LONDON

[Docoboy]

I've noticed there are some younger posters here lately and they might find it hard to believe that PSB actually had to "code" things then. It wasn't all right to be openly gay when PSB started, but they got it across in videos in ways that still surprise me by their subtlety.

I'm not that young, but not aware of the 'codes' given in PSB videos. Can you give more examples?

Like, for an example, at the end of the video for Domino Dancing. Are the two lads being led away by the police for fighting in the sea or canoodling in the sea? One assumes that in 1988 it was designed to be read one way for a mainstream 'straight' pop audience and the other way for the gay audience.

[DJ Pat]

I had a GF who became a fan after the Release album. English wasn't her first language.

I never did get round to explaining what a 'perfect performance' meant in The Night I fell in Love, or the whole song idea really.

She was an Eminem fan too. I sat with her in the cinema watching 8 Mile, with a smug grin on my face. Boring film, I disappeared to the toilet twice for a spliff to get me through it.

Explaining the meaning of the London lyrics was a challenge too. She liked the video.

We broke up after about 3 months, blaming the language barrier

[rashomon]

The Resurrectionist - "Crossing Blackfriar's Bridge to Guy's
then back to Bart's for a better price ."

Currently working near the Old Bailey ... and took a walk on Newgate street this morning. Can happily confirm that I did not see any hangings

[leesmapman]

There's also the map from Annually 2018 where PSB takes us on a tour in London.

psb_london.jpg

[Dog]

Reviving this thread as I was inspired by the reference to Waterloo Bridge in 'Hoping for a miracle' to think about doing a walking tour of London. I wanted to take in many of the sites referenced in the songs, the videos, or where the boys have put on shows. I used this thread for inspiration as well as Geowayne's list of places referenced by PSB songs, and the tour Neil and Chris did in Annually 2018.

It's quite long (3 hours), but you could shorten a bit by taking out the Houses of Parliament or not walking across Hungerford / Golden Jubilee Bridge.

Have I missed any more songs to listen to along the way? I think there's a video filmed on the South Bank which I should add in. I plan to do it sometime when the weather gets warmer in London with some good headphones and a Spotify playlist!

Stage 1: Kings Road to The Serpentine (40 minutes)
• Start on King’s Road where Neil and Chris met
• Walk East along Kings Road towards Sloane Square, looking south down Flood Street (The Ghost of myself)
• At Sloane Square turn left onto Sloane Street and follow North past Knightsbridge, all the way into Hyde Park and to the Serpentine (That’s my impression)

Stage 2: The Serpentine to Trafalgar Square (40 minutes)
• Head out of Hyde Park, crossing Park Lane and moving east onto Aldford Street, through the park up to Mount Street and enter Berkeley Square (Bright Young Things)
• Cross Berkeley Square and exit on the east side along Bruton Street, right onto New Bond Street, left onto Vigo Street and cross Regent Street on Brewer Street, entering Soho
• At the end of Brewer Street turn right onto Wardour Street then left along Gerrard Street where the “Dive Bar” from West End Girls was located (West End Girls)
• Follow along Newport Place to the south east and cross Charing Cross Road turning left then quickly right onto Great Newport Street where Closer to Heaven was staged at the Arts Theatre (My Night)
• Turn right onto St.Martin’s Lane and follow south until you reach Trafalgar Square (Up against it), the site of the outdoor Battleship Potemkin performance (No time for tears, After all)

Stage 3: Trafalgar Square to Savoy Theatre (35 minutes)
• Cross the roundabout by and exit along Whitehall until you reach the Houses of Parliament (Shopping)
• Turn left towards the river but turn left again before the bridge and along the riverfront until you reach the Hungerford / Golden Jubilee Bridges
• Cross the bridge on one side and back on the other to Embankment Gardens (The Survivors)

