London calling
30/06/2004 13:40:49
From a rainy café in Kentish Town to a drive to Primrose Hill, Carmen Lichi
discovers the songwriters - and their words - that have immortalised
locations in north London
(excerpt)
Belsize Park also seems to be the bastion of ladette culture - with both the
late Kirsty MacColl and Louise Wener, of faded Brit Pop band Sleeper, using
the setting for alcohol-induced lust.
MacColl is characteristically humorous and self-deprecating as she recalls
an evening of unrequited love against the backdrop of a victorious football
game in England 2, Colombia 0 from her 2000 Tropical Brainstorm album:
"Oh you shouldn't have kissed me and got me so excited/And when you asked me
out I really was delighted/So we went to a pub in Belsize Park/And we
cheered on England as the sky grew dark/Oh you shouldn't have kissed me
cause you started a fire/but then I found out that you're a serial liar."
Sleeper, however, clearly have other ideas. In the 1995 prototypical girl
power anthem, Lady Love Your Countryside, Louise Wener, famed (if only) for
her outspoken views, promises her conquest:
"Come over here/And we could spend some time shopping till it gets dark/Come
over here/ and we could spend our lives puking in Belsize Park/You know life
is a mess/I want to see you boxing naked to the death."
