My love affair with the city

London is sprawling – a giantess with veins pumping not blood but people; arms spread wide reaching to fingertips of Oakwood and Uxbridge and toes tickling New Malden and Bromley; a colossal beating heart at the centre and an overactive brain that never sleeps.

London is a manic city, an overexcited and hyperactive teenager fuelled by bright lights, the smell of restaurants from around the world and the sounds of music and shouting. There’s no arthritis in its bones – London is fluid and lively and energetic. Paris is romantic, languid, a lover picking petals in a garden filled with daisies. New York is supermodel sleek, modern haircut and all the latest accessories. But London, London is a bit grubby round the edges and its hair is a mess, there’s a hole in one of its shoes but it really doesn’t give a shit, it never goes to school and spends its time smoking behind the bike sheds.

But we bloody love it, don’t we?

Save BBC 6Music!

So, what is going on with the BBC now?! As if to add insult to injury (the incline of shit TV like the X Factor and Pop Idol polluting our once vibrant music scene not bad enough), now the BBC want to axe 6Music, a radio show famed for breaking new, talented and unsigned acts as well as showcasing legends such as Giles Anderson and recognising and remembered music superstars such as John Peel.

Please sign the petition and show your support.

http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

Long live London’s nightclubs

London’s biggest club, seOne, has thrown its last party. An announcement was made on Monday 22 February that it had ceased trading with a statement from the club:

“It is with great sadness, that I must inform you that ‘seOne London’ ceased trading on Monday Afternoon, 22^nd February 2010.

After eight long, hard and exciting years, seOne London has fallen victim to the recession and hard times felt in nightclubs all over the UK.

I would like to thank all the promoters, DJ’s, clubbers, staff, suppliers and anyone who has worked and partied in these now legendary railway arches.

seOne London 2002 – 2010

Marcus and all the seOne team”

Another club in the capital bites the dust  – even hugely popular nightclubs are suffering from the recession, with reports that seOne struggled to fill the club any night other than Saturday.

seOne threw events as diverse as Raindance and Minus, and was one of the few venues still around where it was possible to go to a proper, dedicated drum and bass rave.

I feel an added sadness as the iconic club shuts its doors. Not only was it an excellent venue but it was one of the first places I ventured into in London, underage and passionate about music. I met my first boyfriend under the arches, I discovered Goldie and Hype and fell in love with drum and bass in general.

It’s a sad time for the clubs in the capital. With the end shutting early last year and Bagleys shutting a while before that, that’s three of my all time favourite clubs in the capital now gone. Which is why we have to support the petition to save Ministry, as its future also hangs in the balance.

London isn’t London without seOne. Thanks for the memories.

Lost in the city…

Lost in London…

There are some days (like today), when the weather is miserable and the city weeps, that I just feel like putting my iPod on, hands firmly in pockets and head down, and walking nowhere in particular. I love wandering aimlessly, knowing that I have nothing to do and nowhere to be, going adrift in the myriad of London streets. I love walking in the rain, in the grey, and getting totally and utterly lost in unfamiliar territory.

Although I have lived in London all my life (I may be clutching at straws, I live in Zone 5 but I work in central and have done for four years), I still find hidden little gems in the city on walks like today. I’ve discovered food stalls that sell the most authentic Pad Thai, decorated with raw crunchy bean sprouts and slicked with lime, served by humble Thai ladies behind tall counters that I’ve had to tiptoe to thank. I’ve discovered book stores, hidden down back streets, and I’ve sheltered inside amongst sweet, musty smelling pages. I’ve sat and smoked in tiny parks in London’s business district – small parks with astounding greenery and little wooden benches, surrounded by huge foreboding buildings with glossy windows and immaculately dressed workers, going about their lives like mechanical clones of each other. I’ve perched on walls overlooking the Thames, and admired graffiti in all its anarchic arrogance. I love the ease with which you can travel around London during the day, hopping on and off the tube lines, coming into contact with but not talking to other London day-trippers. Because ideally I wouldn’t want to interact with anyone on a day like today. I just want to walk around, getting lost in London town.

I Love London

There are loads of things I love about living in London. The city is eclectic, a cosmopolitan metropolis stuffed to the brim with architecture and people, all jostling for their own bit of precious space in a city so vastly expansive but yet so crowded.

I’d liken my feelings about London to the way I feel about my favourite old pair of socks. Yeah, the left one has a hole in the toe, they’re both so misshapen from thousands of washes and they slip down the backs of your ankles until they finish in a bunch in that uncomfortable part of your foot. But you don’t (nay, can’t) throw them out. They stay in a ball at the bottom of your drawer for the end of a hard day at work, when you can wiggle them on.

That’s how London feels to me. For all its flaws – the uncomfortably crowded tube journeys, the people who barge you out of the way, the dirty graffiti and the urine soaked phone boxes – I still wouldn’t know what to do if I lost my dirty, stinky, unwashed London socks in the laundry.