14/07/2011

Breakfast in Spitalfields


The image of the cathedral town (last column) is one of the enduring set of images that make up the notion of ‘England’ for many tourists, with the obvious physical presence of history and heritage stretching back centuries and the sense of a place that is in something of a time warp Part of that is the opportunity to experience a particular part of that image: the institution of English afternoon tea, at places like Bettys in York or Sally Lunns in Bath, where you can choose between a Queen Victoria’s Tea or a Jane Austen Cream Tea.

At first glance all this seems not a likely topic for pop songs, not really very rock and roll at all. If you are going to sing about refreshments, surely it should be something like Sham 69’s Hurry Up Harry: "Come on, come on, hurry up Harry, come on. Come on, come on, hurry up Harry, come on. We’re going down the pub..” Then you recall the penchant of rock’s aristocracy for following in the footsteps of the nineteenth century aristocracy, with the mansions and stately homes in Surrey and Oxfordshire - Bill Wyman actually became Lord of the Manor at Gedding Hall in Suffolk. With this in mind, it is then less surprising to find songs that seem to celebrate the tea-and-scones ritual that Queen Victoria and Jane Austen apparently enjoyed. Paul McCartney’s English Tea from 2005, for example; or Tin Tin’s 1970 early Bee Gees- sounding track Toast and Marmalade for Tea ;or the brief ode to afternoon tea that Sam Brown sneaked in between tracks on her 1988 Stop album


These and others remind the listener that songs about places to eat are part of pop music’s landscape and help shape perceptions of a place. Some already mentioned in previous columns are very evocative of a particular time and place. Mario’s Cafe, for example, of Kentish Town in the early 90’s; or Watford Gap, with its plate of grease and load of crap (this is a historical comment, of course, not a reference to the fine menus currently on offer), opening a window on the groups of the 60’s and 70’s trundling in their Transits up and down the M1.Or the seafront cafe in Every Day is Like Sunday, bringing the aroma of an out of season seaside resort with its greased tea.

There have been others over the years, with many using the backdrop of a cafe or restaurant to foreground a little story. Some of these followed a mini-Brief Encounter scenario set over a cup of tea or coffee - .like the Kinks with Afternoon Tea (again!) in an unidentified cafe, presumably North London:, “At night I lie awake and dream of Donna ,I think about that small cafe .That's where we used to meet each day and then we used to sit a while and drink our afternoon tea”. More recently (2007), Landon Pigg has described a similar romantic encounter in Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop. Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner , a vignette in another New York coffee shop, was like a musical mini-film in its descriptive story.

Others have opted for such a setting to create a mood rather than tell a story and the song here from 2011, Breakfast in Spitalfields by Spanish born singer Juan Zelda, is one such of these. Spitalfields has come up before, in Cath Carroll’s reference to Hawksmoor’s lost underground in London, Queen of My Heart, her song about ‘mythical London, deserted 2am London’. In this song, however, it seems light and summery and rather mellow, not dark and secret. The duality of the area, perhaps. Old churches and plague pits by the towering glass-fronted office blocks, the wealth of the City banks a stone’s throw from overcrowded housing and poverty.

In watching the accompanying video I was reminded of an old TV advert from the 80’s for the Halifax , in which a loft-living yuppie in somewhere like Spitalfields , looking like he needs a smack on the nose, goes out on Sunday morning to draw out some cash to the sounds of Lionel Richie ( and presumably pays for his paper with a £10 note).
The narrator in this song distances himself from that side of Spitalfields, from ‘the men in suits who polish their boots’ and, judging by the video, he goes for a proletarian/rock and roll breakfast :in fact the sort of plateful that Roy Harper would have got at the Blue Boar in 1973.(If he had gone a bit further on to St John’s Bread and Wine restaurant by Spitalfields Market he could have had poached fruit, yoghurt and toasted brioche as well as an Old Spot bacon sandwich for his breakfast, instead of sausage and egg)

Hawksmoor’s lost underground still lurks there the same though, behind the summer sounds . As Cath Carroll commented earlier, “the past has never left us. It lives in the same space that we do”. It is all there still - plague rhymes and afternoon tea alike.




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67 comments:

  1. Wonderful column Geoff, thank you! And Sally Lunn's looks wonderful - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Sally_Lunns_house.jpg - I want to go there!

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  2. Wow, a brand new song - this was just released earlier this month I think - very cool, thanks Geoff!

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  3. So glad this record is out - I saw him singing in London last year, wondered when he'd release a song.

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  4. This is such a great song about people watching - it even has that relaxed, summery people-watching sound!

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  5. I have put a photo of Sally Lunns up, Desiree!

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  6. Wow. Amazing accents!!! (Sham 69’s Hurry Up Harry) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2xdCvhvyqY

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  7. Thank you:) Maybe I will get there one day! I'll make sure not to eat for several days in advance so I can eat everything on the menu. I hope they have hot cross buns. I saw them once in a film. We don't have them in the U.S.

