Bad for Me by Brendan Benson
Brendan Benson channels his inner Elton to the nth degree on this track. It’s taken from new album What Kind of World, released April 23rd on his own Readymade label. Still one of the most underrated songwriters around.
Last Night In LDN: Giana Factory @ Ja Ja Ja
Giana Factory played at Nordic music night Ja Ja Ja at The Lexington. Photos: Sebastien Dehesdin.
1. View how Nick Drake’s Cello Song has affected people the world over at the Strange Face Project [Le Cool]
2. See Rizzle Kicks at XOYO while they are still nobodies [Run Riot]
3. Return to the Future at the Laundry [Flavorpill]
4. Visit the Latin Quarter special at Rich Mix [Don’t Panic]
5. Ponder do we need heroes? [Ian Visits]
6. Eat at the Queensbury Deli [Tired of London]
London Agenda is Snipe's daily compilation of what to do in London as suggested by everyone else. Send additions to listings@snipelondon.com
There are almost three times as many empty homes in London as homeless people
The GLA have just released their empty homes audit. Here’s an interesting comparison.
Number of homes in London which have been empty for more than 12 months: 11,687 (2009-2010 data)
Number of people counted sleeping rough in London: 3,975 (2010-11 data)
Obviously it’s not as simple as putting the rough sleepers in the empty houses. Neither rough sleeping nor empty houses work like that. But the point remains. Things are a bit fucked up.
GLA London Empty Homes Audit
Broadway London Street to Home Report
Star of "the Leveson Inquiry" David Allen Green speaks on scepticism next Monday
David Allen Green is a blogger who makes a lot of sense about things like the law, Twitter joke trials, computer hacking for news stories, libel, and all those sort of things.
He’s speaking at Skeptics in the Pub (their k, but go with it) on Monday in Hackney and it might be quite good.
Knows Me Better by The Underground Man
Not much to go on with this guy – his website’s currently under construction. From what we can gather he’s a songwriter living in Brooklyn and his debut EP is pencilled in for a spring release. Today’s MPFree is the enjoyably diverting title track, ‘inspired in equal parts by the early songs of Cliff Richard and the novels of Jim Thompson’.
Tonight in London - Giana Factory gig and Psychic Hearts book launch
Stuck for summat to do? Here are two cool things that are going on this eve in LDN town.
The brilliant young Danish trio pictured above, Giana Factory, are playing the Lexington tonight. Elements of Chicks on Speed, Telepathe and creative alt-rock influences combine into a band that is just teeming with potential.
And before that at Beach on Cheshire Street (just off Brick Lane), Velvet Cell launch “Psychic Hearts”, a book of dreamy, textured, evocative pictures by emerging photographer and music industry insider Sandra Croft. Buy it for £11 here.
Cool!
“Let’s try to keep this election clean.”
Ken’s open letter to Boris ends with a cracking gag. This at the end of a letter which calls Mayor Johnson “complacent”, says he “reacted badly to pressure”, refers to Lynton Crosby’s “nasty dog whistle politics”, to the behaviour of Tory AMs as “nastiness”, and says that the Conservatives have “turned to the dark side”.
It’s all good fun and some of it hits home. But clean? This election is already as dirty as hell, and all the better for it.
Ken Livingstone – Letter to Boris Johnson
Snipe – An open letter to the writers of open letters
Intertextual news: official cars good for some, bad for others
Yesterday Lib Dem AM Dee Doocey asked Mayor Johnson to justify the chauffeur driven cars used to ferry about top ranking Met Police officers. He struggled. She estimates perks for the cop top brass, including but not limited to the cars, reach £1million a year.
Also making waves this week – Tower Hamlets speaker Mizan Chaudhury ran up a £9,000 taxi bill after he had his official car taken away by Mayor Luftur Rahman. He said without his car he had no choice but to get a taxi to events, and people laughed at him as result.
So, does this mean there should be official cars, or there shouldn’t be official cars? Or should everyone just Skype each other?
The news is confusing sometimes.
News from Dee Doocey – Met’s extravagant perks for senior officers must now go
Evening Standard – Council’s speaker runs up £9,000 taxi bill after being stripped of his official car
The Scoop
Rip it up and start again: Let's have a proper debate on London transport fares
MP Free
Knows Me Better by The Underground Man
Video LDN
Chicken chases Boris Johnson at City Hall
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