uncharteredstreets.bsky.social
London musings by Matt Haynes; also occasional depository for goings on at Sarah Records and suppository for what’s supposed to have gone on.
UNCHARTERED STREETS: http://uncharteredstreets.co.uk
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Indeed it was. And the name is so awful I genuinely couldn't bring myself to type it in the post...
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Ah, it's just as I remember... the sign saying "Selly Oak", the... the... no, that's about it, actually...
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And, yes, I’m two nearly weeks late with this, but… I got lost in the past.
Video by @stringbeanjen.bsky.social [7/7] www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsQz...
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And then the opening twangs of Pristine Christine ring out, people gasp, and magic fills the room.
As @betharzy.bsky.social said, when she took the stage afterwards to sing a beautiful version of the Shop Assistant’s Somewhere In China, “What the fuck just happened?” [6/7]
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are @heavenlyamelia.bsky.social and Rob from former label-mates Heavenly. On lead guitar and drums are Bob Collins and Ian Button. “I was an awkward 17-year-old when I wrote this,” James says. “And now I’m an awkward 56-year-old about to sing this.” [5/7]
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And now, one Wednesday evening the best part of four decades later, I’m in the Social on Little Portland Street for the launch of @petepaphides.bsky.social’s Sensitive compilation and onstage, clutching a 6-string acoustic, is James Roberts. To his left, on guitar and bass, [4/7]
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song reduced to its constituent parts would destroy the magic but no, it’s the opposite: as knobs were turned, switches flicked and sliders slid, an uncanny alchemy saw bits of plucked wire and stick-clattered plastic transmute into glistening pop songs in the dark space above the mixing desk. [3/7]
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then walked down to the studio and sat on the floor to watch, entranced, as the engineer nudged the bass guitar up at the end of each chorus of Pristine Christine as instructed and, at singer James Roberts’ request, tried to make the vocals on Everglades “more swirly”. You’d think witnessing a [2/7]
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got to display his timpanic mettle, with @heavenlyamelia.bsky.social channelling her inner Bobby Wratten on vocals. And it was fantastic. And not something I thought I’d ever see. And I hope Bobby now honours the bet by covering Heavenly’s Cool Guitar Boy on his new album. [3/3]
#sarahrecords
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But it *can* be done: I remember Chris from The Orchids making a good impromptu fist of it somewhere in France, or somewhere like France; and last week, at the launch of @petepaphides.bsky.social’s splendid and splendidly named Sensitive compilation, Ian from The @skepwax.bsky.social All Stars [2/3]
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I could never leave before the end... and, for once, most of the people around us stayed on too, rather than leaving to "beat the traffic". Definitely an emotional rollercoaster, though... with long periods of emotional dodgems...
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... and Dan Agyei did manage to sneak in a couple of bits of corner-flag magic after we'd scored, so, yup, I'm happy...
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I think you've pretty much summed him up! Definitely talented, but inconsistent and tends to get muscled off the ball too easily. He got two well taken right-place-right-time goals yesterday, though, and I think he could well come good.
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Thank you. To be honest, at the time what I was aiming for was a subtle, hazy, impressionistic portrait of Rob, which in my head I was already thinking of calling “The Man, The Bass, The Enigma”, but then Amelia and Clare got in the way…
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Probably not dissimilar to the look on Stephen’s face when people ask him if he’s me…
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Sorry it's a bit grainy! I wish sometimes I'd remember that my camera has a zoom!
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just one; but it’s one more than this part of south-east London had a month ago, so… here’s hoping The Book Elephant has thick sturdy legs. 16 Sayer Street – opposite the lovely Miko’s and muffin-weaponising Capitalist attack bakery Gail’s. [2/2]
#ElephantAndCastle #Walworth #SE17 #Camberwell
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So you all know, my comments were 100% unbiased and objective. I have never met Jane, have absolutely no wish to, and would certainly not let a complete stranger (which she definitely is) buy me a coffee in case it looks like payola, though that’s a dessert not a coffee, isn’t it? #thinkingofpavlova
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* please feel free to insert modern synthetic equivalents; but you have no soul [2/2]