first became aware of his name through his playing on some of David Thomas' recordings ...

The London Look

2010-06-04T03:20:00.002+01:00

"See the country vicars and the city slickers, pearly kings and noble dukes. Everybody moving, everybody grooving. They've all got The London Look ..." sings Peter Noone in the chorus of the Herman's Hermits number The London Look. This was a 1968 track recorded for a Yardleys cosmetics promotion, written by Graham Gouldman. One of our great songwriters, Gouldman is associated with Kennedy Street Enterprises, the Manchester based songwriting stable, but The London Look was by no means the only song related to the Capital he penned. On his own debut LP, The Graham Gouldman Thing, he had the number Chestnut where he claimed: "If all of us were doomed to die when we'd lived a minute I think I know what Ann and I would wish to happen in it. We'd let our sixty seconds run where chestnut blossoms harden some early morning in Kensington when Spring is in the garden ..." Graham of course wrote hits for top '60s acts like the Yardbirds and Hollies. Other less well known but more local acts that covered Graham's songs were Manchester mods St Louis Union who had a single out with Behind The Door on the A-side. Is it true Magazine's Dave Formula was in this outfit?

There's No Place Like London - Pt 2

2010-06-03T02:37:00.005+01:00

"When you walk down the street feel the history under your feet. From the top of St. Paul's to the old market stalls. All in all it's my cup of tea ..." sings Shirley Bassey on her 1986 single There's No Place Like London. Written by Lynsey De Paul and Gerard Kenny (who wrote the Minder theme) the song was used by the British Tourist Board (or some such body) to promote tourism in the Capital at a time when visitor numbers were falling off, possibly as a result of the IRA's bombing campaign. Strange choices all round, but then Dame Shirley's been around, as she says. My mum remembers seeing her on a bill in London in the '50s singing Burn My Candle (At Both Ends). No Place Like London is also the title of a number written used by Stephen Sondheim in his Sweeney Todd musical. In 2009 house/garage producer Todd Edwards used the track in a mix as a crowdpleaser when playing to a London audience. As far as I know that has not been used yet in a tourism advert ...

There's No Place Like London

2010-06-02T02:25:00.001+01:00

"English songs are now forgotten. Everyone I know sings the tune The Land Of Cotton he must go. Some for Dixieland are sighing. Some for Alabam are crying. Others want to live and die in Ohio. I don't want their Dixieland nor their Alabam. I don't know where either are and I don't care a ... " sings music hall star Whit Cunliffe in the number There's No Place Like London. In Whit's London "the girls are young and pretty and the boys are gay hip hip hooray" which he why he claims "I don't want to go to USA". So more than 60 years before The Clash sang about being so bored with the USA having a bit of a go at the Yanks was a familiar music hall line. This particular number was written by R.P. Weston who has a special place in the London/Great British songbook. He had a hand in goodness knows how many songs/monologues in his day, including What A Mouth, I'm Henery The Eighth, Brahn Boots, Hobnailed Boots That Father Wore, With Her Head Tucked Under Her Arm, Paddy McGinty's Goat, and indeed Goodbye-ee. Now Goodbye-ee is an interesting one, because it mentions "nah poo" and Kew in certain versions. Among his writing partners were Bert Lee and Fred Barnes. If R.P. Weston songs may seem to have a bit of a tendency towards the cockney persona, then this little tongue twister might make you think again ...

My Love Went To London

2010-06-01T02:24:00.003+01:00

"Never thought I'd live to see the city on the Thames. Where's that sky of grey? Where's that foggy day? The Gershwins have their say. But now I'm here to tell you ..." My Love Went To London sings the great Blossom Dearie on a song from Tweedledum and Tweedledee, an LP she made with Mike Renzi some 20 odd years after she'd sung about liking London in the rain. Lyrics for this song were written by New York cabaret favourite John Wallowitch, whose 1964 debut LP had a sleeve designed by one Andy Warhol apparently. Tony Bennett and Shirley Bassey are among others who have recorded this song. The wonderful Blossom had spent quite a bit of time in London in the '60s. She'd spent time too in Paris in the '50s where she'd directed the pioneering Blue Stars of France with their hip vocalese arrangements which paved the way for Les Double Six and Swingle Singers. And as for Americans heading for London ... well, on his lovely track When Americans Come To London Ed Harcourt took a bit of a let's not be beastly to the Yanks stance ...

La Fille de Londres

2010-05-31T03:09:00.001+01:00

"Un chinois est sorti de l'ombre. Un chinois a regardé Londres. Sa casquette était de marine. Ornée d'une ancre coralline. Devant la porte de Charlie. A Pennyfields j'lui ai souri. Dans le silence de la nuit. En murmurant je lui ai dit ..." sings Juliette Greco in her version of La Fille de Londres. Ah Juliette Greco. I think now of Alfie and Robert Wyatt's song Old Europe. I think of Richard Barnes' Mods! where I first saw the name Juliette Greco. And I think of Juliette dismissing Malcolm McLaren with the line: ‘I have had the greatest poets in France write for me, and you are asking me to sing this!’ And how delighted he would have been to have her slam down the score. Among the poets whose words Juliette has sung is Mac Orlan who wrote La Fille de Londres (with its nice reference to Pennyfields down near the old West India Docks). One of the famous interpretations of that song is by Germaine Montero. I believe a collection of Mac Orlan songs sung by Germaine was a particular favourite of Guy Debord and his circle in the '50s. Start putting all this together and you can understand why Malcolm as a London boy was so enchanted by Paris ...

L'Inconnue de Londres

2010-05-30T02:36:00.001+01:00

"La chambre était au paradis. D'un vieil hôtel à luminaire. Où l'on cultive la chimère. En y mettant un peu le prix ..." sings Léo Ferré during his early composition L'Inconnue de Londres, which if you'll excuse my schoolboy French translates as the lost of London. I have a growing fascination for French chanson, particularly the chansons réalistes about which Kenneth Rexroth wrote so vividly in 1969. And if my poor grasp of the French language inhibits an ability to understand, then at least the sound and feel and flow of the words overwhelms the senses and maybe more is left to the imagination. Ever since discovering the work of Léo Ferré as part of the whole May 1968 thing I have become a huge fan. The works I came across first, Amour Anarchie, La Solitude and Chante L'Ete '68, have become massive favourites. And if these reflect a man in his 50s being influenced in turn by the new sounds and spirit of the age then there is a lesson there for us all. Some of the arrangements are exquisite, like say Sinatra's Watertown. He sums up that whole wonderful mix of elements and contradictions that the French are so great at: communist, romantic, anarchist, poet, rogue ...

Initials BB

2010-05-29T03:26:00.002+01:00

"Une nuit que j'etais a me morfondre dans quelque pub anglais du coeur de Londres parcourant L'Amour Monstre de Pauwels me vint une vision dans l'eau de Seltz ..." recounts Serge Gainsbourg at the start of his wonderful Initials BB. Happens to me all the time. There is a case to be made for more London songs to be delivered in anything but the local vernacular. After all a song starting: "One night as I was sitting moping in some pub in the centre of London reading a bit of Louis Pauwels I saw a vision in my tonic water ..." just doesn't have quite the same charm does it? Initials BB like several of Serge's greatest moments was recorded in London, where he worked with some of the great arrangers like Arthur Greenslade and David Whitaker. He also recorded his big hit with Jane Birkin in London. Indeed one of the tracks from that LP, Le Canari Est Sur Le Balcon, is set in London. I have to confess I nearly overlooked Initials BB as a London song, but since the mid-'90s re-serge-ence of interest in the great man's works they have become so familiar you almost don't notice the words for the sound they make - if that makes sense. Was it more fun when we had to scratch around for bits of Serge? Perhaps. But the joy of finding clips about the creation of Initials BB is still something wonderful. This is the second part ..."Here we go mate ..."

Night in London

2010-05-28T02:58:00.002+01:00

Night in London is a 1967 Bollywood crime caper starring Biswajeet and the beautiful actress Mala Sinha. The soundtrack features the popular singers Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. The music is composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal. And there are plenty of people who know more about such things. But the fantastic title track of Night in London qualifies perfectly as a London song. The opening sequence it features in is suitably extravagant and delightfully illogical. And the film features a gorgeous poignant jazzy beat ballad called O My Love which has some nice London settings and some sharp schmutter ...

Mr Dante Fontana

2010-05-27T02:50:00.003+01:00

"Get your bowler hat at Lock. Look around you. See who is around you. Get that hat at Lock. Buy your style of shoe at Lobb. It's the done thing. Stroll and walk around in shoes from Mr Lobb. Your umbrella straight from Brigg. Never never trust the weather ever. Get your brolly from Brigg. Then you'll find at Fortnum & Mason a beautiful red carnation. A moment of sweet fascination will linger with you. From Dunhill a pipe for the manly type. Get your ties each day the Piccadilly way. Gentlemen everything is just okay ..." Towards the end of the number Mr Dante Fontana the singer Lydia McDonald outlines how to get the perfect English gentleman look. Astonishingly 45 years on those establishments are still there in central London. The song itself comes from the 1966 film Fumo Di Londra, a vehicle for Alberto Sordi. Significantly the soundtrack was by Piero Piccioni, one of those Italian composers whose work became astonishingly hip and ridiculously sought after at the turn of the millennium. The film was a light comedy based around the Anglophile Sordi's quest to become the quintessential English gent but he gets caught up in the new swingin' London. There's the inevitable night club 'happening' scene, actually out at Eel Pie. Most of the vocals are provided by Lydia, the Cinecitta muse, but the great Julie Rogers (a Bermondsey girl) is featured too. The fascinating thing about the Italian soundtracks is that the music is extraordinarily addictive, without needing to see the films, and there is a temptation to become totally immersed in these sounds. There's a distinct similarity to the Bollywood soundtracks of the same era in that respect ...

London Rain

2010-05-26T02:41:00.002+01:00

"The rain of London pimples/The ebony street with white/And the neon lamps of London/
Stain the canals of night/And the park becomes a jungle/In the alchemy of night ..." That's how Louis MacNeice's poem London Rain begins. There's a lovely bit in Arnold Wesker's East End trilogy where the young romantic revolutionary recites a few lines of MacNeice's and his mum says something along the lines of aww that's nice why don't you write poetry like that more often? Jah Wobble set London Rain to music on his collection The Celtic Poets. Jean-Pierre Rasle plays the pipes on this track and the words are read by The Dubliners' Ronnie Drew in that remarkable, distinctive voice. This is not the only occasion when Wobble has provided us with musical settings of poetic works. He recorded a set inspired by Blake's verse, which appropriately featured an adaptation of the poem London from Songs of Experience. Back in 1969 Allen Ginsberg recorded poems from Songs Of Innocence and Songs Of Experience, including London sung in his unique way, with musical contributions from some of the greats like Don Cherry, Elvin Jones, and Bob Dorough. A more recent and very lovely interpretation is by Paul Howard and Jo Clack ...

