please empty your brain below

Gosh... I just found an MP3 of it!!

Mellow. Nice even.

Excellent..... I shall have to see if my XTC afficinado brother can spot the link from a listen.

A dull flickr gallery? Not to me. I was gobsmacked when I saw the photo of the Food Fayre on the Lisson Grove corner. Back in about 1960, when my late husband was a young man, he had a little confectionery and tobacco business in these premises. I still have a couple of 18th century pennies he found in the cellar, presumably fallen through the cracks in the floorboards. There was a blue plaque on the building, commemorating a painter called Benjamin Haydon.

hey dg,

i usually read diamond geezer at work but i was unexpectedly awarded the morning off today so in bed with tea and laptop i could take full advantage of todays audio accompaniment. it was really nice. i'm loving streets of london week, more musical posts i think.

I couldn't help wondering if you know if a nightingale still sings in Berkley square?

So far today, not one visitor has admitted to ever hearing the song before. Ah well.

And Great Aunt Annie, I'm charmed and delighted to have photographed what turns out to be such an important building.
(I'll email you a photgraph of that plaque...)

I've gotta say, you've surpassed yourself today, DG - obscure song (but what a pedigree - XTC - supreme songwriters) - and fairly obscure street (although - of course - I know it well...) (My first job in London was on Marylebone Road, and I lived in West Hampstead, so would frequently get the 139 bus down Rossmore Road...)

One additional point and one question

There was one v. dodgy and unpleasant Islamist preacher who used to do his stuff at the Fourth Feathers - I think it was Abu Qatada rather than Abu Hamza but I could be wrong.

Now- was it the case that Eliza Doolittle was from round here somewhere, as Prof. Higgins was able to pin-point her location from her exact intonations and accent... Can't remember if he concluded she was from slightly west of Lisson Grove (in which case - perhaps around Church Street market - amuch more interesting thoroughfare than Rossmore, it must be said, but song-less, I guess..) - or east of Lisson Grove... if the latter - she would presumably be from the area now occupied by that council estate between Rossmore and the canal.... I always think of her when I pass that way, so some clarity on the matter would be appreciated...

As you are clearly a far superior psychogeographer to me, I leave it to you to inform the world...

Wherever will you be tomorrow?

is Eliza Doolittle a real person?
In my drama/ speech class I'm playing her in my fair lady for a competition. The problem is Im having lots of trouble learning how to speak with her accent. Can you help me?

Absolutely magnificent analysis of a truly great song. I remember it being played regularly on Radio 1 by the likes of Annie Nightingale. The B-side "Win a night out with a well-known paranoiac" was an absolute corker as well.

Having got into the world of itunes and ipods recently I decided to track down a few obscure songs I remembered from the eighties and did a google search for 'Lisson Grove' which I misremembered was by Robbie Robertson (! well it does sound a bit like 'crazy river'), and came up with your brilliant account of this song. Having never been to Rossmore Road I always felt as if I knew exactly what it was like from this song. I loved it at the time and have it somewhere as a single in the loft. Thanks. I shall now try to see if it's on itunes.

Wow - thanks DG. This song has haunted me for years. Annie N played it a lot on her (lazy) Sunday afternoon request show. I always think of it when I am around Lisson Grove but couldn't remember the lyrics other than the belisha beacon in the central reservation line. Lyrics websites were no use, but an idle google led to your blog and I was transported back 33 years. thanks again!










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