Psychic Experiment

Throughout June and July you can take part in a parapsychology experiment investigating psychic ability and beliefs about luck and the paranormal. David Luke is inviting voluteers to give up 20-30mins of their time in SE London as part of his PhD project. The researcher will come to you in SE London, or you can come to Goldsmiths in New Cross. Volunteers will also be entered into a draw for a cash prize. For further information call or text 07727 681832 or email David.Luke@northampton.ac.uk.

Balata in Brockley

Next Thursday at the fantastic Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley there's a benefit git for children in the Balata refugee camp in Palestine. Artists/musicians performing includeDavid Rovics,Attila the Stockbroker, Strawberry Thieves Socialist Choir, Doc Jazz and Zaid Tayem.

Date and Time: Thursday 29 June at 7.30 pm. Location: Rivoli Ballroom, 350 Brockley Road, London SE4 2BY. Tickets: in advance £10 (unwaged £7), at the door £12(unwaged £10). For tickets and further information email strawberrythief@btinternet.com or call 07723 015926.

Solstice Party

There's a party tomorrow night at the Beaconsfield gallery in Vauxhall- no less than the Mother of all Parties for the summer solstice. Details are Saturday 24 June 2006, 8pm - 3am, with live music, experimental electronica, performance, film, eclectic DJ¹s including Spring Heel Jack, Daniel Figgis, Fallen Leaves, Susannah Hewlett, Fairlights, DJ Tendraw & The Gypsies Dog, Dr Valentine & Suzywan, Sanda
Kolar, Howard Jacques, Northern Roses, Annie Davey. Admission: £6 (£4 concessions).

I can't make it personally, but I can vouch for it being a cool place with nice people. You can hear it live on Resonance 104.4 fm, though I suspect that may be a poor substitute. Beaconsfield is at 22 Newport Street, Vauxhall, London, SE11 6AY (020 7582 6465).

Wicker Man in New Cross

Tomorrow night (Thursday 15th June) sees a showing of The Wicker Man at Cafe Crema. £6 gets you a meal and lots of Christopher Lee and Britt Eckland. Films start: 8.00pm. Doors open 7.30.

Cafe Crema are hosting an 'I love London' film festival next month, with a selection of iconic London films.

I Hear a New World

I hear a new world (I hear a new world)
Calling me (calling me)
I hear a new world (I hear a new world)
Calling me (calling me)
How can I tell them (how can I tell them)
What's in store for me? (what's in store for me?)

A world that is, for one night at SELFS and for the duration of this newsletter, free of the world cup is in store, I promise you.

This month's SELFS has it all, a musical genius, songs inspired from beyond the grave, drugs, dabbling in the occult and a tragic ending. I'm dead excited (as ever). Details on John Repesh's talk about Joe Meek are below.

12th June: John Repsch – The Music, Magic and Madness of Joe MeekJoe Meek is the cult British composer who dabbled in the occult and wrote amazing and sometimes chart-topping songs about séances, satellites and aliens.

Writer and environmentalist John Repsch wrote the biography of Joe Meek in 1989. Bizarre and fascinating though Meek's life story was, Repsch had to publish it himself.

The book has since spawned a BBC 2 'Arena' documentary, an avalanche of CDs and is scheduled to be made into a film this year starring Rhys Ifans.

SELFS meets every second Monday of the month upstairs at The Spanish Galleon, 48 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BL. Talks start at 8.00pm and costs £2.50 / £1.50 concessions.

Greenwich Mainline & DLR: Turn left from the main exit, walk about 5-10 minutes, the Galleon is on your right, at the cross-roads. Cutty Sark DLR:

Turn left from the station, right when you get to the road, the Spanish Galleon is across the road. Buses: 177, 180, 188, 199, 286, 386.

Contact: scott@selfs.org.uk or clare@selfs.org.uk

Boppity Bopp

Lucky Soul + Autokat + Wolf Gang DJs playing out twisted rock n roll, retro grooves and bleak disco…

Friday 2nd June Doors: 8pm – 12.15am (bands finish 11pmish) Price: £3 Venue: The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Road, New Cross, SE15 2PA ()

Nearest Tube: New Cross Gate

Nearest BR: Queens Rd, Peckham

Ladywell

Me and Clare joined in on the Lewisham Walking Festival on Tuesday but tagging along on a walk around Ladywell.

I just fancied a walk around some semi-local environs as well as wanting to see the site of the actual Ladywell. There’s been some debate amongst locals interested in things like ‘healing wells’ about the actual location of the Ladywell so I thought I’d been shown by experts.

First, though, we started in Ladywell and Brockley Cemetery, they used to be separate but the wall between them was knock down in the seventies when Deptford borough was absorbed into Lewisham. We visited the grave of Sir George Grove; editor of Grove’s A Dictionary of Music and Musicians is buried (one for Neil there) and a mournful statue of a young girl which is a monument to a Victorian teenage girl murdered in Eltham.

