Death by Dancing: New Cross (1940) and Bermondsey (1903)

A couple of tragic tales of death by dancing, hopefully those going out on New Year's Eve can avoid such dangers.  The first relates to the New Cross Palais de Danse - still going today as the Venue in New Cross Road - the second occured at a Christmas party in Bermondsey.

'Witness 'jitterbugs' at inquest on girl who fell' - Manchester Evening News, Friday 24 May 1940:

Giving evidence at an inquest at Lewisham to-day, a young man stepped from the witness-box to give an exhibition of the “jitterbug dance” to the coroner, Dr. W. H. Whitehouse. A verdict of accidental death was recorded on Virginia Guidotti (19), Wickham Road, Brockley, London, who died in hospital. She had fallen while dancing the “jitterbug,” at New Cross Palais de Danse. Henry George Cox, of Park Hill Road. Deptford, said they danced the “jitterbug,” in which he explained they did “ all kinds of fantastic and funny things.” He then stepped on to the coroner’s bench and, locking his hands, went through various movements of the dance. At one stage, he said, the girl fell backwards on the floor and he fell on her.

The Coroner: It is peculiar. It sounds to me very vulgar.

Cox said that after the fall he suggested that the girl should have a glass of water and she said that she would be all right. Evidence was given that the management of the Palais de Danse had made efforts to stop the dance being performed.

'The Fatal Thirteen - Death from excessive dancing'-  South London Press, 3 January 1903:

Dr Waldo held an inquest at the Southwark Coroner's Court on Wednesday on the body of Mary Ann Cocklin, aged 35 years, the wife of a Bermondsey labourer. John Cocklin, the husband, stated that he and the deceased went to a Christmas party at the house of a relative on Christmas Day, and kept on dancing until after midnight. Deceased then lay down to rest, but awoke in a fright, screaming that three men were after her.

Dr Waldo: Had she been drinking any spirits?

Witness: No, sir, only port wine. We had nothing but port wine, any of us.

Dr Waldo: What happened when she came to herself again?

Witness: She went down stairs and resumed dancing to the music of an automated piano organ we had in the house. I next heard she was very ill, and that she had again gone to rest, but had turned giddy and fallen down the stairs.

Dr Waldo: How many?

Witness: The fatal 13.

Susan Poore, a neighbour, stated that she heard the deceased fall. She was taken to Guys Hospital, where she died the same day. The medical evidence showed that death was due to fracture of the thigh caused by the fall, which was the result of giddiness produced by dancing. A verdict was returned accordingly'.

Spiritualized at the Venue: 'Trendy Spot' in New Cross, 1991

Came across this in archive of LSE student magazine, The Beaver, 9 December 1991. 'Baby Lemonade' reviews a gig at the New Cross Venue by Spiritualized - 'a band for the post rave 90s' no less'.  The bands at the Venue at this time were only part of the night out, as the author notes: 'The night wasn't over there though. The post show club featured sounds as diverse as New Model Army and the Shamen. Trendy spot it must be too, as at one point I found myself dancing on the heels of Mikki from Lush'  (see previous post on Lush at The Venue).

The gig was on Friday 29 November 1991 - see flyer below (more Venue flyers here)

Yesterday is Now History - materials from a Lewisham archive

I went to the opening of a fantastic exhibition today at 310 NX Road Gallery, New Cross SE14 6AF:

'Yesterday is Now History, curated by artist Eleanor Davies and anthropologist/historian Sophie Parker, is a celebration of the everyday objects that we frequently take for granted, or think of as rubbish. These often overlooked objects tell a story of the subtle cultural shifts that underlie historical change. 



The exhibition explores the history of Lewisham from the days of the foreign cattle market, the battle of Lewisham in 1977, the millennium, to the ongoing protest to save Lewisham’s hospital. The unlikely objects brought together in this exhibition prompt a discussion about the nature of archives, and their purpose and meaning in a society driven by mass consumption'.

Most of the material in the exhibition is drawn from the archive of Lewisham Local History Society, stored downstairs in New Cross Learning.

The exhibition is only open  

for a few days  -10- 4pm Thursday to Monday 23 June, but get along if you are at all interested in the history of the area, or more generally in the nature of archives and material culture.

The exhibition features some original paper and plastic bags from local shops - as they note, these 'transient objects' that survived their expected fate of being thrown away powerfully 'evoke specific moments in time '

W.G. Ward, 407a New Cross Road - 'High Class Confectioners and Tobacconist'

Princess 2 Hour Dry Cleaning, 26 Loampit Hill SE13 and 50 Broadway, Deptford
'We give green shield stamps' (1970s?)

