May Day

Various May Day bits and pieces going on tomorow. As well as the Jack in the Green in Borough (see below), there's the May Day demonstration from Clerkenwell Green (12) to Trafalgar Square, with music promised at the end, plus a surpize EuroMayDay event at a location to be announced at the last minute.

Tomorrow night there's some kind of May Day social at Moonbow Jakes in Brockley. Not sure exactly what's happpening, but it will include the Strawberry Thieves Socialist Choir and I have been asked to come along and say a few words about the origins of May Day. Starts around 8.

There's also a May Day anti-racist music night in Catford at the Power-league Sports Club, Canadian Avenue with Eternity Sound System.

If you don't mind heading even further South and East on Monday, there's a May Day festival in Whitstable complete with May pole, jack in the green, etc.

Brixton Prison Blues

Doing a talk at South London Radical History Group on 'Brixton Prison Blues - the history of Brixton Prison and some of its illustrious inhabitants'. It all happens on Tuesday April 26th 2005, 7.30 pm at the Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street, SE17. Admission free.

Come along and hear about hunger strikes, escapes, war resisters and various other rebels and find out which songs and which books were written there.

Spring Celebrations in South East London

Beating the Bounds is an English tradition where the boundaries of a certain area, parish, town or county, is marked out, sometimes by bouncing people off of boundary markers, more often by whacking the boundaries themselves. The general idea is that without maps and road signs, folk in the past would need some pretty clear reminders of exactly where one place starts and the other ends.

Giving the boundaries of Lee the thrashing it richly deserves is the Dacre (women’s) Morris Troop on Saturday 23rd April. They’ll be starting at their namesake pub the Dacre Arms, Kingswood Place, SE13, 10.30am for an 11.00am start, processing along the boundary of the old Dacre estate before calling at the Duke of Edinburgh at about midday and the Woodman at about 1pm (both pubs are along Lee High Road) and finishing at the Dacre at about 2.30-3.00.

All are welcome and the Dacre web page is here. Information and directions (you’ll need them) to the Dacre are here

Another tradition that emerges locally at this time of year is the Deptford Jack-in-the-Green, who some of us followed around Greenwich last year and the jolly green giant is going around Borough this year. If you have not seen the Deptford Jack before, and not made it to the Hastings or Rochester Jacks in the Green, there is nothing more evocative of spring than seeing a bunch of tipsy people in fancy-dress coming up the road at you, one of whom is dressed as a tree.

The dressing of the Jack will take place on Saturday 30th April at Horseshoe Inn, Melior Street, SE1 (which coincides with a Star Trek meeting so, ha-har, come see when minority interests collide) and the Jack and co head from the Horseshoe from 12.30pm on Sunday May 1st before setting out to the following pubs (at approximately the following times):

12.30pm at the very latest: Leave from the Horseshoe Inn, Melior Street,
1.00pm: Royal Oak, Tabard Street,
1.30pm: Lord Clyde, Clennam Street (this is possibly the shortest street in London - it is just off Marshalsea Road)
2.00pm: Founder's Arms, Hopton Street, Bankside (near Tate Modern)
3.45pm: Market Porter, Stoney Street
4.30pm: The Horseshoe Inn, Melior Street,all in the Borough, London SE1 area.

Sarah Crofts, who organised this fantastic event, says "All of the these stops are confirmed, but between the Founders Arms and the Market Porter, we may venture on to the Millennium Bridge and cross to the north side of the river to the Centre Page, Knightrider Street, near St. Paul's. This depends entirely on the weather; Jack does not like high winds and as it is very exposed on the bridge, it may not be possible for him to make the crossing.

Everyone is welcome on both Saturday evening and Sunday. Most of these pubs do food on Sundays, but the longest stop around lunch time will be at the Founders Arms. The Horseshoe also does food if you want to have something to eat when we return."

The Sunday parade/pub-crawl coincides with the monthly folk session at the Horseshoe Inn. A map to the Horseshoe is here: http://tinyurl.com/4bgks

For more information on the Jack and the Lee Beating of the Bounds, contact Sarah. For more information on this honest working class, urban tradition, go to Sarah’s website.

The Loaf has Risen

Use Your Loaf Centre for Social Solidarity has risen from the grave. Their squatted bakery on Deptford High Street was evicted last year, but the collective are starting a new project at the Ragged School, Hales St, Deptford SE8. This time they have negotiated with the owners to use it until the builders start work, which could be quite some time. There will be a regular Friday night cafe starting next week (22nd April) from 7 -12. Other activities will include:

Tuesdays: Capoeria 5-7pm, Dance 7-9pm and Solidarity Federation (fortnightly) 7pm onwards.
Weds: Dance 7-9pm Capoerira 7-9pm
Thurs:Capoeira 7-9pm, Yoga 7-9pm.
Fri: Capoeira 5-7pm, Use your Loaf cafe 7-12pm.

Other plans include setting up a darkroom. There is plenty of room for projects to happen and exhibtion space as well, so if you've got any ideas come along to the next collective meeting on Weds 20th April at 5pm or email useyourloaf@btinternet.com

I go out on Friday night

Friday night (that's Friday 15th April) is looking like a busy one, looks like I'm never going to get to see the last episode of Fingersmith that I've got glaring at me from the video I've put it on.

So, the Para, err, Six String Bar at 460 New Cross Road, New Cross (left out of New Cross station, right out of Deptford Bridge) has the Metro Riots, Crash Convention and DJs Duckie Music, C:B D:Js and Dirty Sounds. £0 before 8pm, £3 after. (from looking at the band url's, it looks a bit rock for my tastes, mind but then many do love rock.)

Angular Records are back in the Venue's beautiful basement bar with a night of "PUNK ! : Old / New / Post / Art / Sex / Delicate" (hooray!) featuring The Violets, Twisted Charm and The Phobics. Time is 9pm until 2am, the Venue, if you didn't know, is on the New Cross Road, SE14, though you'll need to go down the side, Clifton Rise, to get into the basement. The bouncers on the main door look a bit confused when locals turn up there.

The Venue Price is left out of New Cross Gate station, right out of New Cross, £3 or £2 with a hand stamp from folks the Lava Club night.

Eclectic Electric are doing their thing at the Montague Arms, 289, Queens Road, New Cross, SE15 2PA. Expect plenty of danceable "electro(nica), d&b, hip-hop, dub, funk, global ect." (got to love the 'ect.', cowards) tunes from 8-12.30, a pie-eyed and pretty crowd dressed up to the nines, installations, fire dancers and some frantic bongo-playing. Entry will be around £3 and just sitting in the cob-webbed wonder that is the Montague Arms is something worth paying for.