The Aspidistra Flies

2010-05-25T03:37:00.003+01:00

"All the rain in this town. And still the sky is blue. St James's Square is teeming with doves. And that sunset they flew across the darkening city. To an attic room for two. All the umbrellas in London. Couldn't hide my love for you ..." sings Torquil Campbell in Stars' The Aspidistra Flies which I assume refers to the Magnetic Fields' song. Intentionally or not the song makes me think of Helena Bonham Carter in Wings Of A Dove and Keep The Aspidistra Flying. Or should that be makes me think of Henry James and George Orwell? Stars are Canadian but there was another pop pretender called Torquil once upon a time. '80s underground hopefuls Reserve were fronted by one Torquil MacLeod, and they were briefly recording artists on the splendid Sombrero label. Reserve's flexi favourite The Sun Slid Down Behind The Tower was itself a London song. Other Sombrero scenesters included the Siddeleys and Bob. Vintage guitars, Oxfam suits and sweet smelling hair wax a gogo ...

Swinging London - pt 2

2010-05-24T02:13:00.001+01:00

"Planets crash, the world goes nova. Sun explodes, all goes black. You went off swinging London and forgot to come back ..." I bet if all the artists featured as part of this project were given the task of writing a swinging London related song we would have a pretty amazing range of themes. One we do have is the Magnetic Fields' Swinging London. Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields are undoubtedly underground pop heroes, though it wasn't until the release of 69 Love Songs that I was even aware of their existence. Interestingly for such a prolific pop classicist Merritt, despite his way with words and melodies, has not become a major contributor to the great American songbook. Perhaps no one has had the wit to capitalise on his songwriting skills. So, for example, no one has had a massive hit with All The Umbrellas In London. Now what does that tell us about the world we live in?

Swinging London - pt 1

2010-05-23T02:39:00.001+01:00

"There are people out there who make me sick. People out there who I haven't got time for. People out there who think they're it. People out there who I wouldn't want to die for ..." Punk contenders London appropriately had a great song called Swinging London which is about anything but that. Nevertheless it is one of the great London songs of the punk era. Their front man was one Riff Regan who under his real name of Miles Tredinnick would become a script writer for Frankie Howerd and Birds Of A Feather. London (the group) had the unique selling point of being managed by swingin' '60s legend Simon Napier-Bell whose assistant had stumbled across the group playing in the Rochester Castle, in Stoke Newington. Interesting the way the old '60s pop moguls dabbled in punk, like Mickie Most hooking up with The Vibrators on RAK briefly which even saw them appearing on the TV pop show with Chris Spedding performing Pogo Dancing. Napier-Bell's previous charges included the Yardbirds and John's Children ...

Swingin' London Scene

2010-05-22T03:03:00.001+01:00

"Five o'clock on a Sunday morning. Sleeping city grey and still. Even the early milkman's yawning ..." A number written by one John Britten (and certainly not the Subway Sect/Orange Juice one) First Impression's Swingin' London Scene pops up on a glorious round-up on the valuable RPM label of what it calls "the accidental genius of Saga Records 1968-1970". Saga was a budget label that a little late in the day decided to cash-in shamelesly on the Swingin' London pop scene. As is so often the way with these things it just so happens that some of the material it 'processed' was as good as anything else on the market. First Impression's Swingin' London Scene also appears on an excellent Spiral London-themed mix called Teatime At The Circus which I'm very grateful to Nick Hamilton (who produced the excellent London-themed Lost Steps show on Resonance FM)for pointing out. The mix itself features a number of London songs I certainly wasn't aware of, and I will resist the urge to pinch them. Another thing I particularly like about mass produced cash-ins is that they often go off at odd tangents which purists would never countenance. So, for example,I love Swingin' London numbers where things aren't quite what they seem. A modern variation on that theme would be the Noonday Underground, named after the archetypal Tom Wolfe mod essay, and yet their London. Well ...

Sunday Afternoon in Belgrave Square

2010-05-21T02:41:00.003+01:00

"With my friends surrounding me I should smile most happily but I'd rather spend my afternoons with you ..." sings Trevor Billmuss at the end of his gorgeous song Sunday Afternoon In Belgrave Square, which came out on the b-side of a 1970 single on Charisma, and has since turned up on the Fading Yellow series of rare psych/sunshine pop sounds. There was an LP too, but that's pretty elusive. Would love to hear it though. There's the famous '60s quote from, I think Roger Daltrey (or was it Pete Townsend?) about becoming famous and buying a flat in Belgravia and spitting out of the window any time you wanna just to annoy the Conservative geezers. Punk group The Depressions borrowed the line for their Family Planning single which had the familiar punk refrain of dad's in the pub, sister's in the club, and so on. Fantastic flipside though, called Living On Dreams, which had this real '60s blue-eyed soul growl to it. The Pretty Things were notoriously based in Belgravia too, and famously used their address, 13 Chester Street, as the title of one of their tracks. What a fantastic group the Pretty Things were ...

Percy From Pimlico

2010-05-20T02:45:00.001+01:00

"No doubt to see me you'd think I am a millionaire by the clothes I wear. Think that I ride around in my carriage and pair round Leicester Square to make folks stare. I've got no 'oof but I always play spoof. I'm a rickity rackity bloke. I'm as happy as the Prince of Wales although I'm stony broke ..." sings Tom Leamore in his music hall classic Percy From Pimlico about a cove wot's "a slasher, a dasher, the up-to-date masher." It's another of the numbers Ian Whitcomb includes on his Titanic Tunes set, and covers familiar themes of the chap with nothing creating an illusion to the contrary. The roots of modernism? This recording of Leamore was made in the '30s when there was a brief revival of interest in music hall and variety which resulted in electric recordings of a number of original artists who had been stars pre-WW1. I like it for the use of the word masher, which is a piece of slang that's long gone referring to a fop that acts the part of a lady killer. Talking of fops, many years on David Devant & His Spirit Wife would claim we've all been to Pimlico, and that it's the kind of place lovers like to go. Well, certainly the Ealing Comedy Passport To Pimlico is the kind of plucky Londoner against the establishment story we've all been part of in our dreams ...

London At Night

2010-05-19T02:12:00.001+01:00

"In the markets of Soho to the far less exotic and more patriotic restraints of Pimlico ..." Noel Coward's London Pride is rightly one of the Capital's anthems, but it is by no means the great man's only song about the City. There is, for example, London At Night from his 1954 musical After The Ball, which was based on Lady Windermere's Fan. On paper the idea of Coward combining with Wilde is one to savour, but it's not everyone's favourite. Nevertheless London At Night is a wonderful number, and it's interesting to see Coward succumb to the London song writing temptation to take the listener on a whirlwind random tour of the town. I suppose there is a certain irony in the fact that Noel Coward is best remembered by some for his role as Mr Bridger in The Italian Job. It was something special though. As is of course the song London Pride. And the next time someone mentions the 'special relationship' to you then think of this amazing piece of film footage ...

Clunk Click

2010-05-18T02:16:00.001+01:00

"We be all the King's Men. Minds of Jack The Ripper to the strokes of Big Ben. When we hear the tones we be breaking bones. Roaming through the gas lit alleyways of bloodstained cobblestones with the groans of Mr Hyde howling at the moon we be lunar like the tide ..." Ah The Brotherhood's Clunk Click captures better than any other track the dark heart of London past Peter Ackroyd also conjures up perfectly in novels like Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, The Lambs of London and The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein. The Brotherhood's Elementalz is one of the great lost masterpieces of UK hip hop. It has the distinct advantage of being produced by Trevor 'The Underdog' Jackson and features some of the most individualistic UK rap full stop. To give a flavour of how the outfit was out of step one track's entitled Punk Funk at a time when no one was listening (1996). The Brotherhood was from north west London and the city was quite a feature in its work ...

Big Ben

2010-05-17T03:42:00.001+01:00

"On Sunday nothing opens late. The clock across the river chimes. Towers above the bridge we crossed were bound for better times ..." Nick Drake's At The Chime of the City Clock is one of the songs most often suggested for inclusion in this project. It's referenced in Roddy Frame's Big Ben, one of the highlights of the great man's Surf set. "At my best I believe in love. I can't conceive there's only sky above ..." I love those lines. It's a gloriously sentimental song. Speaking of which Big Ben is a sort of symbol for London, and so it's the perfect imagery for Vera Lynn to use when singing When You Hear Big Ben, You're Home Again. The great bell of the clock tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster is, of course, known all over the world just like Vera Lynn, the forces' sweetheart from East Ham. Less well known is the fact that visits to the clock tower are free for UK citizens and can be arranged through the local MP. It's your democratic right but there'll be a waiting list ...

Public Servant

2010-05-16T02:00:00.002+01:00

"Public servant number one. Sits in Whitehall. Is waited on. Do they know something we don't know? Public servant number two. Sits in Whitehall with nothing to do. Do they know something we don't know? Chief of Staff in a big black car. Buying arms for his jungle war. Does he know something that we don't know ..." sings the inimitable Charlie Harper at the start of the UK Subs' Public Servant, a great track from their second LP Brand New Age. Charlie is a London institution held in far higher regard than the heart of the Civil Service he sings about. It really is scary the role played by the higher echelons of the Civil Service in controlling this country and shaping what the Government of the day thinks is its policy. Of all the songs that make passing reference to Whitehall the most powerful and poignant has to be the Style Council's Homebreakers. Mick Talbot's vocals capture the vulnerability of the vengeful perfectly ...

Green Park

2010-05-15T01:24:00.002+01:00

"It didn't last long. In seconds this moment had gone. It happened in Green Park ..." claims Anthony Adverse in her song Green Park. Oh I know the feeling only too well. This 'legendary b-side' was written by our old friend Louis Philippe, as was the Red Shoes suite of songs which features another fantastic Anthony Adverse London song, London My Town, which sounds rather wonderfully like the blueprint for Saint Etienne or Noonday Underground. It should perhaps be mentioned in passing that Anthony Adverse also recorded one of my favourite Vic Godard covers (T.R.O.U.B.L.E). The Anthony Adverse character was one of Mike Alway's fantasy pop figures on the wonderful el label and it's all there - the Powell/Pressburger references, the bossa inflections, the brassy '60s swing. I rather liked the fact that I didn't have a clue about who Anthony Adverse really was. Then, damn the internet, I found some snippets of information suggesting she was Julia Gilbert who had been in underground pop greats Five Or Six and who went on to become a script writer for EastEnders with a father who might have been Head of BBC Light Entertainment during one of its golden ages. Even Mr Alway couldn't have made that one up.

