Sunday, March 06, 2005

Towards a South East London Top 20

Thanks to everyone who came to my Sounds of SE14 talk at the Telegraph Hill Centre last night - it was a surprize to have a full house on a Saturday night. For the uninitiated it was a mixture of me playing and talking about music linked to New Cross (with a bit of Deptford and Brockley thrown in). Here's twenty tracks I played - not necessarily the all time South East London top twenty but a sample of different times and scenes.

- Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – The Only living boy in new cross (1992)
- Robert Wyatt – Red Flag (song written in New Cross, 1889)
- Marie Lloyd – Coster's wedding (1904) - 'Queen of the Music Hall' lived in Lewisham Way.
- Fats Waller – The Joint is Jumpin (played at New Cross Empire, 1938)
- Goons – You gotta go owww (Spike Milligan lived in Lewisham and performed in Deptford)
- Bonzo Dog Band – Canyons of your mind (met at Goldsmiths, New Cross)
- Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs (John Cale went to Goldsmiths)
- Squeeze - Up the Junction (Greenwich band, early gigs in Deptford)
- Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (lived in Brockley, played at Royal Albert before it was the Paradise Bar)
- Chords – Maybe Tomorrow (Deptford/SE London mod revivalists)
- Alternative TV – Action Time Vision (Mark Perry from Deptford)
- Dire Straits – Sultans of Swing (lived on Crossfields Estate, song about a Deptford pub)
- This Heat – SPQR (late 70s, lived in Speedwell House squat in Deptford)
- Homosexuals – My Night Out (as above)
- Johnny Osbourne – 13 Dead and Nothing Said
- Linton Kwesi Johnson- New Crass Massacre (previous two both about New Cross fire)
- Test Department – Roman war song
- Band of Holy Joy – Mad Dot (previous two both started out in Nettledon Road, New Cross).
- June Brides – Every Conversation (Lewisham band, played a lot in New X)
- Blur – Song 2 (met at Goldsmiths)
- Placebo – Nancy Boy (met in Deptford, Brian Molko lived in Drakefell Road)
- Steve Harley- Judy Teen (lived in New X, went to Edmund Waller school)
- Violets – Laxteen (current Angular favourites).

All other suggestions welcome!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Billy Jenkins? definitely a local hero.
Also some horrible Throbbing Gristle early tracks recorded at Goldsmiths....

. said...

On Saturday before I did my talk I actually did play Throbbing Gristle 'IBM' recorded at Goldsmiths. Billy Jenkins will have to be considered, definitely if we extend our focus to furthest Bromley. But that would be beyond the SE postcode area and force us to include Siouxsee and rest of Bromley contingent.

Unknown said...

Billy lives on the Lewisham/St Johns area. And once did a track called "Greenwich One Way System"...

And the Desperate Bicycles did the wonderful "New Cross, New Cross" EP...

Scott Wood said...

Maybe a bit far out for a suggestion, being Brockley not New Cross but does anyone own a copy of Hilly Fields by 'Nick Nicely? It's a song about watching a UFO land on said se-London park or, at least, being in the sort of state that causes one to see a UFO land there.

Sorry we didn't make your talk, Neil, we'd booked a weekend away without thinking. Looks like it went damn well though.

. said...

Forgot to mention at the talk there were members of The Only Hopes (not all related to me), Phoenix Jam and Provocative, and as drummer of the last brought along their CD I also played a bit of that.

AJ Dehany said...

The musician Nick Nicely’s 1982 cult psychedelic track “Hilly Fields” was inspired by the park of the same name. Drum and bass artist Remarc made a record called "Sound Murderer (Loafin' in Brockley)" on Juno Records in the mid-1990s. Another drum and bass artist, Chris Inperspective has a track called "Brockley Central".