Bonobo's new album 'Distance in Static' is due out at the end of this week. Loving the track featuring Joy Crookes - 'Always on your side'. The video has lots of Peckham snapshots, including the 'Welcome to Peckham' sign at the Prince of Peckham pub and some Rye Lane shots (I think including Peckham Soul record shop).
South East London blogzine - things that are happening, things that happened, things that should never have happened. New Cross, Brockley, Deptford and other beauty spots. EMAIL US: transpontineblog at gmail.com Transpontine: 'on the other (i.e. the south) side of the bridges over the Thames; pertaining to or like the lurid melodrama played in theatres there in the 19th century'.
Monday, September 07, 2026
Music Monday: Always on your side - Bonobo with Joy Crookes
Monday, November 15, 2021
Joy Crookes - South London Songs
![]() |
| Joy Crookes at Queens Road, Peckham |
Singer Joy Crookes has a new album out, Skin, and very good it is too. She's been compared to Amy Winehouse, but she has a great voice of her own and her songs are rooted firmly in 2020s London. Joy grew up at Elephant and Castle and her songs reference various South London locations, notably the Elephant itself on the track '19th floor' which bemoans the changes there: 'Lost the tower where my heart is, Cinema skylines that I don't recognise, Strip the life out of these streets, It's a daylight robbery'. The song mentions 'Bopping down Walworth Road'
'When you were mine', a single from the album, has a Brixton setting - 'Hand in hand, Coldharbour Lane... Smile with a Brixton shine'. The Ritzy cinema and Electric Avenue are namechecked and the video is filmed around Brixton market particularly the area near Brixton Rec.
Joy explored these streets on some of her earlier songs. London Mine (2019) is a kind of hymn to multicultural London with a video shot on Walworth Road featuring local faces including tailor George Dyer. Lyrics include 'Lovers walk Old Kent Road' and Kennington Road is also mentioned.
There are kids playing football at Peckham Town's ground...
...and dancing in the now vanished Elephant and Castle shopping centre.
![]() |