Klub Londinium 20-30

2010-05-14T02:10:00.002+01:00

“The sunglass stands of Via Buckingham. People came to join the organised dancing. So we made a Klub. Made it all up ...” Klub Londinium 20-30 is a track from the final Sudden Sway record, Ko-Opera, released on Rough Trade in 1990. Sudden Sway’s story is the great untold pop adventure. Throughout the 1980s they were the ultimate pop strategists playing with formats and processes, all the while creating sounds several light years ahead of the pack. If you’re not familiar with their work follow the clues on the web to their Peel sessions, the Spacemate game, the To You With ReGard 12”, Traffic Tax Scheme, the Sing Song exercise and, my personal favourite, the ’76 Kids Forever pop opera. Ko-Opera is in some ways their ‘straight’ record, though musically it was a blueprint for the ‘90s to come. Similarly, well before the likes of Iain Sinclair were the toast of the town, to complement Ko-Opera there were special themed Klub Londinium walks around the Capital. To my eternal shame I didn’t take part, though I do seem to remember seeing people pick up headsets at the Rough Trade shop in Covent Garden. This is borrowed from an account posted online, with thanks and apologies to the author Ken C: “Klub Londinium was the best thing they ever did. It was an exercise in psychogeography in which you walked the city in someone else’s shoes. Having completed a personality assessment questionnaire, you were assigned to a tour for a quite different personality. They decided I was an Outsider, so sent me on the Hedonist tour. The cassette contained two voices; one giving directions and factual, historical information about London; the other representing the interior monologue of the ‘raver’ driving himself to despair in pursuit of the good time that must be going on somewhere else. The tour began at Charing Cross station and led through Soho and Mayfair, describing this history of the Crystal Rooms in Leicester Square, the location of the first strip show in London, Sheeky’s restaurant, the location of private gambling clubs, 18th century brothels, and much else. A tremendous amount of research must have gone into the tours. I bought the tapes for the other tours: the ‘Mystic’ personality (a satire on new-age nonsense the led around Regents Park and up Parliament Hill); Materialist (through the City, St Katherine’s Dock and the yuppie housing in Docklands, ending in Tobacco Dock) and, the best I think, the Outsider tour, an eternal wanderer’s search for a home, through Spitalfields and Brick Lane, ending at the Geffrye Museum. The degree of synchronisation between the taped speech in your head and what you saw in front of you was often uncanny; graffiti on the walls was read to you as you passed; an electronic tone representing the onset of a migraine kicked in as you emerged from the shadow of a building into the sunshine; the sound of footsteps following you as you walked through a long tunnel in a dodgy part of Shoreditch.” The same internet posting refers to an earlier Sudden Sway installation at ICA in The Mall, and a clip of the group performing its Human Jukebox featured on the Old Grey Whistle Test ...

The Changing of the Guard

2010-05-13T02:41:00.002+01:00

"The Changing of the Guard is part of our tradition but now we find it's been applied to us ..." mourns The Marquis of Kensington as he feels the gentry is up against it in swingin' England. If his Changing of The Guard has a touch of the Noel Coward sings The Kinks about it then that'll be because their manager Robert Wace was on vocals. The Marquis of Kensington was a studio project featuring Wace with the great Mike Leander. This song was featured in Peter Whitehead's 1967 documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love In London, and was a hit on the continent. As Wace wanted to keep a low profile they got a young art student to do the TV appearances. Another single, Sister Marie, had a great mod instrumental, Flash, on the flip which was covered in Italy and became a hit for the equally aristocratic Duke of Burlington.

I Dig Everything

2010-05-12T02:13:00.002+01:00

"Ain't had a job for a year or more. And I don't own a thing. Everything's fine and I dig everything. I feed the lions in Trafalgar Square and I dig everything ..." You could make up a nice little mix of David Bowie's London songs from the 1960s if you were that way inclined. Certainly our Dave's London Boys has been one of the most frequently suggested songs for this project. Rather brilliantly right at the offset Andy Hitchcock of the Socialist Leisure Party nominated I Dig Everything. Rob Symmons of the magnificent Fallen Leaves proposed London Bye Ta Ta. Bob Stanley has made a case for Can't Help Thinking About Me. And soul spinner supreme Jo Wallace trumped us all with Did You Ever Have A Dream? with its mention of Penge out there in deepest Shena Mackay territory. Oddly no one suggested Memories of a Free Festival . Stranger still none of Bowie's London songs seemed to feature in the fantastic Ken Pitt film, but you do get a nice shot of Mr Fish in Clifford Street here ...

I Live in Trafalgar Square

2010-05-11T00:20:00.001+01:00

“My last ‘digs’ were on the Embankment. The third seat from Waterloo Bridge! But the cooking and, oh!, the attendance, didn’t happen to suit me so well. So I ordered my man to pack up and look out for another hotel ...” sings the splendid Ian Whitcomb on his interpretation of the old Music Hall classic I Live In Trafalgar Square which has the lovely subtitle of The Optimistic Outcast. It comes from Ian’s CD/Songbook Titanic Tunes where he recreates an impromptu ‘knees-up’ that took place in the steerage lounge of the doomed ship on the evening before the disaster. An American vaudeville act returning home, the Musical Murrays, was playing a mix of ragtime and music hall numbers they’d fallen in love with while in the UK. The audience would have been largely Eastern European immigrants whirling around the dancefloor. Ian takes on the role of Mr Mortimer St John of Mornington Crescent, “a delineator of high-class ballads, tragedian and dramatic monologist”, who may just have helped out with a spot of singing on the night, displaying an unexpectedly authentic Cockney tone at times. It’s great stuff, and a treasure chest of London songs. Proceedings end with Ian performing Albert Chevalier’s A Fallen Star which includes the lines: “I do not wish to gas. I merely state in self-defence the denizens of New Cut thought my Hamlet was immense”. Of course US audiences thought Ian was immense too ...

This Is Charing Cross

2010-05-10T02:17:00.001+01:00

"This is Charing Cross; It is midnight; There is a great crowd. And no light— A great crowd, all black, that hardly whispers aloud. Surely, that is a dead woman—a dead mother! She has a dead face; She is dressed all in black; She wanders to the book-stall and back, At the back of the crowd; And back again and again back, She sways and wanders. This is Charing Cross; It is one o’clock. There is still a great cloud, and very little light; Immense shafts of shadows over the black crowd That hardly whispers aloud…. And now!… That is another dead mother, And there is another and another and another…. And little children, all in black, All with dead faces, waiting in all the waiting-places, Wandering from the doors of the waiting-room In the dim gloom. These are the women of Flanders: They await the lost. They await the lost that shall never leave the dock; They await the lost that shall never again come by the train To the embraces of all these women with dead faces; They await the lost who lie dead in trench and barrier and fosse, In the dark of the night. This is Charing Cross; it is past one of the clock; There is very little light. There is so much pain." This is the fifth part of the poem Antwerp by Ford Madox Hueffer (Ford), which The Wraiths have set to music as This Is Charing Cross. It is a haunting poem about (Ford's) WW1 experiences which T.S. Eliot famously described as “the only good poem I have met with on the subject of the war.” Pretty daft quote that actually. The Valleys by Electrelane which uses words from Siegfried Sassoon's A Letter Home disproves that for starters. The Wraiths specialise in setting poetry to music, exceptionally beautiful music for which the words chamber folk seem ridiculously inadequate, and I am eternally grateful (yet again) to Daniel for suggesting this number be included, thus triggering a love of The Wraiths' work. Serves me right for not taking notice of him earlier. Interestingly Daniel has geographical links to both The Wraiths (Bristol) and Ford Madox Ford (Merton). The Wraiths have a fantastic new (second) collection out, Welcome, Stranger, To This Place, which continues the challenge of combining poems and music in a way that is exquisite and very moving. Coincidentally Ford Madox Ford's The Soul of London, which some argue is the best book about the Capital and I wouldn't necessarily diagree, is now available as a print-on-demand paperback. I'm not sure I like what that says about publishing today no matter how much I love the book ...

Rose Ann of Charing Cross

2010-05-09T02:16:00.001+01:00

"There by my lonely bed, a lovely angel stopped and said: 'That's only thunder overhead' And that's how we met. Rose Ann of Charing Cross, the rose you gave me never died. Rose Ann of Charing Cross, it knows one day you'll be my bride. And it will live till then, until that happy moment when I know our paths will cross at Charing Cross again, Rose Ann ..." sing the Four Vagabonds in exquisite harmony on their 1943 hit Rose Ann of Charing Cross. It's an interesting one this, as most of the popular songs of WW2 on the face of it have nothing to do with the war itself. But this is a number seemingly about a wounded soldier who falls in love with a nurse while laid up in Charing Cross Hospital. The Four Vagabonds had the hit, but plenty of others have sung it including Frank Sinatra. It was written by the American team of Kermit Goell and Mabel Wayne, which perhaps is why the location is a little eyebrow-raising and doesn't bear too close an analysis. Mind you, this was well before the hospital moved way out west. The Four Vagabonds have been cited as pioneers of r 'n' b vocal stylings, and it's easy to make the link to the doo wop boom. Listening to the group's wartime tribute to Rosie the Riveter it's easy to make links to Billy Stewart and General Johnson ...

Rosemary McLaren of the Strand

2010-05-08T02:31:00.001+01:00

"Miss Rosemary McLaren is a lady of renown. Like a piano she is upright and grand. She spends her daily hours selling flowers by the bunch at a pitch situated on the Strand ..." In which Richard Digance declares his love for the flower seller Rosemary McLaren of the Strand during one of his lovely early sentimental folk/vaudeville numbers. London, of course, has its famous flower sellers, from Eliza Doolittle to the Great Train Robber Buster Edwards who had a stall for years outside Waterloo station. The Strand also has its place in pop history, from Let's All Go Down The Strand to Do The Strand. And then there's Bob Dylan and Don't Look Back where he's filming the infamous promo for Subterranean Homesick Blues behind the Savoy. But this particular Richard Digance number makes me think of one of Bob's old comrades, namely one of my all-time favourite fighters Phil Ochs and his own Flower Lady. Here's a toast to those that are gone ...

