Butcher The Bar - Bobby
At first listen, one could be forgiven for thinking this was another piece of glorious, Scandinavian indie-pop – Kings Of Convenience perhaps? Joel Nicholson is in fact Manchester-based. His second album as Butcher The Bar, For Each A Future Tethered, is released on Morr Music, June 10th. Download a free track, Bobby, below.
12 Apr 2011
Barking climbs on board Olympic bandwagon
You might not have noticed, but London has gained a new Olympic borough this month – even though it is not hosting any events.
Barking and Dagenham becomes the sixth in the capital to gain the status ahead of London 2012.
Four of the other five – Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest – include part of or border the Olympic Park, while Greenwich plays host to three venues south of the river.
Barking and Dagenham, though, has no venues – and borders the North Circular Road rather than the Olympic Park.
So how did it get the honour? Quite simply, it was handed out after it failed to lure the shooting events away from Woolwich. Council bosses tried to persuade London 2012 to move the tournament away from the historic Royal Artillery Barracks to a brownfield site at Barking.
While that plan was rejected, B&D was given the bronze medal of Olympic borough status instead, with venues including Mayesbrook Park Arena being designated training centres.
It means B&D joins the committee of boroughs which decides on legacy issues around the games, and works to secure benefits from the Olympics for their residents, including access to jobs.
But how are the Olympic boroughs doing in promoting sport? A smattering of outdoor gyms aside, the record is patchy.
Greenwich residents have just discovered they will now have to pay up to £7.30 per hour to play tennis as part of a council cost-cutting scheme. In neighbouring boroughs, serving and volleying remains free.
In Newham, cyclists are baffled after the council blocked plans to run the next cycle superhighway through the borough and past the Olympic Park. Cycle Superhighway 2 will now only run from Aldgate to the Bow flyover, stopping just short of the Newham boundary.
Tower Hamlets Council was furious when the Olympic marathon was taken away from the streets of Bow and Whitechapel. But threats of legal action have now been dropped and mayor Lutfur Rahman is content to proclaim Brick Lane as London 2012’s official curry capital.
The area, full of hipsters, stolen bikes and men trying to persuade you to eat spicy meals, “embodies the Olympic spirit”, Rahman declared.
A lot, then, for Barking & Dagenham to aspire to. Maybe councillors could use their new status to demand the borough’s cycle superhighway actually runs to Barking, instead of bafflingly stopping a mile short of the town centre.
There’s still room on the bandwagon. Southwark has been eyeing up host borough status too.
All of which seems slightly unfair on neighbouring Lewisham, whose borders reach the edge of an actual venue in Greenwich Park – but it still gets the honour of being a gateway borough.
All of which goes to prove that if you’re involved in London’s local councils, the Olympics really do have something for everyone.
12 Apr 2011
London agenda for Tuesday 12 April
1. View earth-bound artists, space engineers, performers, astronomers, musicians at Yuri ‘s Night [Run Riot]
2. Find a lost museum with Nature and medicine on show [Flavorpill]
3. Have a free ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Day Here’s a list of locations. [Time Out]
4. Listen to a quick 1,000 year history of Russia [Ian Visits]
5. Drink in the Queen’s Head at Downe [Tired of London]
12 Apr 2011
Republican "Not the Royal Wedding" street party banned by Camden Council
Camden Council have refused permission for a republican street party to be held on the day of the Royal wedding.
An initial application by lobbying group Republic to hold a party on Earlham Street, Covent Garden was approved by the council.
However permission was later withdrawn citing worries about disorder and concerns from some local businesses that it would “directly contradict the Royal Wedding theme in terms of their merchandise.”
In correspondence with Republic, the council justified their decision by claiming that the event would not “draw the community together.”
Camden do not consider this event to be a community festival/party. The purpose of such is to draw the community together in an act of celebration/oneness. It is very likely that this event is not, or would not be, supported by the majority of the community, indeed it does not serve to engage the community in any way. We do accept that organisations outside of the borough become involved in community events, however they are organising such events which benefit the residents/community both during and following such an occasion. We cannot see how such an event as this falls within this category.
A spokesperson for Republic said today:
This is a disgraceful attack on the rights of republicans to make their voice heard and to hold a fun and peaceful event. Camden Council is allowing a few vocal residents and businesses to veto any event in central London they do not support. Our street party is designed to be a peaceful, fun, family event with food, music and stalls. We can only assume this is a politically motivated ban and we will challenge it all the way.
A spokesperson for Camden Council told The Scoop
Taking into consideration the feeling of the local community the council have decided to refuse the application and Earlham Street will not be closed on 29 April 2011.
