Coffee with @TheEastEndPoet

Last week I met with Chris Ross, a.k.a. @TheEastEndPoet on Twitter and Facebook. Chris is a born and bred Cockney, born in Mile End Hospital and raised in Roman Road. He is a retired telephone salesman, dad of one, granddad of six and great granddad of six. And he writes poetry – often about theContinue reading “Coffee with @TheEastEndPoet”

‘Are you embarrassed about my accent?’

Anna and Mark are both artists based in St. John’s Wood. Anna grew up in King’s Cross and Finchley. She is a playwright and actor who is ‘very good at accents’ and uses them in her performances. Mark is from Greenwich, works in advertising and has often cast actors with accents for the TV commercialsContinue reading “‘Are you embarrassed about my accent?’”

Chas’n Dave – the ‘Cockney ambassadors’

I met with Kate Garner at the beautiful Brasserie Zédel off Piccadilly Circus. Kate is not only a composer and musician in the London music hall tradition who often performs at Zédel’s, but also comes from a very musical North London family: she is the daughter of Chas Hodges from Chas’n Dave, the iconic CockneyContinue reading “Chas’n Dave – the ‘Cockney ambassadors’”

Master of the Cockney sing-along

This week, I managed to get hold of Tom Carradine, a professional pianist who stages extremely popular ‘Cockney sing-alongs’ in London and (far) beyond. His shows are advertised as ‘an old-fashioned knees-up – Mr Tom Carradine on the ol’ Joanna’ (Cockney rhyming slang for piano). Tom plays old London music hall and Cockney songs toContinue reading “Master of the Cockney sing-along”