Maybe Its Because I'm a...

Whenever people come to London they ask me for recommendations and I realise the list I put up here years back needs some updating. So if you're in town for three days this is where I'd shove you:

Galleries
- Maureen Paley, 21 Herald Street, London E2
- SPACE Studios, 129—131 Mare St, London E8

- Ibid Projects, 35 Hoxton Square, London N1
- Seventeen Gallery, 17 Kingsland Rd, London E2
- Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Rd, London NW3

- Whitecube Bermondsey (for the insane building if nothing else), 144-152 Bermondsey St, London SE1

Coffee

- Flat White, 17 Berwick St, London W1

- Wiltons, 61 Wilton Way, London E8 (where I do my occasional London Fields Radio show)

- Daquise, 20 Thurloe Street London SW7 (in afternoons only for apple strudel and a taste of 60s poland)

- Sensory Lab, 75 Wigmore St, London W1

Food
- Dean Street Townhouse, 69 Dean St, London W1 (art, amaretto sours)
- Polpo, 41 Beak St, London W1 (or Polpetto above the French House)
- Bar Bruno, 101 Wardour St, London W1
- St John (the bar area), 26 St John St, London EC1 and the bar at St John Hotel
- The Wolseley, 160 Piccadilly, London W1
- Pizza East, 56 Shoreditch High St, London E1
- Rochelle Canteen (lunch only mon-fri), Arnold Circus, London E2 (recommend booking 02077295677)

Drink
- The French House, 49 Dean St, London W1
- The Royal Oak, 73 Columbia Rd, London E2
- The Holly Bush, 22 Holly Mount, London NW3
- Cecconi's, 5a Burlington Gardens, London W1 (prosecco on tap at the bar)

Shop
- Compton News, 48 Old Compton Street, London W1
- Fopp for 3 quid DVDs and CDs, 1 Earlham Street, London WC2
- Music and Video Exchange shops (esp the Book one 14 Pembridge Road, and Soul and Dance, 42 Notting Hill Gate).
- Fenwicks, 63 New Bond St, London W1
- The Top Shop concession in Selfridges; APC and Acne on Dover St; The B Store on Kingly St for shoes; Fred Perry on Newburgh St etc

Tourist Stuff

Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln Inn Fields, London WC1

Walk up Primrose Hill in general or swim in Hampstead Heath ponds in summer

London Books

JG Ballard 'High-Rise'

Graham Greene 'Ministry of Fear'

Anything by Iain Sinclair

Musical Mornings After

Les Televisions opening at French Riviera rocked last night... Highlights from the brilliantly installed wall of screens included Jon Nash's brilliant Casablanca drift, Sebastian Brucker's acid flash animation, Hannah Perry's trio of cut and paste mini films, Leslie Kulesh's disturbing bump and grind avatar - basically the whole thing was good and brilliantly presented. I ended up playing way too long at the Marquis of Cornwallis across the road afterwards (as Yuri Pattison's snap above proves...). God knows what the super white regulars thought of my set of dancehall, r'n'b and old soul...

As I'm obviously too exhausted to think about art I'm just going to post three songs I played at the pub that I really liked each dedicated to some of my friends there. Or you could listen to my latest London Fields Radio show on mixcloud here

For Emily LaBarge:

For Stephen Dunne:

For Leslie Kulesh:

Bad and Just Plain Evil

I'm doing my London Fields Radio show more regularly again. In honour of Halloween, Vol 3 of the show's theme is Bad and Just Plain Evil. Enjoy...

Bedroom Music

My latest London Fields Radio show can be downloaded here:
Bedroom Music

I went for the idea of a relationship created through an hour of songs from the romantic dreaming to the hot and heavy build up to the aftermath. It also contains probably the most shocking record I've ever heard Lucille Bogan (pictured above) and her bordello blues number 'Shave Em Dry'. (I also sing a bit of More Than You Know half way through the show...).

Oh. Yo. Radio.

I'm Djing on LFR again tomorrow afternoon at 3pm. (The show will be put up as a downloadable podcast in a week or two). I'm thinking of the concept of before and after as the theme to the show... but probably too difficult!

On My Radio

I did a radio show for London Fields Radio that is now up for you to download in their podcast section. The theme of my show was the depression, money and capitalism. A surprisingly light hearted selection of records by people like The Staple Singers, Lester Young, Lou Rawls, Lavern Baker and Tony Bennett.

And midway through you get the rare opportunity of hearing me sing a cappella... On The Sunny Side of the Street.

Stream or download and enjoy:
http://www.londonfieldsradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Francesca-Gavin-Money-Music.mp3

Friday Radio Show

So I'm doing a radio show on Friday at 3pm on London Fields Radio (yes this is something that exists now).

I'll be blabbing away and playing some records and talking about culture in some form. They've even written a blurb about me on the site. It'll be recorded and put up as a podcast for people to download. Pop into Wiltons cafe, 63 Wilton Way at the back of the Hackney Empire if you want to listen live

http://www.londonfieldsradio.com/shows