I never considered this perspective before, someone actually feeling nostalgic for the early 2000s West End, but this is a really honest and heartfelt lament for a Central London that is no more
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also this on Minnie Riperton:
“Les Fleur” remains staggering, a song that begins delicately before unfurling into a near-symphonic explosion of delight and revelation. Stepney’s arrangement rises in waves of strings, horns, choir, and percussion, until Riperton seems to ascend above the composition entirely. The refrain feels summoned from another plane.
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I never really got Shadow, but thoroughly enjoyed this brilliant personal piece by our very own @padsyms
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Marcus is a top guy, thanks for posting this!
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Thanks for the kind words, Tim. Much appreciated 
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Good to see the long demolished Odeon cinema on Oxford Rd, first cinema I went to as a teenager with my mates in the late 80s, loved that place, was sad when it went.
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Beautiful writing.
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Oooft…
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Yes … moody pool table 
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Don’t agree with it all, but an interesting read.
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Interesting perspective. Lots to unpack there.
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Will Self talking about Burnhamism:
Well, I think the last time I was in Wigan I had a smack barm, which is the end bits of chips that are out of the bottom of the pan in the chip shop and then, you know what a barm is, it’s a buttered roll, soft butter roll. A smack barm, as I remember, in Wigan was 10p. So this is a poor constituency. It’s a very poor constituency. Labour are looking for an organic figure to unite them with their past who’s going to cancel out time in a way. The Burnham factor is an ideological factor that’s to do with a nostalgia, almost what you might call a Uchronia; a time that never was. It’s like the old Hovis advert with Dvořák’s New World Symphony playing.
“And he went up the hill to get a loaf of bread and it was always, you know, a smack barm.”
Where is the detailed policy thinking? What he seems to be running on is communitarianism and as I say, this image of an organic Labour past that somehow can be resurrected in a digital age when drone warfare is determining European politics, not cycling up the hill to get a loaf of Hovis.
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I think Will Self might look at the things Burnham has said and done in Manchester to get a feel for policy. To say there’s no detail gives the impression that Self has phoned in whatever piece that comes from. Burnham isn’t exactly shy in saying what he stands for
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Given Self’s previous “recreational” pursuits I was very disappointed to read the actual contents of the smack barm.
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