London Songs, London Stories

I've lived in London for fifty years and still find it fascinating. Below are just some of the many London oriented singers and story-makers who I have found inspirational throughout the decades.

London Boys

Ray Davies
Ray Davies has written some wonderfully thoughtful pop songs over the years. My favourite is the London classic Waterloo Sunset.

David Bowie
David Bowie was very much a London boy in his early years, located around Brixton, Bromley and Beckenham, before New York, Young Americans and his Berlin trilogy.

Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan's musical career was cut short when he died in a car crash in the late 1970s. I was a fan in the 1980s.

Ian Dury
One of my favourite films in recent years has been 'Sex and drugs and rock'n'roll', starring Andy Serkis as Ian Dury. Andy Serkis is such a good actor, I really believed in him in this role. I really love the ending where we're treated to a wonderful perfomance of 'Reasons to be cheerful', Ian Dury's list of everyday stuff that makes him feel happy, a kind of punk meets mindfulness encounter.

London Girls

Kate Bush
Kate Bush has long been my favourite female artist. At the moment I love listening to the new version of the Ninth Wave from her live album 'Before the Dawn'.

Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux was a prominant punk rocker in the late 1970s. My favourite Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks are Spellbound, Israel, Christine and Happy House.

Amy Winehouse
A Camden girl with a universally glorious voice.

Adele
'Skyfall' is one of my favourite James Bond themes along with Paul McCartney's 'Live and Let Die' and Carly Simon's 'Nobody does it better'. Adele's 'Hometown Glory' is a musical celebration of West Norwood, South London.

London Stories

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
The action begins in Woking before travelling East to 'the capital'. Part of it is set in Kew near where I used to work. 'Dead London' is a marvellous imagining of a desolate city and must have inspired other desolate London sci-fi stories like 'Day of the Triffids' and '28 Days Later'.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Unfortunately this tale, of the ungenerous Ebenezer Scrooge and the need for four Christmas ghosts to reform his mean spirited ways, is relevant every year. This is just one of the many London based stories Charles Dickens created, others include Oliver Twist, The Old Curiousity Shop and A Tale of Two Cities (the other city is Paris). Charles Dickens was an insomniac who wandered around the city streets late into the night, maybe his restless spirit still does.

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
What can sum up London more than four diverse characters on top of a tower block contemplating suicide?! I found both the book and the film hugely enjoyable and strangely hopeful and uplifting.

Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Homes' residence is in the heart of London, at 221b Baker Street. 'Sherlock' the BBC's 21st Century update is also set in London. I saw them filming it once, when I was on holiday, in Cardiff!

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Maybe there is more to the London Underground than just crowded, stuffy tube trains. In Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman imagines the alternative city of London Below, where Old Bailey, the Angel and Black Friars are all real characters, Knightsbridge is the scary 'Night's Bridge' and you can meet a real life earl in Earl's Court.

Harry Potter by JK Rowling
Harry usually makes at least two visits to London per book, mostly to do some shopping in Diagon Alley and to board the Hogwart's Express in King's Cross at Platform 9 3/4. The movies were filmed in Watford, so there must have been ample opportunity to film in and around London. One of my favourite scenes is when Harry, Ron and Hermione are transported to Shaftesbury Avenue's Theatre Land and they end up ordering cappucinos in a Tottenham Court Road coffee Shop.