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  8. I really like your point about rockstars as artistocrats - this is very true. Take Mick Jagger. Born to upper-middle-class parents in the suburbs of London, recipient of a scholarship to the London School of Economics -- truly NOT the embodiment of all that is rebellion, dissent and class struggle. The only class struggle Jagger ever fought was a downward one, trying to transform himself from a tony Londoner into the Street Fighting Man. It was never more than a persona, though, he always has been and always will be a jet-setter, happy to live a Lifestyle of the Rich & Famous while putting on his bluesman image for the stage. He and Keith were not nicknamed "The Glimmer Twins" in the 70s for nothing. And I'm sure he is thrilled to now be Sir Mick.

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  9. A good point Laura. I always thought there were echoes of Mick Jagger in Tony Blair-the desire to be near the rich and famous and the difficulty of pinning down whatever either really believed in.

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  10. Ah, poor Watford Gap, with its plate of grease and load of crap:) I remember that column - hilarious! And actually I'm not so sure the menus currently on offer there ARE what we might call "fine".........

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  11. Geoff!!! What on earth is "greased tea"? I can't believe I didn't ask this at the time (when it came up in the lyrics to the Morrissey song).I've googled it and it seems like it might mean tea with the attending sweet scones and jam?

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  12. I dont think greased tea would come with scones and jam! Some chips or a rock cake maybe. I think Morrissey was describing a cup of tea with a film or scum on it in a greasy spoon seaside cafe.

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  13. Ha ha ha, I love the disdain here! - " a loft-living yuppie in somewhere like Spitalfields, looking like he needs a smack on the nose, goes out on Sunday morning to draw out some cash to the sounds of Lionel Richie (and presumably pays for his paper with a £10 note)." And what a WEIRD advert! Even his cat looks annoying.

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  14. He does have a nice flat though.

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  15. God the 80s were a weird time in advertising, weren't they? Here's another: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ya5kh4_ZM

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  16. Thought you might appreciate my take on Halifax. In "X Marks the Spot." Otherwise known as the Fuck the Banks song.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEy9VGp6d1c

    Cheers, Andy

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  17. Here's Landon Pigg, Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erywPdFfORE

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  18. Thanks for tying this back to the earlier column, about the Cath Carroll version of London - fascinating to see the different takes on the same place, and I've never read a blog that was so good at internal referencing! As someone else has said, or maybe several people, this should be a book!!

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  19. The Sam Brown song is funny. I was very surprised when this turned up when I first bought the album! The vinyl starts clicking as if the record is coming to an end....... then..... here she is, singing about a cup of tea!

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  20. I love the video to the Juan Zelda song - thanks Geoff!

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  21. Here's the Kinks, Afternoon Tea: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWAOiXIqR98

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  22. I heard that Tin Tin song on the radio in the 1970s and have always thought it was a Bee Gees song!! Thanks Geoff!

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  23. I do think U.S. coffee shop culture is WAY different to British afternoon tea culture, and means different things when referenced in songs. Coffee shop lyrics are a shorthand for young, funky, folksy. Afternoon tea lyrics are a shorthand for languid, traditional, nostalgic. You can see this difference in the songs you reference actually (the difference between Landon Pigg's "Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop" and Paul McCartney’s "English Tea"......

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  24. Thank you for the column! So glad you like the song! If you can come, the single release party is at the Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen, ‎7pm on Thursday, July 28th (http://www.hoxtonsquarebar.com/music-events/2011/July/juan-zelada). You and your readers are invited! its going to be a great so come along and check it out!

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  25. I agree (about Blair and Jagger). In fact, here's an article about how Blair modelled himself on Jagger! - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/jan/06/popandrock

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  26. Oh! Well, that doesn't sound as nice (the film of grease rather than scones!).

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  27. Thats a very apt link, Laura.
    Thanks for invite re single release party, Juan!
    The distinction between coffee shop and afternoon tea culture is an interesting one, KB. You are right about how songs treat them very differently.

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  28. I love how this column grapples with notions of England. I do think we should start a comprehensive list. Here are a few suggestions inspired by this column (some of which Geoff already listed):

    Afternoon tea
    Cathedrals
    Gardens
    Croquet

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  29. Wow, just checked out the St John's Bread and Wine place..... People, today for example it is serving for "Supper" and "Feasting" some "Pigeon, Pickled Walnut & Watercress," "Lamb's Tongues, Runner Beans & Shallots," and "Trotter on Toast." BRITISH FOOD!!!

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  30. I have been blessed to travel to England 4 times. Once I even challenged myself to have as many teatimes as possible while visiting London. I ate 10 afternoon teas in 7 days and truly enjoyed it. (although I couldn’t eat much else because I was SO full!)

