Croydon Till I Die
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| The view from Taberner House (RIP). Image (c) Frazer Ashford |
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Come and celebrate the cultural life of the suburbs at Croydon Till I Die, a series of events featuring authors Andy Miller, Bob Stanley, Lucy Mangan and John Grindrod.
Come and celebrate the cultural life of the suburbs at Croydon Till I Die, a series of events featuring authors Andy Miller, Bob Stanley, Lucy Mangan and John Grindrod.
'I think it’s the most derogatory thing I can say about somebody or
something: God, it’s so f**king Croydon!' David Bowie (ex-Tin Machine)
The events, and links for tickets:
May 21st – Bookseller Crow, Crystal Palace – with John Grindrod, Lucy Mangan and Andy Miller
May 28th – Rough Trade East, 91 Brick Lane – with John Grindrod, Andy Miller and Bob Stanley
June 11th – Fairfield Halls (Arnhem Gallery), Croydon – with John Grindrod, Andy Miller and Bob Stanley
And more to come!
And more to come!
The borough of Croydon has
borne the brunt of decades of mockery from the likes of Bromley’s David Bowie,
a tradition that stretches back to the general distaste for the suburbs
expressed by intellectuals such as Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot and E. M. Forster
and in books such as The Diary of a
Nobody. In fact, the cultural life of the suburbs is rich and varied, and
modern music, art, architecture, film and literature would be radically
different without the influence of the people who live there and whose work
reflects suburbia’s perennial outsider status.
From Bridget Riley to Sam
Taylor-Johnson; composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor to Kirsty
MacColl; Richard Seifert’s No. 1 Croydon tower (aka ‘the 50p
building’) to Croydon College of Art, whose alumni include Ray Davies, Malcolm
McLaren, Jamie Reid, Mervyn Peake, Noel Fielding and FKA twigs, Croydon has
long played its part in the cultural life of Britain. The Fairfield Halls,
opened in 1962, has hosted concerts by The Beatles, Kraftwerk, T. Rex, The Who,
Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd; famously, both Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies
of the Damned cleaned the toilets of the venue.
Andy, Bob, Lucy and I all have strong links to the
suburbs of South London, and we've have written extensively about the
experience of growing up in
the area and its influence on how they see the world. This summer we thought, what better than to bring Croydon to fashionable East London, to the foot of a Welsh
mountain and to the heart of the town itself, the Fairfield Halls. In
evenings of
readings, conversation and debate, we'll talk about what we laughingly call our work and
the debt
that the metropolis owes to suburbia. Urbanistas, lose your
preconceptions –
and let us take you on a journey to the (Whitgift)
centre of
the mind.
Andy Miller is a reader,
writer and editor of books, a passion born in the municipal libraries of South
Croydon. He is the author of the acclaimed The
Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books Saved My Life (4th Estate), as well
as books about the Kinks and how much he dislikes sport. His work has appeared
in the Guardian, Mojo, Esquire and many
more. His website is mill-i-am.com and he is on Twitter @i_am_mill_i_am.
Bob Stanley is a writer, film
producer and member of the pop group Saint Etienne. His book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop (Faber) is a former Rough Trade Shops Book of the Year. He used to sell
eggs on Surrey Street market and currently runs the Croydon Municipal imprint,
releasing his own compilations and reissued lost classics. His website is
bobstanley.co.uk and can be found on Twitter @rocking_bob.
John Grindrod grew up in New
Addington. He is the author of Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding
of Postwar Britain (Old Street), described by the Independent on Sunday as “a new
way of looking at modern Britain”. He has written for everything from the Guardian
to the 20th Century Society magazine, and can be contacted on Twitter @Grindrod.
Lucy Mangan
grew up in Catford but struck out for the heady delights of Bromley for
her A-levels. Then went back to Catford. She is a features writer and
columnist for the Guardian, Stylist, Puffin magazine and others. She has written four books - the latest is Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory (Penguin),
a history of the Roald Dahl classic to celebrate its 50th anniversary -
but prefers reading. She is currently researching her new book, about
the history of children's literature, which combines the best of both
worlds. She would love you to follow her on Twitter @lucymangan because
it saves going out.
This
week both the Guardian and Londonist ran pieces mentioning Croydon Till
I Die, and we held our second event at Rough Trade East. Both events so
far have had great turn-outs and questions, so they've been an absolute
joy to do. Thanks to everyone who has made it along. And next up we
have the mothership: Fairfield Halls! Here's a couple of pics from Jo Ellis of our
Rough Trade East event.
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| And here's the window from Waterstones in Croydon, where I used to work back in the 80s! (Thanks Sarah Wickens for the photo). |
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| John Grindrod, Andy Miller, Bob Stanley and some authentic Croydon concrete. Image (c) Richard De Pesando |
Thank you so much to everyone who came to Fairfield Halls last night, it was a dream come true for the three of us. Here's a list of Croydon stuff to get involved in, with thanks to Sarah Wickens.
Fairfield Halls
Rise Gallery (on St. George's Walk)
Croydon Fun Palace (3-4 October)
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| (c) Alex Ingram |
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| (c) Waterstones Croydon |
That concrete colour is forever Croydon in my mind.
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