It was paid for by public subscription which struck me as a bit more tasteful than putting flowers on the site of her murder. She’s tiny, for the pregnant seventeen year old she’s supposed to represent

The Victorians were into permanent statements like statues, I suppose, while we’re into some strange cross between sentimentality and morbid curiosity. I noticed some harden wax from a melted candle of the ground, either an offering, like Kitty Jay's Grave in Devon or the mark of that strange, graveyard dwelling nocturnal pack of creatures: the lesser-spotted morbid teenage drinker.

Can’t find a picture of the monument on the web; there were also some brilliant modernist graves, mostly in the Brockley section, that were a relief from all the cracked and sombre (but still breath-taking) Victorian angels. Once I’ve got a new battery in the camera I’ll head down there and take a few photographs to show anyone who’s interested. I’ve notices that photographs of graveyards are popular.

Local shop keepers and police chiefs were honoured and flora and fauna was admired. It dawned on me that Clare and I were just about the youngest people on the walk and probably the sanest. I think all small-interest groups have got a particular level of eccentricity among them. Friendly bunch though, the Ladywell Society; they meet once a month in the waiting room of Ladywell Station to discuss local history and issues, which all seems impossibly arcane to me.

We stopped at the grave of the poet Ernest Dowson, who I’ve been trying to find for ages, and I was pleased to see that lavender and wild flowers were growing from his dilapidated grave and a rosary had been hung from the broken headstone. The bloke giving the walk said there are often offerings left on his grave.

We left the cemetery are the Ladywell end and walked down the hill toward the Ravensbourne. The names of the streets to our right were shown to be named after relations of the developer who put these houses up in Ladywell. Hence names like Francemary Road, Arthurdon Road and Elsiemaud Road. The developer himself gave his name to Chudleigh Road.

A plaque on 148 Ladywell Road describes a well, now dry, that was visited for “medical purposes until the 19th century”. It’s in the back garden, apparently.

This, though, is not the ‘Ladywell’. That, too, has dried up and the picturesque wall and little roof, in true well style, has been knocked down and now replaced by an exact replica. It sits in the car park of a training centre run by Lewisham council and can be found just off Slagrove Place, on the left after the old workhouse gates.

Go and have a look….

No2id

Lewisham No2ID is the local branch of the national campaign against compulsory identity cards. The law has now been passed, so from 2008 you will have to attend an appointment to be photographed, have your fingerprints taken and iris scanned, or be fined up to £2500.

ID cards could still be killed off by mass non-compliance, as happened with the poll tax in the early 1990s, and No2ID is encouraging people to pledge to refuse to co-operate. More invasive surveillance is under discussion, including contactless or radio frequency ID chips in passports which can be read remotely, enabling the passport holder to be tracked without them even having to show their documents to anybody.

There are many arguments against ID cards, like the fact that they would actually make little difference against the threat in whose name they are justified – the July 7th bombers made no attempt to conceal their identity, presumably they wanted to be known and recognised as 'martyrs'.

But for me, there is a simple test to be applied to these and similar measures, which I call the Primo Levi test. Levi, who survived Auschwitz, reminded us that similar atrocities were always a possibility, and that we 'are so dazzled by power and prestige as to forget our essential fragility... close by the train is waiting'. In his excellent Between Camps, Paul Gilroy reflects that 'Levi’s argument should not be an open licnese to indulge in paranoia. It loses none of its force when we appreciate that the trains are not necessarily being loaded right now in our own neighbourhoods. Fascism is not permanently on the brink of assuming terroristic governmental power. His point is more subtle. If we wish to live a good life and enjoy just relations with our fellows, our conduct must be closely guided not just by this terrible history but by the knowledge that these awful possibilities are always much closer than we imagine. To prevent their reappearance we must dwell on them and with them'.

The Primo Levi test involves simply asking whether a power would make persecution (and maybe worse) easier if it fell into hands so inclined. It should be obvious that very few Jews in Europe would have survived the Holocaust if the Nazis had simply had to press a button to identify who and where they all were. Of course no one imagines that fascism is on the cards here (anymore than many imagined the possibility of the Holocaust in Germany beforehand), but recent history in various parts of the world hardly give grounds for confidence that anywhere is immune to the possibility of mass repression and state terror. In any event, Levi is surely right that the safest course of action is to assume that it could happen (even if in the remote future) and act accordingly.

All of this is quite apart from how similar powers are already being used within this country to criminalise human beings whose only crime is to be born to parents without permission to exist here – witness the fingerprinting of children under five in asylum centres in Croydon and Liverpool.

Brockley Max

Brockley Max is on from June 2 to the 10th with various arts, music and other events happening across SE4.

Is there Life on the New Cross Road?

Alexi Sayle once asked 'Is there life on Mars? Is there life in Peckham?'. Sometimes I ask the same question about the New Cross Road in the day time when not much seems to be happening except the traffic and Sainsburys. However there are some hidden gems. Yesterday I had a fine cup of coffee at Cafe Crema (306 New Cross Road). The Cafe itself is hardly hidden, but did you know it's got a big outside space at the back where you can sit in the sun on a summers day? They also have film showings there, with something coming up tomorrow night (Thursday).


