21/10/2011

St Paul's Cathedral At Night


It is almost a cliché by now to comment that everybody sees a place with different eyes. Some of that comes with different associations, expectations or memories. Some of it, though,  can come from mere familiarity and I guess it is a cliché too to point out that tourists and residents will have very different impressions of famous landmarks. The subject of the last column, the Thames, is a case in point. For the Londoner it is something to cross sometimes, or perhaps  a source of livelihood, or something rarely seen from one month to the next. For the tourist, however, a trip down the Thames from Westminster to Greenwich – passing Gabriel’s Wharf and the Globe and the Tower en route – is one of the must-do items on an itinerary :just as going to Paris involves a trip down the Seine and Budapest means boating down the Danube. In each case, the river takes on a different  and inevitably more romantic guise than when seen on a daily basis.

This probably applies to most famous sights  – the Acropolis: Temple to the Goddess Athena or a load of old rocks? - and it is often the tourist perspective that provides the inspiration for the most famous songs about them. Like Tulips From Amsterdam, for example, or Under the Bridges of Paris, by Eartha Kitt or Dean Martin: you can almost see the accordion player coming round for money as you chug past the Eiffel Tower. Maybe that accounts for the antipathy to  tourists that sometimes surfaces in songs, a feature already pointed out in the column on Boston and  the Mighty Mighty Bosstones They Came to Boston – “They came, they saw, they annoyed me” -   and in Summer in the City with Madness and A Day On The Town –“Getting the tourists into their traps, taking their money, the shirts off their backs”. The same attitude can be found in Suggs’ Camden: “There's a great crowd of tourists and they're coming down the street, pleased as punch with brand new Doctor Marten's on their feet”

London, of course,  is stuffed full of  iconic buildings but often, in fact, the best songs  are not those about the well-known landmarks but about the small, often unremarkable, things, about scenes that will rarely appear on a tourist’s holiday photos: Kirsty Maccoll’s empty bench in Soho Square or Cath Carroll’s night bus from Camden in London, Queen of My Heart. By and large, those songs  of the sights on the tourist trail - those that feature most on the postcards and guide books - lack, for obvious reasons, the little personal touches  that make those just mentioned so effective.  Oddly, two of the city’s most famous sights – Big Ben and Westminster Abbey- have been musically captured by ragtime piano tunes from the 1950’s: Winifred Atwell’s Big Ben Boogie (with a left hand walking  bass rhythm that makes you see why Jet Harris was inspired to take up bass from listening to her records) and Russ Conway’s Westminster. Then there is the Tower of London. Steeped in history and infamy as it is, what musical epic has it inspired? Well, actually, an ABC track –Tower of London, what else - sounding so 80’s you can feel the shoulder pads on it and lyrics that maybe fall a bit short of epic: “Tower over centuries, tower over London, Tower up and frankly I’m amazed”.

There are a few songs, however, that combine both the tourist landmark and the personal with good effect. One is another song inspired by Big Ben, by Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera (and sounding strangely like Phil Ochs at times on this track): a little story told in poetic imagery and with  Big Ben in the background.

Another is the .track here from 2001, St Paul’s Cathedral At Night by  Trembling Blue Stars (largely a vehicle for Bob Wratten) , a rather lovelorn lament  veering on self-pity that has echoes of the Pet Shop Boys in its sound. St Pauls is certainly one of London’s most recognizable sights, the tallest building in the city for centuries and  captured in the iconic  photo/postcard of the dome highlighted during the Blitz of World War 2. It was also the setting for the 'Feed the Birds' scene in Mary Poppins - and currently the site for the Occupy London camp.

 My own associations, however, are largely built up round two memories of it. One was a visit there on one of my  first trips to London up from the coast, at the age of 5 or 6 I think. No doubt the size and grandeur of it all impressed me but I remember two things in particular. One was the Whispering Gallery, which actually struck me as a disappointment as it didn’t really seem to work as promised. The other was climbing a vertical metal ladder to stand inside the small golden globe right at the top. I sometimes wonder if this is a false memory as it doesn’t seem possible to do that now but I distinctly remember it, partly as the woman in front trod on my fingers in high heels. I am sure there are people who pay good money for that sort of thing but it rather spoilt the view at the time.

The other was taking a succession of French or German school exchange pupils there with my daughter or son. Going round St Pauls can be expensive so I worked out a ruse that satisfied everyone once we had viewed the outside of it. I would say that St Pauls was unfortunately shut to visitors due to a special religious ceremony but luckily we could go nearby to the Monument to the Fire of London, also designed by Christopher Wren and with splendid views from the top. The advantage of this  was that  the cost was only about £1.The disadvantage was that it has 311 steps ,on  which even the plumpest French schoolboy passed me en route to the top.

