THE LONDON NOBODY SINGS …
A SITE DEDICATED TO SONGS ABOUT LONDON. AS SIMPLE AS THAT. THE ONLY RULES ARE THAT THE SONGS MUST BE BRILLIANT AND THAT THE BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS NUMBERS ARE EXCLUDED. THE SONGS MAY BE EXPLICITLY ABOUT LONDON OR OBLIQUELY ABOUT THE CITY IN SOME WAY. THERE ARE PLENTY OF GREAT SITES DEDICATED TO PHOTOS AND IMAGES ABOUT LONDON. THIS SITE IS DESIGNED TO BE A MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT. AND IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS THEN PLEASE SHARE THEM WITH US …

It would have been late ’83 or early ’84 when I first read something by Kevin Pearce. It was in a fanzine called ‘Fun & Frenzy’ that I bought in the Rough Trade shop, where I had gone to buy records on a midweek visit to London.
The fanzine had style and taste and attitude. It loved Josef K and Postcard Records. I read it on the train back to Plymouth, instantly relating to the message and the quest. We took things very seriously back then, especially music, and I fired off a letter to it’s co-author, Kevin Pearce, identifying myself as a fellow member of the resistance and pledging support for his manifesto. Kevin and I stayed in touch and when I moved to London in the autumn of 1985 we would see each other regularly at gigs, where Kevin could be found selling copies of his latest ‘zine, be that ‘Hungry Beat’ or ‘Esurient’, his words were always in demand, always relevant and on that scene, hugely influential.

Eventually I started a record label and back in it’s early years (’93?) we published a great book by Kevin, ‘Something Beginning With ‘O’. It’s pretty hard to get now but if you want to now why Subway Sect and The Action and Dexy’s Midnight Runners really matter, you should try and track a copy down.

I’m still in touch with Kevin and recently had the privilege of publishing his writing again, this time for Caught by the River, where his piece ‘Lazy Cray-sy Days of Summer’ was part of our ‘Collection of Words on Water’. He still cares and he still writes with style. He also has an insatiable appetite for knowledge, something that he is sharing on his brilliant blog ‘The London Nobody Sings’. I just got back from a look at it, my first in a few weeks to be honest, and it inspired me to write this. (JB)

And if that doesn’t convince you to visit, it’s ‘Lover’s Rock’ day over there today and Kevin has unearthed some priceless film clips. Go forth…

Article by Kevin on the Zani blog.