The Wake

On Saturday February 10th I was in Camden for the day, losing myself amidst the market mayhem. It’s like a whole other world. You’ll enter one of the markets at point on Camden High Street, and emerge and hour later hundreds of feet down the road, with no idea of how you got there.

I took out my headphones and enjoyed the sites and sounds as the colors of the crowds burst into life. The smells of delicious ethnic foods overwhelm your senses, and leave you no choice but to indulge. I’ve developed a trick for getting discount dishes from these vendors. You just walk by and look casually interested. The eager salesman will start a dialogue, all you have to do is look like his rhetoric is making even the smallest of effects, and he’ll soon have a plate filled for you. “Three Pound Fifty,” he’ll yell over the roar of excited discussion and barter. Here’s where you get tricky. Reach in your pocket, and make sure you only have a pound fifty or so in there. Pull it out spread it across you palm in concern. Look up and say, “ahh shoot,” with the longest face you can muster, “I’ve only got (enter amount here).” 4 time out of 5, they’ll just say “alright just give me what’s there.” And you’ll be off with a lunch for over half the inflated price.

This trick has also proven quite successful on Bricklane, located in London’s East End, which has 30-40 Bangladeshi restaurants within just a few short blocks of one another. They offer you all kinds of deals, and it’s a great way to get into London’s amazing Indian food without breaking the bank. It’s a must, as Indian food has nearly surpassed fish and chips as London’s trademark meal.

The beauty of the Camden Market is that each stall has its own unique personality. The operators are generally devoted followers of some movement or anther. The man selling vintage mod suits is clearly a mod himself, living it to the fullest. You’ll hear him playing Bowie, or the Who, or any number of matching sounds in the brief moment you walk past this shop. Every 15 feet a new song swarms around you, whether it be a pipe shop playing reggae, an urban clothing store playing American hip hop, a world antique store playing African music, you can lose yourself in each individual stall. There’s a vintage addidas stores selling track jackets and old school ‘trainers,’ playing LL Cool. There’s a store run by a dapperly dressed man who appears to have jumped from a Manhattan swing club in the late 20’s, his music and product (and zoot suit and pocket watch) match accordingly. There’s the scruffy looking twenty something selling second hand clothes and playing the new Babyshambles and Dirty Pretty Things albums, a Libertines fan until his end. Here’s a picture of one stall which opted to play some scary gothic metal.

I ended up at a thrift store in the Stables Market. I found a really old t-shirt from Estes Park Colorado, where my Aunt owns a cabin. I bought the t-shirt, and struck up a conversation with the owner of the store. He was a bigger man in his forties, dressed very causally. He was playing some wild surf music, and I asked him for the name of the band. This ultimately led to an hour long conversation spanning topics like; The Lancasters, formed by Richie Blackmore, who would go on to form Deep Purple, The Impressions, a group from 50’s that included Curtis Mayfield and were a major influence on the Wailors. He also lent me a compilation called, Country and West Coast, which explains the birth of Country Rock music, and offers tunes by its founds, including the Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds, and International Submarine Band among other greats. He even showed me an actual “Nudie Suit,” which Gram Parsons and the rest of the Burritos wore frequently. He also lent me a copy of the Small Faces third album, Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake.

He’s made me a few mix cd’s, and I know stop by there every night before I bartend and talk music with him for an hour. He owns a whole chain of Clothing stores throughout Camden, and also DJ’s frequently at clubs all across London, aside from his primary job as a photographer. He considers himself a student of american history, and we talked for sometime about the upcoming election among a host of other issues.

After talking with Ricky, I headed over to the Oxford Arms to watch some rugby. I chatted with an American fellow from Orange County who was in town on business. He was a friend of my pal Charles. His name was Ian, and we talked at great length about Tool, and their front man Maynard Keenan whom he knew a great deal about. He told me about Alex Grey, the man behind all their album art. We also discussed a local artist, Banksy, a notorious London artist known for his political commentary work using stencils. The conversation moved from there to Bill Hicks, the late and controversial Comedian who was beloved by Keenan, and opened for Tool in the early 90’s before his death in ’94.

After that, I went over and checked out some local bands at the World’s End Pub in Camden. The night was cut short upon news that there was a fire near Chalk Farm Station, just a few short blocks away. The flames spared the main market, but caused Millions of pounds in damage in the markets storage area, and also took down landmark local pub, The Hawley Arms. 20 Fire trucks shut down the roads and fought the flames late into the evening. I hoped from pub to pub, taking in the events and discussing the implications with all the locals.