The Montague Arms, Transpontine's number one magical pub in south-east London, is right out of New Cross Gate, left out of Queen Town Road. There's loads of buses.

A Spell in Time

Story Telling in the Hope is a monthly story-telling club for adults who meet 7.30pm at the Bob Hope Bar, Wythfield Road, Eltham, SE9.

Their April session is on Sunday 17th and is ‘Tales of Hidden Bulgaria’ by A Spell in Time, who are the “only Bulgarian myth and folklore storytelling and performing arts group in the UK” apparently.

I heard some utterly captivating traditional Bulgarian music on Resonance a few days ago and Spell in Time will be performing music with their story-telling so it should be another excellent, wombling event. If you don’t want to take my word for it, their patron is none other than big Ron Hutton who says “Primal theatre from the heart of Bulgarian myth and folklore... A brilliant blend of storytelling, ritual and music combined with divine Bulgarian singing”

Story Telling at the Hope is £5 entry, £3 concessions, email Tony Aylwin for more details.

Great Horned Beasts

Possibly in celebration of all things frisky and spring like, the Lewisham Art House is exhibiting the painted driftwood of Charlie P! on the theme of “Minotaurs, Unicorns and other Horny Beasts”. The blurb describes these works as the artist examining “Greek and Pagan Myths with his usual eclectic mix of rich oil painting and found objects.”

I saw Charlie P!’s (that ! isn’t a typo) last exhibition, Angels Descending, at the Art House last year, which had quite a few pictures of male pop-stars like Tupac and Michael Stipe looking winged, wanton eyed, angelic and available and, sure enough, this exhibitions offers “Musician Tricky appears as the Green Man of Pagan Myth and a drop-leaf table top is transformed into a triptych opening to reveal a Garden of Earthly Delights.”

Which is all fair, there are plenty of pictures of goth girls and waifs done up like S&M vampires, ragged pixies or some other saucy mythical creature out there for straight boys* so it’s only fair some gents get the same treatment. The exhibition is free and runs until the 1st May. Lewisham Arthouse, 140 Lewisham Way LONDON SE14 6PD, the website is here. Opening Times are Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm till 6pm

*so I’m told.

Spring Rites!

The sap is rising, trees are unfurling, daffodils are swaying gently in the breeze as fat and furry bumble-bees buss by. Blossom, well, it's blossoming, isn't it? It's Spring and it is in my step.

In keeping with the season, my fellow Transpontinian, Mr Neil Gordon-Orr is speaking at the South East London Folklore Society (SELFS) on Spring Festivals in South London on Monday 11th April. Neil is a local historian particularly interested in forgotten and radical history. In the run-up to May Day and Beltane, he will discuss spring rites from Pagan times to the present day, concentrating on rituals and festivals in South London

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.
Email

Dr. Who on the South Bank

Good to see the new series of Dr. Who kicking off with some South London locations, with the good Dr. and assistant rushing across Westminster Bridge to see off an alien intelligence controlling killer showroom dummies from its lair under the London Eye. All this no doubt a knowing nod to the ancient battles between a previous incarnation of the Doctor and the daleks on the South Bank, when they too walked (or rather wheeled) Westminster Bridge - this was way back in 1964's 'Dalek Invasion of Earth' apparently. Same shot of the Bridge from the South side figures in the closing scene of 'Queen of the Damned' (2002) by the way, with the Vampire Lestat also crossing the river there - go easy up there. By the way anyone know where Billie Piper's flat was supposed to be in Saturday's episode?

Loco-ation, loco-ation, loco-ation

The next LIVE IN ROCKLANDS at Amersham Arms is on April 13th, a Wednesday, and features such thrash starlets as Johnny Panic ("passion, sincerity and downright tunefullness", read what you will from them having an XFM single of the week), Corporation:Blend ("best glam/punk vocals since early manics" and who are Transpontine to argue with that from the Daily Star), Korova (who have the best description here, they play “suitably distorted catchy songs" while "the guitar player repeatedly runs at his bass player as if to impale her, only to have the crap kicked out of him") and Electric Lady Band, who don't have a url to link to but we're told "the electric lady herself plays guitar".

388 New Cross Rd, Amersham Road entrance, Rocklands SE14 - 8pm-midnight. £5/(£3 concessions)

Telegraph Hill Park re-opens

Telegraph Hill Park in Pepys Road re-opened today after a long closure for landscaping and general tarting up. Lots of new play equipment, a working toilet and two ponds are among the attractions - no ducks as yet, but I did spot a bat as the sun went down. Official opening with music is on June 11th.

Exploding Cinema back in New Cross

Latest communique has been received from the Exploding Cinema crew:

"We're back! Along with Springtime, little lambs and all manner of frisky animals the Exploding Cinema returns! With a host of gems mined from the homeground underground - films, videos, performance - we're starting our new season on Saturday April 16th at The Hatcham Social Club Hall 369 Queens Road, New Cross London SE14(New Cross Gate Tube + Queens Road Peckham BR, Buses: 36, 53, 171) Doors open at 8pm, entrance £4.

Addicts vs. The Witches

An interesting story of witchcraft and football appeared on the BBC website in January. Two teams, Yeovil Town and south-east London's own Charlton Athletic met at the end of January on the level playing field of a football match (something I neither like nor understand). However Yeovil had a supernatural advantage.

A witch (or wiccan says the story, though witches and wiccans are two different things), and Yeovil supporter, Raquel Bailey, and friends, had cast a bad luck spell, called the "cross-legged spell" on Charlton Athletic and their manager Alan Curbishley. This took place at a stone circle at Ham Hill, Somerset.

This sinster working had the intention of, Bailey hoped that, in her own words, "something funny" happen to the team's legs when they approach the goalmouth. "The spell is not evil, it's merely to help Yeovil in Saturday's FA cup game against Charlton," she said, thinking that doing something to footballer's legs as they start a footmatch match isn't, in some way, malicious.

And the result? Proof again that south-east London is magical as Charlton beat Yeovil 3-2, with one commentator saying of the match: "Charlton have struggled against lesser teams in cup matches but they finally broke their jinx to deny Yeovil a possible giantkilling but not before they were given a few frights on the way. "

Beware South-east London medicine. It is strong.

