London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?

The most frustrating thing about the mayoral election result wasn’t the result. It wasn’t the waiting, either. It was the coverage.

There can’t be many places in the world where an election in which the winner gets one million personal votes, and gets to play with a multi-billion pound budget, has to jostle with news of far away provincial polls. It certainly wouldn’t happen in New York, where TV channel NY1 tracks mayor Michael Bloomberg’s every move.

But that was what happened in London. With no dedicated TV channel of our own, we were forced to rely on Sky and the BBC for updates from City Hall, who interspersed it with reheated soundbites from elections elsewhere, sports updates, newspaper reviews and a whole Ten O’Clock News.

Worse still, the BBC dimmed its own local TV stars – political editor Tim Donovan and presenter Riz Lateef – and shoehorned national big gun Jon Sopel in front of the camera. Sopel’s a great journalist where it comes to Westminster politics – but a tourist at City Hall, and it showed.

If you wanted to know your own local results, you were out of luck.

The decline of local media’s been well documented elsewhere, but it’s been felt hard in London, where some boroughs don’t even have a paid-for weekly newspaper. It affected an election where policies and sensible debate hardly got a look-in for all the personality clashes and mudslinging.

It hasn’t always been this way. Once, the Thames TV skyline and LWT’s river-inspired ribbons left you in no doubt you were watching ITV in London, with both stations producing hours of local journalism, discussion and entertainment. Meanwhile Capital Radio was just that – radio for the capital.

But now both of those have been swallowed up into bland nationwide brands, with local news an afterthought. The BBC picked up some of the slack by creating BBC London News a decade ago, but it’s woefully underfunded compared to its counterparts in Wales and Scotland, who cover far fewer people with far bigger budgets and much more airtime. In addition, local TV news in London has always rated lower as fewer people are at home by 6pm to tune in.

Worse still, the BBC’s snobbery about “local news” meant when BBC London had a genuine scoop – about Boris Johnson’s links with News International, and the resulting on-camera outburst – the national bulletins stayed well clear of it, denying the story the audience it deserved.

So London never really saw its election through its own eyes – instead, it got a narrow Westminster village vision of the toff versus the tax-avoider, a black and white view of an election of varying hues.

Would Ken’s energy co-op have been a goer? Can Boris be as good as his word on creating apprenticeships? Would Brian Paddick have been a great police reformer ? All questions that should have been asked, but weren’t.

There may be much more media around us than 20 or 30 years ago, but opportunities to hear or read serious discussion about our city have declined. We don’t even have a serious daily newspaper covering London issues any more, after the Evening Standard spent a second election slavishly backing Boris.

In a sharply-divided city, such uncritical support for either candidate means kissing goodbye to your credibility – but backing the winner probably gets owner Evgeny Lebedev into a few more parties.

Worse still for the Standard, it largely ignored the growing story of cyclists’ safety, presumably because it was a weak issue for Boris.

Instead, it was championed by The Times after a journalist at the national title was seriously hurt riding to work. This was a story the Standard should have owned – instead, it was The Times who organised a hustings on the issue and pushed forward the debate, leaving the tired old Standard looking irrelevant once again.

Can the web ever fill the gap? Londonist’s fact-checking stories scored hits, while Mayorwatch, Snipe and newcomer The Big Smoke also ran election stories. But we’re all small fish in a pond dominated by some big names.

The Guardian is best placed to fill the gap, but seems reluctant to create a “London” section to give a home to its excellent London writer Dave Hill and the various comment and analysis pieces. Instead its capital coverage spills out across the site, annoying northerners and diluting its impact. The Telegraph could do the same, while the BBC’s London web coverage badly needs the love and investment its counterparts in Wales and Scotland get.

With Ken digging up the garden and Boris presumably off to hunt a bigger prize, the next mayoral election will bring a new, lesser-known cast of characters to the London stage. The era of the celebrity mayor may well be over – making it much more vital that London develops its own media to cover it. Are we up to the challenge?

