Georgie (Shooter's Hill)

"For what has Georgie done on Shooter's Hill? Was it stealing or murder of any? Oh he stole sixteen of the lord judge's deer. And we sold them down under the valley ..." Georgie, performed by Martin Carthy (one of Scritti Green's heroes) is an old folk song I first became aware of via a Transpontine post on south London folk songs. This version has a similar poaching/pleading theme as Geordie, which has already been featured. Shooter's Hill, south London's highest point, has quite a reputation. It's frequently associated with Dick Turpin and the dandy highwaymen who would work the Roman Road or late night on Watling Street if you like, and hangings used to be carried out there. Shooter's Hill also features in the nursery rhyme about John Cook and his grey mare. More recently Frankie Howerd went to school there, Boy George grew up there, and Mark Perry may still live there. And here Martin Carthy sings Georgie in his back garden ...

Officer XX

"Canteen culture colouring the view. From Hendon to Eltham. Not following the clue ..." sings Asian Dub Foundation on its track Officer XX. It's a day for remembering those that have died too young, so let's reflect on the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence who was killed in a cowardly racist attack while waiting for a bus in Eltham on the night of 22 April 1993. No one has to date been convicted for the killing, despite even the Daily Mail running front pages naming those commonly believed to be the murderers. And, as the ADF song refers to, the subsequent Metropolitan Police investigation was marred by allegations of corruption and racism, which led to a public inquiry and the now famous MacPherson report which condemned the Met as 'institutionally racist' and proposed far reaching changes. The murder of Stephen Lawrence is also mentioned in the brilliant Fearless by south London rapper Blak Twang, and in a moving poem by Benjamin Zephaniah called What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us.

This Town

"Somewhere there is tenderness in this town ..." If I had to pick one song that captures a sense of London without specifically mentioning the Capital it would be the June Brides' This Town. Somehow it has always felt like it's caught the spirit of London. That's just the way it's seemed to me. I hate asking songwriters about their words in case precious illusions are shattered in the process. But thankfully the JBs' Phil Wilson has confirmed it is very much a London song. "Beneath the lights on summer nights, it's nothing short of paradise," is about when Phil was young and enraptured with wandering round Soho and the West End. "Only shadows know your name" - you often feel like that in London, adds Phil. At the height of their fame the JBs were based around the Lewisham area, and I saw them play on numerous occasions in the mid '80s at venues such as the Thames Poly in Woolwich and the Old Ambulance Station on the Old Kent Road. Certain lines from This Town would be on my mind as I headed homewards. "Walking home back streets alone, a distant shout chills the bone ..." But nothing can touch you when you're humming a tune this good!

Hilly Fields (1892)

"Mr C.G. Fields lost his job with the Board of Trade. Walking through the fields he saw things that made others afraid – afraid. Yeah – 1892 – lines are still on you – Hilly Fields. Yeah – 18th of July – someone in the sky – Hilly Fields ..." Hilly Fields is a piece of unexpected greenery I passed I wouldn't like to think how many times as a kid, on the way to my grandparents', on the bus up from Lewisham to Brockley/Crofton Park. So nick nicely's Hilly Fields (1892) is a song that evokes specific memories. It's a wonderful work of art. While psychedelic is an overused epithet, for once it is an apt description of this beautifully strange song. The cello, the scratching, everything. And it's a particular favourite of Trevor Horn's I understand. nick nicely is still active and still creating south London songs ...

The Aspidistra House

"The faces in the flowers of the pattern on the paper all stare at me. And silently mouth: 'Get out of this house' ..." sings The Band of Holy Joy in The Aspidistra House, another wonderful moment on More Tales From The City. With reference to this song they are quoted as saying: "There was always a feeling of madness lurking behind the curtains on certain roads around Brockley, Sydenham, Forest Hill. A lingering malaise in Lewisham shopping centre, an air of unhingedness in Deptford Market ..." Ah yes. And I've read that the song The Biggest Aspidistra In The World has connections to a house in Evelina Road, Nunhead. In that same area. A short hop, skip and jump from where my parents were married in St Silas', which is no more. The song itself refers to the Crystal Palace, a bus ride away, where the dinosaurs roam. "When father's 'ad a skinful at his pub the Bunch of Grapes, he doesn't go all fighting mad and getting into scrapes. You'll find 'im in 'is bearskin, playing Tarzan of the Apes up the biggest aspidistra in the world," sings Our Gracie. Cha cha cha ...