There is also a display of 'entertainement ephemera',  flyers and posters for local cinemas, nightclubs and sporting events.

'A Grand Dance' on a Monday night with the Silver Star Band at the New Cross Palais de Danse 1927
 (later the Harp Club, now The Venue)

The Kerry Blues Showband at the Harp Club (1969?) - the Harp Club was then an Irish dancehall, now the Venue

Metrogas Amateur Sports Association swimming at Laurie Grove Baths in 1927 with instruction from Mr and Mrs Cyril Walker (the former baths are now art studios at Goldsmiths)

The exhibition also includes some material related to political movements, including original newspaper articles related to the anti-National Front 'Battle of Lewisham' (1977), the 1981 New Cross Fire and the recent campaign to Save Lewisham Hospital.

More New Cross Venue Memories

Over at the great Irish blog Cedar House Revolution, I came across some more recollections of the Venue in New Cross (see previous posts on this subject, especially comments here).

Damian O’Broin recalls that he  'spent the summer of 1990 – and the one before it – working on building sites in London' and that he went to see the band 'Kitchens of Distinction, on a Summer’s night at a little place called The Venue... The Venue was in New Cross, which was pretty much the complete opposite end of London to us. I remember almost nothing about the gig itself. I do remember trooping around the roads of New Cross looking for The Venue. And I remember dancing to Sympathy for the Devil and Fool’s Gold at the club after the gig. It’s strange the details you remember. I think it was a good gig. I have no idea how we all got home'.

In the comments Eamonn from Cork writes:

'The Venue was a great spot which I went to many weekends between 1989-1992 because I was living just over the road in first Brixton and then Peckham and then New Cross itself on Jerningham Road.

It wasn’t a little place though, it was a huge barn of a spot which had originally been an Irish club called The Harp Club. In 1988 when it was still the Harp it had hosted some very full-on acid house nights. My abiding memory of the place is the strawberry smoke which would gust forth in huge quantities, the thorough search you got on the way in and the fact that they only served drink in plastic glasses. And that the club night afterwards was often better than the gigs. Though I saw rising indie hopefuls The Would Bes play very well there.

The Venue ended up being owned by the gang who owned The Swan in Stockwell, South London’s version of The National in Kilburn, and from 1990 onwards had more of an Irish orientation though it still leaned towards the rock side of things. I saw Paul Cleary and The Fleadh Cowboys there and also Dave Fanning DJing and being rather puzzled when people kept asking him to play The Wolfe Tones. There were also several excellent pubs nearby, notably The Amersham Arms which ran acoustic gigs and where I saw Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick be brilliant, The Wishing Well [think he means the Dewdrop Inn], on the same street Clifton Rise as The Venue which was a Crusty hang-out, the Goldsmiths Tavern which had a fine indie night Totally Wired and was full of students from the art college of the same name and The Marquis of Granby, which was the home pub for the Sligo village where I come from and not trendy at all. But welcoming'.

Also at Lush site Light from a Dead Star, Guy Marshall recalls seeing the band there on October 12 1991:

'This was the first proper Lush gig I went to, Steve was still in the band. Set list was: Stray; Bitter; Breeze; Laura; God's Gift; Scarlet; Ocean; Nothing Natural; For Love; Covert; De-Luxe; Second Sight; Downer; Baby Talk; Monochrome; Sweetness & Light. I have a tape of this gig, brings back memories of how nervous(!) I was being on the edge of the mosh pit and that Lush was the band for me! Perfect set list. First time meeting Miki, Steve, Chris and Emma. Miki changed my friend's ticket to SLUSH.

Other memories: Stood next to Boris Williams - drummer with The Cure - during support band Shelleyann Orphan's set. He was "going out" with Caroline Crawley of the band. I was totally dumb struck for a while (luckily my friend plucked up the courage to say Hi!) then we had a quick chat and he signed a Lush flyer & my Boys Don't Cry T-Shirt which I happened to be wearing at the time. Also saw guitarist from Curve Debbie Smith. Probably other "Indie" stars I didn't recognise. Someone in the crowd had Tom and Jerry hand puppets(??) which Miki is heard asking about'

Lush ticket from The Venue - signed by all the band.

