Music Monday: Belle & Sebastian video on Ladywell Fields

The music video for the latest Belle and Sebastian single “Talk To Me Talk To Me” features scenes shot in and around Ladywell Fields.

The video was written and directed by 15-year-old south London siblings Freya and Rosalie Salkeld.  According to singer Stuart Murdoch, “we put out an open call to filmmakers who would be interested in making something for the existing budget, requesting an image encapsulating their idea and a 100-word pitch. The directors’ mother got in touch saying her daughters are fans of the group and keen filmmakers, and they sent in a treatment that we loved. They co-wrote and co-directed it, and got a bunch of their friends involved, and made a fresh and funny take on the song.”

The Salkeld siblings added, “Our idea had come from photos we’d taken of our friends for art projects. Casting mates we’d recently seen in a school drama production was really fun — filming them was even better!”

I believe the school that features in some scenes is Kingsdale in West Dulwich.

Black Lives Matter in South London- 2 months on

Two months after the police killing of George Floyd in  Minneapolis on May 25th, the global wave of  Black Lives Matters protests continues to make an impact around the world. This is a quick overview of the last eight weeks in South London, where the current phase of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK started in Peckham on 30 May 2020 with hundreds of people marching across the Common and down Rye Lane.

Peckham Rye, 30 May 2020 (photo by @katyG_LSL)

Probably the largest demonstration so far took place a week later on Sunday 7 June, with a huge crowd gathering by the American Embassy in Battersea before crossing over Vauxhall Bridge and marching on to Whitehall. It was one of the biggest demonstrations seen in London in recent years, perhaps in the region of 50,000 or more.  On the way there I saw streams of people walking towards it from different parts of London due to the limited Covid 19 public transport. 

Vauxhall Bridge, 7 June 2020

A feature of the protests has been the wearing of face masks and the predominance of home made cardboard placards, well everybody seems to have a cardboard box to hand in these days of endless deliveries due to shop closures. But there were some banners to be seen, and I was pleased to see a proud Millwall anti-fascists banner at Vauxhall.

Millwall anti-fascists, Vauxhall Bridge

It seems that most local parks and public spaces have had some kind of Black Lives Matter gathering, usually 100-200 people taking the knee - a sign of the reach of the movement beyond the usual places where protest happens. I mean it's not every day (or decade for the that matter) that there is a protest in Hilly Fields or Telegraph Hill Park.

Lewisham Police Station, 3 June 2020 (photo by Mark Thompson)

Hilly Fields, 13 June 2020
(photo by Melissa Jacques full report at EastLondonLines)

Burgess Park, 14 June 2020

Ladywell Fields, 27 June (photo from SUTR)

Telegraph Hill Park, 4 July 2020 (photo from @avocadamn)

Protests have also taken place in Mountsfield Park (Catford) and outside the Deptford Lounge, among other places.

Firefighters take the knee at Lewisham Fire Station (photo from @itslukecharles, 3 June 2020)

Black Lives Matters signs can be seen in many local houses, following the recent trend for NHS rainbow window signs. Here's a few examples from around SE14.

There's also some BLM/anti-racist street art and graffiti. 

'Black Lives Matter', Waldram Park Road, Forest Hill

'Fight racism, build unity' - Thames path, Greenwich peninsula

'Racists still not welcome' - Thames path, Greenwich peninsula

What will happen next remains to be seen, in terms of  public protests all movements have ebbs and flows in their momentum. But away from the streets, this phase has kicked of a widespread questioning in workplaces, homes, sports clubs etc. There is a sense that something has to change and that is not going away. 

See also:

Black Lives Matter in Croydon

Black Lives Matter at Telegraph Hill Park

More local Black History:

The New Cross Fire 1981

Resisting the National Front 1980

The Battle of Lewisham 1977

Police raid New Cross Blues Dance 1975

Forest Hill 'Colour Bar Pub' 1965

Deptford Colour Bar 1958

Anti Slavery Meeting at Elephant & Castle 1863

More Lewisham 1977 Photos from Anti-Fascist Demo

The London Metropolitan Archives Collage London Picture Archive, 'Collage' has lots of great photos from across the capital. The Lewisham section includes some photographs by Chris Schwarz from the anti-National Front mobilisation of August 1977 (sometimes  referred to as  the 'Battle of Lewisham'). Here's a couple of details from  the photos, full set here.