London agenda for Thursday 17 May 2012

1. Watch a film of London’s skaters attempt to kill themselves in City of Rats [Le Cool]

2. Stand athwart history and yell ‘Stop!’ at Surviving Progress [Run Riot]

3. Get caught between different planes of existence at the group show, Liminal States [Flavorpill]

4. Spend the night at This is not happening [Don’t Panic]

5. Watch the City enforce its medieval borders at Beating the Bounds [Ian Visits]

6. Attend Late Shift at the National Portrait Gallery [Tired of London]

Radioblue - Take Me Home

We like sultry Berlin techno-siblings Radioblue a lot. Their first single, “Take Me Home”, is out on Monday, and they’re rumoured to be headed for London in June – watch this space.

Brainlove Festival: Bleeding Heart Narrative

Today’s Brainlove Festival artist of the day is Bleeding Heart Narrative, who released a thrillingly ambitious EP called “Bison” on the label last year. Recently seen giving When Saints Go machine a run for their money as support at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, BHN will play Brainlove Festival for the first time early in the afternoon.

You can read our interview with the band’s drummer Simon below, read the rest of the BRNLV Festival interview series here, and once thoroughly convinced by the lineup’s breadth and quality, get your hands on tickets here.

Could you introduce a little about yourself first and foremost?
We’re Bleeding Heart Narrative and we’re a six-piece from North/East London.

For people who haven’t seen you live before, what can they expect?
You can expect a pretty big but coherent noise from guitars, drums, cellos, violins, synths, voices and a wood block. The last time we played the Windmill I managed to catapult my glasses off my face with one of my drumsticks and smash them to pieces against a wall, so there’s always a chance that’ll happen again too.

Have you played or even been to the Brainlove Festival prior to this year?
Our singer, Oli, has played the last couple of years, but the rest of us have somehow contrived to book holidays before we’ve been asked. We’re excited to finally play as a full band.

What are you looking forward to most about it?
Our last EP came out on Brainlove so we’ve been exposed to a few of the other bands on the label’s roster as a result. It’ll be good to finally hear some of them live. Also, what’s not to look forward to about a day with music, bbq and booze at the Windmill?

Looking at the line-up, who are you excited about seeing live?
Mat Riviere. We were lucky enough to tour with him recently so it’ll be good to reacquaint myself with his set.

How do you find festivals in general? Do you prefer smaller venue shows?
I’ve not been to a big UK festival as a punter for a while now, mostly because of how expensive they’ve become, so in that sense it’s great to see a lot of smaller, venue specific events come to the fore. While there’s been a decline in the number of beer-sponsored 3-dayers, there seems to be more call for festivals like Brainlove, Southsea and Swn, where people can come and listen to great music for a fraction of the cost. Having said all that, playing Green Man last year was a pretty incredible experience, so I can’t pretend I’d ever write bigger festivals off completely!

Do you enjoy the prospect of people that necessarily aren’t that familiar with your music getting the chance to stumble upon you?
That’s what festivals are all about, right? It’s always exciting to try to win people over who haven’t heard of you. I think we’re also excited about people stumbling across us who have heard our music too, though. The sound of the band has changed quite a bit over the years, so it’s always good to surprise a few people who had us pegged in a certain genre.

Could you tell us a little bit about the track you chose to give away as a free download?
Well, it’s called Shoals and it’s the opening track from the EP Bison, which we released on Brainlove at the end of last year. We made a video for it too, which you can find here

What do your band have going on at the moment? Anything you’re working on or forthcoming releases in the works?
At the moment we’re just concentrating on writing, recording and gigging as much as possible. We’ve got a really busy few weeks coming up with The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, a couple of London gigs and, of course, Brainlove Festival, and in between we’re recording some new material and making more videos for the remaining tracks from Bison. Fingers crossed there’ll be some new material released in the near future…

Chelsea supporting cow faces uncertain future

So the cow seems safe, albeit she’s probably feeling a little blue (that’s a her, right?). Chelsea are big in Nigeria, partly because of John Obi Mikel.