There's actually film of a whole Lush set at the Venue earlier in March 1991 on youtube

Oasis in the Rivoli Ballroom (2005) and at the Venue (1994)

Yet more in the ongoing 'here come's everybody' saga of the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park . Here's late period Oasis (2005) at a photo shoot in the Rivoli. The photos were taken by Zed Nelson for Mojo, who mentions that despite the venue being used so often for shoots it is actually quite a tricky place to take photographs:  “The Rivoli Ballroom was such a massive space...It looked beautiful, but lighting it was a nightmare. It meant a really slow shutter speed, which in turn meant the band had to stand really still. But controlling Oasis is hard enough at the best of times. It’s like going into a zoo and having to tame the silverback gorillas.”

photos above © Zed Nelson

And here's Liam just down the road in the band's early days - in the Venue, New Cross, where Oasis played on 13 May 1994. 'In Oasis: The Truth' (2013), original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll recalls the New Cross gig 'After another barnstormer we were met in the dressing room by a pack of music journalists. Few people could have had any doubts about who the hottest act in town was. There was now a real intensity surrounding the band. Each gig was more and more frenzied'. Immediately after the gig the band headed across town where they bumped into Prince. Sadly there is no record of the artist formerly known as ever being spotted in New Cross.

Liam in the Venue 1994 - found the picture on Twitter,
looks like it was snapped from a book

I've previously posted a flyer for this gig here - on that Friday night they were supported by Cast and Shed Seven. Oasis had released Supersonic a month before and were on their way.

Oasis at the Venue in 1994, photo  © Paul Slattery

From the excellent  Manchester District Music Archive

New Cross Acid House 1989

From the excellent Phatmedia archive of Old Skool and Rave flyers, here's one from 1989 - 'A Touch Above presents Asylum Acid House', Fridays at the Harp Club (now the Venue - see previous discussion on its pre-history). 

From the same year (15 April 1989), here's a flyer for Subconscious 'Deep House, Garage and Fundamental-Mind Beats' in the Crypt at St Pauls in Deptford

New Year in New Cross

Plenty to do in New Cross on New Year's Eve. The New Cross House and Amersham Arms are both having parties with late opening and free admission, the latter with Simon Obee of New Cross Bags fame DJing and promising - or threatening according to your taste - lots of Fleetwood Mac (oops they got the date wrong in flyer!). There's also a Deadly Rhythm party in the back room, but that's already sold out.

The New Cross Inn has lots of bands playing including  Soul Delirious, Valve Control, The Hotelles, Giant Burger, Omar, Pusca and The Only Sun 8:00pm to 8:30pm. £6 in advance, £8 on door with concessions for regulars. Further details here.

The Royal Albert is charging £5 in.

At the Bunker Club (46 Deptford Broadway), Breton and Deptford Army are putting on a party, £5 before midnight, £7 after, open until 4 am (facebook details here).

Of course there's a New Year's Eve party at the Venue in New Cross Road, with the spirit of Michael Jackson appearing - £15 in advance, £20 on door, cheap drinks and guaranteed hangover.

Or for a free all ages event you could just walk up to the top of Telegraph Hill where hundreds of people will gather as usual in the top park (Kitto Road SE14) to count in the New Year and watch the fireworks go off across London. Weather forecast is for rain earlier in the day, but dry by midnight - although no doubt muddy in the park.

(Brockley Central has a few other ideas from further afield)

More Venue Flyers

I've put some flyers from the Venue in New Cross 1990s indie heyday here before (and here), here's some more courtesy of their Facebook site where there's even more. I was there fairly regularly, getting two buses from Brixton to make it and usually having a drink at the New Cross Inn or Dewdrop Inn before heading in. Clearly some amazing bands played there and sometimes I was present, but it was never just about the bands. Half the time I was dancing in the smaller bar upstairs or standing chatting on the stairs when some group who later headlined Glastonbury were playing.

Some of the line ups too look incredible now, not just headliners but some of the support acts. Look at this from 1994 - Oasis, Shed Seven and Cast all on the same night in May. Love them or hate them but all three became pretty big. Similarly Ultramarine, Transglobal Underground and Dreadzone. Or Prolapse supporting Heavenly. I saw Heavenly at the Venue, but think it was before this gig in '94.

