Trelawney album launch at Montague Arms

'Imagine Scott Walker fronting The Associates and then covering David Bowie’s Cat People, but straight outta  Kernow' (The West Briton)

South London's number one Cornish band Trelawney have been featured at Transpontine before - their song Beast of Blackheath is partly a reference to the crushing of the 1497 Cornish revolt which came to a bloody end in a battle at Deptford Bridge after camping out on the heath.

The band, who hail from Cornwall but now mostly live around New Cross/Brockley and surrounds, have a new album out tomorrow and will be launching it on Saturday 30th January  at the Montague Arms

The album is entitled United Downs. Ben Trelawney, speaking about the album said, “It’s named after a neighbouring village to where I grew up in Cornwall. It used to be a tin mine, or copper mine, I forget, but since I was a child it was the local rubbish dump. This for me conjures up the mood of the album, and the Cornwall that I grew up in. Remnants of its industrial heyday surround you, you can’t escape them. But it’s bleak, it’s run down, and there’s a real beauty in that.”

Check out album preview track What’s the Rush here 

Trelawney launch United Downs at the Montague Arms, 289 Queens Road, SE15  on 30 January. Doors at 7pm, tickets on the door. Support: Fake Teak

Music Monday: Trelawney

Trelawney, as the name suggests, are a band whose music is born out of Cornwall, but are based in South London,  spread across Brockley, New Cross and Blackheath. They cite their influences as 'including the Associates and Suede, through to more recent bands like Wild Beasts'.

Their song Beast of Black Heath is titled in 'reference to the Beast of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, but also the end of the Cornish rebellion, quelled upon Blackheath (well - officially Deptford Bridge but the plaque is on Blackheath!)'.



As discussed here before, 'in June 1497 5,000 Cornish rebels marched on London in revolt against a new tax to pay for King Henry VII’s planned invasion of Scotland. The rebels reached Blackheath Common and secured Deptford Bridge. It was here they were engaged by the King’s forces, with at least two hundred Cornishmen killed compared with eight of the King's soldiers. The leaders were hung, disembowelled and quartered, with their heads stuck on pikes on London Bridge'.

The plaque on the wall of Greenwich Park was placed there in 1997 when marchers from Cornwall retraced the route of the rebels to mark the 500th anniversary.

Trelawney are playing Power Lunches in Dalston on the 5th March, but hope to get some more S. London gigs sorted soon. More information from: www.trelawney.net.

(if you are a musician/band based in South East London and would like to be featured in the 'Music Monday' slot, please get in touch - transpontine@btinternet.com)