St Paul’s, like other famous buildings shared by millions, becomes a trigger for personal associations. Bob Wratten’s song here is a bitter sweet one of nostalgia wakened by a postcard , wistful memories of a relationship taking place in a cinema or St James Park. Mine are more mundane – but still my view of St Paul's.

35 comments:

  1. Geoff! That is such a great story, about pretending that it was closed each time. And probably the French/German teenagers weren't that bothered anyway.

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  2. This column made me laugh a lot, the image of fat French boys running past you up hundreds of stairs! Why didn't you just send them up the stairs and take the the elevator yourself though? There must be an elevator for a view that is 311 steps up!

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  3. No, there is no lift, Desiree!

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  4. Geoff, I work for the Monument, and I wish there was a way we could use your idea as official promotion (telling the London-based hosts of visitors to do exactly what you did, take people to the outside of St Pauls, pretend it's shut, head over to our Monument instead:) Of course this wouldn't be allowed. It's a wonderful idea though! I can see the promotional line now, "The Monument, about 10 quid cheaper than St Pauls, and just around the corner":)

    Also, in case you're interested, we now have a live feed of the panoramic view from the top of The Monument: www.themonument.info/panorama/

    And as a special thank-you for both the mention in the column and for giving your readers the ideas of the St Pauls bait-and-switch, anyone who comes to the Monument in 2011 and mentions the blog Songs About Places will get free entry! (It's £3 now usually, not £1 anymore unfortunately - still 311 steps though!).

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  5. I wasn't able to make the Whispering Gallery work either :(

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  6. There you go again being topical, Geoff - with a column about St Pauls just as the protesters start camping out there! Good stuff.

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  7. I really like the Roddy Frame song, thanks for posting about that one!

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  8. I saw Roddy Frame at the Town Hall in Middlesbrough a couple of weeks ago. He was brilliant. He produces songs from almost 30 years ago that sound as fresh today as they did the first time I saw him in a sweaty club in Newcastle on a warm summers evening in 1983. I was 16 and it was my first “proper” club gig. I’d been to the City Hall and other big venues but Dingwalls was my first experience of seeing a band head on. Not looking up at a stage but staring them in the eye. I recall thinking how young Roddy looked then! Some things never change. This time he did 5 tracks from one of my all time favourite albums, High Land, Hard Rain. He also did songs from his recent solo albums which if I’d heard them before may well be as good. They did sound good, especially White Pony but like all new songs its difficult to truly appreciate them on first listen. Roddys band sounded as good as that original Aztec camera line-up. Although nothing can compare with hearing Down the Dip in 83 tonights rendition did come close. As did We could send letters, one of my all time favourites. Roddy talked of long and short clappers and was genuinely appreciative of the audiences response. I think I can say everyone enjoyed it. Speaking to people afterwards everyone was in agreement that he had been wonderful. T-shirts and bags with the “postcard cat” on them brought back happy memories. Still probably my favourite record label! Do people have favourite record labels??? A great night in the company of a true legend. Catch Roddy if you can. Ask him his secret of eternal youth. Buy his solo stuff. Find a vinyl copy of High Land, Hard Rain or better still a 7 inch picture disc of Pillar to Post. (Yes, I own one of those!!!) Re-live your youth, or if you are still young stop watching X-Factor and get into something decent.

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  9. One of my all time favourite records is Roddy Frame's 2002 album, Surf which is an entirely solo project of just Roddy, his voice and guitar. Surf has a general theme of lost love in the urban sprawl of the big city. Simply wonderful.

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  10. Roddy Frame also has another 'song about a place' - his song Killermont Street from 1988 -

    'Whisky words tumble down in the street with the pain that they cure
    Sentimentally yours from Killermont Street'

    'We can get there by bus
    From Killermont Street'

    Here's a live version (better than the album version): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmD1cOf5Gio

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  11. I totally agree Geoff - that song by Roddy Frame does sound a lot like Phil Ochs! I wonder if Ochs was one of his influences.

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  12. Haha, this was very funny: "the Acropolis: Temple to the Goddess Athena or a load of old rocks?"

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  13. Also, Geoff, I posted that comment on Saturday (it's now Tuesday evening) so I have no idea why it's only showing up now, although maybe on your end it was there on Saturday, but for me I could only see it when I checked again tonight. This Blogger system is weird sometimes, although it's maybe just my very old laptop refusing to refresh webpages properly!

