Get the latest gossip

Back to black? Amy Winehouse, Camden Town and the survival of London’s perennial music playground

The new biopic of the London singer has put the London borough’s rich musical past in the spotlight. But what of its future?

Some have suggested that the importance of the Good Mixer has been oversold, with Jane Savidge, head of the PR company that represented many of the best Britpop bands, writing in a memoir that the main reason it popped up in print so much was because it was the venue of choice for interviews with her artists. This may be true, but there’s no underselling Camden’s connection to Britpop: Blur’s label Food Records was also nearby and Graham Coxon and Jarvis Cocker frequented Blow-Up, a popular indie night at a gay pub called the Laurel Tree (musicians from this venue also ­feature in the Winehouse film). Though the Roundhouse was mooted as the best place to erect a statue of Winehouse (it ended up in nearby Stables Market instead), the venue is better known for being where British audiences first encountered the Doors – at a famous show in 1968 – and the Ramones, who played their first London gig there in 1976, a seminal moment in punk history.

Get the Android app