Denmark Street

Be on the lookout.

And in the second half of this episode, Jared and I take you to the famous Denmark Street in London, England.

If you don't know what Denmark Street is, it's the most famous strip of guitar stores ever assembled in the England area.

Every great guitar player has walked these streets and visited these rooms.

And I do say rooms.

We're going to come back there later in the video.

Yes.

But right now, we need to go find some other guitar shops on Denmark Street.

Yeah, it's great.

I mean, I, I, I wished so much that in the early 80s I'd bought some McMahon in the old Forbidden Planet on Denmark Street.

You know, it wasn't very expensive.

It's like looking back, you know, maybe £30 or something.

I used to travel.

I lived in High Wycombe.

I'd travel up to Forbidden Planet on Denmark Street, as we mentioned earlier on, and pick up these comics.

Back when I used to buy comics and not trade paperbacks, the only comics I buy now are 2008D and The Meg.

So we moved in there, and I set up a practice, and it was, um...

So I found somebody who was a-- She called herself a self-esteem consultant, not far from here, Denmark Street, and she was incredibly busy because she wasn't a therapist.

It wasn't sort of, "Boohoo, my past is so awful." It was challenging, and it was like, "You need to change your thinking.

We need to get some goals, and I need to make sure that you hit those goals." So one day she said to me, "Fiona, I think that you should do this 'cause you're obsessed with all of this." I said, "Well, I am.

I'm gonna be in London on Wednesday, November 18th.

I'm gonna be performing solo at Rough Trade Records on Denmark Street, and I'm gonna be in conversation about my music moderated by one of my favorite actors and writers, Matthew Baynton.

And a ticket to the show also gets you a copy of my album on vinyl or CD.

And in December, I'm gonna be on tour supporting S. Carey.

Because when I was listening to the songs, I was looking at the lyrics as well.

And in the first song that we listened to, it mentioned Denmark Street.

And I tried to find out what the importance of that is.

So apparently Denmark Street is also known as Tin Pan Alley.

And it's like the music industry street in London, basically.

so when he talks about that song he's basically saying like oh all these record producers are telling me to write this song that i'm not actually feeling so he's basically you know making songs with bitter fingers and then the other song what i'm getting from that is is basically all right am i just a one-hit wonder am i going to be able to follow it up or is this the end for me and should i blow the whistle So it's very, like, you can tell, and I think that's why this album resonates quite a lot, and probably why people enjoyed it as well, despite it being, you know, having only one single.

They gave permission for everybody particularly to r- start writing songs.

Up to that time, bands during the early '60s would go to Denmark Street in London where all the publishers were to try and get a, uh, you know, get someone to give them a song by an established songwriter.

But The Beatles showed that y- you know, you could do it yourself.

They dared us to write our own songs, in a way, and they really inspired us to do that.

There wasn't anybody.

And I think I recount in the book and in real life that I went down to Denmark Street one day just to look at guitars in the window.

And I saw...

Vivian coming towards me, she had those styrofoam cups, you know, of coffee, and she had a black lyrics fur coat, which is famous, that coat, and these pink strappy boots.

And it's Glenn's band.

And I was really confused.

I said, what could they be doing? What could they be doing? Because the sex shop, Lurex Fur Coats, And hot pink strappy stilettos did not fit in with Denmark Street with great coats and lank hair and flares.

And the people who worked in the orange shop.