Our Dieselpunk Present

Kings Cross right now is like a vast pre 1939 industrial landscape being rebuilt and renovated into something seriously 21st centry,  on such a scale that in an ironic bit of circularity it starts to resemble the future of Things To Come (1936).

The pre Easter heat wave we are having is kicking up a lot of dust in the perpetual development of Kings Cross, giving York Way a bronzed chromium sheen. Facsination for the austere Art deco world of the 1930s in the 2012's  I believe is called  deiselpunk.

Here are some pics


Just up the road from the development, the disused York Way tube station closed in 1932

Still from Things To Come

View from Kings Place third floor

Kings Cross new concourse exterior (opened last week)

Kings Cross interior

Kings Cross Parcel Room, the newly renovated bar

St. Pancras behind more Kings Cross exterior

Not relevant but included anyway: on the way home, the Scala, still a spiritual home

Another bonus in the area, Pret a Manger York Way is full of gorgeously moody spanish girls, not as friendly as the French Pret crowd in Croydon but unlike La Linnea in actual Spain you do feel their apparent moodiness is a cultural militancy rather than genuine dislike (one thing I've come to learn, when the French and Spanish do dislike you they won't bother to hide it - in that respect you can't fault them for honesty). I'm being very harsh actually, they are moody but unearingly friendly and professional and I eat there virtually every day (I have to be careful what I say on this blog after The Lukins friends and family read that previous blogpost..)

I am going through a bit of  1930's fascination at the moment (hence lots of Pret a Manger) sparked by another podcast..

http://worldwariipodcast.net/wordpress/

the only historian, or even aspiring historian, to you use the phrase 'freaked out', what he lacks in professionalism and accuracy he more than makes up for in enthusiasm.
He seems to be sourcing so many books it is hard to keep track (Dunkirk Fight to The Last Man is one) but at least he is picking the right material, he plugs them relentessly and you can't fault his effort.

What really saves him in my eyes is the coverage of the fall of France in 1940. It comes without any of the cheese eating surrender monkey guff you might expect from an Anglo perspective. The French Army did not run away in 1940. The worst of that army shamefully was exposed to face the sharpest point of the Blitzkrieg and the Germans drove an entire army through that hole at unbelievable speed, to gut the real Allied forces before they were even aware what was happening. The Panzers moved so fast even their own general staff were unnerved by their progress, it is hardly surprising the veterans of WW1 could not cope.

This much I already knew, but the podcast fills in the poltical detail in the French Government and makes it imediate and fascinating. The Fall of France was not not just an inevitable pathetic collapse it was a real tragedy of lost opportunity, like the Spanish Civil War in fast forward, with every single setback exploited to the full by the enemy and every atempt to fix the situation playing into the hands of those who ultimately would be happy to work with the Nazis. What that does to the national consciousness I would hate to think but if the defense of Britain in 1940 were somehow to depend on say, the force that failed to defend Singapore, we might be a little less ready to ridicule.

In 1939 the French Army was still considered the best in the world, and the French Republic it protected was a beacon of civilisation and stability. Six months later, by the sumer of 1940  was a lost world, all gone in a chromium dust storm of fast moving events and poltical treachery.

GOBLIN PLAY THE SCALA

To follow on from the Portishead content in the I'll BE YOUR MIRROR blog here is the review I did of influential Italian soundtrack outfit GOBLIN playing the London venue which was once a shrine to Italian art-house horror movies..


Monday 27th July 2009
GOBLIN
Scala, Kings Cross
by Christopher Hodgson
Picture Album

The immediate vicinity of the Scala in Kings Cross is as dingy as ever
but to those more familiar with its previous incarnation as a dingy
80s cinema club it is a shock to see the premises which once sold
hardcore paperback porn replaced by high end estate agents (selling
property porn).

Within the Scala the winding labyrinthine back passages still exist,
but usually lead to uber-trendy bars in the higher reaches of the
building. Scala toilets which once featured exhibited aroma's straight
from Warhols New York now have bathroom attendants who require a £2
tip. At the recent Scandalism club night the curious were treated to
the new version of alternative dance - featuring vintage 80s dance
highlights such as Vanilla Ice and Dead or Alive. If only the
contemporary audience of the Scala had been exposed to this at time
the whole Kings area could have been razed to the ground and the
developers would have got their way 20 years ahead of time.

Still, at least it is not a Methodist church anymore. Back in the day
the old Scala cinema club was the high shrine in London to alternative
cinema and particularly Italian horror cinema. So it seemed
particularly appropriate that the new Scala would host Goblin for its
one and only UK date on its first tour in 30 years.

Goblin were the obscure Italian prog-metal band who defined the sound
of many 70s and 80s Italian horror films (and the occasional George
Romero film - the original DAWN OF THE DEAD). Their obscurity has
lessened since they have been cited as an influence by bands such as
Portishead and Muse.

They are a prickly and awkward listen. Even as a fan it has been a
real chore to get even half way a Goblin compilation album but here is
seemed there is a real effort here to turn them into a 'Show'. The
setlist heavily lent on their best material, from DEEP RED, SUSPIRIA,
DAWN OF THE DEAD and TENEBRAE and the projected backdrops showing
scenes from the films seemed to suggest a goth-ed up Pink Floyd event.

Possibly the new keyboard player Aidan Zammit is behind this. He
seemed more on an obvious onstage presence than the shy and
unprepossessing 'classic' members of the band (Like any decent prog
rock outfit Goblin have been reforming since Morgan Le Fay was at
playschool and if you collected together all of the old members of the
band together for a performance there would be no room for an
audience) It was easy to get the impression that after 30 years of
mysterious soundtrack existence it was the new member that had brought
them out into the stage lights with the set that played to their
strengths.

The show was for a surprisingly young audience perhaps consisting of
tourists direct from the nearby Eurostar terminal. They particularly
enjoyed the thumping background to the original DAWN OF THE DEAD,
which really did play live like a cut from the last Portishead album.
The climax was of course the theme from Dario Argento's classic
SUSPIRIA, played against the projected backdrop of the fantastically
evil dance academy in Frieburg which is the films setting.

Perhaps that was Goblins prog message for us. If the King of Pop,
Vanilla Ice and Dead are Alive are the new idols of dance then 'Dance'
has Fallen. 'Dance' is EVIL.