Then there's Morph records in the basement of the Rising Sun cafe at 275 New Cross Road (between New X gate station and New X Library). Morph has a good selection of low price vinyl and CDs, especially indie stuff, and you can also pick up music from local bands, flyers etc. Definitely worth making the trip down stairs for.

Walk the Line

Lots of interesting strolls around South East London this month as part of the Lewisham Walking Festival. Among the highlights still to come are a Ladywell history and nature walk tonight (meet 7 pm at the Gatehouse, corner of Ladywell Cemetery at Brockley Grove and Ladywell Road), a New Cross allotments walk tomorrow and a wade through the mud of Deptford Creek at low tide courtesy of the Creekside Centre. If you'd prefer to arrange your own walk when its more convenient, you can download lots of guided walks from London Footprints, including some Deptford walks.

Seager Sunday Session

Seager Distillery Sunday 21st May, a squat party/free festival vibe upstairs in the old gin factory in Deptford... bands playing at a stage in the corner, the best I saw intriguing angularists These New Puritans, Southenders apparently raised on a diet of This Heat, Can and Mark E Smith, missed The Violets but I am sure they were good because they are... projections on the wall, computer animations ('Mortal Kombat animations of a morris dance' says Scott), tv sets, fabric hangings, obligatory man walking around with rat on shoulder, chill out area with massage table and cups of tea for a donation ('did you put that bottle top in'/'No I put a pound in'/'In an ideal world they'd be equivalent'/'in an ideal world we wouldn't need either'), big sound system downstairs in the Mashed Potato Gallery blasting out 'Welcome to Jamrock', messy, busy, noisy, smoky, fun.

9 Days That Shook South London

South London Radical History Group are discussing 'The General Strike: History and Myth' this week on the 80th anniversary of the nine days when millions went on strike in support of the miners. The meetings will feature short presentations on how the strike was organised in South London, followed by a discussion about what it was all about. It takes place on Thursday 25th May, 8 pm at the Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street, SE17 (five minutes from Elephant and Castle). Admission is free.

Scumfest

Next month's Scumfest 2006 promises three days and nights of international anarcho-punk madness, with gigs at the Grosvenor in Stockwell (17 Sidney Road, SW9) to benefit Women Against Rape and other worthy causes, plus a Pirate Punx Picnic. It all happens from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th June.

Deptford Through the Looking Glass

More stuff happening in SE8 this weekend than I've got time to put down here let alone go to - the full programme is at Made in Deptford.

This afternoon sees 'Deptford Through The Looking Glass' a fashion wonderland in St Pauls Church Yard featuring Rubbish Fairy, Ragz N Bone, Holly Berry aka Reclaim Fashion, Artmongers & Prangsta Costumiers.

Tomorrow (Sunday 3 pm) I am doing my 'Deptford fun city' talk at the Albany, covering the musical history of New Cross and Deptford with sounds and images(admission free). After that I will be hot footing it to the Open Arts Platform at the Old Seager Distillery (opposite Deptford Bridge DLR) where between 4 pm and 12 there will be live music including Klaxons, Man Like Me, The Violets, 586, These New Puritans, Team B & Cleckhudders Fax 'with a support cast of performers, magicians, poets & fools filling the gaps in between' (bargain £1 entrance).

Music for One

Interesting sounding night tomorrow (Saturday 20th May) at the Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street SE17. Music for One features sound artist Sherry Ostapovich collaging experimental guitar with filmscape narratives by Neng Yu and Mari King. Also on the bill are John & Carina and Butchers Boy. It all starts at 7 pm.

How does it feel to be loved?

Finally made it down to London's premier indie pop club How Does it Feel to be Loved? on Friday. The dancefloor of the Canterbury Arms in Brixton was packed with people gyrating to the likes of Belle and Sebastien ('Dog on Wheels'), The Smiths ('Bigmouth Strikes Again'), Decemberists, Velvet Underground, and strangely, Nick Drake (I love Nick Drake but would not put him at the top of a DJ list of dancefloor anthems!). Guest DJ was Clare Wadd, once of Sarah Records. The club plays Motown and Girl Group classics as well as indie pop, which is very welcome as a lot of indie/alternative music is based on an imagined rockist trajectory back to punk which denies soul/pop influences. For me there is a definite thread of broken hearted yearning for a better life from a female (or non-blokey male) perspective linking Diana Ross and Dusty Springfield to Morrissey and Stuart Murdoch.

Recently I've been reading Sunset Song (1932) by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, a (the?) great Scottish novel which includes the following reflections on melancholy music: 'it came on Chris how strange was the sadness of Scottish singing, made for the sadness of the land and sky in dark autumn evenings, the crying of men and women of the land who had seen their lives and lovers sink away in the years, things wept for beside the sheepouchts, remembered at night and in twilight. The gladness and kindness had passed, lived and forgotten, it was Scotland of the mist and rain and crying sea that made the songs'. Take away the references to Scotland and this is as a good a definition of soul music (or maybe before that the blues) as you will find, and indeed of much later music dismissed by the compulsively chirpy as twee miserabilist shoegazing.

