Brockley Lovers

Lover's Rock 

According to the sleevenotes of The Lover's Rock Story, Lover's Rock had its origins in Upper Brockley Road where label founder Dennis Lascelles Harris owned a record store called Eve Records, complete with recording studio in the basement. The label of course gave its name to a whole reggae genre: the sleeve above is from its first 12", 'Reggae Woman' by George Williams (1977). (thanks to Thomas K. for this tip).

Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible: Flux of Pink Indians in Forest Hill

 

Part of the Transpontine mission is to document the various byways of music in South London. In this spirit, and courtesy of Graham Burnett's 'Anarcho-punk archives' [site now defunct], we bring you this treasure from Forest Hill, circa 1985. The teepee belonged to Steve Ignorant of anarcho-punk legends Crass, and was in the garden of the house where members of fellow punk pacifists Flux of Pink Indians lived. Flux put out their first (and in my view best) LP, 'Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible' in 1982. I even had the  'All the arms we need' poster from this on my bedsit wall.

Derek Birkett of the band later formed One Little Indian records, putting out lots of cool stuff by Bjork, Alabama 3, Kitchens of Distinction and many others. In fact, Bjork was interviewed at  what Sounds described as 'the One Little Indian HQ, Forest Hill' for Sounds in 1987 (read it here), when she was still in the Sugarcubes.

Update March 2024

Flux of Pink Indians lead singer Colin Latter has recently discussed this photo on Insta:

 'I remember this day in 1985 so well but never knew a photo existed of when Steve Igs of Crass came over to the Flux flat in Forest Hill to set up a tipi in the garden. Steve and I are crouching down on the left, both wearing whitish t shirts (I know, not black!). I came across the photo on the South East London Blogzine 'Transpontine' and the photo was taken by Graham Burnett of the excellent New Crimes fanzine who had popped up from Southend to visit us along with some friends. First thing Steve said to me was that it will take an hour or two to set up but we'll get it looking like it's up in 15 minutes. Otherwise the other members of Flux, who were watching us from the balcony, will start ribbing us if it looks like we're struggling. 

 It was just down from the station and just off the South Circular. It was a block of four ex police flats that have since been knocked down I believe... in Westbourne Drive'

The flat in Westbourne Drive was apparently part of a housing co-op, it seems through the same co-op they moved to a house  at 3 Fransfield Gove SE26 that became the One Little Indian HQ. That is the record label address given on releases from 1985 to 1987, so presumably here that The Sugarcubes came... just a few years afer A-ha were living round the corner!

Tales from the Crypt

Just got word of another Made in Deptford event, this time taking place on Sunday May 22nd. The venue is the Crypt at St. Pauls Church on Deptford High Street, Deptford. Its called Le Spectre and is a collaborative dance and music event featuring seven contemporary dance companies, live bands such as former local tango-goths Fantasmagoria, Dead Eye and Tim Whiteheads Jazz Ensemble. Film screenings by The Invited Cinema.

Doors at 5pm, tickets £7.

Find the Lost Club

New Cross musical and performance art group The Lost Club will be bringing their "rolling revue of poetry and music" to Cycliart, 308 New Cross Road, New Cross on Saturday 21st May. Start 8pm until late, £3 or £2.50 with a spiffy Lost Club badge.

Along with their house-band The Dirty Pins, No Star Hotel and Spawn of Maus* will be playing to the New Cross masses with Jukebox Jo spinning the discs.

LEft out of New Cross Gate, cross the road, right out of New Cross, corss the road. Buses: 36,436,53,178.

*Speaking of bands with odd names, not that there's anything wrong with Spawn of Maus, I couldn't help but notice there's a band called 'Chickenhawk' playing the Amersham Arms at some Rock night soon. If you're interested, be careful about doing a web search on the name, it's equivalent would be an American band playing somewhere on the edges of LA or New York called “Kiddie Fiddler” or “Nonce”. Very funny.

I Swear the Swear are There

New Cross punk-totty The Swear are celebrating the release of their new EP "Repeat it, Repeat it" with a number of gigs, I've just seen that I missed them last night at the Fox 'n' Firkin but they're having a launch party at the Par, the Six String Bar next Friday, 20th May.