Stage 4: Embankment Gardens to Savoy Theatre (15 minutes)
• Head through the tube station into Villiers Street and past the arches of Heaven nightclub where Was It Worth It was filmed (Was It Worth It?)
• Continue up to The Strand and turn right (The Theatre)
• Turn left on Southampton Street up to Covent Garden and walk round past the Royal Opera House where the Inner Sanctum tour was performed (Inner Sanctum, The Pop Kids)
• Walk back down to the Strand and past the Savoy Theatre, home of the Somewhere Tour residency (Somewhere)

Stage 5: Savoy Theatre to Kings Cross (25 minutes + 15 minute train)
• Walk east along the Strand to the start of Waterloo Bridge and cross the river (Hoping for a miracle) where Chris sang the tune of I made my excuses and left
• Walk east along the Southbank to Blackfriars Bridge and cross there (The Resurrectionist)
• Catch a Thameslink train from Blackfriars to Kings Cross (Kings Cross)

I really like this. You should keep going and expand it. I like the playlist idea as well. Other thoughts are the Mermaid Theatre, Royal Albert Hall and Tower of London; all PSB concert venues.

[herts101]

I finally got round to walking this walk yesterday. It was a beautiful day and London is obviously less crowded than usual at the moment so actually a really good time to do it (with lots of hand sanitiser in my pocket). As well as being a great way to appreciate some of Neil and Chris's music and lyrics, I also think it's a fabulous way to see London, from the residential King's Road and the commercial West End, to Soho and the political areas of Trafalgar Square and Westminster. With a few stops it took me about 3 hours.

If anyone else is interested in doing it, I created this playlist then edited it for time as I went. If you walk at an average pace, it should hit all the right songs in all the right places. Obviously there are some additional tracks in there to fill the walking time and you could change these if you wanted to. I tried to choose those that were in some way related to London, and to have a mix across all the albums.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yZin ... unWxkNQDXQ

You can see a map of the key points and the route I took here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... sp=sharing

My updated instructions are below as well (added in a couple of other stops since my previous post).

I hope someone else enjoys it too!

Stage 1: Kings Road to The Serpentine
- Start on King’s Road where Neil and Chris met
- Walk East along Kings Road towards Sloane Square, looking south down Flood Street (The ghost of myself)
- At Sloane Square turn left onto Sloane Street and follow north for a while, crossing Knightsbridge and through the modern alleyway into Hyde Park and to the Serpentine (That’s my impression)

Stage 2: The Serpentine to Trafalgar Square
- Head out of Hyde Park, crossing Park Lane by the underpass and moving east onto Aldford Street, through the park up to Mount Street and enter Berkeley Square (Bright young things)
- Cross Berkeley Square and exit on the east side along Bruton Street, then right onto New Bond Street and left onto Burlington Gardens which turns into Vigo Street. Cross Regent Street onto Brewer Street, entering Soho
- Towards the other end, divert briefly up Walkers Court onto Berwick Street, site of the record shop that stocked West End Girls on import (now Reign vintage)
- Back to Brewer Street and at the end turn right onto Wardour Street then left along Gerrard Street where the “Dive Bar” from West End Girls was located (West End girls)
- Follow along Newport Place to the south east and before you get into Leicester Square, turn right onto Lisle Street
- Turn left into Leicester Place, passing the Leicester Square Theatre, where Muzik was staged (Ich Bin Muzik)
- As you come into Leicester Square, turn left and exit left onto Charing Cross Road before turning right onto Great Newport Street where Closer to Heaven was staged at the Arts Theatre (My night)
- Turn right onto St.Martin’s Lane and follow south until you reach Trafalgar Square (Up against it), the site of the outdoor Battleship Potemkin performance (No time for tears)

Stage 3: Trafalgar Square to Embankment Gardens
- Cross the roundabout and exit along Whitehall until you reach the Houses of Parliament (Shopping)
- Turn left towards the river but turn left again before the bridge and along the riverfront until you reach the Hungerford / Golden Jubilee Bridges
- Cross the bridge on one side and back on the other, then walk through Embankment tube station and go immediately right into Embankment Gardens (The Survivors)

