Deptford Literature Festival 2025

Plenty of interesting talks, workshops and other events in this year's Deptford Literature Festival including 'Lewisham Lyricists' at the Albany on 28th March. Anja Ngozi, Blakie, Belinda Zhawi and more in an night curated by music writer Emma Warren. 

Telegraph Hill Festival 2025

Lots of great events coming up in the 2025 Telegraph Hill Festival (March 29 2025 to April 13th 2025) including a whole thread of green/environmental talks and activities at The Field, Hatcham House and other venues.

Coming up on 2nd April 2025, GREEN AND PLEASANT NEW CROSS? – THE PRE-URBAN LANDSCAPE at the Earl of Derby pub:  'it's a long time since anybody could truthfully say 'I remember when it was all fields round here' but once it was. What was the New Cross/Telegraph Hill area like before it was built on from the late 19th century? This illustrated talk by Neil Gordon-Orr will look at the woods, farms and market gardens and what was grown here, the sights, sounds and smells of a rural area at the edge of London. All this and the last, partially successful fight to hold on to green public space at the top of the hill'. 

Also looking forward to the latest installment of the Nunhead & District Municipal Museum and Art Gallery which I may be participating in in some capacity.

Music Monday: Loose Talk TV (1983) - when Tom Waits, Grace Jones and Sade touched down in Deptford

Loose Talk was a short lived Channel 4 music/arts and chat show that ran for two series in 1983. It was recorded in front of a live audience at the Albany theatre in Deptford. Generally critically panned at the time it did bring a range of interesting people to touch down in SE8 with guests including Fun Boy Three, Roy Ayers, Robert Wyatt, Elvis Costello, Peter Blake, Fab 5 Freddy, Carmel and Tom Waits.  Perhaps most notably it featured what I believe was the first TV appearance of Sade Adu in an episode that also included Grace Jones and Peter Capaldi.

You can find various clips and even whole shows online, a lot of it quite cringe to watch now! 

Sade Adu sings Cherry Pie on Loose Talk from Deptford, 11 April 1983-

Ruth Ellis drama at the Rivoli

New ITV drama 'A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story' is a fictionalisation of the life and death of the last woman to be executed in Britain. She was hanged for murder in 1955.

Ellis lived for a while as a teenager at 7 Herne Hill Road, while working at the Locarno ballroom in Streatham.  

In recreating the world of 1950s nightclubs it was probably inevitable that the producers would turn to the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park as a location, and so they did...

See the many previous posts about the Rivoli - featuring Kylie, Lana del Ray, Elton John, Oasis, Rihanna, Idris Elba, Ted Lasso, Florence and the Machine and many more

Music Monday: Laura Misch - Alchemy on Hilly Fields

Laura Misch might be touring internationally at the moment but but she continues to deepen her relationship with South London landscape and communities. Last month for instance she gave a listening workshop at Avalon Cafe in Surrey Canal Road SE14 while last summer she was down at the 56a Info Shop supporting a project from her collaborators Holobiont.  She's also incorporating field recordings into her musical practice, as can be seen in this short film marking the launch of her new song Alchemy featuring her in action in Hilly Fields.

Laura Misch at Hilly Fields stone circle

see previously:

Laura Misch launches 'Sample the Sky' in Peckham

Hilly Fields Songs - yes several videos have been shot there including one by Stornoway that also features J's Cafe that later became Avalon