We All Went To Leicester Square

2010-05-07T02:47:00.003+01:00

"One night as I strolled up the West I met this millionaire Smith beside myself. Smith said 'where are you going to?' I said 'I'll go anywhere along with you'. 'Where shall we go?' said Baron Rothschild. Then as I pulled me fourpence ha'penny out. 'Then' I shouted out with glee 'if you're leaving it to me let's go somewhere where there are no girls about' ..." So We All Went To Leicester Square sings George Formby Snr. Oh yes before there was the cheeky chappie with the ukelele his father was a great star on London's Music Hall stages. Sometimes he'd play the provincial fool for the partisan Cockneys. In our favourite book, Sweet Saturday Night, Colin MacInnes describes how "George wore a miniscule bowler, a jacket too tight, pants too baggy, large unlaced boots, a scarf that dangled between his legs, and gloves whose fingers were larger than his own. One of his comic effects, as he ambled about the stage, was the hacking cough that doubled him up in paroxysms of anguish - and his audience in paroxysms of mirth. He was in fact tubercular, and the cough was genuine and killed him after surviving World War 1." The cough can be heard to great effect on his recording of Looking For Mugs In The Strand where he turns the tables and gets one over on Londoners ...

Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square

2010-05-06T05:02:00.000+01:00

"Bright city woman, walking down Leicester Square everyday. Gonna get a piece of my mind. You think you're not a piece of my kind. Ev'rywhere the people looking. Why don't you get up and sing?" suggests Ian Anderson in the early Jethro Tull number Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square. It's odd. For a long time the Tull was a bit of a guilty pleasure. I was really fond of some of their early works and thought they were lovely movers. Then I began to notice some of the hip hop headz were coming out as fans and I read a piece where Nick Cave was enthusing about the group and I thought hmmm well it's not just me then. And I really am a soft touch for a bit of flute in my pop music. Anyway, Mr Anderson seemed to like writing about the character Jeffrey in his songs. Like this one which they got to perform on the Rolling Stones' Rock 'n' Roll Circus in 1968 which has a real Beefheart and the Magic Band feel to it. Fantastic stuff ...

Undercover Anarchist

2010-05-05T02:47:00.001+01:00

"Leicester Square under siege ..." What a line. You can just see that on an apocalyptic Evening Standard headline. Any cultural commentator that gets all snooty about UK hip hop should be forced to listen to Undercover Anarchist, a single by Silver Bullet at the end of the ‘80s. Silver Bullet was a particular favourite of John Peel, a big champion of UK hip hop in his way. The Silver Bullet tracks he played would explode out of the radio like Suspect Device or Oh Bondage Up Yours had once blasted the listener out of slumbering comfortableness. Unlike oh so many many performers that appeared often enough on the John Peel radio show the transition from small independent to major recording conglomerate in the case of Silver Bullet resulted in a record that was even more ridiculously raw. In the case of UK hip hop as in the days of post-punk this would be nothing short of a miracle. The one and only Silver Bullet LP, Bring Down The Walls – No Limit Squad Returns, came out on Parlophone in 1991. It now goes for silly money as befits its status as a bona fide ferocious UK hip hop masterpiece, which nevertheless far too few folks are fervent about. Silver Bullet’s performance throughout Bring Down The Walls is astonishingly angry, and convincingly so. 20 Seconds To Comply. Undercover Anarchist. Bring Forth The Guillotine. Legions of the Damned. Silver Bullet’s songs still strike like situationist slogans. If the lyrics themselves are like rapid fire accusations, apocalyptic attacks and cut-up manifestos then the rage itself seems scattergun too. I hate everything ...

The Soul of England

2010-05-04T15:34:00.004+01:00

"Moonhop! Come to London town. Skinhead, beware, beware. Then all their friend say a black man hell is a white man heaven, and a white man hell is a black man heaven. PEACE on Earth, goodwill to all mankind. Reggae, bring unity, between black and white ..." This is a slight deviation, but as it follows on from a B.A.D. track I hope Mick Jones and Don Letts will approve. One of the few delights of the modern world is being to fish around on YouTube and enjoy the treasures shared by people who have taken the time and trouble to share their loves. Combining the search for London related songs with a passion for old ska, rocksteady and reggae tunes I often came across the name of OldWah, a gentleman and a scholar who has posted many ridiculously rare and wonderful old reggae recordings. Well, I'm delighted to say he has put together a lovely mix for The London Nobody Sings of skinhead era sounds with a Capital conection. It is going to be hard to resist drawing comparisions between ye olde cockney knees-up and the moonstomping knees up by the hip one time ... "Do it mate ..."

Dragon Town

2010-05-04T02:50:00.004+01:00

"At this corner we must part. Say goodnight where Soho starts. In the Lido people stare. Pretending I don`t care. Thrown a menu I can`t read. What number do you need?
Fortunes told and fire crack ..." In which it's Friday night and our hero Mick Jones and the B.A.D. boys venture out to Dragon Town or if you like Chinatown in Soho for something to eat. I like the passing reference to the Lido, the Chinese restaurant in Gerrard Street which is like Mick Jones a bit of a London institution. Of course our hero has a bit of previous when it comes to this part of London. The old Clash number The Prisoner mentions the Charing Cross Road, and a rather earlier B.A.D. song Sightsee M.C! with the familiar credits of Strummer-Jones also refers to Chinatown. All together now:"We got plenty of '60s slums. They say she jumped from floor 21. It's empty now but it blocks out the sun. Used to be the shape of things to come ..."

Give Me The Moon Over London

2010-05-03T02:07:00.004+01:00

"Just give me the moon over London. Let me have a dream or two. Perambulating with Daisy down Shaftesbury Avenue ..." Performed by Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Orpheans, Give Me The Moon Over London is a number I believe that was written for the 1946 revue The Night And The Laughter by Jason Matthews and Terry Shand. Carroll Gibbons was an American who moved to England and from the early 1930s he was bandleader of the Savoy Orpheans, one of the most famous of the British dance orchestras and the one closely associated with the Savoy Hotel. It was Dennis Potter's Pennies From Heaven that revived interest in the '30s dance sounds, and a couple of Carroll Gibbons' performances are featured on the soundtrack. The story goes that at the start of WW2 Gibbons was on holiday back home in the States but he hotfooted it back to London where he did his bit to keep up morale and rally the troops in some of the more exclusive places. One of the homegrown dance band leaders, Stamford Hill's Harry Roy and his boys were captured for posterity doin' their bit ...

Denmark Street

2010-05-02T02:34:00.001+01:00

"Down the way from the Tottenham Court Road. Just round the corner from old Soho. There’s a place where the publishers go. If you don't know which way to go, just open your ears and follow your nose. 'Cos the street is shakin' from the tapping of toes. You can hear that music play anytime on any day. Every rhythm, every way ..." sings Ray Davies at the start of Denmark Street, from The Kinks' Lola vs The Powerman set, one of their criminally under-celebrated '70s collections. I'm sure there are many reasons for it but Ray's songs from that time were often about the pop process. Denmark Street in many ways was central to the old pop industry as the UK's tin pan alley, home to many publishers and haunt of many more aspiring songwriters, singers and musicians. This Pathe-News film from 1951 captures the spirit of the street nicely through a rather rose-coloured lens, but I like this period where things are almost caught in limbo between the dance bands and rock 'n' roll.

West End Pad

2010-05-01T03:02:00.002+01:00

"I've tried a West End pad and a classic car, my favourite drink in my favourite bar, a few close friends and a movie star ..." sings hard-to-please Cathy Dennis on her hit West End Pad. I'm no expert on her work but I do find Cathy is one of the more fascinating figures in the pop world. And I suspect if Paul Morley were to write his Words And Music now he would focus rather more on Cathy - perhaps as some long lost twin of Davy Henderson - for following up Can't Get You Out Of My Head with Toxic and I Kissed A Girl. She's certainly retained more mystery than say the Xenomania folk. I do find the whole songwriting craft thing intriguing. A lot of my favourites have struggled to write songs for people apart from themselves. Paul Weller and Saint Etienne, for example. But Cathy is this incredibly successful writer with a gift for creating songs for the performer, you sense, whatever the market. And she's withdrawn from being a commodity herself, not releasing a record since the Am I The Kinda Girl set which West End Pad came from. That record itself is intriguing for the presence of Ray Davies and Andy Partridge, which at the height of the Britpop thang was a neat piece of one-upmanship.

Life From A Window

2010-04-30T01:59:00.001+01:00

"Life from a window, observing everything around you. Staring at a grey sky, try to paint it blue - teenage blue ..." The Jam are (is?) sort of excluded from this project on the grounds that everyone should know their songs by heart. But Life From A Window is just about the only song to spring to mind that mentions the Post Office Tower. And that was my favourite building in London as a kid (and caught here perfectly from a window chez Dusty 7s). The idea of the revolving restaurant or whatever seemed decidely glamorous, and I suppose the fact that I was never taken up there has kept the romance alive. Likewise The Jam's Modern World LP is a little unloved or blindingly worshipped. But it was one of the first LPs I ever bought, and there are a couple of songs on that flawed work I still love ... that is, Life From A Window and I Need You. Raw love songs in a way. Out of all of Paul's London-related songs I would have to choose Strange Town. I think it was Danny Baker who wrote that if you don't like that song you don't like pop music. I can remember cutting my head open in the school playground one day (you can still see the scar), being sewn up at the hospital, and coming home to watch Top Of The Pops where The Jam performed Strange Town in striped jackets like I'd recently picked up in a charity shop ...

Oxford Street, W1

2010-04-29T02:40:00.001+01:00

"'Cos there ain't no love in Oxford Street ..." sing the Television Personalities on Oxford Street, W1 on the flip of their debut 45, which of course contains one of the greatest guitar solos in the history of pop. The TVPs were right. Who would want to go to Oxford Street now? But ... "When I was 17, London meant Oxford Street ..." sings Tracey Thorn on Everything But The Girl's Oxford Street. And I know what she means. At that time (the start of the '80s) the street had three branches of Virgin, and there was no need to head out west to Rough Trade or up to Camden. You could get all the independent and odd pop releases you needed in the Megastore, downstairs at The Pantheon, or up at Marble Arch where memorably I saw John Lydon and Feargal Sharkey in the shop at the same time (not together) and to a 15 kid that was a dream come true. I can remember buying the Marine Girls' Beach Party LP on Oxford Street (Tracey Thorn's first group's release on the TVPs' Dan Treacy's Whaam! label) and I guess I would have been 17 then. I certainly bought her A Distant Shore cassette on Oxford Street the following summer. And probably Ben Watt's Summer Into Winter 12". Possibly the first Everything But The Girl single too ...