It's £3 after 8pm with a happy hour (enjoy them while you still can) from 6pm-9pm. The Crowd, Good Shoes and Cut Throat DJ's are playing too. The boy memebers of The Swear have a bit of a glint in their eye at the moment it seems, dropping "rumours of spin the bottle with the swear boys for the first 10 through the door" and offering their (in their words) "sexy Irish guitar player Andrew will be auctioned off at >the end of the night to the highest bidder/s".

Oh to be young and musical in spring time. The Six String Bar is at 460 New Cross Rd, SE14, 5 minutes from New Cross and Deptford Bridge station. Many buses.

Film in Deptford

Café Crema and Fresh Films are hosting three events for the Made in Deptford Festival (More events of interest will appear as they come our way).

Fri May 20th has an outdoor screening (if the weather's good) on "terrible cult" film Withnail and I starring those two almost Doctor Who's Richard E Grant and Paul McCann. A good film, the lack of women in it not doubr being more than made up for by the burlesque usherettes dressed by squat haberdashers to the pretty things of New Cross PRANGSTA. Time is 8 until late, the screening starts at 9.00, entrance £6.00 including food (probably not cooked in a Withnail & I style. "Here hare here.")

On the Saturday (May 21st: 5-7pm) there is a free night of short films by local filmmakers. Café Crema opens from 4.30-9.30 pm for meals and drinks. Sunday (May 22nd) has live music by Belleville, and I quote a "mighty soul voice plus guitar, harmonica and sampled beats". The PRANGSTA usherettes are back, dress in your finest, the cost is £3.00 and attendees are advised to dress up.

Café Crema can reserve a total of 10 tickets over the phone (020 8320 2317, Mon-Fri 9.30-6.00.) Café Crema, 306 New Cross Road. Close to New Cross and New Cross Gate tube stations on the East London Line.

End of an Tasty Era

Many eras have ended recently, the John Peel era, the Arthur Miller era and, more happily, the "Doctor Who not being on" era.

Another sad one hit me last night when, tired and uninspired, I rang the Raj Bhojan for my dinner. After dithering over two of the veggie Balti's, the fruit, lemon juice and nut Nobrathon Balti Whala and the chick-peas in spicy sauce Kubli Balti Whala I settled on the zingy delights on the former.

Dinner arrived, along with two more onion bhaji's than I'd paid for and a complementary bottle of Cobra and the chirpy delivery chap handed me, as casual as anything "Our new menu".

And gone was the Nobrathon Balti Whala, gone the Kubli Balti Whala, gone too were the other veggie Balti's I never, in my lack of foresight, got to try. Not potato balti, alas, no cheese balti. The change was immediate. What should have been a tasty treat of a Nobrathon was an passable vegetable curry. Luckily we’d gone for side orders and the saag bhaji was up to its usual standards.

I am thinking of handing in my Raj Bhojan 25% eating in discount card in protest. I need tasty curry and I need it as near as possible. Ideally within lunging distance of a decent pub, I need suggests, my fellow Transpontinians and I need them before my next curry craving comes. Otherwise, this could escalate to a level the like of which hasn’t been seen since Chinese Takeaway to the gods Uncle Wrinkle close for a few months.

Help.

Blurt Out

Our own post-punk Morris Man Richard Sanderson has been in touch to let us know that post-punk jazzer legends Blurt are playing (the utterly not post-anything) Monteque Arms, 289 Queens Road, Peckham, SE15 2A, with Bulbous plus Bert Shaft tomorrow, that's Friday 13th May.

This'll be a good gig, I have "A Fish Needs a Bike" going thorugh my head right now, which may not help my hangover.

The Monty is left out of Queen Road, Peckham, walk for ten minutes to get there, right out of New Cross Gate, walk for about 10 minutes.

Wild Walworth Walk

The next South London Radical History Group event is planned for: TUESDAY 10th MAY.

Come on down to "A WILD WALWORTH WALK" (a packed but shortish circular tour) to hear about: How the British Union of Fascists were driven off the streets in 1931...
How the cops were attacked by giant baked beans in the '90s!... Pirate radios, crazy characters, squatting frenzy, victories & defeats...

Starting off with refreshments at 7.30pm at (the lovely & revamped) 56a Infoshop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17. Tube/buses/trains: Elephant & Castle or Kennington

The Unofficial Greenwich.