We don't have Brian Coleman to kick around any longer. And that's okay.

“If I lose, get the fucking shredders running immediately” Tory London Assembly Member Brian Coleman reportedly told his helpers before a previous London Assembly election.

In the end the shredders weren’t required that time, and Coleman was re-elected for yet another term of front page controversy, public slanging matches, and taxpayer-funded taxi fares.

A regular feature not just in the local press but also in the tabloids, Coleman has good claim to being called the most famous local politician in Britain. In any case, he is certainly the most famous London Assembly Member ever, gathering more press coverage than all of the others put together.

Coleman first hit the headlines after claiming for £10,000 worth of taxi fares in just one year on the Assembly. This was long before the expenses scandal, and the current era of austerity, but the intervening years have not lessened Brian’s spending power.

In his second role as chairman of London’s Fire authority, Brian has spent thousands of pounds on official lunches, wine and flowers for his friends and colleagues. When not dining at our expense, Coleman accepted countless gifts and meals from the rich and powerful, including a £350 luxury hamper from the boss of a company later awarded a multimillion pound contract by the brigade.

Not happy to merely live the good life, Brian has made it his mission to offend as many people as he possibly can. Britain’s Olympic atheletes were told that they had “the blood of Tibetans” on their hands whilst a woman beaten by the police was told that she had got what she deserved. A woman struggling to pay her rent was told to “live in the real world” and London’s firefighters were accused of being thick thugs.

He called a nurse at a public meeting a “twat” and made a canteen worker at his offices cry. And in the first case of it’s kind, Coleman was censured for sending an abusive message to a blogger, and not the other way around.

In the process he has made many enemies but also a few friends. Speaking to his opponents on the London Assembly, I have often been surprised at the warm words they express for a man who in public seems so difficult to like. Perhaps there’s another softer side to him that we haven’t seen. A kind heart that only a mother can see. And indeed Coleman’s mother has seen that side, being his regular chaperone at public functions. Her taxi bill has of course, often been charged to us.

But as the years went by, the number of Coleman’s friends dwindled and his number of enemies grew. “He’s just pissed off too many people” admitted one of Brian’s most loyal defenders to me recently. 

Amongst those most pissed off were Brian’s constituents. His decision to hike parking charges in Barnet was deeply unpopular with people who might otherwise be his core supporters. A growing coalition of bloggers, politicians and even Tory-supporting activists launched a highly successful campaign against him. Posters urging people to “vote Boris, sack Brian” were designed, petitions were launched and even a film was premiered.

Rather than change his policy or try to win over his critics, Brian typically went on the attack. As one opinion poll showed that he was likely to lose his Assembly seat, Brian went on the rampage in Barnet, haranguing shopkeepers who had put up posters criticising him for the “murder of Barnet’s high streets.”

“He was going mad and shouting. He was right in my face and wouldn’t leave when I asked him. He was intimidating” said the owner of one hair salon. “It was really quite distressing” said the owner of another shop. He later released images from a CCTV camera showing Coleman entering the sweetshop and shouting at the owner. Another image just showed Coleman standing by the till with his head in his hands.

If England is a nation of shopkeepers then Brian was intent on losing their votes one by one. And when the final tally came in from the Assembly elections last week Coleman had lost his 20,000 majority and was 20,000 behind his Labour opponent Andrew Dismore.

With his high-spending, high-offending ways, Coleman represented the very worst of local politics. The perfect archetypal Tory boor, his loss will in some ways be felt more by his political opponents than by his own party.

Without him, the London Assembly will probably be a far duller body to watch. It will also undoubtedly be a better one.

London agenda for Wednesday 16 May 2012

1. Watch the long anticipated documentary on NY Times society photographer Bill Cunningham [Le Cool]

2. Hear the amazing Niki & The Dove and Elliphant at XOYO [Run Riot]

3. Listen to Blackpool’s Karima Francis at Hoxton Hall [Don’t Panic]

4. Get some Hackney history in context at Hackney’s oldest tower [Ian Visits]

5. Eat at the Roundwood Park Cafe [Tired of London]

Right now, Brent residents are trying to stop their council stripping Kensal Rise Library of its books

Here are some tweets which tell the story. The library has already been closed but today the council came for the books.