Negotiations in Soho Square

2010-04-28T02:59:00.001+01:00

"As music drifted from the late night show. The boy and girl without a place to go. Sat together just to pass the time. They found a love as good as you will find anywhere ..." Soho Square may be closely associated with Kirsty MacColl, but The Tremeloes' Negotiations In Soho Square touched on the subject of benches and romance many years before. It's a fantastic song, and yet another great example of a '60s group tapping into what's hip and happening. It was a smart move to use the songwriting pair of Tony Colton and Ray Smith. They're one of those teams that the more you delve the more you realise their significance. They wrote some fantastic mod blasts, made some of their own using the Tony Colton name, penned some for others like I Stand Accused (which Elvis Costello covered), Zoot Money's Big Time Operator and Star Of The Show, The Shotgun Express' I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round, Sharon Tandy's Border Town, Cream's The Coffee Song, and Georgie Fame's Red No. 9. At the end of the '60s they had their own group Poet and the One Man Band which also featured Albert Lee and a couple of Fotheringay guys. They made an incredibly beautiful but sadly lost LP. They'd later work again with Albert Lee (and indeed Chas Hodges) in the great country rock outfit Heads, Hands And Feet. Among their side-projects would be writing Belfast Boy for Don Farnon and working with Richard Harris on the soundtrack of A Man Called Horse. They also worked quite a bit with the great arranger Johnny Harris, notably on Shirley Bassey's Something LP where she was given a fantastic hip makeover. This was an assignment Johnny had won after the release of his wonderful LP Movements where he came up with some exceptionally cool orchestral workouts ...

Berwick Street

2010-04-27T00:13:00.003+01:00

"Last two bananas 'ere for a pound ..." I suppose part of the magic of music is its ability to evoke a certain time and place. Berwick Street by Loaded Knife is a work of art that does exactly that. It is quite simply a tribute to the street, its market, and its record shops. Indeed it's created out of samples from records bought in Berwick Street mixed with cries from the traders. Listening to it suddenly you are back in the late '90s standing on the threshold of Sister Ray's, trying to remember the titles on your shopping list, was it a new Certificate 18 12" or an On-U Sound reissue or a Pole CD, before wandering up to Mr CD to sift through the temptingly cheap jewel cases or being reckless in Reckless or perusing the wares in Selectadisc. Loaded Knife's Berwick Street was on a 7" released a few years back on Spiky Records. Loaded Knife is DJ Wrongspeed and DJ JD, a pair of sound remodellers with a wonderful sense of mischief. Their work is very much worth investigating. The track Berwick Street is particular intriguing though in its use of street cries. After all the setting of street cries to music is a very old tradition, and while the great Luciano Berio updated the Cries of London in 1974 I can't think of too many occasions when London's sounds have been used as effectively. While touching on the subject mention must be made of the London Sound Survey which is a remarkable labour of love and a valuable archive of the Capital's very being.

Carnaby Street

2010-04-26T02:45:00.002+01:00

"The street's that a part of the beat that's the heart of the scene. You know my Auntie Rene would find it quite obscene ..." Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave star as Brenda and Yvonne in the George Melly-scripted film Smashing Time where two girls from the North are drawn to the delights of swingin' London but quickly find it's a hollow sham. Rita and Lynn were so great at the 'ugly duckling' roles. And oddly I've always been more drawn to the awkward anti-swingin' London films like Smashing Time, The Knack and Georgy Girl (with the wonderful Jim Dale-composed theme song) rather than the likes of Blow Up or Performance. I don't think that bears too close an analysis. There is a kind of irony in George Melly sending up the swingin' '60s scene as his book Revolt Into Style on the Pop Arts in Britain helped fuel my own obsession with the mod thing. Ah gone are the days when you could pick up a copy of that, Generation X (the Charles Hamblett and Jane Deverson one), Folk Devils and Moral Panics by Stanley Cohen, and all the Nik Cohn books, for next to nothing in any charity shop.

In Der Carnaby Street

2010-04-25T02:57:00.001+01:00

"I walk around in Piccadilly. Looking at the shops in Regent Street. There's lots of things to see in London. And when you're feeling low there's always Soho ... " sings the great Sandie Shaw on her lost 1968 b-side London where she rather wonderfully sounds as if some clothing is about to be removed. Oddly the song is easier to find now in the Spanish or German versions. I loved the way the proper pop singers would record their songs in other languages. Sandie in Italian works a treat for me. This recording of pop songs in other languages sometimes resulted in singers being more successful away from their native shores. Nancy Holloway and Peggy March are great examples. Peggy, for example, from the mid-'60s onwards was far more popular in Germany than back home in the US. And one of her German hits was In Der Carnaby Street which as well as demonstrating the international currency of pop culture features some rather splendid whistling too ...

Up At The House Of Cecil Sharpe

2010-04-24T02:22:00.001+01:00

"And now I'm working in Soho. The glasses clink and the lights are low. Those dear old days are dead and gone. I dance with nothing but a python on ..." sings Carole Pegg during the version of Sydney Carter's Up At The House of Cecil Sharpe she recorded with her husband Bob in the early '70s as part of an LP And Now It Is So Early. This was a great collection of Sydney Carter songs, which featured the great man himself on a handful of tracks. Bob and Carole had a little earlier recorded Sydney's Lord Of The Dance on their He Came From The Mountains LP. That record features a fantastic and haunting cover of Phil Ochs' The Scorpion Departs. The Peggs are perhaps best known for their works as Mr Fox which are right up there with the best of the British folk rock recordings. I would argue that Carole's voice was the best of that whole electric folk era. And her solo LP Carolanne is very much worth seeking out. This song of Sydney Carter's though is a witty piece about someone who was very much part of the folk scene up at Cecil Sharpe House, the home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), but times change, people fall out of favour, and needs must so they're now earning their money by doing a bit of exotic dancing in Soho. You can see what we meant about that mischievous twinkle in Sydney's eye. The LP itself can be bought direct from Carole, who is now a highly respected ethnomusicologist, at her website.

Fanlight Fanny

2010-04-23T02:38:00.002+01:00

"Up the West End, that's the best end, where the night clubs thrive. Down into a dive you go. Now there's a jazz queen, she's a has-been, has been Lord knows what. Every night she's there on show. She dances underneath a magic spell. She's full of charm and beer and stout as well ... " sings the inimitable George Formby at the start of his little number about Fanlight Fanny the frowsy night club queen. Ah the allure of the underworld. Not all it's cracked up to be sometimes is it? This song was performed by George in the 1939 Ealing Comedy Trouble Brewing which also starred a lovely young Googie Withers. The late great Clinton Ford resurrected the song at the start of the '60s and had a hit with it as Fan Dance Fanny. It's got some great lines in it this song it really has ...

Rockin' At The Two I's

2010-04-22T02:14:00.002+01:00

"Now I rushed out the gate, went walking down the road, I got up to the bus stop, put on my overcoat. Along came a bus, a number 54. When I got inside they were rockin' on the floor ..." sings Wee Willie Harris in his tribute to the birthplace of British rock 'n' roll, Rockin' At The Two I's. This infamous coffee bar in Old Compton Street was sanctuary for anyone who was anyone in the early history of UK skiffle and rock 'n' roll. If you look at old pictures of the time you can practically smell the coffee and hair oil, and sense the svengalis, songwriters and would-be stars hanging out there dreaming their dreams. Bermondsey boy Wee Willie Harris is perhaps best known now as one of Ian Dury's Reasons To Be Cheerful, but he was one of the graduates of the Two I's academy. His debut single was his tribute to the coffee bar, and I particularly like it for the reference to coming home to have his tea because that's what people did. Another south east London graduate of the scene was Terry Dene, and his debut single White Sport Coat is a particular favourite of my mum. The flipside, Man In The Phone Booth, is a bit of a London song with its reference to the telephone number Stepney 51586. With a hint of mystery and vulnerability you can see why our mums went for Terry ...

Old Compton Street Blues

2010-04-21T00:42:00.001+01:00

"Mmm, you made it to the silver screen and yet you're not a star. And advertising corsets didn't get you too far. But money has its favourites and yours went back to them. So you modelled in a studio in Greek Street for the rent. There you met Antonio, your lover from afar. Who put you on the streets to make the money for his car. And the circle turns and turns and turns so fast, little girl ..." Al Stewart's Old Compton Street Blues tells rather a sad tale about shall we say Soho's entertainment industry. And it's all the more effective because it's sung in such a detached, impersonal way. It appears on Al's second LP, Love Chronicles, from 1969, which is perhaps his finest work. It features some nice musical settings, which are helped by the presence of a Fairport Convention/Jimmy Page types. But it's the story telling that works so well on this particular track. It's a film in itself ...

Soho ... again

2010-04-20T02:49:00.001+01:00

"We ate cream cakes in Valerie's. We could stroll to the National Galleries. We got talking about John Deakin. We could see Francis Bacon. Went to The French House and we drank too much. And I think I love you ..." During The Hangovers' Soho Gina Birch touches on some lovely London colour which seems straight out of a Shena Mackay short story. The Hangovers it should be said was a short-lived project of Gina's after the 1990s return of The Raincoats. While the sound is eyebrow raisingly robust it is the delivery of the vocals that makes the Slow Dirty Tears LP so remarkable. Gina sounds possessed and gloriously theatrical at times. Among the others playing on the record are Simon Fisher Turner, who is quite a London legend in his own right. SFT is something of what you might call an all-rounder: child actor, would-be teen pop star, composer, and a key part of the el Records story as, among others, The King of Luxembourg and occasional in-house songwriter for folks such as The Would-Be-Goods ...

Soho

2010-04-19T02:10:00.001+01:00

"See the dazzling nightlife grow beyond the dawn and burning in the heart of Soho. Hear the market cries. And see their wares displayed through the window of your soul. Come watch the naked dance that spins before your very eyes. Naked like the sun. Step inside where men before have drunk to fill to senseless till the dreams fade and die ..." The song Soho by Bert Jansch and recorded with John Renbourn will have grown out of the time spent playing in the area's folk clubs in the mid-'60s. It's a time and place I would have loved to be part of. I relish the idea of watching musicians like these, singers like Sandy Denny and Jacqui McShee performing in the intimacy of a coffee house or a pub function room. Of course from this milieu the mighty Pentangle evolved. The works of Pentangle are something I started to explore after the great writer Dave McCullough commented on a similarity between Flowers by Hurrah! and Pentangle's Light Flight. There is a certain London resonance too as Light Flight was used as the theme tune for a TV series about three girls sharing a flat in the Capital ...

Piccadilly

2010-04-18T03:59:00.002+01:00

"I stood in Piccadilly and I thought I heard the sea, thought I heard her sing, and a thousand voices laughed at me ..." Tir Na Nog's Piccadilly is an exquisitely beautiful song about feeling lost and abndoned in the heart of London. "Please don't leave me in this lonely, lonely city". And you get the sense of an Irish country boy lost and bewildered. The Irish folk duo Tir Na Nog made some lovely recordings, and deserve to be as revered as your Nick Drakes and Incredible String Bands. As for Piccadilly? Well, I was always told as a kid that if you stood for long enough at Piccadilly Circus you'd see someone you know. It's certainly something the great Calypsonian Roaring Lion discovered when he thought he saw his Caroline. And indeed it's true. For you never know who you'll see come riding past in the jim-jams ...