Napalm Death in 1990:
November 1991 I was at that Chumbawamba gig I think, certainly saw them there. Also saw Spiritualized there, but again not sure it was that night (think when I saw them they were still called Spiritualized Electric Mainline with Laika supporting)

I was at that Monochrome Set gig in December 1991:
Jonathan Richman played there in 1992:



Pulp supported Lush in the same year:

Blur supported Ruff, Ruff and Ready in 1990 (see also Canadian punk band DOA's final gig in UK):

If I had a time machine, I'd probably choose to go back to 1992 and see disco divas Kelly Marie and Tina Charles:

Ash - Kung Fu in the Venue

Irish band Ash filmed the live scenes for their 'Kung Fu' video at the Venue in New Cross:

I believe it was filmed in March 1995, when they played a gig there. Check out some of the other names on the flyer - Creaming Jesus, BMX Bandits, Headbutt, Prolapse, The Sultans of Ping and The Longpigs.

D.O.A: Canadian punk in New Cross

Canadian punk band D.O.A. toured the UK in 1990. Their last gig was in New Cross, and they split up soon after (though they later reformed). In his book 'I, Shithead: A Life in Punk', Joe Keithley from the band recalls the famous hospitality of the Venue's bouncers:

'Our last show of that tour was in London at the Venue in New Cross on JUne 7. The show was packed and we played a raunchy set. I was hoarse as hell. There was a shitty aspect to the show. The club had hired rugby hooligans to do securtiy. We couldn't see much from the stage, but Jay Scott had a bird's eye view of what was going on from the closed-circuit camera in the club's office. The bouncers were roughing up the punks at the door and bashing anybody who had been thrown out of the pit. One kid got really hurt, and somebody called the cops. Scott could see the bouncers running to throw their brass knuckles and the small truncheons they had been carrying into a bucket. The bucket was hidden in a back room before the cops arrived and the bar manager helped hide the blood evidence'.

Here's their 1980 anthem World War 3:

Hole in New Cross

On 22 August 1991, Hole played at the Venue in New Cross, along with Mudhoney. As mentioned here before, Kurt Cobain and the rest of Nirvana were in the audience that night. Some great footage of Courtney Love & co. playing that night has surfaced on youtube, pretty awesome stuff it is too:



More from this gig here and here

Free Greenwich Films

Greenwich Film Festival next weekend has a number of free showings of films connected with the area, including Mike Leigh's All or Nothing (filmed on the Old Haddo Estate on the Greenwich side of Deptford Creek), The Golden Compass (partially shot at the Royal Naval College), G:MT (South London late 1990s music movie, includes a scene shot in The Venue, New Cross) and The Railway Children (being shown at Well Hall Pleasaunce, where Edith Nesbit wrote the story). Best of all, Antonioni's Blow Up (with David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave) is being shown next Saturday in Maryon Park, Charlton, a key location in the film.

New Cross - New Shoreditch (again)

An article in last week's Time Out looked at the mushrooming of new clubs in South London, declaring that: 'Like a herd of hedonistic herbivores, the capital’s clubs have sought out fresh pastures south of the river. We map out London nightlife’s new southern stomping grounds'.

The sub heading 'Peckham and New Cross: The new Shoreditch' is hardly unprecedented - Time Out last called New Cross the New Shoreditch in 2007, and a few years before that the Standard declared it to be the New Hoxton (see here).

The acutal article is a bit more measured, acknowledging that 'Since the closure of the East London Line in December 2007, the clubbing majority has largely avoided New Cross and Peckham. The Amersham Arms is one of the only establishments left in New Cross offering hip late-night DJs, while in Peckham, warehouse labyrinth Area10 continues to host music and alternative performance. But the area’s isolation has given rise to another wave of more underground merrymakers. New artist-led project LuckyPDF is hoping to turn the area into an arty club hub once more. Among its many exhibitions in the lime-green Unity Centre, it throws monthly happening Nightfever where live bands meet Afro-inspired DJs and steaming noodles. There are also events at the Bussey Building, a looming former cricket bat factory that’s home to hundreds of artists. When the East London Line reopens in June 2010, the scene is set to erupt'.

Hmmm, the area's lively enough with gigs etc. but one pub with DJs and the odd art night hardly makes it clubbing central, compared with say Vauxhall or the London Bridge area also mentioned in the article.

Strangely no mention of the only actual medium size nightclub in New Cross - still packing them in after 20 years (longer if you count it's previous incarnations), even if it's no longer hip enough to feature on the Time Out radar. I refer of course to The Venue. Must admit I haven't been there for years either, but Darryl at 853 reports that a good night out is still to be had there.

Pulp in Peckham

Pulp are normally referred to as a Sheffield band, and true enough Jarvis Cocker and co. did start off in that Yorkshire city. But their breakthrough into mid-1990s Britpop superstardom came courtesy of a spell in South London, or to be precise Peckham.

