Tom Vague's Harrow Road Pop History - August 5th

Join us at londonprintstudio for Tom Vague's Harrow Road Pop History. It's a musical presentation and will feature Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, the 101ers, the Clash, Aswad, the Modettes, Big Audio Dynamite, Wilf Walker Reggae Promotions, the Windor Castle, the ZigZag Club, the Metro, Acklam Hall, Meanwhile Gardens, Centro Iberico, Mute, Mutoid Waste Company, William Orbit - and much more!

7pm Thursday August 5th

Sugar Minott

Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott led started his vocal career in 1969 at the young age of 13 as part of the African Brothers, a Jamaican vocal harmony trio also featuring Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard.  Following the dissolution of the African Brothers Minott worked at one of the great learning grounds in Jamaican music- Coxsone Dodds Studio One, where he eventually released two albums of material in 1979- "Live Loving" and "Showcase" (and the later 1982 release, "More Sugar").  Following the success of two further albums, "Ghetto-ology" and "Black Roots", released on West London labels Trojan and Island respectively, he spent some of the early 80's living in the UK.

Opening Party

A warm night in West London - a fantastic opening party with more than 200 guests, Mark M.'s old skool sound system and great music. It was good to see people relating to our album covers as design works, interesting to hear some of the memories stirred by the exhibition.

West London's internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine will be playing at one of the many concerts at Hampton's Summer Picnic Concerts to help fund raise for the Hampton pool.

Pine has spent more than two decades revitalising a public interest in jazz beginning with his 1986 debut album Journey to the Urge Within, which was the first jazz record to infiltrate the UK Top 40.

The concert will showcase material from his 2009 album Transition in Tradition, a tribute to legendary Creole saxophonist Sidney Bechet, who Pine sites as one his most important influences as a jazz musician.

You can buy tickets direct from Hampton Summer Picnic Concert's website.

M.I.A. - Galang

Is M.I.A. the ultimate West London rebel girl? She's had world wide success - beyond dreams. While her video 'Born Free' created a storm earlier this year, her West London credentials come across best in Galang ( 2004) which she art directed herself.



M.I.A. has an art school background like so many of the best London bands - and started out in the music business designing for another local band -Elastica.

Dudley Edwards and the AC Cobra

Dudley Edwards is an artist and designer featured in GrooveGroveGraphics exhibition, opening on 9th July. In the '60's, he decorated cars and painted murals. His pop art designs were widely admired - and still look amazing today!

Klooks Kleek / The Station Hotel -the pub with the richest music history in London?

One serious contender for this title is the Railway Hotel in West Hampstead. During the 1960's it ran a weekly club night known as Klooks Kleek.

Reggae '76

This video is from an episode of the LWT arts series "Aquarius" from 1976, this episode on British reggae and narrated by Carl Gayle. Although the presenter states the show focuses on Brixton and Stoke Newington, it also features footage of Carnival and West London musician Delroy Washington as well as scenes from Chalk Farm recording studio. Part two features footage of Ijahman Levi, who released two albums on Island, Ladbroke Grove area locals Aswad and scenes from the Q club in Paddington. Great stuff!

Portobello Road Songs

The Groove Grove Graphics exhibition features the hive of activity in West London music scenes, and Portobello Road is certainly one of the most referenced streets in the area.  Portobello Road has changed a lot since I first remember it in the 80's and has witnessed even more change with layers of gentrification from the 1950's (the period Groove Grove Graphics starts with) to the present day.  The front page protests outraged with the chain store All Saints moving into the antique area of the market showed the determination people have to preserve a traditional idea of Portobello Road.  But that idea will always be quite subjective.  The ten songs I've selected express an idea of the street, and all explicitly name check Portobello Road in the lyrics or the titles (hence the recent Blur single release, although it describes a walk down portobello road, is excluded). 

You can't always get what you want...

Image courtesy of www.rbkc.gov.uk

For the next in our shrines series we stir up that old rivalry, moving from Abbey Road and the Beatles to Kings Road and the Stones.

The Chelsea Drugstore, opened in 1968, shocked Royal Avenue residents not only with its modern glass and aluminium facade but even more so with it's clientele.
Noted in the famous Rolling Stones song, it was also used as a location in the controversial Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange.

“I went down to the Chelsea Drug Store,”

“To get your prescription filled…”

The Rolling Stones, You Can’t always Get What You Want, 1969