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  31. Oh dear, I'm not sure this does wonders for people's images of England....... You know, from a progressive/modern/inclusive/global/non-class based point of view! :

    Would you care to sit with me?
    For a cup of English tea?
    Very twee, very me
    Any sunny morning

    What a pleasure it would be
    Chatting so delightfully
    Nanny bakes fairy cakes
    Every Sunday morning

    Miles and miles of English garden, stretching past the willow tree
    Lines of hollyhocks and roses, listen most attentively

    Do you know the game croquet
    Peradventure we might play
    Very gay, hip hooray
    Any sunny morning

    As a rule the church bells chime
    When it’s almost supper time
    Nanny bakes fairy cakes
    On a Sunday morning

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  32. Good idea Steve! Here are some more:

    fish and chips
    rainy weather
    orderly queuing

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  33. I love Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z66rDVkaK4w - although it's about a real-life place that is more of a restaurant than a coffee shop (Tom's Restaurant near Columbia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%27s_Restaurant_%28Manhattan%29)

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  34. But afternoon tea isn't even that English in its origins. The custom of drinking tea originated in England when Catherine of Bragança married Charles II in 1661 and brought the practice of drinking tea in the afternoon with her from Portugal.

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  35. This is definitely the kind of image some people still have of England: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGQASun9d8E

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  36. Oooh, I love this idea of the "England" list! Here are mine:

    roses
    yorkshire pudding
    big red buses
    crumpets
    wearing shorts in february

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  37. Morris dancing
    old ladies in thick stockings

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  38. roast beef
    1066, 1666 and 1966
    football hooligans

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  39. Hawthornes blooming in the hedgerows near lovely old stone cottages

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  40. i am Italian. Typical English for Italian people:
    English people are very punctual
    The English dress in a strange way (socks with sandals)
    The English love their pets more than other people
    The English are very serious, they don’t use body language
    They eat a big breakfast in the morning with bacon, eggs, baked beans
    In England they love gardening and their parks are always clean
    English people have very fair skin with freckles and are red haired
    The English are always drinking tea

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  41. baked beans
    terraced houses
    cheese on toast

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  42. and not forgetting, old maids bicycling through the morning mist.......

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  43. Generally being English has 3 different classes to it still. Working class people are friendly like to have a good time even if it can be a bit rough and ready, it's all in good fun though. Middle classes desperately try to be upper class, kids are all posers, no university education is a sin, everyone is a liberal and is supportive of immigrants only because they do the jobs they dont want too. Upper classes are a good laugh but have no clue about real world, kids just bugger off wherever they go, they think they know

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  44. how to party when in reality upper class parties are crap and about who you know.

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  45. caravanning
    security cameras everywhere
    Lack of snow at christmas, despite a global market of traditional English snow scene christmas cards

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  46. But that song posted above, the British hit “Everything Stops for Tea” made popular by British musical comedy star Jack Buchanan, was written by Americans. For a British movie. Set in New York.

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  47. bowler hats
    long black umbrellas
    cricket
    lager

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  48. dry stone walls
    zebra crossings

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  49. seaside, coal, chips

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  50. Shoe Shine Boys
    Mary Poppins
    Chimney Sweeps

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  51. football
    school unifoms
    nursery rhymes
    puddings

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  52. punk
    equestrian sports

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  53. The combination of history and countryside. On my twenty mile drive to work, I pass the world's first industrial factories, beautiful scenery, the ruins of a roman city, a country estate complete with deer park, two medieval monestaries, more beautiful scenery, a castle, many tudor houses, and the birth place of Charles Darwin.

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  54. tennis
    marmalade
    sticks of rock

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  55. mint-flavoured things
    sunburn
    Banoffee Pies
    fog
    daffodils

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  56. village fetes
    the seaside
    lazy summer sunday afternoon drives through the country

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  57. staffordshire bull terriers
    greasy spoons

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  58. darts
    corner shops
    easter eggs
    cellar doors

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  59. canal banks and railway bridges

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  60. Patchwork fields and chalk downs, White Cliffs of Dover. The sea - rough and cold and grey. Esplanades filled with games arcades, cheapjack shops, and ice cream booths. Seaside holidays with sticky peppermint rock, cockles, chips soaked in vinegar, and buckets and spades.

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  61. Crikey, what a strange place England is. You make your way past the old maids cycling through the morning mist, the morris dancers, chimney sweeps and gents in bowler hats to have your afternoon tea, chips.marmalade and a stick of rock!
    Jane Birkin also gave a little snapshot in 'Home' (Waterloo Station column): ’skipping ropes and pipe smoke, church bells on a Sunday, marmalade on cold toast, endless summer holidays’

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  62. "Crikey, what a strange place England is. You make your way past the old maids cycling through the morning mist, the morris dancers, chimney sweeps and gents in bowler hats to have your afternoon tea, chips, marmalade and a stick of rock,"

    ha ha:) Also, it's a place where people say "crikey," it seems:) After cycling through the mist to get their stick of rock obviously.

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  63. Yes, can't believe no one mentioned the skipping ropes, pipe smoke and church bells. Great description by Jane Birkin!

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  64. It has ben mentioned befoe but there was also Roger Miller's take on England in 'England Swings' : 'bobbies on bicycles two by two, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of Big Ben, the rosy red cheeks of the little children'. Though given that they are still being sent up chimneys, I am not sure where the rosy cheeks come from..

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