11 Apr 2011
The Cock Falls, May It Rise Again
The Cock Tavern Theatre has closed following Brent council declaring that the stairs leading up to the theatre space fail to meet fire regulation standards. Also, the seats make your bum numb, but that was probably a distant second in the council’s mind. The stairs were too short and deep for safe use and the Cock would have had to completely rebuild them. Even for a funded theatre company this would have been a blow, but for an unfunded one like the Cock, it just isn’t worth it. They have therefore abandoned the venue and are looking for another.
The Cock’s press officer, Nathan Godkin, has told Snipe that much of the season’s programme has already been relocated. A Butcher of Distinction by Rob Hayes, nominated for three Offie awards (Best New Play, Best New Playwright and Best Actor for Sam Swann) will now be at The Kings Head Theatre. Tennessee William’s semi-lost play A Cavalier for Milady will move to the Jermyn Street Theatre.
This is turning into a mini-epidemic, with Above The Stag Theatre also looking for a new home. Maybe the Stag and the Cock can get something going together. Hopefully they will both find new homes soon, as even somewhere as culturally rich as London needs every creative venue it can get.
11 Apr 2011
Five disgustingly gentrified street names near Victoria Park
Gentrification is not a bad thing in itself. Give me the choice of a dirty, smelly old-school boozer with links to the EDF or a gastro-cafe-cum-interior-design-studio with links to the slow food movement, and it’s a skinny latte and Ercol chair all the way. But things can go too far. A case in point: the fetish for giving new developments sickeningly twee names. Here are five of the most vomit-inducing examples from the environs of Victoria Park.
View Twee streets in a larger map
Twig Folly Close
Twig Folly Close would be an uncomfortably schmaltzy name for a row of idyllic country cottages in deepest Wessex. For a collection of modern-build flats backing onto Roman Rd, it’s positively offensive. And since when was a twig something that deserved to be mermorialised in stone? Mental.
Nightingale Mews
“A secretive bird which likes nothing better than hiding in the middle of an impenetrable bush or thicket.” So says the RSPB website of the Nightingale. Keats makes a similar point about the bird’s habitat, albeit slightly more long-windedly.
“Tender is the night…
…but here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous blooms and windy mossy ways.”
So isn’t it just uncanny how appropriately the name fits a sandy stone collection of buildings across the road from Fitness First? No, no it is not.
Four Seasons Close
Managing to traduce the memory of Vivaldi’s lovely music, Pizza Express’s excellent pizza and a fine chain of luxury hotels in one go is quite an achievement. But this place manages it.
Redwood Close
And just next door to the Four Seasons we find this tribute to the mighty tree which has wowed many a visitior to its home in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Those are the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, not Bow. Bow has no links with Sequoia trees, so why does it have houses named after them? (Amateur dendrologists among you should note, however, that there are some redwoods alive and well in London, as this very helpful/slightly obsessive website shows. How cute is this little baby tree in Paddington?! Anyone know if it’s still there?)
Waterside Close
So there exists such a place as a junction between Candy Street and Waterside Close. Here we have a location mixing saccharine sweetness with vague inanity to create an elixir of inoffensiveness so sickly it takes the breath away. Why has this been allowed to happen? How can we make it stop?
11 Apr 2011
London agenda for Monday 11 April
1. Listen to not merely a piano, nor a grand piano, but a Grand Pianoramax [Le Cool]
2. Hear some exotic music and voodoo at the London Snorkelling Team [Run Riot]
3. Visit the new Southbank Centre shop [Tired of London]
4. Blame the Victorians for everything [Ian Visits]
5. Love it or hate it at the Marmite Prize For Painting [Lauren Down]
11 Apr 2011
Marissa Nadler - Baby I Will Leave You In The Morning
Boston ‘dream folk’ artist Marissa Nadler is back with a self-titled, fan-funded long player, released in the UK on June 13th. With it’s shimmering melancholia and multiple key changes, “Baby I Will Leave You In The Morning” promises much – expect great things from the album.
10 Apr 2011
Trouble Books - Song for Reinier Lucassen's Sphinx
Here’s a new track from SNIPE favourites Trouble Books: a collaboration with their pal Mark McGuire. It’s a typical lush, humane piece. A full album is coming out soon.
10 Apr 2011
Multiphonic Rodent
Snipe came across Estonian solo artist Multiphonic Rodent on a recent trip to Tallinn Music Week. The one-man-band and fearless multi-tasker is a master of lo-fi loop-pedal tapestries, wonky pop songs and earworm instrumentals. Listen to a full album (released in 2008 but still sounding fresh as a daisy today) below, and keep an eye and an ear out for more in the near future.
10 Apr 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
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