The Piccadilly Trot

2010-04-17T01:49:00.001+01:00

"No doubt you've heard about the Turkey Trot. Some say it's rot. Some say it's not. Well, I've got another one that speaks a lot. And it doesn't come from Yankee land. If you see a Johnny in the latest style ..." sings Marie Lloyd at the start of her number about The Piccadilly Trot. So, long before Londoners were doing The Lambeth Walk, they were parading around Piccadilly according to this delightful number by the Queen of the Music Halls and possibly a great aunt a few times removed. The song itself, from that period just before WW1, refers to the ragtime style which was very much in vogue (even Erik Satie had a ragtime inspired piece called Le Piccadilly). The little digs at America was a bit of a feature of music hall numbers, and the magnificent Marie was certainly fiercely loyal. Loyal to her profession by backing the 1907 Music Hall strike. And loyal to her own London in her performances, in songs such as A Coster Girl In Paris where she suggests: "And if they'd only shift the 'Ackney Road and plant it over there, I'd like to live in Paris all the time ..."

Piccadilly Folk

2010-04-16T02:22:00.002+01:00

"Morning noon and night you'll see them patrolling. And lo you'll really hear them saying: 'If you have the money dear we have got the time to spare.' That is the policy of the folks from Piccadilly ..." A highlight of the fourth title in Honest Jons' London Is The Place For Me series, and originally a cut from the mid-'50s, which appeared on the flip of a Melodisc single Black Pudding (I'm already making up my own punchlines), Lord Kitchener's Piccadilly Folk is a cautionary tale about the sexual impulse and the dangers of being tempted 'round Eros. Interestingly he uses the line about the Piccadilly folk descending like a fighter jet, as Piccadilly Lily was the name of a famous American one. Mind you, Piccadilly has also long been the location for the sports store Lillywhites. And Piccadilly Lily is also the name of Heironymous Merkin's hit in Anthony Newley's splendidly strange film ...

Eros

2010-04-15T01:09:00.001+01:00

"Father was a cockney cupid. Mother wheeled a barrow. I was born in Piccadilly with a bow and arrow ..." claims London folk singer Mike Sparks in the song Eros. It comes from an excellent CD called Singing Sydney, which is a collection of songs written by the great Sydney Carter. Mike nicely describes Carter as "a folk poet and holy sceptic". Certainly many of his songs may have had a religious theme, but they often challenged and cajoled. His best-known composition Lord of The Dance actually dates from the mid-‘60s. It even appeared on an EP for Elektra, featuring Martin Carthy and the Mike Sammes Singers, with Joe Boyd involved somewhere. As a 'native' Londoner it seems appropriate that his own London songs have something of a twinkle in their eye. Eros is a real gem, and a timely reminder for those who want to make a big thing about race that there is no such thing as a 'pedigree' cockney when since the days of Julius Caeser the river has brought goodness knows how many to this city. We're mongrels and proud of it. Mike's collection of Sydney Carter song is unreservedly recommended, and a visit to his website is certainly called for. Another of Sydney's songs, The Crow On The Cradle, has been sung by many people, and Jackson Browne has been singing it as an 'anti-war' anthem for many years now ...

She's Expecting You

2010-04-14T03:52:00.003+01:00

"Take the London Road east out of Watford. The A409 from Bushey Heath. Harrow-on-the-Hill. By pass Wembley. Turn left into the A4005. On to the A40 towards Shepherd's Bush. Then the Bayswater Road ..." One of the great travelogues in the London songbook is She's Expecting You by Department S. The late Vaughan Toulouse enigmatically outlines the route someone should take as they head from the outskirts of north west London to a suite in the Park Lane Hilton. Quite why and what happens next is something to get the imagination working overtime. For a while this was a great lost b-side but Department S' work has been given a new lease of life by salvage experts LTM. There is a case to be made for Department S capturing the spirit of the age at the start of the '80s, evolving from Guns For Hire and the underground scenes of the time (namely the mod and the Billy's/Blitz ones), almost accidently becoming pop stars with Is Vic There? before disappearing. History is at least being kinder ...

A13

2010-04-13T02:47:00.001+01:00

"I love your oil refineries, motor factors, motor works, sewage plants, factory farming, theme pubs, launderettes, transport caffs, haulage firms, betting shops. People who look so dowd. Swaggering aggressive young men who hate themselves. A carbon copy of dad who really passed it on. And their sisters. Bleached blonde. Already typecast in the role of victim. And it's perfect ..." Jah Wobble's A13 is an astonishing achievement. It captures, perhaps more than any other inclusion here, exactly that strange mix of disgust and affection that drives this project. I would argue that only someone born and raised in the Greater London area, of it but necessarily part of it, could have written what is a remarkable piece of poetry. "O land of my father. Ancient warrior Celtic race. How are your tomatoes doing?" I am particularly grateful to Daniel for suggesting it be included here. I like the idea of the A13 as symbol of the east London/Essex heartlands it runs right through. And the detail is spot-on and frighteningly apt. I haven't (yet) read his memoirs but clips of an old interview from 1984 capture something of what's behind the song. Much of Wobble's solo work is magnificent, but it is impossible to ignore the impact of Public Image Limited and what were often London songs in their way ...

The Battle of Epping Forest

2010-04-12T00:54:00.001+01:00

"There's Willy Wright and his boys, one helluva noise. That's Billy's boys, with fully-fashioned mugs. That's Little John's thugs, the Barking slugs, super smug. For today is the day they sort it out, sort it out. Yes, these Christian soldiers fight to protect the poor. East End heroes got to score in the Battle of Epping Forest ..." sings Peter Gabriel during Genesis' epic The Battle of Epping Forest. Well sings is perhaps a little weak a description because Peter did so much more than that. The LP this comes from, Selling England By The Pound, is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Ordinarily the mention of Genesis would make me run for the hills. And while Phil Collins may be a decent cove, a big fan of The Action and David Ackles and all that, the music's not my cup of tea. Well, certainly not after Peter skedaddled. This track though is wonderful, and a great piece of musical drama telling the (true) tale of various East End gangs getting together on the outskirts of east London to, shall we say, discuss territorial rights. From the same LP comes the irresistible I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) ...

Friday Hill ... again

2010-04-11T02:42:00.001+01:00

"I went for a walk over Friday Hill, and I looked down on Chingford spread below. It was hard for me ..." When Bulldog Breed sing about Friday Hill there is no doubt they're referring to the one out Chingford way. It's a track from their much loved cult UK psychedelic set Made In England, which has also been reissued by Grapefruit and is an essential purchase. Same label salvages two songs about Friday Hill? So there must have been something in the air up around Pimp Hall at the end of the '60s. There are moments in the song Friday Hill that it seems strangely reminiscent of the Television Personalities to whom we owe so much for the odd paths they led us down exploring the undergrowth of '60s pop culture ...

Friday Hill

2010-04-10T02:13:00.001+01:00

"Friday Hill so fine. Reaching out beyond my eyes. Friday Hill we can climb ..." I can't say for certain whether Edwards Hand's Friday Hill was inspired by a spot in the Chingford area of London, but it seems reasonable to make the assumption there's a connection. The song appears on the (Rod) Edwards (Roger) Hand LP recorded in 1969, and now given a new lease of life by Grapefruit Records, part of the Cherry Red empire. The LP starts with Banjo Pier, which suggests Cornwall. But there is a London song, Characters Number One, which is about life down the Charing Cross Road. So, yeah, why not Friday Hill as well? After all before they were Edwards Hand the pair played as Picadilly Line. Anyway, Edwards Hand is a fantastic record, with a stellar line-up of session musicians, including Danny Thompson, John Cameron, Alan Parker, Clem Cattini, and Alan Hawkshaw. They even had George Martin at the controls. Now Edwards Hand, of course, was not the only London outfit George was involved with ...

Dagenham Dave

2010-04-09T01:42:00.003+01:00

"I guess he lost control. And welcomed in the night. It was too much for him. What were his thoughts that night? The River Thames is cold. It keeps on flowing on. But it left Dave alone ..." The Stranglers' Dagenham Dave is a pretty tragic tale., which is odd as from the song title you might expect an Ian Dury sketch. And we won't mention Morrissey. Dave was the group's number one fan from early on, even before The Finchley Boys started following them. He sounded like quite a character. He'd work labouring, scaffolding, or whatever, making plenty of money, but he'd be the most well-read person around. He followed The Stranglers, but was a big jazz and classical buff. He was a committed socialist, by all accounts, who liked a good scrap. He had his problems though, and shortly after the recording sessions for The Stranglers' first LP in February 1977 he commited suicide by jumping off Tower Bridge. Ironically the name Dagenham Dave is slightly misleading. He was from Manchester originally, and the nickname was given to him after a stint working at the big Ford's factory in Dagenham. Dave didn't live to see group he loved so much on Top Of The Pops ...

Pretty Little Villa Down At Barking

2010-04-08T01:23:00.001+01:00

"We ain't a living where we used to live afore we moved away from the little wooden 'ouse in Peckham Rye ..." states Gus Elen at the start of his 1911 number Pretty Little Villa Down At Barking. In the true tradition of the English working classes Gus has moved further out and he's inviting his old pals to come and see the new place and hear the sparrows sing. This gradual migration was the subject of Michael Collins' controversial book The Likes of Us. Gus Elen is certainly peerless when it comes to playing the caustic coster. In his much loved number If It Wasn't For The 'Ouses In Between he sings the famous lines about "Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden. And Chingford to the Eastward could be seen. Wiv a ladder and some glasses you could see to 'Ackney Marshes. If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between ..." The more you explore the work of Gus Elen the more rewarding it is. And certainly the noble Savages and holy Greils missed a trick in failing to finger 'im as one of Rotten's dynasty. It's a great big shame there's not earlier film of Gus in his prime ...

Ilford Town Hall

2010-04-07T03:57:00.001+01:00

"I'm sending you this little gift of Ilford Town Hall to wear 'round your neck 'til I return. It isn't very much. Just a homely touch to remind you that the flame of love will always burn. The Albert Memorial doesn't match your eyes and West Ham Baths I know you'd spurn ..." Marty Feldman's Ilford Town Hall continues the theme of wearing London buildings as jewelery. The gem comes from Marty's 1969 LP I Feel A Song Going Off, and it's one of a series of London songs on the record. Once again I am grateful to Paul Cowdell for pointing us in the direction of miniature masterpieces such as Kensington High Street. The brevity of the tracks on this LP will appeal enormously to fans of Wire's Pink Flag. Marty was a big jazz fan from the Jewish East End. You can tell somehow ...