Perforations at Bubblegum

Perforations Poster
Originally uploaded by skitster.

Tomorrow sees a night of Film, Video, Performance and Music at Bubblegum, 46 Deptford Broadway, SE8. It's 8pm t0 1am, £2.50 entry, which has got to be worth it just to see what 'Flying Wolves' are all about.

contact details and directions from the Bubblegum website.

Spring Equinox @ Brockley Stone Circle

Thanks to everyone who came and made it magic.

Six String (Paradise Regained)

I got locked out last Tuesday night, having lost the key on the very same day I decide to leave the flat without my mobile. I knew that someone would be home around ten-ish so I stayed in New Cross and went to the Six String Bar, formerly the Paradise Bar, and listened to a couple of solo bods. Katy Carr, who was on 2nd, played folk-ish stuff either accapella or on a keyboard and she was jolly good.

She even gave me a hug when I joined her email list, which doesn’t happen too often, I’m please to say. Certainly didn't happen when I joined 'Richard of Hume's' or The Gluerooms email list, anyway. So I checked out her website, where album tracks can be found and I was quite so keen but not to fret. T'was a nice night.

There's a "bloody great" Friday planned this Friday, March 25th, when XXIV Records (who ever they are) and our good, mad friends at Rocklands present a solo-show by Gemma Ray Ritual plus support and guest DJs at the Paradise, I mean Six String. GMR is worth checking out if you like your tunes a bit blue-sy and folk-sy. I've only heard the band but I'm sure the solo set will shimmer.

It's free before 8pm, £3/£2 after. £2 a pint, the Para, Six-String Bar is at 460 New Cross Road, SE14 6TJ

South London Radical History Group - coming soon

Upcoming events from South London Radical History Group (all free as the air).

Tuesday April 26th 2005, 7.30 pm at the Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street, SE17- Brixton Prison Blues - the history of Brixton Prison and some of its illustrious inhabitants.

Tuesday May 10th 2005, 7:30 pm, meet at 56a Crampton St for a 'Wild Walworth' history walk.

Tuesday June 7th 2005, 7.30 pm at the Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street, SE17- The Battle of the Beanfield - Andy Worthington (author of 'Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion') on the 20th anniversary of this notorious police trashing of would-be Stonehenge festival-goers.

Map of Crampton Street here

Fresh Films

More film, lucky old Lewisham, despite having no cinema there are plenty of people willing to put on films, as listings on Transpontine have shown. If experimental stuff isn't your bag then Fresh Films at Cafe Crema are offering up some fantastic films for children at their Children's Film Cafe .

They're starting with the Tim Burton-esque film of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach from 1pm this Saturday, 19th March. More exciting to me, and something I suggest you should borrow a child for, is the showing of Miyazaki's heart-breakingly good anime Spirited Away. This will probably be the dubbed version but go see it if you can anyway. Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone is showing on 9th April, a film that must still look like great fun to innocent eyes.

Another exciting inclusion is a film I have not seen yet, the 1957 fantasy The Singing Ringing Tree. £3.00 per film - tickets can be bought in advance from the café. Babies and small children are welcome - Free tickets for under 5's.

The café will operate a non smoking policy for these screenings. Breastfeeding welcome. your baby can sit on your lap. Safe storage for buggies and changing area provided. Time: Doors at 1.00pm, films start at 2.00pm.

Adults are well serviced too, with a double bill of the 1981 UK two-tone/ska film 'Dance Craze' and the classic Jamaican reggae film 'The Harder They Come' appearing on the 29th March and the Bob Dylan biopic 'Don't Look Back' showing on the 12th April. I'm going to try and see 'The Harder the Come' before the proposed remake spoils it for me.

Doors at 7.00pm, films start at 8.00pm. Normal cafe opening hours are weekdays 9.30-6.00. The Cafe is fully licensed; serving vegetarian food, Fair Trade tea and espresso/ hot chocolate and fabulous cake. For more information call the café on 020 8320 2317 or visit their website. Here's a map.

My Eyes My Eyes

New Cross is just getting too busy. As well as the promising Angular night at the Venue, 'My Eyes My Eyes'are holding a short film/performance event this friday (March 18th) at the Hatcham Social Club. As well as DIY short films there will be live performances from Liz Bentley with 'Dennis'; LepkeB premieres his dazzling 60s girl-group tribute; Duncan Reekie delivers his latest rant and a short and totally memorable slice of 'Grief Lite' for your discerning delectation. Doors 8pm til midnight.

Angular at the Venue

Pinch me. Proper bands are getting let back into the basement of The Venue, Clifton Rise, New Cross this Friday (18th March, 9-until late) for another round of punk and new wave raving courtesy of Angular Records.

This month, X-FM rated Neils Children join Richard Sanderson rated Wet Dog (a bit like The Slits, apparently) and (following the tradition, started last month, of bands I’ve not heard of that are named after accessories, see Mitten) Good Shoes, who get describe as “a stripped down basic Strokes” here.

DJ’s are from local heroes The Vichy Government and The (lovely) Swear. It’s £3. Have a very good reason if you’re not going.

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!

Michael Stipe in Old Kent Road?

Check out this video for REM's 'Aftermath' and see how many South London locations you can spot - definitely the Elephant and Castle, Old Kent Rd, and the London Eye, possibly the Heygate Estate. However it's all studio trickery - the band weren't really there:

http://www.musicbrigade.com/?movie=01KS023830

Future sound of New Cross

People sometimes talk about the New Cross scene, but it seems to me there are any number of different scenes, albeit ones that overlap at the edges. As well as the various Montagu/New Cross Inn/Rocklands/Angular scenettes there is a whole scene of younger bands either in or just out of school, with their own website New Cross Scene. On Friday 4 March 2005 some of them are playing at the Telegraph Hill rock night, including Phoenix Jam, Eleven IQ, Gebus, Provocative, Tone-Deaf Messiah and The Only Hopes. Its at the Telegraph Hill Centre, top of Pepys Road, Doors open 7.30, admission £4. If you are out of your teens you will feel very old.

Live in Rocklands

You can't keep a good bunch down and the Rocklands crew are back, with new players Beat Crazy, at busy old halls of the Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Rd, Rocklands (erm, that'll be New Cross) SE14.

The first night of their LIVE IN ROCKLANDS gigs will be on Wednesday 9th March, from 8pm until midnight and will cost 35/£3 concs. Playing are The Modern, "dark wave synth pop" apparently, Luxenbourg, "pop noir", and a band called William who do "weirdrock". I like the sound of weird rock.