@SaveKRLibrary looks like a good place to follow this today.

War-horse puppeteers to perform Ted Hughes' Crow in Greenwich

“Black is the earth-globe, one inch under,
An egg of blackness
Where sun and moon alternate their weathers
To hatch a crow, a black rainbow
Bent in emptiness
over emptiness
but flying”

This sounds great. Handspring Puppet Company, the puppet handlers behind War Horse, are turning Ted Hughes’ Crow into theatre for the Greenwich + Docklands Festival next month. Details here. The Independent have more here.

Brainlove Festival: Enjoyed

UK producer Enjoyed has seemed to have popped out of nowhere during the past month. Prior to April, the electronic musician had only a handful of live appearances to his name, including a DJ slot at last year’s Binnacle micro-festival at the Old Blue Last. After some recent attention from the likes of The Guardian, Dummy and XLR8R, however, this seems all ready to change.

Latest single ‘Teeth’, from the forthcoming ‘Sugar’ EP, is a full-on disco showpiece, a taster of what the artist himself calls his genre of “joystep”. The artwork and corresponding video delves into swirling, abstracts patterns and lush colour schemes that reflect Enjoyed’s own highly tactile, mood-based and visual sensibility. The live set is just as engrossing – so we’re very happy to have him playing at Brainlove Festival this year. Tickets: here.

Could you introduce a little about yourself first and foremost?

I’m Peter Evans-Pritchard from Hampshire. I make colourful electronic music under the name, Enjoyed. I grew up listening to what MVC called, ‘dance’ music, and that’s what I like to make.

For people who haven’t seen you live before, what can they expect?

Lots of colour, lots of dancing, lots of my grimacing singing face and hopefully lots of fun.

Have you played or even been to the Brainlove Festival prior to this year?

I have not, unfortunately for me!

If no, what are you looking forward to most about it?

I’m really looking forward to seeing a whole bunch of people I’ve not come across before. That’s always exciting.

Looking at the line-up, who are you excited about seeing live?

I’m gonna have to say Napoleon IIIrd. I saw him a few years back at a local festival down in my neck of the woods called, ‘Woolfire’. Back then he had a huge reel to reel on stage with him and he sounded amazing. I’m really psyched to see what he’s up to nowadays!

How do you find festivals in general? Do you prefer smaller venue shows?

I do enjoy a good ‘big festival’; Glastonbury, Bestival etc. There’s something about being in a crowd of thousands, losing it to ‘Star Guitar’ together, that you really can’t beat. That said, some of my favourite ever gigs have been sit down, theatre type shows. It’s less energetic but sometimes you just need a comfy seat to listen in!

Do you enjoy the prospect of people that necessarily aren’t that familiar with your music getting the chance to stumble upon you?

I love the prospect! It’s basically the best way for people to hear your music. I’ve gotten into a bunch of great bands and artists from just wandering around at gigs and festivals. I think it connects more with people if they find something themselves. They make more of a personal attachment than if they simply read about it on the interweb and that’s just a nice thing!

Could you tell us a little bit about the track you chose to give away as a free download?

It’s called ‘Teeth’… Don’t ask me why. It’s kind of about living in a city, and kind of not. It’s supposed to be a sort of journey. I wrote a lot of it on the train to and from Brighton so I tried to make it so it could accompany that sort of venture. It’s one of the more bluey-yellow songs I’ve written…

What do your band have going on at the moment? Anything you’re working on or forthcoming releases in the works?

I’m in the run up to releasing my new EP ‘Sugar’, which comes out on June 4th. I’ve just finished up the video for ‘Teeth’ as well and the rest of the tracks from the EP will be making their way out over the next month or so. After that it’s back to remixing and finishing the album…

Get Brainlove Festival Info and tickets.