There is lots of stuff to do in London besides visit the landmarks. There is something going on somewhere in the city every night if you know where to go.
If you have been to Camden have you ever had a drink in The Worlds End Pub or been Koko or The Camden Roundhouse?
I've not been down to London in years and years, as my bro moved to Wales a few years ago. But, aye, I have been down in Camden a good few times, our band played there a couple of times as well, 1st time we played at the Laurel tree, with Alex from FranzFerdinand's 1st band the Blisters, and Uresai Yatsura(sic), Cherry Red records had just put out an album with some of our songs on it, so they organised the gig, we were crap that night though, lol, too knackered.
The other time we played was in the Camden Falcon, that was a pretty good venue, nice big stage, we played real good that night iirc. I always regretted forgetting to give the sound guy a tape to record us that night, he asked me for one, and i forgot as i was so busy rushing around getting things set up.
The NME came down and gave us a wee review that night, i think they only caught the last couple of songs of our set. We were not the most organised band, and never had any kind of management, so both of those were set up by the record labels that we did records for at the time.
I drank in a few other pubs, but I don't recall the names of them, there was that famous one i don't recall the name of right now, the Dublin Castle i think it was called, where bands like Suede and Elastic played their first gigs in. I remember walking in there with the old superhero domino mask type make up over my eyes(this was one of the nights we played in camden), the bar was packed, but the barmaid came up to me and served me rightaway and i think that was cause of the make up, lol.
Also drank in the Good Mixer, went to watch some Euro 96 game in there one afternoon.
and aye, maybe it is just my lifelong aversion to being stuck on buses and whatnot, but i always found it a pain getting around, and i have never had much money, so London was always a pain for the cash as well.
and y'know, just things like getting home from a club at night, impossible unless you have a stack of money for a taxi home, i nearly got staranded at this massive multi-levelled club when i went there with this Macedonian friend of mine, he had moved there after art school, and worked in soho, so i hung out with him round the bars there, and went to this crazy club. i lost him and wandered around for two hours in the place, until i found him just before he walking into the vip section, so i got in too, and the place was full of tranvestities, transexuals, bisexuals, everything but straight out hetrosexuals, lol, he even told me to say i was bi if anyone asked, just to show i was open minded or whatever.
but, man, if i had not found him at that point in the night i would have been ****ed, lol, stranded, my train home was the next morning as well. In Glasgow, no matter where you live, it is pretty much walkable to get home, you wouldn't get stranded like that.
the comic shops are amazing though, I landed in london the next day after the big Forbidden Planet opened, so missed Adam West doing his gala opening of the shop and signing session(which Grant Morrison talks about in his new book), my bro was feeling real guilty he did not notice that until after he bought my ticket for travelling. But, aye, picking through all the back issues i caught up on all the ASM i missed for the last couple of years, as i had been spending all my money on computer games. i couldn't have done that in any of the glasgow back issue shops, very sparse selections.
But man, i would probably sit in the house a lot if i lived in a city like that, as it can be a lot of hassle to get around, and i am a bit sick of sitting in the house as it is, lol.