A singer must die

Sad news reaches us of the death of Grant McLennan, singer/songwriter with legendary Australian band, The Go Betweens. Listen to 'Spring Rain' or 'Streets of Your Town' and see if you can find anything better. Yeah I know Australia is a bit far South to be included in a South London blogzine, but hey we're not parochial, and anyway The Go Betweens did play at the Deptford Albany and the Half Moon Herne Hill in their time (see list of gigs here).

Made in Deptford Music Talk

Loads of stuff going on in two weeks time at the Made in Deptford festival weekend, with music and arts action galore.

As part of it I will be doing a talk (with music and pictures) at the Albany on 'Deptford Fun City: a ramble through the musical history of New Cross and Deptford', from music hall to the present. It takes place on Sunday 21st May at 3 pm, and admission is free.

By the way has anybody come across a CD called 'Sing Out Deptford'? Last time I gave a version of this talk somebody told me that this exists and includes a version of 'the Deptford Dip' - a 1930s dance hit. I would love to track this down.

On a more up to date musical note, our attention has been drawn to this interview with Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley about his time living in these parts, even it wasn't such a happy experience: "'I fucking hated it,' he says. 'London just beat me down, man. I was working in a pub in London Bridge for two years and taking the bus home to New Cross every night. I was just working, trying to meet the rent. I didn't see the sun for, like, three weeks and I was broke and single. It wasn't what I expected.'"

Deptford Jack in the Green

May Day was seen in fine style in Deptford today with the Jack in the Green procession through the streets and pubs of the area, with the Jack (that's the foliage pyramid above) accompanied by dancers, musicians, drinkers and of course a bear. Fowlers Troop have been doing this for a few years now, but this year they were joined by some new faces such as the Prangsta crowd, creating a big sprawling carnival atmosphere. Lots more pictures at Baggage Reclaim.

Shape Moreton

Tomorrow night at the Amersham Arms in New Cross sees 'Shape Moreton: forward sound' a night of 'songs, instrumentals, soundfields, improvisations' featuring Charles Hayward and other free music luminaries. It starts at 9 pm, entrance is £5 (£3 concessions)

Were-Tigers and Jack-in-the-Green

It’s May Day and time to enjoy traditional working-class customs like getting drunk with a bloke dressed as a hedge.

SELFS-folk have been going along to the Deptford Jack in the Green for two years now and it’s always fantastic fun (see pictures from previous years).

Meanwhile at SELFS we’ll be talking about men in Sumatra who take on the aspects of tigers. “Were-tigers” are a quick and simple way to describe a world of living jungle-shamanism and communication with the cat spirits. I won’t be about, as I did this. Andy Worthington will be introducing. Be nice to him.

8th May: Jon Hare - The Were-Tigers of Sumatra.
Centre for Fortean Zoology member Jon Hare encountered the “were-tigers” while searching for ape-men in Sumatra. This is his first hand tale of living shamanism, martial arts and spirit cats.

South East London Folklore Society meets every second Monday of the month upstairs at The Spanish Galleon, 48 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BL. Talks start at 8.00pm and costs £2.50 / £1.50 concessions.Greenwich Mainline & DLR: Turn left from the main exit, walk about 5-10 minutes, the Galleon is on your right, at the cross-roads.

Cutty Sark DLR: Turn left from the station, right when you get to the road, the Spanish Galleon is across the road.Buses: 177, 180, 188, 199, 286, 386.

Zine Symposium

Went along to The Square Occupied Social Centre in Russell Square on Saturday to see Elephant and Castle Post-Hardcorists Butchers Boy in action. It was all part of the London Zine Symposium 2006, with lots of stalls, chat about zines, DIY publishing,music, a radical Bloomsbury walk hosted by South London Radical History Group, and readings from zines. I caught Kitty Chronic of Chroncicles of a Cheating heart zine (as well as riot grrl band Candy Panic Attack reading some interesting stuff about eating disorders.

We are not afraid of the ruins

Derelict London is one of my favourite photo sites with lots of pleasing images of dereliction and decay. Check out the mournful gallery of dead South London pubs, air raid shelters, and graffiti. The only improvement I would like to see would be a section on buildings we would like to see as picturesque ruins in the future!

The Ballad of Peckham Rye

The death this week of author Muriel Spark set me reading her 1960 novel ‘The Ballad of Peckham Rye’. The story tells of the mayhem spread by Douglas Dougal, a trickster figure employed in a Peckham factory but doing very little work. Along the way, it provides a fictional snapshot of south London life in the 1950s, with pubs (the Rye Hotel is mentioned on the first page), dancehalls and lovers fumbling on Peckham Rye. Like William Blake, who had a vision of angels in a tree on Peckham Rye, Spark’s Rye is a place of visions – Douglas manages to draw a crowd by pointing upwards and declaring ‘A new idea. Did you see it in the papers? Planting trees and shrubs in the sky. Look there – it’s a tip of a pine’. Another character sees ‘the Rye for an instant looking like a cloud of green and gold, the people seeming to ride upon it, as you might say there was another world than this’.