Official Greenwich is easy to spot. The Cutty Sark, the perfect green of the Royal Park, the trinkets and object-d’art of the markets and the museums dedicated to Naval might built on the site of palaces built for Monarchs and masters. Seemingly everywhere one goes there is the crush of tourists streaming through the place, except for the one place they were all meant to go, the giant pimple of the Millennium Dome that sits quivering at the end of Greenwich peninsular.

Which is all good, well, mostly good but it is not the whole story. The Greenwich that gets me excited is the weird trinket stuffed beside the tat and toss at the market, the old paperback, the postcard from a place I’ve never heard of. The museum is a fantastic display of history but it is also a place where the dead still walk. The park is also the site of a pagan temple to Diana, bronze-age barrows and the home, some say, to a frost Goddess. It’s also the site of the UK’s only ever anarchist act of terrorism, loopy folk events from the past and a possible sighting of a sickly green spirit.

Geraldine Charles, the archivist of the National Maritime Museum, will talk at SELFS on 'Trails of the Unexpected in Royal Maritime Greenwich' from 8pm on Monday 9th May.

This talk will cover folklore, ghost stories and earth mysteries in and around the sites of the Palace of Placentia, Queen's House, Greenwich Hospital and more, which is the site now occupied by Greenwich University and The National maritime Museum. The talk will be illustrated with photographs.

Geraldine is a registered archivist working at the National Maritime Museum, she is also a biologist with a special project on Pythons & Boas, a parasitologist (squirrel’s gut and rectal content), an expert in the Victorian and Egyptian Symbolism of Abney Park Cemetery, a published poet, a founding Trustee of the Families in British India Society, trainee bongo player and sings in the ‘world music’ group Songlines. Our kind of person.

SELFS meets every second Monday of the month (except this August) 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 SELFS.

Pirates have sauntered, gut-girls have belly laughed and, very recently, Morris men have danced badly. The Deptford Jack-in-the-Green paraded through there last year, mitten crabs creep about the place, the church of the High Street is linked in with Old Nick Hawksmoor and his possible mad plans and the site of the Millennium Dome is said to be haunted by George Livesey. The pub SELFS meets at, the Spanish Galleon, has secret tunnels allegedly linking it to the Maritime Museum and a sailor’s uniform was found walled up in the cellar.

Local Story-teller and GreenSpace Guide Rich Sylvester is running a series of two-hour story-walks “[e]xploring the Stories of Greenwich Peninsula from Vikings to the Dome”. The first is this Sunday, 8th May, meet at 2.30 pm at the top of the escalator North Greenwich Tube, the route is from the Dome to Greenwich. “It all happened here!” says Rich. “With a few facts, several stories and many myths we will shine a light on Viking kidnappers, Elizabethan pirates [phworr, pirates], convicts, Ship-builders and Entrepreneurs of the Greenwich Peninsula.”

For Friday 20th May meet at 6.30 pm and do the same route as the above, but widdershins, so meet at the Cutty Sark to walk to the Dome. It being Friday night there will be a 20 minute break for liquid refreshment.

Sunday 22nd May is back from the top of the escalator North Greenwich Tube and is a circular ramble called "Shades of Green". Rich says: “[a] blend of stories of the past while we "keep 'em peeled" for sightings of the surprising Wildlife of River and Peninsula."

Tickets are £5 (£4 concessions) and advance booking (which is recommended) from Rich at 07833 538143 or email Rich from here. Buses to North Greenwich: 108, 422, 188, 161, 486. Tube to North Greenwich: North Greenwich.

Troublesome Things

With our taste in all things supernatural, we're pleased to report that The Fairies Band are playing a Live in Rocklands event at the Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, Rocklands (that’s New Cross, bless their psycho-geographical hearts), SE14 on Wednesday 11 May, 8pm-midnight with The Violets, Shard, Empty Vessels (there's a band name that's not been properly utilised, "bloody odd" says the Rocklands website, "hurrah for that" says Transpontine). There's also DJs Unemployable Welsh Scum + Dirty Sound

Entry £5 on the door (£3 concessions), the Amersham is opposite New Cross train/tube and right near New Cross Gate and Deptford Bridge docklands light rail.