The Cramps in Nunhead Cemetery (1990)

The great US band The Cramps visited London in 1990 and were photographed in a cemetery for a Melody Maker shoot by photographer and drummer Joe Dilworth. Online there has been debate about where exactly these photos were taken, with candidates discussed including Nunhead Cemetery, Abney Park and Kensal Green.

I am going to go with Nunhead for now because somebody else who was there says so. Caroline Collett was at the time producer and presenter of the Movie Show on BSB, and has recalled on twitter: 'Nunhead Cemetery, the day I interviewed Lux & Ivy about their fave horror films... I think they were slightly bemused at how far from the centre of town it was. They did come sailing through in a hearse, which was the best possible way to arrive! [guitarist Poison Ivy] 'was absolutely freezing and spent most of the time in the Director’s orange VW Beetle with the heating on high!'. She mentions the Melody Maker photoshoot happening at the same time.

Of course that all fits in with the cemetery's goth reputation with black clad hearse drivers being a familiar sight at the its annual open day.

© Joe Dilworth

But still - I would like to be able to confirm. Nunhead was/is famously overgrown with trees which fits with the pictures. And the arch behind them in one of the photos looks similar to the chapel. Of course in 35 years since some stones have fallen and some trees have grown very big so it's hard to tell. But if you can find the exact location of where Poison Ivy trod on the Nunhead Ivy let me know!

Update 13th October 2025

After a fine autumn afternoon's walk around the cemetery yesterday I have found the locations of these photos. In fact all the photos from this shoot seem to have been taken in the same area. When you come in through the main cemetery entrance on Limesford Road there is an avenue directly in front of you heading up hill towards the chapel. At the top of this avenue on the right there is a group of monuments behind which the photos were taken. Here's some evidence:

The decorated pillar behind them in photo is the Wetherel family monument which also aligns correctly with what is clearly the arched entrance to the chapel

In several photos from this shoot they are standing by a grave stone. This still exists and is located just behind where the previous photo was taken. Unfortunately the headstone is now broken and has fallen back but you can still make out the lettering - it is the grave of Thomas Aldred and also of Emma Aldred whose name can be made out near its base.

In one further detail note the brickwork corner of another monument next to Poison Ivy in the gravestone photo. That same corner can be seem in this photo, with the gravestone toppled over in the back right of photo.

The bricks are on the base of this monument.

In further discussion on line, Caroline Collett has confirmed that she is '100%' sure that it was in Nunhead, and she arranged the licence for filming. She has also provided the additional detail that while Ivy was freezing 'Lux was fearless, striding across the undergrowth in his high heels'.   She has also put up a film clip of Lux and Ivy from the same day.

Meanwhile Stoke Newington History confirmed on twitter that the chapel in the photo definitely isn't the one in Abney Park cemetery. 

So I would say that is case closed and we can say for sure that the Cramps were in Nunhead Cemetery early in 1990, most probably in February as the Melody Maker article with photos by Joe Dilworth was published on 3 March 1990. You can't simply recreate the photos today - graves have fallen, trees have grown, and there has been landscaping and subsidence. I also wondered with the chapel photo whether there has been some touching up of the photo itself, there are some tell tale blurs (not an unusual occurrence). But the location is clear. Would be good to see that gravestone cleaned up and repaired in memory of its inhabitants and of the late Lux Interior who once leaned over it fabulously.

 

They are in good company, we know that Marc Almond has definitely visited too, photographed here with collaborator John Harle while promoting their 2014 album 'The Tyburn Tree (Dark London)' [photo sourced from London Dead]

More Nunhead Cemetery posts

Music Monday: 'Welcome to the Party' - Professor Green in Brockley

Professor Green is often to be seen at coffee shops and similar in the Brockley area, so perhaps no surprize to see him filming his latest video in Coulgate Street, home of Parlez, Brown's and Broca. 'Welcome to the Party' gently self-mocks his journey from working class boy does good to 'one foot in the grave, one foot in the rave' deli lifestyle. Some very funny lines, e.g. 'I don't wear crocs, but I wear birkenstocks, they're not sliders, they're sandals, I like buying coasters and candles'.

 

The Gig Guide - 1995 South London music listings

I found this June 1995 issue of  The Gig Guide for London in Revolution Records in Penge. I don't remember it from the time and it certainly doesn't cover the breadth of music from that period. Its focus is very much on the pub music scene but it provides an interesting snapshot of South London venues, some no longer here. 

There are some recognisable names. Placebo are listed at playing at McMillans in Deptford which must have been an early gig for them. Brain of Morbius are at the Prince of Orange SE16, Pavement and Motorhead at Brixton Academy and Shane MacGowan and the Popes at the Clapham Grand - followed a week later by Whigfield.  

Most of the other artists aren't familiar - to me anyway - but The Station and The Roebuck in Lewisham, the Rutland in Catford, the White Swan SE10,  the Pie & Kilderkin in Forest Hill (now the Signal), the Paradise Bar in New Cross and the World Turned Upside Down on Old Kent Road are all busy with various rock, jazz and indie nights.  Clubbing was probably bigger than gigging in 1995, it certainly was for me, but that doesn't get too much of a look in here apart from The Fridge in Brixton with its gay nights Love Muscle and Gridlock. Drummonds in Beckenham High Street promises 'the best funk and soul bands' every Thursday.