Spark also makes use of a local legend about a tunnel linking Peckham and Nunhead, supposedly an escape route for nuns in the time of Henry VIII. The novel features the discovery of a tunnel that stretches ‘roughly six hundred yards from the police station [in Meeting House Lane]… to Gordon Road’ and ‘formerly used by the nuns of the Order of St Bridget’. The excavation uncovers the bones of nuns in the tunnel.

Variations of this story crop in local history accounts, not least on the sign outside the (currently closed) Nunhead Tavern itself. There does not seem to be any real evidence for it, and I wonder whether in one of those folklore loops Muriel Spark’s fictional telling of the legend entered local folklore itself to become the source of some of the later stories. Anyway, good news on the pub itself, it is apparently due to be reopened by the people who run the Gowlett Arms in Peckham, a pub with a good selection of beers and delicious pizza!

Song of the South

'Song of the South' is the working title for a new musical project I have started, aiming to collect, record, perform and maybe even write songs linked to South London locations. My vision is of a floating pool of collaborators chipping in for the odd song or two, gradually building up to a body of work. As a first small step I performed a couple of songs at the Telegraph Hill Festival Blues Night on 25 March at Page Two in Nunhead. I started off with Georgie, a poaching ballad set in Shooters Hill (or other locations, depending on the version), and then accompanied by Juleigh sang modern folk classic The Only Living Boy in New Cross. If you are interested in participating in this project let me know.

Midnight Notes

Radio Noodles is a newish free podcast site. Early stuff posted there includes XChris's interesting 'Night Exploration' recorded on a late night stroll along South London's Walworth Road with Chris reflecting on the night accompanied by the sound of passing traffic and drinkers. It ends up with a nice quote from Maurice Blanchot: "Midnight never falls at midnight. Midnight falls when the dice are cast, but they cannot be cast till Midnight".

Tales of the Fountain

Dave 'Fountain Boy' Fennessy has been in touch having seen our earlier posting about the indie pop club at the Fountain in Deptford Broadway (now Noodle King). It was Dave who put this club on from June 1990 until a year later when, in his own words, he 'completely fell out of love with music'.

The club particularly highlighted bands on Sarah Records, with St.Christopher, the Sea Urchins, Another Sunny Day, Brighter and Heavenly all playing. Dave says that he 'solely supported the anorak scene because they couldn't get gigs anywhere else in London, not even at the Falcon [legendary Camden indie pub]. Bands that nobody liked included Fat Tulips, Strawberry Story, Groove Farm, Thrilled Skinny... I was a big supporter of south London bands but not many fitted the bill - I was keen to keep the music specifically non-rocky and very indie poppy. My fave locals were Screeming Custard who used to pack the place out. We also had Brain of Morbius, Violet Circuit, Moral Panik, Buick Circus Hour'.

Dave is now planning to devote a website to this 'very independent haven for the unloved, the twee, the sick and the ill', doubtless including the night Bob Mortimer stepped in and tried to stop two guys were having a pretend fight. We look forward to it.

Archaeology of the Future

Archaeology of the Future is an excellent site on the history of British science fiction. I particularly liked the pieces on Science Fiction and the Suburbs and on the Greenwich Emotion Map.

Previously at Transpontine we have considered South London horror film locations, but what of science fiction? We've had Dr Who on the South Bank and Chislehurst caves. Then there's The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), where an astronaut returns from outer space harbouring a deadly alien life-form. He runs away and spends a night on a derelict boat at Deptford Creek, before causing havoc at London Zoo and Westminster Abbey. Any other candidates?

Marmalade Skies

Marmalade Skies is a wonderfully obsessive archive of flyers, gigs, happenings and everything else connected with British psychedelia, 1966-70. Did you know that The Bee Gees played in Lewisham in 1967 at a charity show in aid of the Hither Green train disaster fund (40 died on 5th November 1967)or that Pink Floyd played Woolwich Poly the following year? Most interesting sounding was an event at The Albany Institute, Deptford in June 1967 featuring 'Films, Strange Sounds plus Psychedelic Poetry!', with artists incuding Michael Chapman, Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth.

I will also have to check out some of the forgotten psychedelicists like East of Eden, who played in New Cross at the South East London College of Further Education in 1969, and Focal Point, a band signed to The Beatles Apple Records who lived for a while in East Dulwich.

Did you see the stylish kids in the riot?

South London Radical History Group have a talk coming up this week on the 'Stop the City' actions of 1983-4 in the City of London. There will be a video, a brief talk by Stop the City activists, followed by a discussion about other anti-capitalist efforts then and now.

