"Cool London is Dead and the Rich Kids are to Blame"

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JoeV

The ironic part of this story is that right now there are newspaper articles in Paris and Geneva whinging how right this minute, both cities are going down the toilet.

ADGS

Didn't he already write almost the same article somewhere else recently? Some sound ideas, but as the very wealthy owner of one of the ghastliest (and most overpriced) London venues it has ever been my misfortune to visit, he's hardly one to talk.

kreuzkav

@ ADGS, if I didn't know he was the owner of Proud Galleries, I wouldn't question his integrity.  Seems odd that a man that runs an over priced hipster joint in Camden wrote the article.<div><br></div><div>Great article all the same.</div>

Perflexed

<div>Alex, way back in the good old arcadian '90s was running his gallery very much as a business & one of questionable aesthetic merit at that - photo of Keith Richards or some such (looking sad & or addled, backstage) yours, for only £££ etc. Consequently, it is also hard to believe he's unaware that his fledgling machinations were, in part, a sketching out of the portentous and cliched vision he presents us with in this retread article. His notion of a 20 somethings' impoverishment being represented by an alienation from desirable/bookable restaurants, rather than just food itself, is hilarious in identifying his own particular alienation & his brisk spiel on the the london property market, by area, speaks volumes about where he is at, as well as, where he wishes others to think he is at. </div><div><br></div>Far more interesting, if you can spare the time, scroll down to the comments bit beneath. Whilst I groan at some of the predictable ideology by numbers twatery of 'comment is free' on the Guardian, this is a tragicomic experience to behold, the written testament of the lesser guarded thoughts of the Telegraph reader.<div>Enjoy (or worry).</div>

kreuzkav

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(63, 69, 73);">An example of the comment is free malarchy: </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(63, 69, 73);">As a mid-thirties and newly married man who has reluctantly left London after 15 years and moved to Bristol, I agree with this. The housing policy of successive governments over the last 20 years have been the biggest factors in this.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(63, 69, 73);">I have nothing against the rich as the fault is with the system. Me and my friends live in a lovely part of zone 2 for all of our 20s and now, out of 10 of us (that I can think of), 9 have left London (a couple to commuter belt un-lovely towns) and only one is left, and he is clinging onto zone 4.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(63, 69, 73);">Bristol, by comparison, feels like a fantastic place full of opportunity and has a much more exciting vibe. However, the signs are that the Bristol housing market is going the way of London.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(63, 69, 73);">I feel that spending my 20s in London was a waste.</p>

andy

Bristol. Once described to me as the "graveyard of ambition".

miss annie

Also the biggest entry point for class A drugs in England, hence 'trip hop'.

Perflexed

What Johnson/Cowell(?) said.

kreuzkav

Forgot about Bristol's music scene.  Trip hop.  Portishead, Tricky, DJ Shadow, Coldcut.  And before the 90s Mark Stewart and Tackhead.  Lots of others.  This city has produced great music.  <div><br></div><div>Maybe it's a city of lost ambition but it has a lot of soul. </div>

N4Matt

I lived in Bristol for a few years, pretty poor for going out for music in my opinion. Much of the Bristol music scene was more suited to sitting at home stoned. That was why House music never got a good enough grip in that city E's arrived too late and everyone was too stoned to be bothered! The Thekla was alright and there were a few decent reggae/dub dances but that's about it. Lakota was diabolical.<br><br>'Lost ambition' is pretty much nail on head!<br>

Marquis

How did Sarah Records and the associated scene feature? I suppose there was some kind of scene around them? Their music wasn't quite as druggy as the whole trip hop stuff.

ADGS

Indeed, they had at least one act who were pretty straight edge/puritanical. Other bits sounded quite trippy in their own way, though.

Marquis

<span style="font-style: normal;">I loved Another Sunny Day on the gentler side, and Field Mice at the other end. Orchids too. Didn't get into Heavenly or Talulah Gosh. </span>I see that the founder of the label, Matt Haynes, now runs this rather nice <a href="http://smokealondonpeculiar.co.uk/" style="font-style: normal;">London website</a>. Quite disgraceful though that in the North London section there are entries for Crouch End, Stokey, Highbury, Har/ringa/ey, even Tottenham, but none yet for the obvious centre of all things North London!