Stage 4: Embankment Gardens to Savoy Theatre
- Exit Embankment Gardens past Gordon's Wine Bar and walk right up Villiers Street, past the arches of Heaven nightclub where Was It Worth It was filmed (Was It Worth It?)
- Continue up to The Strand and turn right (The Theatre)
- Turn left on Southampton Street up to Covent Garden and walk round past the Royal Opera House where the Inner Sanctum tour was performed (The Pop Kids)
- Walk back down to the Strand and past the Savoy Theatre, home of the Somewhere Tour residency (Somewhere)

Stage 5: Savoy Theatre to Blackfriars Bridge / Kings Cross
- Walk east along the Strand to the start of Waterloo Bridge where Chris sang the tune of I made my excuses and left and cross the river (Hoping for a miracle)
- Walk east along the Southbank to Blackfriars Bridge and cross there (The Resurrectionist)
- Catch a Thameslink train from Blackfriars to Kings Cross (Kings Cross)

[Dog]

Great work, thanks for sharing.

[Debussy]

Excellent work - I'll definitely do this walk and soundtrack soon.

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

[stopthecar]

Jumping this old thread. Just back from a five day holiday to London. Visited a few icon PSB locations thanks to this thread.
Although I couldn't really find the dive bar in China town.

A few questions to those who visted London before.

Have PSB ever been considered tot be in Madame Tussauds?
I was surprised to see Olly Alexander there and since PSB are more iconic I was wondering if they where ever asked to be in MT ?

While watching the changing of the guards the music chapel was playing a medley of James Bond tunes and also Simply the best from Tina Turner.
Have one of these music chapels ever played a PSB tune ?

[TallThinMan]

Have PSB ever been considered to be in Madame Tussauds?

That sounds like a great question for the Letters section of ‘Annually’!

[Dog]

Our “London” podcast episode here, if of interest: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LgCkn ... Z6Sv4UJ4gL

[petshopgrrl]

Jumping this old thread. Just back from a five day holiday to London. Visited a few icon PSB locations thanks to this thread.
Although I couldn't really find the dive bar in China town.

A few questions to those who visted London before.

Have PSB ever been considered tot be in Madame Tussauds?
I was surprised to see Olly Alexander there and since PSB are more iconic I was wondering if they where ever asked to be in MT ?

While watching the changing of the guards the music chapel was playing a medley of James Bond tunes and also Simply the best from Tina Turner.
Have one of these music chapels ever played a PSB tune ?

Can't help you with the chapel question but the Madame Tussauds question sounds like one of the things that they just don't do. The only place they might do Madame Tussauds is if they put them in Blackpool.

Funny, you should bring this up because I just did the same kind of thing when I was in London for the Royal Opera House shows. I was staying in Paddington and walked through Hyde Park past the Serpentine because I went to the V&A museum where they had the Elton John photo exhibit "Fragile Beauty". There's a Gerhard Richter... statue standing outside the Serpentine Gallery.

Ultimately I had to get to Battersea Power Station as I was going to see Closer to Heaven at the Turbine Theatre, so I cut down through Chelsea and up along the Kings Road (past the old electrical shop, now the Ivy Asia) and then crossed the river at Chelsea Bridge.

It was a beautiful day and a lovely walk, and not as far as you might think, plus I highly recommend the view from the top of Lift 109 at Battersea power station.

[Pj72BPSBFan]

Hi. You could consider the following addition:

We’re all criminals now
“Waiting for a bus in Stockwell
cameras on my back”

Bright young things
“Listen, a nightingale sings
in Berkeley Square the bright young things,
are flying on chemical wings”

[eastendboy]

Every time I visit London with friends and we check if we need eastbound or westbound I always say east end boys or west end girls and they all say it now.