Its on Thursday 30th March, 7.30 pm at The Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street, SE17, five minutes from Elephant & Castle. Entry is free. More details from: mudlark@macunlimited.net

Down in Albion

Just noticed this Deptford reference on The Babyshambles Albion, never saw Pete Doherty and Kate Moss walking down the Broadway but maybe I missed it:

Down in Albion
They're black and blue
But we don't talk about that
Are you from 'round here?
How do you do?
I'd like to talk about that
Talk over
Gin in teacups
And leaves on the lawn
Violence in bus stops
And the pale thin girl with eyes forlorn

Gin in teacups
And leaves on the lawn
Violence in dole queues
And the pale thin girl behind the checkout

If you're looking for a cheap sort
Set in false anticipation
Ill be waiting in the photo booth
At the underground station
Now come away, won't you come away
We can go to
Deptford, Digbeth, Tuebrook
Anywhere in Albion

Flying Carpet over New Cross

Edith Nesbit was one of the most popular children's authors of the early 20th century, as well as an interesting socialist, feminist and general bohemian. Most famously she was responsible for The Treasure Seekers and The Railway Children (filmed starring Jenny Agutter, who in another south London connection, now lives in Camberwell). E. Nesbit lived in various parts of SE London, and her books feature a number of local locations, including in The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904) a flying carpet adventure accompanied by said Phoenix:

"On and on the carpet swept, still keeping much nearer to the chimney-pots than the children found at all comfortable. And then, just over New Cross, a terrible thing happened... both Robert and Jane suddenly, and at once, made a bound to try and get on to the safer part of the carpet, and the darn gave way and their boots went up, and the heavy heads and bodies of them went down through the hole, and they landed in a position something between sitting and sprawling on the flat leads on the top of a high, grey, gloomy, respectable house whose address was 705, Amersham Road, New Cross.

The carpet seemed to awaken to new energy as soon as it had got rid of their weight, and it rose high in the air. The others lay down flat and peeped over the edge of the rising carpet... 'Stop!' cried the Phoenix; 'the carpet is dropping to earth.' And indeed it was. It sank swiftly, yet steadily, and landed on the pavement of the Deptford Road. It tipped a little as it landed, so that Cyril and Anthea naturally walked off it, and in an instant it had rolled itself up and hidden behind a gate-post. It did this so quickly that not a single person in the Deptford Road noticed it'.

Deptford Fun City Revisited

A very good turn out (50+) at my 'Sounds of SE14' New Cross and Deptford musical history talk last night at St.Catherines, thanks for everyone for coming. For me it was great to have a mixture of some of the people who make the area interesting in one place, and in some cases ‘networking’ in the pub afterwards – those present included Caffy from Music Tourist Board, Mark Sampson (whose ‘New Cross Sympony’ was played), Ceri James (whose 'Deptford Broadway' was also played), Catherine from Cartridge, our very own Scott from South East London Folklore Society, Andrew from Ragged School Blog, Paul from Deptford Free Radio (who recorded the talk for a future podcast) and Paul Hendrich from Goldsmiths' Town Hall Pirate, the latter a new initiative looking to contest Deptford's colonial legacy as seen on the old Town Hall (now a Goldsmiths building) with its statue of the slaver Francis Drake. If you want to find out more sign up here and select 'Town Hall Pirate'.

Here's the music I played last night. If you want to know more about the connections between them and SE London, you'll just have to come along to my next event, likely to be in May during the Made in Deptford festival.


Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – The Only Living Boy in New Cross
Roy Harris – Ratcliffe Highway
Robert Wyatt – The Red Flag
Marie Lloyd – A Little of what you fancy does you good
Fats Waller – The joint is jumpin’
Spike Milligan – The Q5 Piano Tune
Bonzo Dog Band – Monster Mash
Velvet Underground – Black Angel’s Death Song
Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel – Come up and see me make me smile
Dire Straits –Sultans of Swing
Squeeze - Cool for Cats
Alternative TV - Action Time and Vision
This Heat – SPQR
Kate Bush - Cloudbusting
The Flying Pickets – Only You
The Fabulous Poodles – Mirror Star
… and the Native Hispters – There goes Concorde again
The Chords – Maybe Tomorrow
The Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet
Japan – The Art of Parties
Homosexuals – My night out
Johnny Osbourne – 13 Dead
Linton Kwesi Johnson – New Craas Massahkah
Test Department – New World Order
Band of Holy Joy – Mad Dot
Ozric Tentacles – Sploosh!
The June Brides – Every Conversation
Blur – Girls and Boys
Placebo – Nancy Boy
Blak Twang – Trixsta
The Violets – Laxteen
The Swear – Ch ch eh!
Shortwave Set – Is it any wonder?
Mark Sampson – New Cross Symphony
Zen – Deptford Broadway.

Blowing Up Greenwich

Here’s an art exhibition in south east London inspired by a peculiar piece of Greenwich History:
Greenwich Degree Zero

It's on until 2 April 2006 on Wednesdays to ­ Sundays 12-6pm.

“Greenwich Degree Zero is the first collaboration between artist Rod Dickinson [of various crop-circles and the "air loom" fame] and artist/novelist Tom McCarthy. The artists' starting point is a strange late nineteenth-century event: on the afternoon of February 15th, 1894, a French anarchist named Martial Bourdin was killed when the bomb he was carrying detonated. The explosion took place on the slope beneath the Royal Observatory in London's Greenwich Park, and it was generally assumed that his intention had been to blow up this building — the place from which all time throughout the British Empire and the world was measured and regulated.”

"In Greenwich Degree Zero, Rod Dickinson and Tom McCarthy re-imagine Bourdin’s act as a successful attack on the Observatory. The resulting installation reports an event that did not quite happen, blurring the distinction between fact and fiction and relocating the genuine public outrage and hysteria about the threat of anarchist terror that prevailed in the 1890s in this ambiguous space of non-event."