When Stuart Maconie interviewed Jarvis in Select Magazine in 1993, he was living down our way and on the verge of making it big:

‘Autumn in Peckham. Is there a more romantic phrase in the English language? On the balcony of Jarvis Cocker's town residence, every bird in South London seems to have ritually defecated on Jarvis' bicycle. He points to a sheet of stagnant water lying on the top of the adjoining row of lock-up garages. A few forlorn fag packets and plimsolls loll in the oily water. "We used to have a family of ducks living there. How stupid can you get? You've got the ability to fly, you stupid birds. Don't live on top of some garages in Peckham!"

Inside, the orange curtains are emphatically drawn against the glorious sunshine. A massive fairground amusement labelled 'Cupid's Secret' dominates the front room. Above the stereo is a large anatomical model of the human ear. There are two vases filled with outlandish plastic sunflowers. And a football-sized transparent strawberry on the coffee table. This has been Jarvis' home for the last two years and now he is moving on. The end of an era.'

Pulp drummer Nick Banks moved down to London in 1991 and lived with bassist Steve Mackay in Camberwell. Banks recalled: 'It was a 14th floor squat in Camberwell, at a place called Crossmount House. I think it’s been featured in a few episodes of The Bill, it was quite orderly, though. We didn’t have any dogs on strings’. Jarvis moved in with them, and then having been evicted ended up living on the Sceaux Gardens Estate on Peckham Road.

Mackay, who worked for a while at Burntwood School in Wandsworth remembered: “The main thing about Jarvis is his clutter. He is the skip king. It was a bad time, because I was at college and I was tired all the time. I’d come home just wanting to watch the TV and the front room would look like Andy Warhol’s factory. You couldn’t move for Joe 90 annuals… My best memory of Jarvis was when we moved to Peckham, by which time the band was beginning to get a bit more popular. Jarvis started to get paranoid about signing on, so every second Tuesday he’d get dressed up in his grunge outfit – one of those hats which pull down right over your ears and a really scruffy jumper. I used to stay in and miss college just to see him”

The original video for Pulp’s 1992 song ‘Babies’ was partially filmed locally. According to Jarvis: ‘This is probably our most successful completely self-made video and it was also one of the easiest and least traumatic to make. I had met Selina and Sophie round at Bob Stanley [of St Etienne's] house and I thought they would be perfect to play the sisters in the song. I filmed all their scenes one Sunday afternoon in Tufnell Park. The band performance scenes were shot in an "infinity room" in a studio in Camden. The exterior shots were filmed on the Sceaux Gardens Estate in Peckham, where I was living at the time" (Jarvis).



Another Pulp song from this period is very specifically set in the area. ‘59 Lyndhurst Grove’ was ‘inspired by a party I'd been to the week-end before. We were thrown out by an architect so I got my own back by writing a song about the event. It was a really crap "right on" party - there were children there. You don't take children to a party in my book. I sent a copy of the CD to 59 Lyndhurst Grove, the lady of the house, because she was in a bad situation married to this prick, but she never wrote back. (Jarvis). The lyrics to this SE15 classic are as follows:

There's a picture by his first wife on the wall
Stripped floor-boards in the kitchen and the hall
A stain from last week's party on the stairs
But no-one knows who made it
Or how it ever got there
They were dancing with children round their necks
Talking business, books and records, art and sex
All things being considered you'd call it a success
You wore your black dress

Oh, oh, Oh, oh...

Oh, he's an architect and such a lovely guy
And he'll stay with you until the day you die
And he'll give you everything you could desire
(Oh, well, almost everything -Everything that he can buy)
So you sometimes go out in the afternoon
Spend an hour with your lover in his bedroom
Hearing old women rolling trolleys down the road
Back to Lyndhurst Grove
Lyndhurst Grove, oh

In this period too, Pulp played a number of times at the Venue in New Cross: on August 30 1991, 28 February 1992 (with Lush) and June 20 1992.

Jarvis’s most notorious/celebrated moment came in 1996 when he stormed the stage at the Brits award as Michael Jackson performed his "Earth Song" accompanied by a chorus of children. Another sometime Peckhamite came to his aid when he was arrested: "Bob Mortimer used to work for Peckham Council in the legal department so he offered to speak in my defence and deal with the legal aspects of the case".

Sources include: Truth & Beauty: The Story of Pulp by Mark Sturdy (Omnibus Press 2003)

Chris TT

Following Russell Brand’s recent New Cross drug tales, singer Chris TT has recalled his days in the New Cross Venue in this week’s Time Out London (3 April). He says: ‘I tried speed off a toilet here when I was 15. I was sold it by a Quaker girl which is quite incongrous. I think it was an NME night with Cornershop and The Auteurs’. Quaker dealers? Whoever said that SE14 lacks a spiritual side.

