Saint Etienne

Bob from Brockley has correctly identified Saint Etienne as the great London band - but has described them, shock horror, as a North London band. Well it may be true they were living in Camden when their career really got going, and they certainly express a love of London on both sides of the river. But let the record show that band founders Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley actually grew up in Croydon (Wiggs went to Whitgift School, not sure about Stanley), where they first formed the band in 1988. Stanley actually worked for a while on Croydon market: 'At 15, I took a Saturday job on Surrey Street market, selling Danish eggs past their sell-by date, because it was two doors away from Beano's' (the famous second hand record emporium).

The sublime Hobart Paving, arguably their best song, takes its name from a Croydon based company.



Their video for their 2005 song Side Streets was actually filmed in Croydon:



At their 2003 Xmas show (which I was lucky enough to attend) they gave out a CD with a track called 'Marcie Dreams of Deptford'.