First Transmission

2010-04-06T02:06:00.001+01:00

"I'm the mirror man. So don't ask who is it. London is my city. Jamaica's my country. Africa's my history. It ain't no mystery. How I came to be Earthling-free. Sitting in Ilford watching TV ..." Released right in the middle of one of the greatest periods of pop music Earthling's Radar LP seems to be quintessentially part of the Bristol blues and roots thing, complete with Portishead connections. But then you catch the torrent of words Mau uses on the opening track, First Transmission, and you realise he's talking about being from London, and watching TV back at home in Ilford. He mentions pretty much everything else too, from the Only Ones to Juliette Binoche, like Bob Dylan's stream of consciousness poetry might have been like if he'd grown up listening to the Native Tongues. It's a fantastic record, but then any outfit that samples Spizz AND Curtis is going to be great. It's not even as though First Transmission is the only song on there that mentions Ilford ...

Beckton Dumps

2010-04-05T01:40:00.003+01:00

"Then I give my lucky dog a stroke. Well he just gives me a wink. And I know what that mean now. Well it mean that I need to put on his lead if I don't want a mess on my cheap pan. That's cool. 'Cause I know I can trust him to grab the fuzz if they bust in. Get him boy!" sings Steve Marriott from deep in the Essex countryside on Humble Pie's Beckton Dumps before he escapes in a Proustian way back to the area of east London in which he grew up. The track comes from the LP Eat It which has some great tracks on, and is made all the finer for the presence of The Blackberries, as Stevie aimed for a real soul revue vibe. What transports Steve back to Beckton, the old gas works and the piles of waste dumped there, which locals knew as The Alps, is not made clear, but certain Small Faces songs sometimes have the power to transport me back to my own youth and it's then you realise how great they were ...

All Our Yesterdays

2010-04-04T02:13:00.004+01:00

"And now for your delight the darling of Wapping Wharf Launderette ... Ronald 'Leafy' Lane!" Our comrade William recently sent a link for a piece of film he'd recorded of Ian McLagan speaking about his old soulmate Ronnie Lane. In it he refers specifically to two London songs Ronnie had written. One was the Small Faces' Itchycoo Park, which is one of those numbers so familiar you almost forget how good it is. Ian explains that the Park his old bandmates would have known as kids was not some ornate lovingly landscaped green space, as featured in the promo film (was that Chiswick House?). Instead it (Little Ilford Park or wherever) would have been a bit of a wreck, an overgrown bombsite, covered in nettles and rosehips (hence the itchycoo part), but it would have been their playground, where they got their education. The other song was Debris, from The Faces' era. It's such a beautiful song, and it becomes more poignant when you realise it's about Ronnie's father. I believe the market in the song is Club Row, the poor relation of Petticoat and Brick Lanes, once known for its animal trade. Ronnie's father, apparently, would go down there every Sunday morning to rummage through the junk on sale. Naturally the young Ronnie couldn't wait to break away, but later there is a sense of loss, an unexpected feeling that, yeah, that old routine is something you kind of miss ...

Limehouse Blues

2010-04-03T03:45:00.003+01:00

"Oh, Limehouse kid. Oh, oh, Limehouse kid. Goin' the way that the rest of them did. Poor broken blossom. And nobody's child. Carefree and happy. You're just kind of wild ..." A lot of people have sung Limehouse Blues over the years but some correspondents from West Ham strongly suggested that the Mills Brothers' version of the Douglas Furber/Philip Braham number be the one featured here. I had been tempted to go for Nancy Sinatra's, but the guys had a point. The song was originally performed by Gertrude Lawrence and Jack Buchanan in the revue A to Z in 1921. In 1934 the Mills Brothers recorded their immaculate version, tapping into the Limehouse chinatown stereotype propogated by the stories of Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, and Dickens. The Mills Brothers spent quite a bit of time in London in the '30s and this was far from the only song they recorded related to the Capital. Their London Rhythm springs to mind. And who needs to seek solace in an opium den when the Mills Brothers can soothe the savage tumult ...

From The City To The Isle Of Dogs

2010-04-02T01:58:00.004+01:00

"Hey young executive. You've moved to the island. With your shady deals and your wheeling and a dealing. Get a cheap thrill from someone's home that you are stealing. Low life, you'd better close your eyes. 'Cos this is no life ..." From The City To The Isle Of Dogs is another of the late great Frank Tovey's songs about London life. This one captures the moment when the old Docklands was being regenerated, and the young professionals were moving into the area creating a striking polarisation among the population. I don't think the 'traditional' working class population has ever rid itself of that feeling of resentment, resignation and rejection. Part of the appeal of new property in the old Docklands area was its proximity to Canary Wharf, the new financial centre, which is nicely dismissed in the Bitter Springs' single My Life As A Dog In A Pigsty. The Springs' Simon Rivers carries on the sardonic storytelling tradition Frank Tovey embodied so well. Oh and it wasn't the first song Frank wrote that mentioned the Isle Of Dogs. Back in 1982 when he was still performing as Fad Gadget the title track of his Under The Flag LP started with a reference to the island. That LP I believe was made with his newborn son in mind amid Frank's fears for the world he was bringing him into.

Ratcliffe Highway

2010-04-01T02:07:00.003+01:00

"As I was a-walking down London. From Wapping to Ratcliffe Highway. I chanced to pop into a gin-shop. To spend a long night and a day. A young doxy came rolling up to me. And asked if I'd money to sport. For a bottle of wine changed a guinea. And she quickly replied: 'That's the sort'..." sings an unaccompanied Jim O'Connor on the traditional number Ratcliffe Highway from The Critics Group's anthology of London songs, Sweet Thames Flow Softly, which was overseen by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in 1967. The song is a cautionary tale about being fleeced while out and about on the stretch of road which, as the excellent Victorian London site details, was notorious for its vice and violence, as a haunt of sailors and what were known as 'unbonneted ladies'. It's still there, though now known as The Highway, running from The City out to Limehouse, and still trying to shake off the notoriety of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders which in turn inspired Peter Ackroyd's great novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem. The naughty/nautical nature of Ratcliffe Highway also pops up in other songs, including The Deserter from Fairport Convention's Liege and Lief LP. The traditional song Ratcliffe Highway has been performed by many people, though The Dubliners' live 1964 version provides a fascinating contrast to The Critics Group's ...

Working Class Millionaire

2010-03-31T02:16:00.003+01:00

"I don't wanna be a clerk, a conductor, or a spark. Life's too short for working who knows where. So I'll just sit back and dream, forget the 'ouses inbetween, and be a working class millionaire ..." sings Richard Digance during his wonderful song Working Class Millionaire. It dates from his time recording for Transatlantic, and I'm willing to bet the overlap between the folk revival and music hall wasn't that great at the time. But Richard smartly marries the two. He references Gus Elen, taps into familiar music hall themes about being suspicious of work and fond of making a bit of money some other way. The song has some brilliant lines about having a mansion down in Bow or a palace down at the Royal Albert Dock, having lions either side of the gateway to the drive, and in the marble halls goalposts painted on the walls and other things the 'Ampstead crowd detest. In the one of the most famous of London songs Harry Champion inherits a watch and chain which he hopes will make him rich. It doesn't. And his friends mock him, offering to buy up Any Old Iron. Rather nicely when the Trotters do become working class millionaires it is with a watch and chain they thought was worthless ...

Disgusted E7

2010-03-30T02:29:00.004+01:00

"These are the streets where nothing grows. There's easy pickings for the ones who know ..." Students of songs relating to London postcodes will probably point to The Wolfhounds' second session for John Peel's show on 26 May 1987 which featured a couple of relevant numbers. One was Disgusted E7, which they also released as a b-side. I always liked this as a title, as it makes me think of the type of folks that write to the local newspaper to rant about some subject or other. At the time the epithet Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells was supposed to sum up a certain sort of conservative grouch. By twisting it Callahan and the Wolfhounds relocated the malcontent to Upton Park or Forest Gate, perhaps as an Alf Garnett type figure. But then again when it came to expressing disgust at the world around us there was really no one better than Callahan. The other postcode related number from that Peel session was Boy Racers RM1, which referenced the group's own manor in Romford. It's an interesting thing about the Wolfhounds and London songs. There is always a sense of London in their songs, and they tended not to get explicit or specific even when the title directly referred to the Capital, like Ex-Cable Street. I liked that obliqueness, because there's more than one way to attack your targets ...

One Wish

2010-03-29T03:17:00.002+01:00

"I grew up in the H town. Living life on the blocks. From then that's when I became unorthodox. Used to tie knots in my socks. Fill them with rocks. And I'd swing your jaw if you gave bad looks. Now I haven't changed. Still slightly deranged. Still slightly outraged. And I feel insane. Like the way I could take so much pain ..." On her hit single One Wish Shystie raps about growing up in E5, on the east side of London, specifically Hackney/Clapton. She was part of the grime scene, and seemed set for sustained success. But the UK music industry really doesn't have a clue how to develop the 'careers' of female MCs. Its record is lamentable when it comes to nurturing the wealth of talent on its doorstep. So Shystie has more recently had more success as an actress, ironically in the role of a female MC struggling to make it against all the odds in Dubplate Drama. She did release a great LP back in 2004, the appropriately titled Diamond In The Dirt, and hopefully another will enable her to make up for lost time. In the meantime ...

Burlington Bertie from Bow

2010-03-28T00:16:00.002Z

"I dress up in fashion. And when I am feeling depressed I shave from my cuff all the whiskers and fluff, stick my hat on and toddle up West. I'm Burlington Bertie. I rise at ten thirty. Then saunter along like a toff. I walk down The Strand with my gloves on my hand. Then I walk down again with them off. I'm all airs and graces, correct easy paces. Without food so long I've forgot where my face is. I'm Bert, Bert, I haven't a shirt ..." Of course there's nothing new under the sun. And long before grime, when the music hall was all the rage, London locations were frequently used in songs. As in I'm so-and-so from wherever. Ella Shields singing Burlington Bertie from Bow is a perfect example. The number was written by her husband William Hargreaves in 1915, and is a bit of a send-up of an earlier Bertie number. In Ella's star turn Bertie has fallen on hard times and is scraping by in Bow. But he's determined to keep up appearances. Down but not out, you might say. Ella was one of the most celebrated male impersonators of the music hall era, and in many ways the fact she was American just adds another lovely twist to the ironies inherent in her performances. Colin MacInnes writes in praise of her in Sweet Saturday Night, mentioning in passing that "she was a bit of an intellectual, and liked analysing her art". There is a lovely clip of her, late on in her career, performing the song Aveline. There is even surviving film of her doing a turn as Burlington Bertie from Bow ...