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  14. Here's Under the Bridges of Paris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQhjA7SHGro

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  15. The video for Suggs’ Camden Town is funny and cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CyaEEYeR7w

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  16. In case anyone is interested, here is Russ Conway’s Westminster Waltz
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsFyoSKNSic

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  17. Geoff, that definitely isn't a false memory. I did it too many years ago - the golden ball on the top of the dome is six feet in diameter and has room inside for ten people! They stopped letting people do it for safety reasons (maybe too many women with high heels were trying to go in there!:)

    Dickens's Dictionary of London from 1879 describes it: "If the visitor be still more ambitious, he may ascend more winding stairs, and reach the golden gallery far away above the dome. Thence upwards he may climb more steps until he reach the ball, an expedition which maybe undertaken once in youth, but hardly ever again. The ball is hollow, is large enough to hold several people, and a visit to it entails the payment of another fee. As fine a view, however, as is necessary for ordinary people may be obtained from the golden gallery, which is, by-the-way, no inconsiderable journey from the nave".

    So it's good that you 'undertook it once in youth' but never again - that's what the Victorians found sensible.

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  18. The ABC Tower of London song is pretty funky! Here is some great live footage from 1984: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTX1QXHCUnU

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  19. Here are the interesting lyrics to St. Paul's Cathedral At Night:
    Got a postcard from her:
    St. Paul's Cathedral At Night.
    Spent a couple of days
    trying to read between the lines:
    now I don't have to read between the lines.

    Talking in an empty cinema,
    walking back through Parliament Square.
    St.James's Park at Christmas-time:
    glimpsing the lake through the evening lights.

    I didn't want want there to come an end to our time.
    I know I'm in no position to miss her,
    Shouldn't hold her so close when she goes;
    Still I wonder what she was thinking
    As she travelled home

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  20. No, its not your laptop, Tiffanye-it has only just appeared!

    Thanks for that offer, Kath- everybody must get down to the Monument!

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  21. My imgae of St Paul's has always been from the Blitz. I am 85 now. I was in London on the night of December 29, 1940. A great red glow filled the sky. Someone told me that the City was on fire, and they were trying to save St Paul’s. The next morning we walked out and looked at London, the acres of smoking and still burning ruins. Then my heart lifted as I looked up at St Paul’s, towering there. I felt a lump in my throat because, like so many people, I felt that whilst St Paul’s survived, so would we. I think you should take your European visitors into St Paul's and tell them the story of the Blitz and how it symbolised our survival.

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  22. I've never known any one to wear their heart on their sleeve so blatantly as Bob Wratten does. In fact, he practically wears his heart as a rather fetching three piece suit. Even Morrissey would probably advise Bob to reign in the confessional heartbroken approach a tad.

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  23. I am a ridiculously big Bob Wratten fan. I've clamored to see the man live for at least five years now. But the problem is some idiots booed him or something on his last tour and he figured that playing live was not worth his time.

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  24. Thanks for posting about TBS. A new moody and melancholic void has been filled for me recently after the discovery of music them. I stumbled across their song “All Eternal Things” not too long ago, which caught me off guard. I was doing something and actually thought I was listening to a Cure song. But this wasn’t the case... it was actually Trembling Blue Stars.

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  25. Anyone who likes Trembling Blue Stars might want to listen to The Sea Thieves too. They make music that is light as feather that floats into your consious on waves of ukele and classical guitar. They have just released their second album on Big Rig Records entitled They Will Run. The Sea Thieves started as a duo but have expanded their ranks on this new record. The band carves out its own little corner of folk/chamber pop, with their delicate songs that sound like a more rustic Trembling Blue Stars, a sparser Crayon Fields, or a subtler Harry Nilsson:

    http://www.myspace.com/theseathieves

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  26. Great column! Bobby Wratten has just entered my top 5 songwriters list. I’ve just started listening to some of his output as The Field Mice, Northern Picture Library and Trembling Blue Stars. Since my two favorite bands are The Smiths and New Order, I find it odd that The Field Mice were never recommended to me by either a smarty pants record store clerk or one of my friends. As a fan of Saint Etienne, I was aware of The Field Mice but hadn’t explored them beyond their original take of Lets Kiss and Make Up. I originally heard it on the Rough Trade bailout compilation A Historical Debt but preferred the St. Etienne version and didn’t bother exploring further. I recently acquired their double disc retrospective, Where’d You Learn To Kiss That Way through illegal means. I couldn’t stop listening to it for days. All 36 tracks sound like i’ve known them all my life. Instant classic. An obsession was born. I’ve since spent $100 buying Field Mice and Northern Picture Library CD’s around town. I’ve decided Bobby Wratten is a musical genius who’s songs are laced with equal parts wit and sadness. Actually, maybe it’s closer to 70/30 sadness/wit but that’s my preferred split anyway. I recently purchased a 2007 album by a Piano Magic alias called Future Conditional that features members of The Wake and Nouvelle Vague as well as Bobby Wratten. The album reminds me of Wasps’ Nest by the 6ths but more electro-pop than jangle. I’m just getting into it but I can tell this is going to get multiple spins.