 

This is from the demonstration organised by the All Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (ALCARAF), which gathered on Ladywell Fields - banners in photo include Indian Workers Association, Morning Start and Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Lewisham):

 

 

The march progressed down Ladywell Road and into Lewisham High Street. The 'Lewisham 24' graffiti on the railway bridge refers to the arrest of young black men in police raids in May 1977 - an action that sparked the cycle of events leading to the National Front march (see chronology here). Demonstrators are carrying 'One Race- the Human Race, Unite to Fight Racialism' placards, which I believe were produced by the Communist Party of Great Britain.

 

 

A school trip to Lewisham Arcadia (1905)

Just over a hundred years ago, children from the 'dingy streets' of Southwark went on country outings to 'the Londoner's idea of Arcadia' - Lewisham!. This report from Gloucester Citizen - (Saturday 8 July 1905) describes a trip from Lant Street County Council School, Borough (now Charles Dickens Primary School) to meet their counterparts at Plassy-Road School, Catford, for 'cricket and other sports' at Ladywell Recreation Ground.

Two Minutes Left

Richard Sanderson of  experimental/improvised music label Linear Obsessional Recordings put out a call recently for tracks for a compilation album with only two rules: 'that the works had to be exactly two minutes long, and that at some point in the recording process a microphone should have been used'.

The outcome is 'Two Minutes Left', a collection of 87 tracks from all over the world, released this week. The tracks, as Richard says, 'are as diverse as it's possible to imagine- from full, immaculately produced studio works to hissy smartphone recordings- and throughout there are things to remind you that you're listening to real people in real places - birdsong, pets, breathing, conversation, and the location recordings run from the electrobabble of a Shanghai cab ride to the near silence of night on the Argentinian Pampas, to the sounds of the pub or a football match. In between are some gloriously recorded musical vignettes by some of the most extraordinary musicians around... it seems to me to be ultimately a celebration of being human, and a celebration of friendship and collaboration'.

'Two Minutes Left' is very much an international collaboration, but it also has its roots in South London, with Richard and the label based in Hither Green, and several of the tracks featuring local sound recordings. Richard's own Hither Green track, recorded in his back garden, is a reminder of the ubiquitous South London aircraft noise as well as capturing bird song. Birds - this time parakeets - also feature in Neil Gordon Orr's '120 Seconds Over Ladywell Fields', based on recordings of running round Ladywell athletics track. A music session in the Ladywell Tavern, with the Mixed Porter band playing Officers' Polka, was recorded by Kayleigh Shepherd on her

phone.

There's a recording of Blackheath Morris Men practicing at St Marks Church Hall in Greenwich, and a track from Brockley-based minimalist guitar ensemble the Broca Ensemble.

You can listen/download the whole thing here

White Stag at Catford Stadium

All that remains now of Catford Stadium, the former greyhound track, is a sign and its ticket office in the midst of a wasteland soon to be built on with new housing from Barratt plc. The sign is a skeleton from a lost world of 20th century working class popular culture - the stadium opened in 1932 and closed in 2003, not long after my one and only visit.

photo by @entoptika

Train passengers passing the site have noticed a recent redecoration of the building - a new appearance of the famous 'Lewisham Natureman' white stag, featured here previously following various sightings in Lewisham and New Cross. You can see it from ground level from the Ladywell Fields end of the site, if you climb up on a pile of logs to peer over the fence. I couldn't get a decent photo with my phone, but Wildcornerz has obliged with these images. The Wildcornerz blog has been documenting the white stag and the wider Lewisham Natureman mythos for several year.

Another image of the stag appeared earlier at the back of the Catford stadium site (pictured below), though it has now vanished.