pecknam blog – adventures in SouthEast London

April sees a canine celebration in Warwick Gardens.

Recently I’ve dusted off my minidisk recorder, which led to inventing the revolutionary HatMic system (patent pending). Here’s the spoils:

Ska night at the Victoria pub, Deptford, 7th March 2009:

• The Scaredy Cats live (16mb MP3)
• Los Albertos live (32mb MP3)

So the sound quality is a little ropey, but note that for Los Albertos I was in the middle of a 30 person-strong ska mosh pit! Think of it like this: each audio drop-out = another bruise to my body :-)

Thanks to everyone at the Victoria, definitely one of the best squatted venues I’ve been to. Really sad to hear this was one of your last gigs before eviction.

Next step: stick some foam round the mic to lessen distortion.

Here’s a track from The Scaredy Cats’ EP, “Claws in the Contract”:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sleeping with the Enemy

There’s some newcomers to SE5,  metal sculptor Leigh Dyer was commissioned by Southwark Council to create a wolf, ram, sheep and lamb.

I’ve just discovered that Peckham once had an art-deco Odeon cinema; this wonderful photset includes a the above shot from 1938 and more recent images of its destruction in the 80′s. It proudly stood on Peckham High Street where the Jobcentre is now to be found. More information here.

More recently, the Peckham bike polo team make good use of the multi-story carpark. I hope to join them for a match sometime!

From: info@spikesurplus.org

Hi there everyone,
I suspect you’ve all heard by now that at 7am on Thursday 12th February, 20 odd coppers, Southwark’s property department, some bailiffs, and 4 big noisy dogs turned up and suddenly we found ourselves on the wrong side of the gates. The on-site security (with the big dogs) seem regretful of the situation and have been letting us on site to get stuff sorted. Tomorrow we have more time. There is still lots of good stuff that we haven’t get found homes for… do any social centres want to take on the free shop? Got a vehicle? Any community gardens etc wanting plants, pots, outside furniture etc? There’s material, costumes, card, paper, some plants, pots, sofa’s, tables, chairs, wood, old tools, fire extinguishers, cushions and more. Please get in touch seriously asap if you want to provide a home for any of this. Oh, and if you want to buy a Spike t-shirt for a tenner, get in touch on the email and we’ll arrange something.

You may still feel to campaign to keep the Spike as a community space as it has been for 160 years. English Heritage should really list the place to protect the building but there’s little time for this.

Hope we all get to gather again soon. We’ll let you know as soon as our services are re-housed.
Best wishes,

Spike

It’s been on the cards for a while, but despite the court saying The Spike would be given 2 weeks notice of eviction the police and bailiffs arrived unnanounced at 7am this morning.

The residents have been told they can enter on Monday, one person at a time, and recover their belongings.

Residents, supporters and film crew outside The Spike gates.

Security team inside the property.

Love and warm cups of tea to all Spike crew.

It’s been a day of friendly snowball fire, chats with strangers and time with friends who would ordinarily be behind desks on a Monday afternoon. I got momentarily lost not three streets away from my house; everywhere looks so different! Loving this shot on Peckham Rye by Celie:

In other news, Santa is happy the weather has finally sorted itself out:

Stay warm everyone.

Spike Surplus is a community centre who has helped many artists,
musicians and free thinkers to attain their goals. Now after ten years providing beneficial services to the community, Southwark Council are evicting the Scheme and selling of the land. This is a massive injustice! Please help the Spike
Contact http://www.spikesurplus.org

Slow Slow music video taken from the debut album ‘Balance’ by Sound of Rum with Excentral Tempest available to download at http://www.soundofrum.com Video directed by Dean Puckett http://www.deaddeanfilms.com Camera by Leo Leigh/Dean Puckett Assistant Producers: Andy Baker and Lee MacMullen

Sound Of Rum on myspace – http://www.myspace.com/soundofrumband

And in case you missed it, the MP3 was posted here back in November