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What are some interesting stories?

What are some interesting personal stories about London?

  • There was a question regarding the unique stories people have to tell about being in NYC, and as a Londoner, I find them interesting, ranging from thinking of disgust to fascination. Hence, I was wondering if anyone had anything interesting to share about London as well. Doesn't need to be outright 'shocking' or anything of the sort. As long it conveys the character of London and is sorta good to hear, I'm all ears! PS: The OP is me, . Just putting it out there.

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    Gor Blimey. One of the things you can do in London is be surprised. It caters for everyone. Something that I often did with friends was get a copy of Time Out and pick the weirdest sounding event to go to. Some highlights. Ending up in a Cappoiera in Archway. This is a mixture of martial arts and dance. We were the only white blokes there, it was pretty intimidating if good natured. I was trying to keep a low profile but was called up on stage having won the raffle. It was typically London, a Brazillian ceremony with unusual music and dance. MKII an industrial band that didn't play instruments as such, but hit sheets of metal with hammers and used electric drills. The "band" were taken off the stage by their own security after a chainsaw solo by the lead singer got out of hand. He was being a little too enthusiastic. I ended up at a Lesbian event. There weren't many blokes there. To make it even less mainstream, it featured a Lesbian folk Singer, doing Dylan covers. I was probably the only person who actually liked the stuff being a hardcore folkie, who knew the words to "I Don't Believe You" One of her songs had the line "travelling on the Paris Metro, can't believe they're all Hetro, Whoopee this is Gay Paree. The top Billing was the "Hot Doris Band" who did a cover of "There Ain't Nothing Like A Dame" which gave the song a new meaning. I saw a whole host of bands at the "Save the Rhino" do at the Sir George Roby. It wasn't a promising event. The venue was run down and we were searched for drugs by pretty oppressive security. It made no difference of course, inside the Venue the Purple Haze could be cut with a knife. Featured bands were all Hawkfamily, aging hippies Man and the Pink Faeries, plus Eddie and the Hot  Rods, without Eddie or half the Hot Rods who had been delayed, but some of the Pink Faeries stood in. I always try and get to the free Respect festival, which is an anti-racist Carnival held in some park, often out of the city centre, somewhere like Hackney. It says something about London that a quarter of a million people do a mini homage to Woodstock in a leftie world peace event. Chumbawumba and the Specials have performed, but also people that you might have missed like Labi Sifri and Gregory Isaacs. Gong performed and the Pot Head Pixies were out in force. I've also been to see Oi band "Cockney Rejects", I was the only person there not entirely white, tattooed or with hair longer than quarter of an inch. I've seen covers of Sex Pistols numbers on the sitar by the Punk Rock Pakis, Mexican songs performed by Ukranians. Over sixties rock group "the Spring Chickens." London has something for everyone no matter how eclectic. You really couldn't make it up. Some one will outdo any weirdness you can imagine.

Joe Geronimo Martinez at Quora Visit the source

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First match of the 2006 World Cup for Italy (Azzurri won the Cup, just FYI): Ghana - Italy. A friend of mine and me decided to watch the match in Bar Italia in Soho: we arrived there and there were so many people that Police blocked the road. It was of course not possible to see in a right manner the match. Therefore we went in a pub nearby and, comfortably seated at the bar in front of a tv, we started see the match with our beers. In a few minutes a black man seated next to us watching the match: we were "scared" of being in presence of a kind of Ghana supporter, so we remained quiet, suffering in silence. But we noticed that he started supporting Italy and complaining about mistakes made by Azzurri. Therefore we started chatting with him and we discovered that he was the manager of the Italian restaurant in front of the pub and he was from Zaire. So basically he was against Ghana and he wanted to specify us that Zaire under 17 won against Italy 4-0 (I never checked if this was true...) Btw, we had a great night, Italy won, we got drunk with our new friend and we never forgot that night. That's a common story, nothing special, but something that can happen probably in London only.

Carlo Lombardi

As a young man I worked at Saint ermines hotel in the 80s .Coming from up north I had never seen such wealth and luxury but. On going into the kitchens that was another world. Prostitutes waiting to be called up stairs men and women prostitutes. African waiters getting a discount and then serving food to the same people who had to pay top dollar for the same service. I was amazed at the first time I had to pay twenty pounds for a cup of coffee I was like a fish out of water It was like another planet.

David Marland

I was in London in the mid-1980s in November and found myself in need of an umbrella. In San Francisco I invariably bought a new umbrella every couple of years. Since London is a serious rain city I thought I would try to find a serious umbrella and spend a little more money on something that would last.After making inquiries, I was directed to Smith, where I was trying to decide between two beautiful umbrellas, each having a single stick of hickory with a bent handle, but one made of silk and the other of nylon. The silk was much more expensive. I asked the sales clerk, a man in his 50s, if there was any practical difference between them. He looked very thoughtful, and replied “Well, some gentlemen say that the sound the rain makes when falling on the silk is softer.”My great nylon James Smith & Sons umbrella is still going strong thirty years later.

Lee Ballentine

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