"london's brilliant parade" - elvis costello

"the lions and the tigers in regents park couldn't pay their way and now they're not the only ones"
"the lovely diorama is really part of the drama"
"i'm having the time of my life or something quite like it when i'm walking out and about in london's brilliant parade"



arriving too early for a jazz band rehearsal i decided to have a wander. in and out of brick lane past the boasts and come-ons of the curry house pimps, up and down the side roads with their road signs i can't understand, onto the outskirts of the mildly intimidating estate with its small clusters of bored youth, into the ethnic grocers where the smells instantly bring back memories of amman foods. i'm a south london boy and i wouldn't want it any other way, but i'm glad the east end is there.


my dad is a big elvis costello fan and i grew up with his albums on in the background and his songs part of my understanding of music - not this track so much, obviously since it wasn't released til the mid 90s. i still struggle not to rip him off too much as a songwriter as i find myself always wanting to slip a nice pun, triple rhyme or clever piece of wordplay into the middle of the second verse. and importantly he was one of the main bonds i had with glyn that i didnt really have with anyone else - part of the sharedness of where we were trying to come from and where we were trying to go.