DJs will include Simon Price of the Stay Beautiful club. Maybe see you there. Future nights will be posted up near the time but you can get more details on these, and loads of other things, at the Rocklands site.

Totally Wired

If you live in New Cross you should be able to hear a new radio station for the next month, put together by Goldsmiths students. Wired is broadcasting on 101.4 fm (or online at www.wired.gold.ac.uk) all day, every day until 23rd March.

Past Tense Publications

Past Tense Publications, purveyors of South London histories, mythologies and mysteries, have a new website. You can now peruse their catalogue and order online pamphlets such as 'Deptford Fun City - a ramble through the history and music of New Cross and Deptford' and 'Down with the Fences! - battles for the commons in South London'. Check it out at: http://geocities.com/pasttensepublications/

Lumiare de la Loup

There’s plenty of music out there and there’s plenty of film too. There’s film clubs out there too. Joining Exploding Cinema and My Eyes! My Eyes! is the equally well named WEREWOLF Underground Film Club. Their opening night is on Sunday, 6th March at the Funky Munky bar in fair Camberwell, 25 Camberwell Church Street, London SE5 and costs £4.

They will be showing the British Premiere (possibly the first film premier in Camberwell ever?) of FAITES VOS JEUX By AKAS and Filmgruppe Chaos (‘in loose cooperation with the copyright violation squad’ apparently)

‘ FAITES VOS JEUX ‘ is, and I quote “a feature film made without a camera, a collection of pirated images/ 'samples' from home movies, adverts, art-videos, TV news, documentaries, game shows and movies from Hollywood to 'Bollywood'.”

So, perhaps, more like a film made on lots and lots of cameras, along with “doses of sandpaper, acid, felt-pens, 'Letraset', sharp blades and other devices” that tells the tale, somehow, of “a baby born in the seventies to the end of his life by suicide. Along the way the film explores political events, music, andmedia styles : the deaths of Germany's Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Group) in a high-security prison, the rise of the punk movement, early eighties new wave culture, the Gulf War, the WTO-riot in Genoa and ultimately to a 'mega-media-mix' showdown of th eevents of 9/11 and the war against terror.”

As I said about something else a while back, could be brilliant, could be a bit of old toss but it looks an interesting night. There’ll also be ‘Klassik shorts, live tv mixing and MC Ray Beam.’

Nearest tubes to the Funky Munky are the Oval and the Elephant & Castle, though there not that near, you’ll need to get a 12, 36, 436, 345 or 171 bus.

Gluerooms & Scaledown

I've not got round to photographing the new poster for the Gluerooms but it's a good one. Loads of horses are going into the top of a grinder and coming out as glue (or dog-food, I suppose) at the bottom. Is this a commemorative Charles and Camilla poster?

Presumably down to February being a sawn-off runt of a month, they are not running on the last Wednesday of the month, as is their present set-up, but the first Wednesday of March, the 2nd.

Pay £3 from 9pm at the door of The Amersham Arms, Amersham Road, New Cross (just by New Cross station bridge) and you will get a live ‘ticky tape set’ from DJ Tendraw & The Gypsies Dog & No Disco and live music from Moonus (who may be “psy-groove-poetic-ilic excursions deluxe" but may not be, part of the fun of writing about Gluerooms is finding out about who’s playing) and The Reactorcore Is Splendid.

All together now: “The reactor core is splendid, it gives us light to read. Each sub-atomic particle is a friend indeed.”

Tendraw & The Gypsies Dog will also be appearing this Friday, 25th February, at central London music club Scaledown along with Blackheath-er Rebecca Closure. Scaledown is free to members (join on the door) and starts at 7pm upstairs at The King and Queen, 1 Foley Street London, W1.

I Swear I Was There at The Venue!

An acquaintance of mine is coming back to south-east London for a quick holiday after three years or so in American and he asked "What's new?"

"Well," we said, "beer's gone up, fox hunting is meant to be banded, you can't laugh at Bible botherers anymore and the pubs still aren't open 24 hours because there's worries about people getting drunk."

I was being a bit of an old misery. What I should have told him, and him being an ex-New Crosser he would have understood, is that the Venue is doing proper music again! Friday 18th was a great night, the vaulted basement bar is a slightly arabesque (I love that word) features, the crowd where the usual mix of local scenesters, from non-smiley young boys (who we laughed and pointed at) to girls who love to hit the dressing-up box to so many other weird and wonderful people. The bands were all loveable, from the multi-instrumental, experimental punk noise from Mitten, to the cheeky on-stage banter and sheer love of being there from both the ever-gorgeous cartoon-punksters The Blue Minkies and the boppy Raw Sex (as in the Roland Riveron duo) of The Fucks.


So let’s do that again! Angular are planning another night at The Venue in March but before then those other punk-providers I Swear I Was There are putting Lovell’s Wharf, SONY (Somewhere Outside New York), Fine Lines and The Idle Lovers on at The Venue on Friday 4th March from 9pm with multiple DJ’s. Entry is £3. The Venue is on the New Cross Road, giggers go to the side entrance on Clifton Rise.

Arabesque Nights

Hubble Bubble is back in Deptford on 26th February for more Turkish-fusion tubes from Oojami and Balkan brass-band the,um, The Balkanatics. There’s also beats, belly dancers, trapeze artists, DJs and Turkish food.

It’s £8/£6 a ticket, a darn good chance to wig out to some great beats and an ace introduction to Turkish and Arabesque music . Go, go, go (if you can).

It’s on at the Albany, Douglas Way, Deptford, 8pm to 2am.

Nirvana in New Cross?

The Venue in New Cross has seen many tribute bands, incuding 'Teen Spirit - a tribute to Nirvana'. Over at Urban75 there has been a bit of discussion about whether the real band ever played there, with a couple of people thinking they saw them there. 

It can be difficult to be sure about gig memories, half the bands I 'saw' at the Venue I only semi-heard through a drunken mist, or I missed most of because I was dancing upstairs. After digging around at Nirvana-obsessive sites, I am pretty sure they never played at The Venue. 

However according to the very comprehensive www.livenirvana.com Kurt Cobain and the rest of the band did go there on the 22 August 1991 to see 'Mudhoney', 'Hole' and 'Captain America'. The following day they played Reading. This was about a month before 'Nevermind' was released. 