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  27. That is a very moving image, Dorothy

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  28. Geoff, there is also St Paul's Beneath A Sinking Sky by The Clintele. On the liner notes, they use this quote from Arthur Machen: "London has been called the city of encounters; it is more than that, it is the city of resurrections ..." Over recent years The Clientele has been one of the brightest spots musically, and they've contributed some wonderful London songs. St Paul's Beneath A Sinking Sky is an early example of the group's work.

    www.mediafire.com/download.php?gmdelkdfjyr

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  29. I agree with you Geoff about your larger point that few songs combine both the tourist landmark and the personal with good effect. And that this points to a larger issue of the huge gulf between what tourists and locals see. In fact, much as I dislike Mary Poppins for various reasons, the Feed the Birds scene does acknowledge that gulf:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrRxQVUFN4

    There is the snow globe / tourist version of St Pauls that Mary Poppins and the children look through, the the fact the pigeons looks more like clean, nice white doves when they fly up around St Pauls. But then there is the fact that there is an old homeless woman sitting outside St Pauls with pigeons crawling all over her and sitting on her head, not any tourist's idea of a good photo but probably familiar to locals.

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  30. As a different (and anti-tourist) take on London's great buildings, there is Towers of London by XTC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRNHbBg6HVc - "Towers of London when they had built you. Did you watch over the men who fell? Towers of London when they had built you. Victoria's gem found in somebody's hell ..." The idea is that, no matter how impressive the architectural achievements were, there was a huge price to pay in terms of human life. The architects may have monuments built so we remember their names, but who remembers the families of those who fell by the wayside? The songwriter explained the thinking behind the song to an XTC fansite: "I saw an engraving of workmen building something under London - I'm not sure what - but they were in this huge underground corridor, with a hole in the top where the sunlight was coming in, and there was a pit pony down there, with a half-dozen navvies. And I thought, I'm going to write a song about London, but I'm going to write it from the point of view of the people who actually built it - the 'navigators' or canal builders. They were people who dug the canals, people who dug the Undergrounds - basically the labourers of the Victorian era, who were known as navvies. A lot of them were Irish, or people from the West Country, or from up north in England, so they were considered to be stupid yokels, generally, and they were looked down on, largely, by the population. You know, 'expendable' types."

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  31. I guess there is also Shirley Bassey on her 1986 single There's No Place Like London: "When you walk down the street feel the history under your feet. From the top of St. Paul's to the old market stalls. All in all it's my cup of tea ..." Apparently the song was used by the British Tourist Board to promote tourism in London at a time when visitor numbers were falling off, possibly as a result of the IRA's bombing campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q49cLxkvlrQ

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  32. And there is "Traffic In Fleet Street" by Haircut 100 -
    "St Paul's and I and the secretaries' lunchtime ..."
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5N-aOsntns

    Great band, by the way. The mix of suburban south London jazz funk and bohemian '60s/Postcard stylings hidden beneath goofy grins. Nick Heyward would go on to record some gorgeous London songs on his own. But this is one of my particular favourite London themed songs, while the more prosaic titled "London" ia also lovely with its references to The Clash, The Jam, and his hometown hero Bowie. And possibly an oblique tip of the hat to Muriel Spark's A Far Cry From Kensington.

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  33. For a Blitz memory song, there is On The Bombsite by Duncan Browne from his 1968 LP Give Me Take You: "On the bomb site you be mum and I'll be dad. He'll be sad. Waiting for the boat that sails down Garden Street ..." The lyrics will strike a chord with the generation of children who grew up in the Capital in the post-WW2 years for whom the bomb sites were their playground. It's something captured in Leslie Daiken's 1957 film One Potato Two Potato.

    Here is the song:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3jzn2ceV_M

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  34. Thanks for those links to another range of songs. I didnt know the Duncan Browne one-there sounds a touch of Al Stewart about him. The Nick Heywood one is very effective, I think.

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  35. I'm with Occupy London, and you and your readers may be aware of the closing of St Paul's Cathedral, apparently due to health and safety issues caused by the camp. But we have sought clarification from the Cathedral as to the precise nature of those health and safety concerns, so that we might address them directly. In the short space of time that we have been here, we have successfully liaised with the City authorities and outside bodies to coordinate recycling and sanitation. Unfortunately, despite our requests of the Cathedral, they have not provided us with details and information as to how we are perceived to be threatening health and safety. We once again urge the Cathedral to bring to our attention, immediately, the particular details of the health and safety issues to address them.

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