Column: Up North... April

This month, North London local and MyVillage columnist Charlotte Browne draws out the best that April can offer north of the river, and takes us through a lineup of Camden’s original famous residents...

Say Camden today and some of the first images to pop into your mind, might be impassioned local bands battling it out at The Roundhouse or Amy Winehouse’s beehive quivering its way out of The Hawley Arms. However, long before these cultural symbols became so embedded in our modern psyche and understanding of the place, there was the Camden Town Group who paved the way for Camden’s alternative and underground reputation, as yet unsurpassed by any other London borough.

Tate Britain are currently exhibiting works of art produced during the Camden Town Group period and last month paid particular homage to the group’s influence at ‘Late at Tate Britain’ which featured music, art and film inspired by artists from the group.

Monty Python favourite Michael Palin discussed his affection for their work in a conversation with art historian Tim Marlow. However, by the time I’d arrived, all the free tickets had, not surprisingly been snatched up by a horde of blushing Palin fans who had side-stepped the Friday commute, leaving a long line of angry commuters shaking their fists at the organisers, some of them not that dissimilar to the headmasters Palin may have mocked years back in the Python sketches.

Other than that, there was a really good atmosphere as they opened one of the galleries to a bar lined with cocktails, olives and kettle chips and installed Johnny Trunk, one of the UK’s leading experts on film music, in a DJ booth where he played as inconspicuously as possible at the far end of the room, sharing his extensive record collection inspired by the musical melting pot in and around Camden Town.

I felt for the poet Tobias Hill who followed his set with a collection of poems inspired by the landscape of Camden; it’s difficult to be heard, great poem or not, in a gallery surrounded by artistic-types, giddy on sparkling wine and Camden Town Group portraiture.
The exhibition continues until May 5th.

Showing until 20th April at The Camden Arts Centre is the free Thomas Scheibitz exhibition: About 90 elements/Tod Im Dschungel (Death in the Jungle). The gallery space is ideal for Scheibitz’ bright and bold sculptures and paintings that draw you into a happily perplexed head space whatever angle you’re gazing from.

Scheibitz is described as a ‘cultural scavenger’ and his striking geometric shapes and symbols are collected from adverts, cartoons and classical Renaissance paintings although, and I don’t mean this as a criticism, I found the painting 90 elements quite reminiscent of absent-minded doodles you might draw all over your exercise book in a tedious maths class, especially with the splash of neon-pink felt tip evident in one of the shapes.

As part of International Women’s Day comic Lucy Porter performed at the Cock Tavern in Kilburn. On first, being in pretty high demand as she is, but it was good to see such a renowned comic entertaining the north London crowds in such a relaxed fashion. Her demeanour is so fluffy and personable it would feel criminal to ever heckle her, although pity the fool who would, you sense behind that exterior lie some possibly sharper than expected put-downs.

At Barrio North near Angel on the 4th; soul, funk, jazz and Latin-influenced JC who runs Here and Now Recordings will be incorporating everything from New York City funk and disco boogie to Latin Afro breaks and beats.

And of course, the Camden Crawl will be kicking off this month, continuing the subversive legacy that the Camden Town Group established all those years ago...

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Image courtesy of Buckeroo Kid

Charlotte Browne, MyVillage, 04th April