Someone who was there thinks that Nirvana may have played a few numbers with Mudhoney, but I'm not sure about this either. There is a Mudhoney set list for this gig which doesn't mention doing any numbers with Nirvana, but who knows? 

 Anyway that was then, this is now, I'm off to the Venue tomorrow (Friday) for the Angular night.

Who does that bell toll for?

There’s this new mystery in New Cross, I’ve heard it on my road twice in the last few days.

We’re in the dark, grey, guts of February and, by the gods and goddesses, it’s cold out there. Not only is the cold closing itself around my, and everyone else’s, extremities with an intensity of grip normally associated with pit-bulls, solider ants and bull-dog clips but everyone around me has the chapped nose and wheezy rasp about them of the long-term cold sufferer.

So why have I, whilst lurking in the warmth of my burrow near the New Cross end of the Lewisham Way, heard an ice-cream van playing it’s chimes twice in the last few days? Not only have I heard these chimes (the traditional, discordant ones that sound like a sack full of cuckoo-clocks and musical boxes being rolled down a steep hill) but I’ve heard the familiar whirr of an ice-cream van engine.

My burrow-mate, Clare, even saw someone approach this van last night, purchase something and disappear back in to the sterile, frozen night. What can this 'ice-cream van' be selling? Surly not ice cream? Is it a roving burger-van, filling in before the festival and fair-ground season and making do before haunting the car-boot sales this weekend? Is it delivering oily meat to the masses on the street and on demand? Is it selling soup and tea? Weed and speed? Gloves and scarves? Is it bringing much needed cheese, wine, hot pizza and chips to ones doorstep and, if so, why am I not aware of its services?

It is selling something I don’t know about to beings in New Cross that I normally do not encounter or perceive? It is like a ghostly galleon or the wild hunt or the enchanted party boats that travel the Amazon, providing entertainment for ‘the others’ amongst us and only glimpsed by mortals on clear, moon-light bathed nights?

The next time I hear it I’m going out there to catch it and see. I hope I am able to come back afterwards and let you know what I shall witness.

St Valentine Be Hanged!

Monday, 14th February, London. The restaurants of the city will be filled with couples, listlessly munching their pizza, staring glassy eyed in to the middle-distance wishing they could think of something to say to each other.

Perhaps a guitarist or fiddler will sidle up to them and begin to play. He (or she) doesn’t care about what they are doing, the couple are embarrassed but they all go through with this awkward and joyless ritual. It is, after all, Valentines Day.

The tired rose on their table will fade a little bit more and lose another petal.

Other couples will have just got back from a weekend break, tired and a bit fed-up with the craft shops and cloying tea-rooms of out-of-season resorts and retreats. Yet more will wonder what to dread more, gifts of cuddly toys or of novelty, and cheaply made, racy underwear and fluffy-handcuffs. All of which are made with slight, ironic shrug, just in case the gesture is taken too seriously.

Look, if you’re in love, or if you just enjoy shagging a particular person a lot, celebrate it your own way and at your own time. Celebrate it every day it’s there.

And this Monday, well, come to SELFS and see “A Man Called” Jason Oliver discuss a, perhaps, different form of physical passion. Jason has recently been described by no-less of a wise-woman as Treadwell’s Christina Oakley as “a lively speaker and a serious practitioner” as well as “Engaging, intelligent, thought-provoking. We can only imagine that whatever he's speaking on, he makes the evening out worth the journey.” Good use of the royal ‘we’ there.

Jason will discuss suspension and other forms of body ritual and compare these with the techniques of everyone’s favourite self-loving proto-chaos magician, Austin Osman Spare.

Here's the details Jason gave me plus some other shameless SELFS promotion (location and directions after these messages:

14th February: Jason Oliver – Suspension and other Body Rituals.

Jason will discuss body ritual with specific relation to suspension, both past and present, and its relation to the death posture as posited by Austin Osman Spare. Other body modifications will be discussed as a peripheral to these body rites of passage.

Jason is studying at the Royal College of Art for a Masters degree, his main themes being body modification, ritual and associated practices.

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SELFS now distributes books, pamphlets and magazines on our chosen interests of paganism, folklore, forteana, high strangeness, radical history and the occult. We currently hold:

Deptford Fun City – Neil Gordon-Orr: £2

Down with the Fences: Battles for the Commons in South London – Past Tense Press: £1

Fowlers Troop and the Deptford Jack in the Green: a history of an old London
May Day tradition – Sarah Crofts: £1

LVG Vampire Chronicles Issue: Slayer Special: £2.75 (with an article by me in it).

Do contact me if you think you have something we could distribute for you.
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SELFS made the national press! One Hermione Eyre (possibly not her real name) cam to SELFS on the 10th January, made a few notes, gave Jeremy Harte the rave review he deserved and then wrote us up in the Independent on Sunday on 16th January.

The review can be read here.

It’s not on the Indie website so I had to scan the photocopy Jeremy sent me. We, “the pagans”, are “lovely”, says the bar staff of The Spanish Galleon, which is nice to know, and they talk about foxes a lot and wear a fair bit of purple, do a bit of note taking in green biro and but, ultimately, are “friendly” according to Hermione. Hopefully she wasn’t too perturbed by the thought of the Galleon bar-staff thinking she may be one of those ‘pagans’ (or forteans, folklorists or various other SELFS sorts).
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As well as posting the above over the interweb, I have finally gotten around to setting up an online photo-gallery for SELFS which includes three pictures from the epic Jack Gale walk in Greenwich Park in 2003 and one of our first goes at watching the Winter Solstice sunrise at Hilly Fields Stone Circle in Brockley in 2003.

Also in there are a few photos, that I’ve pinched off Stewart Smith, of former SELFS speakers (me, Gordon Rutter, Richard Freeman) mingling with March’s speaker Mark Pilkington as well as (before this turns too much into ‘Hello’ magazines for pagans and forteans) some snaps of last years Fowlers Troop Jack in the Green procession around Greenwich pubs, the Lion’s Part October Plenty gathering and our growing collection of ‘plant people’ pictures.
The link to the SELFS & Forteana page is here, The gallery is updated as often as we can so if you have any SELFS-related pictures (or pictures of cute, furry animals) that you’d like to put up there, such as pictures of speakers, SELFS or related events or anything interesting snapped in South East London then do please let me know.