Bow E3

2010-03-27T02:30:00.002Z

"Now if you're from Uptown, Brooklyn-bound, The Bronx, Queens, or Long Island Sound. Even other states come right and exact ..." From a hell of a distance away those lines of Rakim's have long held a certain enchantment. And I suspect that's the case too with all the grime tracks that refer to specific parts of London. Does that seem glamorous and mysterious to a listener thousands of miles away? When Wiley is rapping about representing Bow E3 what do people think it's all about when they're from outside the Capital? At least Rakim went on to conclude: "It's ain't where you're from, it's where you're at". For others though where you're from says a lot about where you'll be at. Wiley is I guess the crown prince of grime, and often an inventive and prolific producer. Plenty of his tracks refer explicitly to London, including Living In London, a collaboration with old colleague Tinchy Stryder. Perhaps best of all though is Slippin' which has some nice references to scavenging in Roman Road and so on ...

Bethnal Green

2010-03-26T02:03:00.002Z

"I'm usually hanging out in Bow. Hardly down Bethnal Green. But I think there's summat you should know when I strolls down Bethnal Green. Faces have changed so much and there's places that I ain't been ..." I suspect this project could be overwhelmed by contributions relating to London from the grime scene. Londoners have always had this innate ability to find schisms and divisions where there doesn't need to be any. Race, religion, the river, footwear, haircuts, football colours, and postcodes. The grime scene in particular plays on the post code game, and there are numerous tracks where rappers are talking up their particular locality. A lot of the music comes from the east of London, and in particular the Bow area. Ruff Sqwad is one collective, among whose ranks Tinchy Stryder has passed, which has made great play about coming from Bow E3 on tracks like Anna. Sqwad members Slix and Dirty Danger have also shown some real style in changing direction and location by talking up neighbouring Bethnal Green ... featuring some fantastic whistling too.

The Ballad of Bethnal Green

2010-03-25T02:29:00.002Z

"I'll tell a tale of a jealous male and a maid of sweet sixteen. She was blonde and dumb and she lived with her mum on the fringe of Bethnal Green. She worked all week for a rich old Greek for her dad was on the dole. And her one delight was a Friday night when she had a rock 'n' roll ..." Paddy Roberts' Ballad of Bethnal Green is a late '50s number that captures I suppose what was a bit of a vogue for mixing musical revue with a bit of Cockney colloquialism to spice up the form. Paddy was a South African born songwriter, who had a bit of a success with shall we say slightly suggestive songs for the adult audiences. But he was an accomplished all-round songwriter, and among those who had hits with songs he had credits on were Lita Roza, Frankie Vaughan, Eve Boswell and Ruby Murray. Ruby actually sang some duets with Norman Wisdom of songs bearing the name of Paddy Roberts, such as Boy Meets Girl. Ruby, rather inadvertently, has made a lasting contribution to the Cockney vernacular so as a tribute here she is singing in the heart of London ...

Bethnal Green Tube Disaster

2010-03-24T02:48:00.002Z

"Let me take you back to the second world war. A time of great valour. A time of folklore. To a place in the east end they call Bethnal Green. Battle scarred by the Blitz. Can you picture the scene? There's a tube station all Londoners know. It's between Barmy Park and Paradise Row. It was used as a shelter by families all around. When the siren gave the warning they'd go underground ..." One of the finest examples of using the pop song form to tell a story is Bethnal Green Tube Disaster from Frank Tovey & The Pyros' Grand Union LP. It captures the tale of how on the night of 3 March 1943 173 people were crushed to death in Bethnal Green tube station which was being used as a shelter during the Blitz. The full story is told in Frank's song or in accounts available online. At the time of writing this terrible civilian disaster is topical again as a campaign is being waged to raise money for a fitting memorial to be built for those who died unnecessarily. It can be supported by visiting the Stairway To Heaven Memorial site. Let's also remember Frank Tovey who wrote some of the finest London songs of our time ... The disaster is also remembered in a quite lovely song, 15 (3 March 1943) by the group Resigned on its CD, It's Still My Bethnal Green.

Faded Glamour

2010-03-23T02:27:00.005Z

"And your sunglasses stuck with sequins from the shop down at the end, where they sell unlabelled tin cans. You just guess what you're going to get. And I tell you that this faded glamour's a stupid art-school idea. And you tell me I don't know because I don't have to live here. I could move away, probably will someday ..." Animals That Swim's Faded Glamour is set in and around the borough of Hackney and the surrounding areas. It's verging on Iain Sinclair territory I guess, with the appeal of certain areas for people keen to live somewhere cheap and in a location that has a certain something no matter how well it tries to disguise it. Of course for the real locals the bone of contention is that such people are 'slumming' it by choice whereas they've really had little in the way of options. The irony is that, as in Sinclair's case, they can end up staying for considerably longer than anticipated and can have much more of a feel for the place than someone brought up there ... Interestingly Animals That Swim's lines about how we could just walk around, we could walk all over town, now seem prophetic. Photo of Iain Sinclair in one of the booths at the old Copper Grill behind Liverpool St. station circa 1999 by Phil Nichols from the excellent Classic Cafes site.

Iron Lady

2010-03-22T01:51:00.002Z

"The Iron Lady she no easy ..." When the media draws up its list of anti-Thatcher songs it's made up of the usual suspects. You don't see UK reggae tracks like Macka B's Get Rid Of Maggie on it, for example. Or Iron Lady by Demon Rockers, an early incarnation of the Ragga Twins, which covers an impressive array of subjects such as money spent on nuclear weapons, housing conditions for the poor, unemployment, police harrasment, the death of Colin Roach, and how these issues impact particularly on places like their own Hackney. The rough house masters Flinty Badman and Deman Rockers were graduates of Unity (the sound system rather than the theatre ... you need the Honest Jons collection Watch How The People Dancing). As the Ragga Twins they released a string of classic singles in the early '90s, such as Wipe The Needle and Hooligan 69, as well as the LP, Reggae Owes Me Money. Soul Jazz has issued an essential round-up of the Twins' finest moments, including a couple of bonus Demon Rockers tracks. The Twins were the first signing to Shut Up And Dance's label, and the set-up would produce some of the best music ever from the UK with its mess of dancehall, hip hop, house and anything else they felt worth 'alf inching. The names a bit of a red herring too, as they did anything but shut up, covering some of the thorniest issues of the day, from hard drugs to homelessness to admission policies. Tracks like Shut Up And Dance's own Save it Till The Mourning After and the remarkable Nicolette's Waking Up still sound magnificent ...

Rough in Hackney

2010-03-21T01:30:00.001Z

"This is not New York. This is England ..." I suspect that on his debut LP, Weapon Is My Lyric, when Overlord X stated that it was Rough In Hackney he wasn't simply making a statement about how tough life can be in that particular London borough. It's likely he was referring to UK hip hop artists forging their own identities in the late 1980s, and how the sound he was creating was as hard-hitting as anything coming from the East Coast or West Coast of America. It was a theme he would return to on his second LP with the track You Can't Do That In London which seems to be a bit of a dig at NWA and their way of carrying-on. One of the first breaks for Overlord X came via a session for John Peel at the end of 1987. He'd record another the following year, and his debut single 14 Days In May made number 28 in the Peel Show 1988 Festive 50. When John's name is invoked by campaigners for this and that, it seems to be forgotten exactly what he used to play. He was certainly one of the important outlets for UK hip hop acts like Overlord X, Cookie Crew and Silver Bullet. I can even remember hearing him play 14 Days In May and being blown away by the raw power, which is not something you could say for a lot of music in 1988.

City Suits Hoxton Trash

2010-03-20T02:24:00.003Z

"Back in the day Bass Clef running ..." On the track City Suits Hoxton Trash our hero Rob Gallagher in his Earl Zinger guise comes on a little 'fings ain't what they used t'be' as he surveys what's become of the Hoxton environs. It's a familiar London story. Colonisation, commercialisation, gentrification, infiltration, call it what you will, as the artists' workshops and studios appear, followed by the cafes and clubs, shops and luxury flats, leading to conflict with the locals and a perceived loss of character and identity, and new phrases entering our vocab like Hoxton Fins and Hoxton Heroes. Rob Gallagher looks back to simpler times, when Jarvis Cocker in the video shop would probably have been filling shelves and one of the few reasons to come to the area would be the tiny Bass Clef venue, where legendary club nights like Norman Jay's Monday rare groove session attracted many faces from the London jazz dance/funk scene. This was the milieu from which Rob's Galliano project developed, sporting some fine knitwear and becoming part of the Talkin' Loud label, with the Young Disciples. "What have we learned from history?"

Duffer of St George

2010-03-19T02:57:00.001Z

"On our way to Shoreditch; off to Fabric in Shoreditch: Duffer of St George and I don't care. Duffer of St George and I don't care. On a Spitalfields Sunday get a two pound curry and roll ups; get a 12p bagel and a camouflage t-shirt and bracelets ..." sings Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces on their song Duffer of St George which captures the sense of how the near east of London changed dramatically in terms of leisure tourism in the early years of the 21st Century. It was the record they made with/about their grandmother, Rehearsing My Choir, that made me sit up and take notice of the Fiery Furnaces. It's a gloriously ambitious record, and contains one of my all-time favourite lines about taking a late train to a lost love. It is the Friedbergers' obvious love of words that really appeals, and I suspect that's the appeal of the Duffer of St George refrain. The feel of the words. I guess that would have been around the time Duffer became the ubiquitous brand with all and sundry wearing their hoodies and sweatshirts. When I became aware of the Duffer brand it was when they were attracting attention for their knitwear designs which echoed the Gabicci and Roberto Carlo tops that were easy to obtain in charity shops, and had earlier been sported by Subway Sect and many roots reggae artists. One of the Duffer designers was Barrie K Sharpe, who was also a legendary figure in London club culture as a rare groove DJ and then for the records he made with Diana Brown such as The Masterplan ...

The Wind is Getting Stronger

2010-03-18T03:51:00.003Z

"She emigrated from Russia at nine months old. She's still got all her teeth but some are filled with gold. They hurt her now when she drinks something cold ..." One of the pleasures of this project has been people pointing out songs from artists who might otherwise have eluded me. I am particularly grateful to Paul Cowdell for suggesting the inclusion of The Wind is Getting Stronger by Rory McLeod. It's a lovely song about Rory's gran, a stubborn and strong lady who grew up in Stepney Green. There are some fantastic lines in there about translating Cockney to Yiddish, and having a gap in her teeth from working as a seamstress and biting the cotton and thread. That sort of detail is the mark of a great songwriter. Rory himself has been a circus clown, fire eater, story teller, traveller, troubadour, minstrel, one man band. It's been fun catching up on songs like Farewell Welfare, and characters like Rory are increasingly appealing for the way they survive and thrive outside the conventional musical mainstream. Here's Rory performing a live version ...