South London Forever - Florence and The Machine

Possibly slightly biased, but the best track on Florence and the Machine's new album 'High as Hope' (released today) is 'South London Forever'. 

The opening lyrics go:

'When I go home alone

I drive past the place where I was born

And the places that I used to drink

Young and drunk and stumbling in the street

Outside the Joiners Arms like foals unsteady on their feet

With the art students and the boys in bands

High on E and holding hands with someone that I just met

I thought "it doesn't get better than this,

There can be nothing better than this

Better than this"

And we climbed onto the roof of the museum

And someone made love in the grounds

And I forgot my name on the way back to my mother's house'

The Joiners is obviously the famous Camberwell pub on Denmark Hill. I went to some mad 1990s parties round the back of there myself, remember seeing RDF and spinning around to techno in one of those gyroscope things.

The Joiners - photo by Philip C on Yelp

Florence Welch told the Sunday Times (15 June 2018) that the museum was the Horniman in Forest Hill:

'I think that song is about this… blink, almost. I was on the roof of the Horniman Museum, being a teenager, you know ‘woah’. Then I blinked, and 4 albums later, it’s “oh my God, there’s a whole other section of life I’m supposed to figure out. When do I do that?”. Obviously that's got lots of people thinking about the logistics and dangers of climbing on the roof - the main building is very high, maybe she meant the single storey grass roofed library building? Or maybe she used her Flo Fairy wings to hover up...

In another song on the album, 'Grace', Flo sings 'I don't think it would be too long before I was drunk in Camberwell again'. Hey hon we've all been there.

Florence did a photo shoot at William Morris's Red House in Bexley for recent Observer piece
(photo by Phil Fisk)

Makes me feel old but it's nearly ten years since I predicted that 2009 would be the year that 'red-headed young women from South London conquer the world' referring to Florence and La Roux. The latter's been a bit out of the limelight of late but has recently totally lifted the Whyte Horses track 'The Best of It' with a guest vocal.

Florence back at the Rivoli

Back in July 2009, the launch party for Florence and the Machine's debut album took place at the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park. Last night Florence returned to the Rivoli for a special concert for BBC Radio 2.

As Brockley Central reports, during the course of the gig Florence sings the praises of Brockley Cemetery: 'It's so wonderful to be home - and here of all places... It is such a pleasure to be back at the Rivoli Ballrooms and also just to be back in Brockley. I actually spent quite a large bit of time here at one point, 'cause I was having music lessons here and I used to hang out in the graveyard. And actually, strangely a small bit of inspiration came from that graveyard 'cause I did used to do handstands and hang out there. And if anyone knows the lyrics to Only For a Night - a small portion of it comes from Brockley Cemetery. That and other cemeteries across England...  But we've been home not for that long and actually driving through South London, just kind of... it's been really... South London, yes!'.

Hot Summer Nights at the Rivoli

Cut a Shine

The launch party for Lewisham People's Day last Friday saw a packed and very hot dance floor at the Rivoli , thanks to Cut a Shine and their raucous ceilidh/barn dance set. There were people spinning in circles, dancing under arches and looking around in confusion as they struggled to keep up with the instructions from the caller as the drink took effect (or was that just me?)

All of this in the fabulous ballroom and its railway carriage-like bar.

Brockley Ukulele Group supported, and thanks to this I got to poke around backstage for the first time. Among the treasures to be found in its red painted corridor was this vintage cash register from the days when a pint cost 6d.


Florence and The Machine

A few days later (Tuesday 7th), Florence and The Machine held the launch party for her debut album at the Rivoli. Florence is from Camberwell, and the album Lungs is getting fantastic reviews. With Brixton's La Roux also riding high it looks like the predicted South London Redhead Insurgency is in full effect.

(photo by Nialler9 at Flickr)

Jive Dancing

I've also just come across this article from The Independent (2.11.2008) by Luiza Sauma on Austerity Entertainment: Hot to Trot: 'Britain may be in financial turmoil, but inside south London's Rivoli Ballroom, you'd never know it. Under the scarlet glow of the venue's giant Chinese lanterns, hundreds of people are jiving the night away, while a band in 1940s garb swing out on stage. At the centre of the dancing mass, a beautiful girl in a white 1920s-style flapper dress is kicking her heels on the wooden floor, a gleeful smile on her face. In fact, Deborah is 41 and works in HR, but the carefree way she moves makes her look 20 years younger. No one else can match her, but they try anyway: from the eight-year-old dancing with her dad, to the teenagers with indie hair and vintage frocks. There are white people, black people, Asian people; old, young and middle-aged; all dancing together, as if they don't have a care in the world'.

"We invite everybody along, as long as they behave themselves – and why not?" says the Rivoli's amiable owner, Bill Mannix, who has been running the grade II-listed venue for 30 odd years, and dutifully preserving its original flock wallpaper, chandeliers and plush velvet furnishings. In the past, this is what people have always done during troubled times – they cobbled together their glad rags, and went out dancing...' (lots more in the full article).

For details of jive dancing at the Rivoli, check out Jive Party.

South London Redhead Insurgency

2009 will be the year when red-headed young women from South London conquer the world.

First up, there's La Roux, featuring Eleanor Jackson from Brixton. She pronounces herself 'totally obsessed with 80s music'. You don't say! The video for their Quicksand single even looks like a Duran Duran pastiche.

Then from Camberwell, there's Florence and The Machine. I've mentioned Florence Welch here before, but the new single Dog Days are Over is particularly excellent, video filmed in Dulwich Woods.

(links updated 2018)

Florence and The Machine

A great review from Kitty Empire in yesterdays Observer for Camberwell's Florence and The Machine. There's been a growing blog buzz about Florence Welch, here she is singing live 'The Girl with One Eye':