Venue Pre-history

The Venue in New Cross Road has a long history as a place of entertainment. It opened as the New Cross Super Kinema in 1925, with a cinema on the ground floor and the New Cross Palais de Danse above, as well as a cafe. The name was shortened to New Cross Kinema from 1927, the plain Kinema in 1948, and finally Gaumont in 1950. It closed in August 1960, and remained derelict for some time. Part of the building was demolised before the old dancehall became The Harp Club and then The Venue (the picture here is from the 1920s).

There is an account of going out dancing in the 1940s here:

'Our favourite little places for dancing was the New Cross Palais, it never had drinks licence or anything like that, and it's now The Venue painted black! At Laurie Grove Baths, they used to cover it over with a beautiful floor over the swimming pool, and there'd be a proper band. But New Cross Palais had the best band, because it was Art Tullock and his band and it was a beautiful dance floor. I can't remember how much it was, I think it was about two shillings. We used to go to Greenwich Town Hall, and dance to records, it was a shilling on a Tuesday, and walk home. Go on the tram because you didn't want to get your hair all messed up, and walk home. Two shillings at the Palais, and Sunday it used to be Club Day only, but we used to go up and stand outside, and some of the lads would come up, and they'd sign us in you see, so we used to get in that's what we used to do.

We didn't do a lot of drinking in those days, only if the young lads from our youth club used to go up there. Hardly any of them could dance, but they used to suggest the three of us might go up the Marquis, and we'd have a larger and lime, and then go back to the dance thing. There wasn't a lot of money around in those days".

Al Tallack and his Band were the resident musicians at New Cross Palais right through the war and up until about 1956 (Tallack was born in Woodpecker Road in New Cross).

New Cross Darkside

Momentum is building up for the May bank holiday weekend. On May 5th there's a festival across New Cross and Deptford with at least 12 venues and 100+ acts - all for one ticket (details here).

To kick the weekend off there's this night downstairs in the Venue, love the flyer. Details at Music Tourist Board

Venue Flyers

We've mentioned the illustrious history of The Venue in New Cross before. Here's some documentary proof that the place really was a top live venue in the 1990s, before it became more or less exclusively for cover bands. The flyer on the left is from 1994, when bands including The Godfathers, Shed Seven and Revolutionary Dub Warriors played there (I admit to being at the latter). The flyer on the right is, I think, from 1992 and is more impressive with US bands Belly and Sebadoh, the latter supported by TV Personalities and Cornershop. Anyone got any more old flyers?

Irish Dance Halls in London

My friend Myk had a Christmas leftovers party last night where people brought along unwanted presents and put them into a lucky dip. As a result I came away with a book I've been meaning to read since it came out, Joe Boyd's 'White Bicycles: making music in the 1960s' (Serpents Tail, 2005). Its a good read, covering his adventures in the US and British blues, jazz and folk scenes as a producer of Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan.

Boyd was also one of the people behind the legendary UFO psychedelic club in Tottenham Court Road (1966-7) with the early Pink Floyd as the house band. One thing I hadn't realized before was that UFO was held in an Irish dance hall called the Blarney Club. This got me thinking about the untold influence of Irish dance halls on wider popular culture in London, as large places outside of the main music industry circuits and therefore available for people to use for more marginal and emerging musics.

In New Cross, the Venue was previously The Harp Club, and even before it changed names was being used for gigs and indie clubs. In Camden, The Electic Ballroom also started out as an Irish dance hall, whilst the Kilburn National has hosted The Pixies, Nirvana, The Smiths and The Sex Pistols (I saw The Wedding Present there once).

So endeth the final Transpontine post of 2006.

Mules etc.

Haven't really done enough justice here to the Artful festival, suffice it to say that there's still plenty of music and other fun to be had before the end of October, including Shot by Both Sides tomorrow at the Venue in New Cross:


Line-up is:
THE MULES
Skiffle, music hall, hillbilly knees-up and jug-band blues fed through a new wave mixer.

STAINED GLASS HEROES
Taut, angular melodies, skewed punk/funk and fuzzy electronics, evoking Can, Magazine & PiL.

THE BRIAN JACKET LETDOWN
Balmy kaleidoscopic pop, complete with kitchen-sink melodies, kazoos and bent psych-folk.