Though I’ve been to London on five separate occasions, I know I haven’t experienced nearly enough to qualify as knowing London. It seems time always got away from me when I was there (granted, the longest stretch of consecutive time I’ve spent there has been four days). London has always been one of those cities that gives me a good vibe (others being Berlin, Florence, and Cardiff), and I also find it one of the easiest cities to navigate and get around in. The London Underground is a thing of beauty, especially having experienced half a dozen other subway systems. At the same time, I’ve highly enjoyed myself just walking around the city. In addition to walking (or in some cases, running when it appeared that I was constantly losing time), I’ve done a few of the touristy things like visiting the Tate Modern Gallery (see here for musings from my 2007 visit); watching Richard III as a groundling at the Globe (note: Richard III is Shakespeare’s second-longest play and thus requires strong legs if you’re a backpacker with barely any money); taking a day trip out to Hampton Court Palace; getting sell-off tickets at Leicester Square for a musical; wandering through Westminster Abbey (I remember being particularly excited standing in Poet’s Corner and reading Lewis Carroll’s epitaph: “Is all our Life, then, but a dream?”); staring at the impossibly, ridiculously tiny Nelson at Trafalgar Square, passing by Buckingham Palace (resisting the urge to sing The Queen is Dead at the top of your lungs); browsing Covent Garden; and visiting Hamleys (the seven-storey toy store on Regent Street). I realize that I’ve missed out on a ton of museums and galleries despite a total of about eight days over the past nine years, but it seems I’m either with someone who doesn’t want to see them or I just run out of time. Part of this time issue has to do with the fact I’ve hit Camden Town nearly every time I’ve gone to London.
For me, Camden had tended to hold a mythological position in my mind. It seemed to be an ideal place to congregate if you were otherwise considered freakish or if you preferred to appear that way. It also seemed to be an exciting place for artistic pursuits. I don’t know what actual Londoners think of Camden, but I rather enjoy myself there, shopping in the stalls and record shops. I have yet to go unaccompanied by someone who would much rather be somewhere else, so I would like to visit there alone next time and go more slowly. Although, I don’t know how it’s been since the big fire, so perhaps my experience would be quite different in the future.
Camden has always struck me as a haven for subcultures, perhaps even a graveyard for subcultures (let’s face it, cybergoth is probably pretty passé), but like anyone who wants to set themselves apart from the mainstream, it persists in spite of the uncoolness of it all or the irony-fisted hipsters. I come to Camden from a slightly more mature direction than when I first stepped off that stop on the Northern Line six years ago, but I still love that I get excited about being there. And I will continue to cherish The Clash vinyl bootleg I purchased there on that first trip. Like punk, Camden is tempered by my accrued life experience, but that doesn’t mean I still didn’t hang onto my two pairs of bondage trousers, which were bought from the same shop on Camden High Street on two separate occasions and were tried on on the same rickety staircase landing in lieu of a fitting room.
Through Camden and several other record havens in the English capital, I associate London with music and the hunger for music (although I would say that the UK as a whole takes music much more seriously and fervently than North America). London, England has been the epicentre of music at various points in history, most significantly in the swinging 60s and in the past-obsessed 90s, which was essentially a re-living of the 60s. Once again, due to a combination of company and time limitations, I’ve never gone to a live gig in London, but I still hope to someday, especially since I’m falling in love with its current independent scene. I would imagine most local music scenes would have a bit of an incestuous organization to them, but I find it interesting just how convoluted the networks between some of the artists in today’s mix are.
Let’s start with now-defunct band, Luxembourg, which I mentioned in my last post. When they broke up, they spawned The Melting Ice Caps and The Soft Close-Ups (David Shah), Jonny Cola and the A-Grades (Alex Potterill), and The New Royal Family (David Barnett). Barnett used to be in The Boyfriends with Richard Adderley, who now plays with him in The New Royal Family and in his own separate project, Small Crew. The video for The New Royal Family’s song Anyone Fancy a Chocolate Digestive? (which is featured in this mix) included an appearance by Dickon Edwards, who used to be in Orlando and in Spearmint, but who is now in Fosca. The New Royal Family also released a split EP with Keith TOTP a couple of years ago; Keith TOTP has collaborated with both Art Brut and The Indelicates, both of which branch off into various solo and collaborative projects. Then there’s Morton Valence, which shares Anne Gilpin with Vanilla Swingers, and frYars who is friends with Tom Rosenthal. To round things off, I’ve added White Rose Movement, Soho Dolls, Monocle Rose, The Firm, Kingfishers Catch Fire, and oddly enough, a song by a band named Truck, in which the vocalist is Andrew Robertson, who played Titus Groan in the mini-series adaptation of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast. There’s a lot of art and literacy blended with urban(e) style in these artists. It may all seem a little crazy, but it has the beautiful logic and design of the Tube.
This one’s called The London Underground.
London’s Mine – White Rose Movement
Disappearing Act – Jonny Cola and the A-Grades
The Rest For the Wicked – Soho Dolls
Too Good For Hollywood – Simon Indelicate
Visitors (Stephen Hague Remix) – frYars
Anyone Fancy a Chocolate Digestive? – The New Royal Family
Round the Rim and Back to Him – The Firm
Fun is For the Feeble Minded – The Indelicates
Supine on the Astro Turf – Fosca
Mise en Scene – The Melting Ice Caps
Ballerina – Kingfishers Catch Fire
Considering how much I love half of this list (i.e. the half I recognise), I’m betting the other half will end up costing me money.
haha, i’m on three of these tracks! a very nicely put together playlist, that.
It’s great to read an outsider’s perspective on the Camden scene. London is such a fantastic city. Of course there are always new hip cool young scenes springing up all over but us bands feel drawn to Camden!
Come and see us sometime: we’ve got lots of shows coming up over the summer: at weekends and in great venues! And watch out for our next single “Tired of London” released in October.
X Rosa, Monocle Rose