Another Tulse Hill night

"What's happening? What's going on? Every day is just the same. You sit around. Or hang around. Your best friend's the telly ..." sings Nick Cash on 999's Tulse Hill Night, an everyday tale of suburban stasis south London style. I'm not sure why it's specifically Tulse Hill, but any excuse to play a bit of the under-appreciated 999 is a good thing. One of the great singles outfits of the punk era, this ironically is a track off their second LP, Separates, produced by the godlike Martin Rushent. The lead single off of Separates would be Homicide which always made me think of The Sweet for some reason ...

Brockwell Park

"In the night we freeze and you want me to tell in London's lonesome park Brockwell..." Ah this feels like the right time of year for this beautiful song, Brockwell Park by the Red House Painters. Oddly it's never seemed that strange to me that a San Francisco group should sing about a public park just south of Brixton, next to Herne Hill station. After all they've got a great south London name. For the Red House in Bexleyheath was built for one of our heroes, the socialist poet, artist, dreamer William Morris, and for a short period it was the centre of much artistic and cultural activity. It's well worth a visit. Brockwell Park itself was somewhere I first visited in August 1984 for a free event to protest against Tory plans to abolish the popular Greater London Council (GLC). While Strawberry Switchblade and The Fall were magnificent on that day, there was some terrible stuff on (The Damned, Spear of Destiny, New Model Army), and the crowd's demeanour and behaviour was boorish at best. It was just horrible. 25 years on, and this performance by lovers rock legend Sylvia Tella seems a lot more fun ...

Brixton

“Life in Brixton, feel the heat. Too much trouble on the streets. But I'm not gonna leave. If I go anywhere else, I've got nothing to achieve. A Kentucky Fried Chicken and a few chip shops. There's quite a few punks and too many cops ...” The Straps’ Brixton puts the punks’ perspective on the area’s history. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s there was a significant punk presence, living in squats in the Brixton area. Among them would be the people who made up The Straps at various times. Historically well connected (associates include Liz Hurley, Lee Evans, Sadie Frost and Jim Walker) but very much part of the punk underground. There was something of a siege mentality to the punk community of that time. A bit of a ‘no one likes us and we don’t care’ outlook, as captured in a promo film, Punk Can Take It, Julian Temple made for the UK Subs in ’79 which parodied London Can Take It!, a 1940 blitz propaganda short film directed by the fascinating figure Humphrey Jennings, one of the founders of the Mass Observation movement.

Five nights of bleeding

“Rituals of blood on the burning. Served by a cruel in-fighting. Five nights of horror an of bleeding broke glass ...” Dennis Bovell is one of our capital’s treasures. His contribution to the development of popular music has been invaluable. His own recordings are numerous and wondrous, and we would need little excuse to refer to titles like The Grunwick Affair and New Kent Road here. His lovers rock creations for Janet Kay, Marie Pierre and others are rightly worshipped in the right quarters. As are his productions for The Pop Group, Slits, Orange Juice and so on. Then there is his long running association with the poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, for whom Dennis has provided musical support since the two sevens clashed. Their first fusing of poetry and dub was Poet And The Roots’ Dread Beat And Blood, which featured Five Nights Of Bleeding on the ‘why must the youth fight among itself’ theme, set primarily in the Brixton area.

Country living

"I'm saying goodbye to London city. City life is not for me. Going where the stars shine brightly ..." sings Sandra Cross in Country Living, a Mad Professor produced lovers rock classic. Despite the lyrics Sandra is from south London, and the area can stake a claim as the spiritual home of lovers rock. Many of the early releases (Brown Sugar and so on) were recorded by Dennis Bovell and colleagues in a basement studio on Brockley Road in the late '70s. The sound has endured, through the '80s, the '90s, and beyond. And there are numerous classics out there, from the likes of Sandra Cross, Kofi (who was in Brown Sugar), Deborahe Glasgow, Jean Adebambo, Sylvia Tella, and so on. Many of the lovers rock classics from the '80s were created in the Mad Professor's Ariwa studio in Gautrey Road in Nunhead. While the genre is poorly documented in mainstream media, unofficial channels like YouTube are a treasure trove of old lovers rock postings, including this priceless footage of Kofi in the Mad Professor's studio. Watch for the wink ...