Category Archives: News

All I Ever Wanted (Demo)

An excerpt of Marshall Crenshaw and Kirsty’s 1983/84 demo  was uploaded to YouTube on Thursday. She recorded her vocals on top of the backing track, which Marshall sent to her by post.

Kirsty MacColl & Marshall Crenshaw - All I Ever Wanted (demo)

This reminds me of ‘(We’re Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds’ from Marshall’s 1985 album, ‘Downtown’ in terms of melody.

(We're Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds

From Ruby

Croydon Exhibition

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend so far. It has gone off to a great start for me as I visited the new ‘Rewind: This Is Croydon’s Music’ exhibition today at the Museum Of Croydon. It celebrates the borough’s rich musical history.  There 5 sections in the exhibition:

Music On The High Street – This takes a look at the history of the borough’s music stores over the years, including Bonaparte where Kirsty worked in the 70s.

Music Venues – This maps out Croydon’s  different venues through the years.

Music Makers – This features Croydon-related acts who have made a significant contribution to music, including Stormzy, Saint Etienne, Ralph McTell and of course, Kirsty.

Music Creatives – This looks at the association between music and art. For example, people who have attended the Croydon School of Art like Jamie Reid who designed artwork for the Sex Pistols.

Music Moments – This delves into the borough as a destination for music, from festivals to acts on tour. For example, The Beatles playing in Croydon.

The exhibition includes interactive activities for visitors. This involves writing music memories on CD shaped paper. Or you can make your own phrases or lyrics on a magnetic wall of words.

On the Kirsty front, the artwork sleeves for ‘Chip Shop’ and ‘Innocence’ were on display. A write-up about her was included in the wall of fame with a great black and white photo taken during the making of her promo video, ‘A New England’.  On a CD shaped card, someone wrote: “Not a place, but love Croydon queen Kirsty MacColl”. I did a similar thing.

I had a brilliant time overall and the exhibition was wonderfully put together.

I will see you in the next post.

From Ruby