ADGS

<span style="font-style: normal;">I submitted a piece on Stroud Green to </span><i>Smoke</i>, but they didn't want it...<div><br></div><div>Heavenly now mainly seem to run the civil service, except the one who won the Turner prize. I quite like some of their stuff. Another Sunny Day always struck me as less gentle than the Field Mice, but that may just be down to their finest hour, 'You Should All Be Murdered'.</div>

Marquis

Sorry you had such a bad experience with them. I see that the piece filed under Crouch End is about the Spriggan and shows pictures of the Parkland Walk, so.<div><br></div><div>The first song I think of when I think of ASD is I Don't Suppose I'll Get A Second Chance from the Engine Common sampler, which is probably the wimpiest song Sarah ever released (and there were plenty of those). And even You Should All Be Murdered is musically all jangly pleasantry, even in the distorted bit at the end. Field Mice were probably no heavier, but they had songs with extended instrumental passages, some broke through the 5 minute barrier, had psychedelic/rave influences etc. No idea what they are doing these days.</div>

ADGS

Ach, 'bad experience' is putting it a bit strong for glaring sulkily at a couple of the weaker pieces in the last issue which had taken *my* slot!<div><br></div><div>I think Harvey Williams still does the odd solo thing, and the Field Mice mutated through Northern Picture Library to Trembling Blue Stars, though it seems I missed them splitting up a couple of years ago. </div>

Idoru

"It<span style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.719999313354492px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> leaves the really cool kids [...] in Zone 3, or worse."</span><div><span style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.719999313354492px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.719999313354492px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Good God! Zone 3? People have to live in zone 3? Oh the HORROR.</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.719999313354492px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.719999313354492px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cool London isn't dead. It's just moved on and left Alex Proud behind, because he's too old, too wealthy and too privileged to be part of it any more, and he's bitter about it. London is just as vibrant and diverse and exciting as it's always been, but Alex Proud and his ilk are no longer part of it. He wants to believe that cool lived and died with his generation, but that's not how it works. Cool isn't dead, but his involvement in it is. </span></div>

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NorthNineteen

Isn't a bunch of 30+ living in genteel Stroud Green talking on the internet about whether London is cool slightly ironic?<div><br></div><div>n.b. this may actually be ironic - after two weeks of either being on holiday or ill my vocab isn't working properly</div>

kreuzkav

Access to the internet is fairly cheap.  The people who live in Stroud Green who complain and whine (like myself) lived here before it was genteel. I've never said it's a horrible place to live.  I just don't like the way it's being turned into a restaurant/coffee zone.  It could be worse.  As I've said many times on here, great place but it was divine ten years ago, still great but I'm worried about the developments and moneyed people flowing in the area.  Restaurants like Seasons, cafes like BBM are a warning sign.  Loads of public and private sector elite workers start to treat it as their playground.  It stops being a mixed class area and becomes Clapham....

NorthNineteen

My point being London is still cool for plenty of people.<div><br></div><div>Incidentally, didn't realise genteel had quite the meaning I initially thought.</div>

miss annie

As far as I can tell Clapham is not all it's cracked up to be. I go once every couple of months for work and the entire area around Clapham Junction station is like Holloway Rd. I hear it has nice bits but I've yet to see them. It certainly is not full of rich people chucking cash about. Wandsworth is also a craphole and seems to be one gigantic building site which a shopping mall which smells of despair. Of course this might just be down to my overwhelmingly tribalistic North London prejudice.

NorthNineteen

Technically Clapham Junction isn't Clapham though, it's Battersea.<div><br></div><div>There's some nice bits around the Common but much of the High St is pretty dire.  I lived near Clapham North for a while and it's great if you are single and in your 20s.</div><div><br></div><div>Incidentally, according to the retail study for the City North development Finsbury Park/Stroud Green has an almost identical demographic to Clapham - it just does't have the same offer of bars, restaurants and shops.  </div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

miss annie

Oh and London's great and the young people I know (many a good twenty years younger than me) are all still having a whale of a time here. I agree with NorthNineteen

kreuzkav

I agree with Miss Annie and NorthNineteen, London is a great place for the young.  Stroud Green is too but I don't like the way it's heading. And the  I know lots of young like-minded people and they hate the new London. Bland new builds and developments.

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