The fourth guest post from Brendan Conway - scheduled to post during the GA Conference.
He is co-presenting with Alistair Hamill.
The indie dance band St Etienne, formed in 1990, have regularly signalled a strong geographical affinity with albums steeped in sense of place such as ‘Finisterre’ (2002) and ‘Home Counties’ (2017) which included tracks inspired by local knowledge of places in the rural-urban fringe of London such as ‘Whyteleafe’, ‘Breakneck Hill’ and ‘Angel of Woodhatch’.
Their album cover for ‘Words and Music’ (2012) is an incredible piece of map art based on Croydon town centre, redesigned by Manchester art collective Dorothy to change all of the road names to songs. Bob Stanley of the band explained the psychogeographical concept.
‘The general theme of the album is marking a route in your life through music—the idea is that you can follow roads on the map and end up with a playlist of different journeys. There are 312 song titles on the map—it's our hometown.’
‘The general theme of the album is marking a route in your life through music—the idea is that you can follow roads on the map and end up with a playlist of different journeys. There are 312 song titles on the map—it's our hometown.’
Can you spot all 312?!
In a similar cartographic vein, in 2023 Bob Stanley, created a compilation album called ‘London A to Z’ for Ace Records.
In a similar cartographic vein, in 2023 Bob Stanley, created a compilation album called ‘London A to Z’ for Ace Records.
The selection features places in London, recorded in the 1960s and 1970s. Such compilations can sometimes be disappointing, but not this one. Many of the artists are very well-known although their tracks are usually more obscure. There are many forgotten gems, providing interesting windows back in time. Nick Drake departs from his typical melancholy to deliver the upbeat ‘Mayfair’ (1968) and Norma Tanega celebrates ‘Clapham Junction’(1971) with her characteristic guitar licks. The prolific 1960s hit maker Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) sings about ‘Portobello Road’ which is close to where he grew up in London’s West End.
‘Hampstead Way’ sung by Linda Lewis sounds well ahead of its time. She famously had a five-octave vocal range and had cameo roles in 1960s classic movies ‘A Taste Of Honey’ and ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.
Several songs have intriguing back stories to explore. For example, ‘London Social Degree’ (1968), covered here by long-time associate of David Bowie, Dana Gillespie. It was written by British singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and musical director Billy Nicholls. Its naive inverted snobbery vibe and anti-intellectual lyrics sound a bit annoying now (a bit like Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ a decade later), but it's an interesting period piece, originally recorded by Billy Nicholls himself in 1968 on his classic baroque pop album ‘Would You Believe’.
Perhaps the greatest rediscovery on the compilation is ‘Euston Station’(1967), written and sung by the less-well-known and much underrated Barbara Ruskin, which should have been a big hit but failed to chart.
As Bob Stanley suggests in his ‘sleeve notes’, the original A to Z of London ‘invited you to create your own personal map of London’.
Several songs have intriguing back stories to explore. For example, ‘London Social Degree’ (1968), covered here by long-time associate of David Bowie, Dana Gillespie. It was written by British singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and musical director Billy Nicholls. Its naive inverted snobbery vibe and anti-intellectual lyrics sound a bit annoying now (a bit like Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ a decade later), but it's an interesting period piece, originally recorded by Billy Nicholls himself in 1968 on his classic baroque pop album ‘Would You Believe’.
Perhaps the greatest rediscovery on the compilation is ‘Euston Station’(1967), written and sung by the less-well-known and much underrated Barbara Ruskin, which should have been a big hit but failed to chart.
As Bob Stanley suggests in his ‘sleeve notes’, the original A to Z of London ‘invited you to create your own personal map of London’.
Now we can do a similar thing for his compilation using geographical information systems (GIS), so I used Geo Mapper 2D to geo-reference and visualise the locations of all the tracks, demonstrating the capacity of Geo Mapper to ‘Spotimapify’ such data.
Clicking on each location shows a relevant image (usually the record sleeve) and an opportunity to hear an extract from the track by linking through to the Ace Records web page about the compilation.
Explore the map here and take a listen to the tracks: London A to Z (GIS map)
The GIS map are bookmark tabs which zoom in to different parts of London as follows:
NW London
Edgware Station - Edward Bear
Hampstead Way - Linda Lewis
Parliament Hill - Magna Carta
Primrose Hill - John & Beverley Martyn
Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres - Al Stewart
SW London
Kew Gardens - Ralph McTell
Richmond - Shelagh McDonald
W London
Notting Hill Gate - Quintessence
Portobello Road - Cat Stevens
Central London
City Road - Dave Evans
Euston Station - Barbara Ruskin
Goodbye Post Office Tower Goodbye - Cressida
Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square - Jethro Tull
London Bridge - Cilla Black
London Social Degree - Dana Gillespie
Mayfair - Nick Drake
Soho - Bert Jansch & John Renbourn
Sunny Goodge Street - Marianne Faithfull
E London
Beckton Dumps - Humble Pie
Cutty Sark - The John Barry Seven & Orchestra
Marcel's - Herman's Hermits
NE London
Friday Hill - Bulldog Breed
Near The Thames
Clapham Junction - Norma Tanega
Vauxhall To Lambeth Bridge - Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
References
Fitz Maurice, L. (2012) Listen: New Saint Etienne: "Answer Song”. Pitchfork.
London A To Z - Various Artists (Saint Etienne)
Explore the map here and take a listen to the tracks: London A to Z (GIS map)
The GIS map are bookmark tabs which zoom in to different parts of London as follows:
NW London
Edgware Station - Edward Bear
Hampstead Way - Linda Lewis
Parliament Hill - Magna Carta
Primrose Hill - John & Beverley Martyn
Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres - Al Stewart
SW London
Kew Gardens - Ralph McTell
Richmond - Shelagh McDonald
W London
Notting Hill Gate - Quintessence
Portobello Road - Cat Stevens
Central London
City Road - Dave Evans
Euston Station - Barbara Ruskin
Goodbye Post Office Tower Goodbye - Cressida
Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square - Jethro Tull
London Bridge - Cilla Black
London Social Degree - Dana Gillespie
Mayfair - Nick Drake
Soho - Bert Jansch & John Renbourn
Sunny Goodge Street - Marianne Faithfull
E London
Beckton Dumps - Humble Pie
Cutty Sark - The John Barry Seven & Orchestra
Marcel's - Herman's Hermits
NE London
Friday Hill - Bulldog Breed
Near The Thames
Clapham Junction - Norma Tanega
Vauxhall To Lambeth Bridge - Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
References
Fitz Maurice, L. (2012) Listen: New Saint Etienne: "Answer Song”. Pitchfork.
London A To Z - Various Artists (Saint Etienne)
Brendan Conway is a geography teacher with over thirty years’ experience and led his current school to the GA Centre of Excellence. He has authored a range of learning materials for Oak National Academy, Tutor2U, Collins, BBC Bitesize and has expertise in GIS. Brendan is very interested in the links between geography and music and has written far too many story maps on this theme.
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