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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 email
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Long Lost Club

The Lost Club is one of New Cross's more interesting music nights, presenting an ecletic mix of bands and performers with a dark and punky atttiude. Their next night is at Cyclicart, 308 New Cross Road, New Cross and costs £3 (£2.50 with lost badge. My Lost Club badge sits very proudly on my pea-coat and often draws admiring comments. Well, it has twice, anyway).

Doors are at 8pm and you get this long, Lost Club line-up for your money: Twisted Charm, The Lazy Angels, The Dirty Pins, Wearesix, Venus Pollution, Thatchers Clit (shudder), One Jah and acoustic stuff from Deadeye and Zen.

Also performing are Jazzman John, Jo Angel, Paul Abbott and the migraine that is Spinmaster Plantpot.

Pirate Punk Pub

This Friday / Tomorrow / 11th Feb has the Greenwich Pirate mob putting on another bunch of bands, described as "some of the finest bands of the area with a penchant for the female singer" which is perfectly fine by me as well as girly DJ's..

Live are The Violets, Alice And The Enemies and Lovelle's Wharf, DJ's are Love Pirates, Bodie & Doyle and, um, Daisy. Not that that means much to me but I'm sure they'll be a good and drunken mix of punk-rock and disco.

By the very magic of the venue nights are the Monty are always magical. The time is 8-12, Rntry: £3/2 concs.

Call of the Wild

Saw a poster on a tree in Gellatly Road today offering a £500 reward for finding a parrot, 'last seen in Meeting House Lane' (Peckham). Strangely a few weeks ago at the other end of the road there was a poster seeking information on Freddy, a missing parakeet. What's going on?

Until recently I believed that such creatures were doomed to die in London, at least until some JG Ballard-style future in which the ruins of the city are submerged in tropical vegetation. But then on Peckham Rye last year I saw a flash of green and became aware of the parakeet population living there and indeed all over London (the South West being particularly popular). According to this report there may be up to 30,000 parrots and parakeets living wild, descended from escaped pets. Presumably all the birds in solitary confinement have heard the call of the wild and plot for the moment when the cage door is accidentally left open - looks like at least two are on the run right now in this area.

Pound shop pop at the Venue

Angular records and friends are starting a regular night in the basement at The Venue (Clifton Rise, SE14). They promise "Set in the heart of New Cross behind a crushed velvet curtain, an Angular Disco is musical ordnance in the face of something less linear. Angular Recording Corporation hosts a regular night of art-punk-electro-new-wave-indie-pound-shop-pop. Badges and brogues welcome, virtuosity will be confiscated...".

First up on Friday 18th February are The Fucks, The Blue Minkies, Mitten plus DJ's Greenwich Pirate, Throw Another T.V. In The Thames.

A month later on Friday 18th March its Neils Children with Wet Dog. I saw the former at the Vibe Bar in Brick Lane a couple of months ago and they were really good (well with a name like that how could they not be), some of their stuff reminded me of Deptford's own Alternative TV.

Tax on the door is £3, 9pm start.

Time for the Chinese New Year in Greenwich

It's nearly time for Chinese New Year and the National Maritime Museum (NMM), being in charge of Greenwich Observatory, is into all things chronological, are putting on some events. They look good:

Most exciting are the Chinese Astronomy planetarium shows from Saturdays the 5th to the 19th February at 14.30. These “live digital planetarium show, explore the myths and legends surrounding the Chinese constellations and their relationship to the Chinese calendar” will be at the National Maritime Museums Neptune Planetarium. Price is £4.00 adults, £2.00 sprogs.

On Wednesday 9th February the NMM Lecture theatre is screening (for free) “a variety of mainstream and Chinese art house films”. More information (Such as, presumably: “why are you showing these potentially interesting films at such a stupid time of day?”) can be obtained via this email address.

Sunday 13 February is the ‘Chinese Community New Year' and the NMM will have free events from 12.30 - 16.00 which will include plenty of Chinese dance, Chinese dance workshops as well as mask and flag making and Chinese calligraphy workshops.

All through February there is a ‘family trail’ to “discover our beautiful collection of Chinese objects on display.” For directions and the link, visit the museum’s website.

People's Republic of Disco

Went to the Windmill in Brixton on Saturday for People's Republic of Disco. For those who don't know, the premise is that everybody can bring two tracks which are randomly selected to play, thus offering a practical critique of superstar DJs and other nonsense. Inspired by Friday's Gang of Four gig (which led to the Montague Arms being mentioned in the New York Times!), I took along 'At home he's a tourist', which got a good crowd reaction. Altogether now - 'down on the disco floor, they make their profit'. Next PRoD is on 19th February.

If ever you are short of something to do in South London of an evening, you are more or less guaranteed some aural stimulation at Windmill. There's far too many events to mention here, but Angular artistes Luxembourg and The Vichy Government are there next Tuesday (1st Feb).

New Cross Red Cross Crawl

Bit of a late one here but recently our friend Bongo Tom has burst forth, literally frothing, about this local music event. There is a music festival taking place up and down the New Cross Road this Sunday, the 30th January, called Red Cross New Cross . It's a charity mass-rock out to raise money for the Tsunami appeal.

This will take place during the day and night at the Catapult Club, round the side of the Amersham Arms, 338 New Cross Road, the Walpole Arms, 407 New Cross Road, New Cross Inn (aka Bar Alchemy but I think they're trying to quietly drop that one) 323 New Cross Road, and the Goldsmiths Tavern, 306 New Cross Road, which is trying to get a bit of it's old reputation back after changing from a gritty punk venue with boarded-up windows to what resembled, as far as I could see through the glossy windows, a British Legion Club more at home in Camberley than New Cross.

The New Cross Inn has Dirty Pretty Things, cartoon punks Bogus Gasman, the spooky and lovely sounding Gemma Ray, Crowd, Monster Raging Boogie Party and the charmingly named Yellow Snow,

It's a punk/ska a-go-go at the Catapult Club with: Inner-Terrestrials (politico ska-punk band), Pain (I think this'll be the ex-RDF lot gotten noisy, usually spelt P@IN, I think), Headjam, Hoover & Pitman and Short Bus Window Lickers. I would guess this one i will be your best chance of sighting a studded leather jacket, a Crass t-shirt with the sleeves cut out or a green-mohican.

The flyer I have promises "an eclectic mix of blues and jazz sets from new and established local musicians" at the Walpole and Bongo Tom backs that up by saying: "lots of familiar local acoustic groups and musicians, such as the Repertoire Dogs, playing in the Walpole. It'll be a chilled-out acoustic session, gradually getting more energetic through the day and culminating in a jam session." Bongo Tom will be banging his bongos there, apparently.