For more information, contact Rachel Fleming-Mulford,T: 020 7582 6465 E: rachel@beaconsfield.ltd.uk

The Beaconsfield is at 22 Newport Street, London SE11 6AY.

I Love New Cross so much I'l frame it.

This just came in, no idea who the other bands are but nights down the Monty are always good:

"Hello all, We, 23frames, are playing the good 'ol Montague Arms this Friday night - 24th March.

It's an 'I Love New Cross' night and there'll be three or four other bands playing too. I think most people know the Montague by now, but here's some info if you don't.

We're on second I think, so probably about, ermmmmmm, 9:30? ish "

Bopp bopp bopp

HOT CLUB DE PARIS (oo-laa-la ect.) and The Dolly Daggers

+ Wolf Gang DJs playing out twisted rock n roll, retro grooves and bleak disco…


Date: Friday 7th April
Doors: 8pm – 12.15am
Price: £3
Venue: The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Road, New Cross, SE15 2PA
Tel: 0207 6394923
Nearest Tube: New Cross Gate
Nearest BR: Queens Rd, Peckham.

Camberwell walks

There are three free walks round north Camberwell coming up: March 19 (10.30am), 25th and 26th (both 2pm). All leave from Camberwell Green and take in some of the hidden green spaces of Camberwell, local artists, the history of the Grand Surrey canal and Burgess park, Robert Browning, with a break for tea and cake at Chumleigh gardens. Free but please book if possible 020 7277 0571 or greencamberwell@fsmail.net
There's a new map that covers the same territory, available now in local libraries and cafes.

New Cross Music Talk

A talk on at The Telegraph Hill festival on Tuesday 21 March 2006 on the musical history of New Cross and Deptford. To quote from the programme:

"Neil Gordon-Orr explores the rich musical history of New Cross and surrounding area, from music hall to punk, reggae and beyond. Which glam star went to Edmund Waller school? Where did Louis Armstrong play? What connects the Velvet Underground and the Bonzo Dog Band to SE14? A talk with music and visuals by the author
of 'Deptford Fun City'".

It takes place at the Narthex community centre at St. Catherine's Church, Drakefell Road, New Cross SE14 (the church at the roundabout by the top of Jerningham Road), price is £3 (£2 concessions). Start time is 8:30 pm.

Visions, Ghosts, Goddesses... same old same old South London

More local themed weirdness coming up at South East London Folklore Society:

13th March: Jack Gale - The Track way of Carnal Desire: Holda & the Sacred Landscape.

Local history expert and respected magical writer Jack Gale presents his researches that followed a vision in Greenwich Park. This is a tale starting with the sacred landscape of Germany and takes us to the histories, mysteries and scandalous past of King William Walk in Greenwich.

10th April: Malcolm Godfrey - Ghosts of Deptford & Greenwich.

Malcolm C Godfrey is well known for his deep interest in the Greenwich. Always enthralled by the past and particularly the supernatural, Malcolm has now embarked on recounting tales of Greenwich's departed inhabitants from the very famous to the
virtually unknown. Malcolm's talk will be followed by an open forum for anyone to
discuss or recount tales of local ghosts.

SELFS meets every second Monday of the month upstairs at The Spanish Galleon, 48 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BL. Talks start at 8.00pm and costs £2.50 / £1.50 concessions.

South East London Folk Songs

I have been collecting folk songs/ballads that refer to South East London locations. So far I have come up with the following:

- Georgie - Martin Carthy's version of this poaching ballad mentions Shooters Hill;
- Wapping Old Stairs - mentions stepping out with 'Susan from Deptford';
- Buxom Joan of Deptford - a song in Willliam Congreve's play Love for Love (1695);
- Wings of a Gull - whalers' song where the singer longs to be 'snug in a Deptford pub';
- Ratcliff Highway - not SE London I know, but at the end the hapless sailor returns to his ship at Deptford;
- Sweet Thames Flow Softly - Ewan McColl's song starts 'I met my girl at Woolwich Pier'. McColl and his partner Peggy Seeger lived at 35 Stanley Avenue, Beckenham from the early 60s until his death in 1989;
- Lady from Lee - I think McColl and Seeger did a version of this.
- Fair Betsy of Deptford - a song from the 1830s about a sailor called William returning from sea to marry the aforementioned Betsy;
- Stormy Weather - a Thames barge song (no relation to the Billie Holiday song) that mentions Surrey Dock, Greenwich Beach and other places along the River. It was recorded by Bob Roberts.

Some of these I only have titles for, others just lyrics. Any guidance on tunes, or any other suggestions, let me know.

Dirty South

Lots of interesting stuff coming up at Dirty South in Lewisham (formerly the 'Rose of Lee' pub). On March 26th, Alabama 3 present 'outlaw club', while on April 1st there's a DJ set from Terry Hall (ex-Specials and Fun Boy Three). Its at 162 Lee High Road, SE13 (020 8852 1267).

For a listing of South East London gigs in April, check out Rocklands.

FAIRYKAMAIKAZEGIGSTUFF

Thank you, Philbin.....