The Goldsmiths are chilling too with " eclectic mix of blues Redroute, jazz sets from Stone Pony and established local musicians The Sly Ones, the Purples and Stabilisers."

Who is playing when will be listed on the day and that's a lot of bloody interesting music for a fiver. A contact email for the event is redcrossnewcross_at_yahoo.co.uk (swap _at_ for @)

Down at the Cross Bones

John Constable is Southwark’s shamanic poet, singer of songs and teller of tales of the lost history and magic of London’s outlaw borough. If my memory serves me correctly, John was talking through Southwark as the Jubilee Line extension was being dug below him and as the excavation encountered the Cross Bones graveyard, a site for paupers, prostitutes and other outsiders. As a skeleton was unearthed, the Goose, the goddess of outsiders, aspect of Isis and genius loci of Southwark contacted John and began singing her songs through him and his colleges in the Southwark Mysteries.

The focus for John at present is to leave a shrine on the site of the Cross Bones for the individuals interred beneath. London transport and other greedy developers are attempting to build an office on the site so, at 7pm on the 23rd of each month, John and others go to the gates of the site on Redcross Way, (just north of junction with Union Street), London SE1, (Borough tube, or London Bridge - Borough High St exit), to commemorate those buried there.

John says:

to honour the souls of the outcast dead, the prostitutes and paupers buried there...
to sing the songs of the Goose and Crow...
to perform our own (syncretic not dogmatic) inclusive rituals...
to bring our own offerings - ribbons, flowers, feathers and other totems...
to tie them to the gate, adding our personal sigils to the >self-transforming shrine that has appeared...
to envision the memorial garden that is already taking root, despite the
best efforts of the would-be developers...
to reclaim magic, mystery and true community in the heart of our city...

(after which we all head off to a convenient watering hole to shoot the breeze, conspire with our higher selves and see how the spirits move us). The shrine has recently gained some extraordinary totems, including a piece of stone from the wall of Jerusalem, willow wreaths (for protection), a wand (once waved in through the door of 10 Downing Street during presentation of an SFC petition to reform the draconian laws that punish working girls and boys), and John Crow's 50 year old teddy-bear (with the >straw spilling from the seams) bound with ribbons of power…at recent 23rd gatherings, magic has occurred...

Piper at the Gates of Sainsbury

Entering New Cross from Peckham, the first real landmark you encounter is the sacred ground of the Montague Arms followed by the cross-roads of New Cross Gate. Further along however, just before you get to New Cross Gate station, is a bloody massive Sainsbury where just about everyone around New Cross goes shopping (I've bumped into friends old and new there).

So, on the SELFS email list this morning Robert asks:

"Walking along the alley between the Sainsbury's fence in New Cross Gate and JDsports shop, there is a strange full sound emanating from a pipe high up on thewall and as one approaches passes it by it alters in it's pitch."

Being obsessed with furry animals both cute and vile, I reply:

"Knowing what goes on in that bit of New Cross I think it might be some sort of anti-rat device that uses high-pitched noise though I don’t know if our monkey-ears should pick it up. High frequency sound drives the oily little bastards mad and, hopefully, away"

Robert, who has a lot more sense that me, replies:

"I'd guess it's some sort of vent for an extractor fan, it's audible from some distance and quite musical"

To which I reply to, rather witlessly:

"Maybe it should have a show on Resonance FM"

Then Jason Oliver chips in with:

"i think it might just be an extractor fan, although experimenting with it yesterday by walking up the alley and then walking down the path to Sainsbury's, you can make your own Coil-style anti-anthems, at no cost whatsoever."

Which is a relief to the Duchess of Rocklands Minxy because she says:

"oh thank god for that, i had a funny moment on me bike once. i had to get me clanger out and squeeze it back at the noise. i didnt think i was going mad though, its lovely"

And so Jacqueline Woo-war Smith piped up:

"Ah, I love a singing pipe...a pipe on a gate in Glastonbury was singing to me the other day! Perhaps pipes are taking over!!?"

Which may be true so I'll be careful when shopping tonight. I may just seek this pipe out, though, and have a bit of a boogie.

End of the Affair?

The Slutski messages at New Cross have been painted over again but there was a new piece of writing in the tunnel that leads to the London Bridge-bound platform. On the right hand side of the tunnel someone, I think it's the same person who wanted 'Slutski' to 'Phone' them, has written 'I don't love you anymore'.

Which is a sad thing to see first thing on a Monday morning because the world needs more love than humanity is currently generating. It’s written in a strange way too; at the end of each word the pen slides back, putting a squiggle through each word as if the author isn’t quite sure that what they write is the truth or that they don’t want it to be true. The thing is, once one has written something down, it is out there in the world and is on its way to becoming truer than it ma have been before. Especially if it’s written in the dingy tunnel at New Cross station and read on a cold Monday morning.

Once that magic has worked what you have to do is move on.

Gang of Four in New Cross

So one of the greatest bands of all time decide to play their first gig in 20 years and where do they choose to play - The Montague Arms of course! The Gang of Four have reformed on the back of everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Franz Ferdinand playing around with their punk-funk sound, and to prepare for some big gigs next week they played the 'secret' gig in New Cross tonight. When I heard about this today I thought it must be a joke - in my local music pub? On the stage where even I have trod?

But it was all true and a big, crowded, sweaty affair it was too - they were by far and away the most danceable white band of their genre/period and they still sounded sharper than 90% of groups then or since. Their critical thinking hasn't dated at all (capitalism still exists I'm afraid), unlike some of the more sloganeering bands of that period, and some of their material has acquired new resonances. As John King bashed out a rhythm with a piece of metal on a microwave, intoning the lyrics of 'Ether' -"white noise in a white room" - I was reminded that while the H-Blocks in Ireland might have closed (the song's original subject), torture by British troops is still pretty topical.

When some bands reform they seem embarrassed and half-hearted, but nobody could accuse the Gang of Four of that on tonight's performance, with singer Jon King scurrying around the stage on all fours, guitarist Andy Gill's intense stare, and original rhythm section Hugo Burnham and Dave Allen shaking the stuffed animal heads, marine ephemera and other bizarre decorations in this most idiosyncratic of South London taverns.