Date : 14 March
Time : 8pm
Line Up : THE FAIRIES BAND + WHITE MAN KAMIKAZE with DIRTY SOUNDS DJs and friends.

Venue: P.O.L.E., New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Road, Rocklands, London SE14 (right near New Cross Station)
Entry : £3
Beer £1.50 a pint, DJs bar until 1am.

THE FAIRIES BAND

"...Shouty, funny, poppy, punky fairy rock n roll..." - Claire Sturgess, XFM
"It's the first time a group has induced pop rapture in too, too long" - Drowned In Sound

WHITE MAN KAMIKAZE

"This is pure whisky soaked trailer trash ripping up the rule book." (Smash Music)
"White Man Kamikaze are like a gang of ASBOs doing the The Clash on karaoke" ( [a rather lazily written review from] South London Pulse)

Who owns South London?: 1. Greenwich Market

Recent concerns about a threat to demolish Greenwich covered market has brought to light who actually owns this piece of land. It appears that it is owned by The Greenwich Hospital Charity- but what is this charity? The name is confusing - the charity has nothing to do with providing modern health services. It is in fact a relic of the body set up to run the Royal Naval Hospital for Seamen in the 18th century. The hospital has been closed since 1869, the buildings subsequently housing the Royal Naval College and now the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music.

The remaining charity is now effectively a property company, owning most of the centre of Greenwich, including the freehold on the old hospital buildings. Its main charitable work is running a boarding school! Furthermore, whereas most charities have a board of trustees, the sole trustee of the Greenwich Hospital Charity is the
Secretary of State for Defence. Its Royal Patron is the Duke of York. The royal and miltary interests that once dominated Greenwich might appear to have lost their influence, but seemingly not when it comes to the question of land ownership.

It appears that the market is safe for the time being, but we will be returning to the mysteries of 'who owns South London?'.

Tag: greenwich

Let's Go To The Bopp

Philbin then reached under her wing to deliver the following proclamation:

"The Wolfgang Bopp presents Ladyfuzz , Chik Budo and Wolf Gang DJs playing out twisted rock n roll, retro grooves and bleak disco…"

This the same Wolfgang Bopp that appeared in the Metro last week.

Again, this is Friday 3rd March, Doors: 8pm – 12.15am and Price: £3.

Venue is the venerable The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Road, New Cross, SE15 2PA.

Tel: 0207 6394923
Nearest Tube: New Cross Gate
Nearest BR: Queens Rd, Peckham
Email: wolfgangbopp@hotmail.com

Films Going On Underground

Today Philbin, my polished ivory and steel clockwork magpie, brought me the following in her little metal beak:

"Exploding Cinema, London's most notorious and longest running Underground Filmclub, returns in ten daysfor a night packed with low budget and underground gems, great decor, prizes and general fun.

NEXT EXPLODING CINEMA SHOW:Friday 3rd MarchThe Hatcham Social ClubHall Entrance (on right hand side)369 Queen's RoadNew CrossLondon SE14DOORS 7.30pm. £4 entry (no concs)

Buses: 36, 171, 53

Tube: New Cross GateRail: New Cross Gate or Queens Road Peckham (6 mins from London Bridge)"

Directors & Map

Save Greenwich Market

Save Greenwich Market, click here to join the campaign to save Greenwich undercover craft market.

FREE STUFF BONANZA

This Sunday (5th Feb) get along to the Pullens Centre, Walworth for the... FREE STUFF BONANZA NEW YEAR (chinese) FESTIVAL FETE THINGEE featuring cake, tea, DJ's but most of all FREE STUFF. It goes like this:

1pm Bring your stuff, put it into correct position in the room. Then visit the cake stall, eat, drink, play some records, browse what others are bringing in.

2.15pm OPEN SHOP. frenzy where everyone takes what they want, argue with friends over trinkets etc etc

1. Books/Magazines/records/Videos/CD's etc
2. Clothes/Shoes etc
3. Household Stuff
4. Kids Stuff
5. MISC

Address is PULLENS CENTRE, 184 crampton street, SE17 3AE
Elephant and Castle tube, buses many 12, 35, 40, 45, 68, 133, 148, 155, 171, 176, 468

Peace in Camberwell

Stop the War vigil in Camberwell Green tonight, one of many across the country to mark the 100th death of a British soldier in Iraq. 20 or so people braved the cold.

Battle for the Trees

All this week, Tribal Voices are holding their Imbolc Gathering at the Synergy Centre, 220 Farmers Road, Camberwell SE5. Thursday night is film night, with films of various land struggles in England in the 1990s. Main feature is "Whose land is it anyway?", plus films covering the anti-Criminal Justice Act march (July 94), Claremont Road ant-M11 movement 1994, Camden and Islington Reclaim the Streets 1995, Newbury bypass protest 1996, etc.

Let the memories flood back and enjoy, or get yourself a history lesson on protest culture in this country. Ital, Vegan, Organic, Sattvic and Raw food served from 7pm, films from 8.

A kids film will also be shown from 6pm, and the main room is non-smoking. Suggested donation to the upkeep of the Centre is three pounds.