Didn't catch the full set list but for any Go4 obsessives out there it started off with 'What we all want' followed by 'Not great men', 'Ether' 'Why theory?', and 'Return the Gift'. Next songs included 'He'd send in the army', 'At home he's a tourist', 'Anthrax', 'Natural's not in it', before finishing up wiht 'To Hell with Poverty'. A short set of encores included 'We live as we dream alone' and 'Damaged Goods', before they came back on again for 'Essence Rare'.

Desperately Seeking Slutski

I first saw it written in the tunnel and on the poster hoardings of New Cross station. Some one was asking, in black marker pen, for someone to ‘Phone Me Slutski’. It got painted over in the tunnel but a new plea appeared a day or so later. ‘Phone Me Slutski’.

Then we were walking up from the Ravensbourne River the other day toward Lewisham and there is was again, ‘Phone Me Slutski’, scrawled across a phone box near the station.

It could all be some sort of art project, of course, there was a chap who would write “Do not move, this is street art” on the fridges, old tires and other stuff that had been dumped in New Cross last year. He did it for reasons that, I’m sure, made sense to him. There were posters pinned to the lamp posts around Goldsmiths and the Marquis of Granby last August pleading for someone called Viv to get in touch with some sorrowful someone and that the sorry one loved (maybe still loves) him or her. It could have been art or it could have been someone writing out their desperation on the streets where their love walked.

‘Phone Me Slutskí’ hasn’t got the manic edge of something like the Viv posters (I wish I’d photographed them), there’s no pleas, no number, just the command: ‘Phone Me’ and the named ‘Slutski’. Maybe a nasty rash, not love, has blossomed between the two, or more, people involved in the Slutski affair or perhaps the Sluteé (as opposed to the Slutski) craves more from the Slutski but the Slutski, as the name suggests, had left without leaving so much as a phone number, PO Box number or details of their regular drinking hole.

Or maybe this a different language for love or lust, one I don’t know. There’s more out there, at least one for every person in the world, and most of them are only understood by those directly involved (if they’re lucky).

Sounds of SE14

New Cross and surrounding area has been a source of musical creativity from the Music Hall-era through to punk, reggae and up to the present day. As part of the Telegraph Hill Festival, I will be doing a talk on 'The Sounds of SE14', illustrated with excerpts of music from bands and artists linked with the area (OK, I might stretch it to include bits of Brockley and Deptford). It's all planned for Saturday 5th March 2005, at the Telegraph Hill Centre (next door to St.Catherine's Church at the top of Pepys Road). Doors open with music from 8:00 pm, with the talk starting at 8:30 pm sharp with the aim of finishing by 9:30 pm to allow plenty of drinking time afterwards. Details are being finalised, but is should be £3 entrance including a free copy of my 'Deptford Fun City: a ramble through the history and music of New Cross and Deptford'. Expect to hear, and hear about, Louis Armstrong, Spike Milligan, John Cale (of Velvet Underground), Malcolm McLaren, Bonzos, Dire Straits, Kate Bush, This Heat, Alternative TV, Ozric Tentacles, Jah Shaka, Squeeze, Blur and much more beside.

Get stuck into The Gluerooms

I'm very fond of the Gluerooms, the monthly experimental and improv night that takes place at the Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, New Cross (on the New Cross Station railway bridge).

The first one for this year is on Wednesday 26th January, from 9pm, and features Richard Sanderson, who has appeared on these pages before in various guises, under the name of 'Richard of Hume'. He'll be indulging his passion for squeeze-boxes and electronica and it should be as interesting as anything a lap-top and melodeon playing, old New Wave Punk Morris Dancer could throw together.

Along with Richard, the London Electric Guitar Orchestra are performing. I have no idea what they sound like but their name conjures up something interesting, doesn’t it? I know that Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth met, many years ago, in Glenn Branco’s Guitar Orchestra so maybe the London group sound like an orchestra of guitars played by at least two people who will, in the future, go off and form a band as good as Sonic Youth. Or maybe they won’t but I think it's worth the risk of seeing them, just in case.

It’s £3 entry and there’s the usual house disco. All proceed for this month go to the Tsunami relief appeal.

Shaun of the Dead

Despite being set entirely in Crouch End, the exterior shots around "The Winchester" pub, a main feature in this very British zombie film, were the Duke of Albany on Monson Road in New Cross Gate. I was tipped off when the chimney of the Millwall incinerator appeared in one shot, as Simon Pegg & co cross a road to get to the pub.

The Music Room on the New Cross Road tell the story of how they got involved here and I met the chap how played the zombie that got into Shaun’s flat and lost an arm in a fight. He’s the one-armed dancing partner (not a euphemism, they really do do dance classes together) of my boss, who lives in Brockley, and came in to the office to do some design work.

There is a planning application out there to turn the pub into flats but I don’t know if this has gone through yet or if the pub is still open. Here’s a description of the pub, describing it as looking “closed down” already and here’s a website where one intrepid fan visited the pub while on a pilgrimage of SotD locations.

All together now "Dan, dan, dan, duh-dan-du-dan. White lines!"

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

Another New Cross-linked band was 60s pranksters The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (best known for 'Urban Spaceman'). The band's Neil Innes (later of The Rutles) described meeting the band's singer for the first time: "I first met Vivian Stanshall in a pub in New Cross, not far from Goldsmith's College. He was overweight, wearing a black frock coat, Billy Bunter trousers and carrying a euphonium under his arm. His broad face dwarfed the miniature, oval-shaped, violet tinted Victorian spectacles perched on his nose and, on either side of his head, he sported very large false ears made of unpleasant pink rubber! It occured to me immediately, that here was an interesting man, even for an art student and this was only 1963 - or was it 1964?".

Made in SE London

According to the South London Press, Daniel Bedingfield recorded his first album, 'Gotta Get Thru This' in his bedroom at his parents' house in Manor Avenue, Brockley. The same paper also reported that Matt Hales wrote Aqualung's 'Strange and Beautiful' on a piano under the stairs in his Brockley flat.

What other front doors round here hide a cauldron of musical creativity (for better or worse)? In the pub last night somebody claimed that The Orb's 'Little Fluffy Clouds' was recorded in a housing co-op flat in Jerningham Road, New Cross. Can anybody throw any light on this? I am doubtful. However The Orb's fantastically titled 'A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld'(1989) was recorded at 'Trancentral', the KLF's HQ based in Jimmy Cauty's house in Camberwell (not sure of the exact location - again any suggestions welcome).