heres a couple of photo's. To show what i mean. Theres more wear around the back that along with the fretboard and lack of wear to the front signifies play. The plastic and metal looks too new though.

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Comin' to you from the very heart of Peckham!

I've heard that some people round here try to pass themselves off as North Dulwich. Come off it! I can see Del's tower block from my front steps (well, sort of)...

- C

EDIT: Oops, our last posts crossed in hyperspace. Don't believe those plastic parts - but with the amp it could still be worth a grand and a half even if it's only a year old. I wonder...

Also: sure doesn't look like a gansta's house, round my way at any rate...

I managed to get lost round peckham once, trying to take a shortcut to croyden of all places. 7.30pm thursday night gotta be onstage at the 100club in croyden at 8.30. That was a experience in band tension i can tell you. Couple that with a local bike gang 'the road rats' member pulling a knife on me when we went onstage. It was a good night. Full of adventure and novel experiences.

Ah Happy days, all in all i genuinely enjoyed myself, even the local support bands were top class blokes that took us to a party after we played.

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Man. sounds like it's pretty rough over there! I'd imagined a peaceful English garden scene!

Not at all. Croyden is a model of suburbia. The 100club is infamous for early sex pistols gigs and attracts a rough crowd. Its still a good pub to gig though.

Peckham from what i saw, was a nice enough place. No different from any other suburb.

Like everywhere in the world places have good and bad spots. Its important to see them for what they really are.

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Haha - it's not so bad really, F. A little different than American cities, London is less defined by good and bad areas than by streets. One end of a road can have a totally different character than another.

Mine is a case in point: one end of my street there occured the infamous murder of a small Nigerian school boy (Damilola Taylor, for anyone who knows) by a roaming gang of semi-feral kids who all live nearby in what you'd call "projects". The other end of the street leads into the leafiest of leafy suburbs, a spot called Dulwich: all private schools (where PG Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler were at school together), art galleries and where Mrs Thatcher moved when she left office to a house that then cost £3m/$4.5m.

And this ain't miles long Sunset Boulevard we're talking about: it's a modest road a few hundred yards long.

London is all about stepping round a corner from one of those worlds into another. My area, Peckham, has a kind of Harlem type reputation - but it's actually full of gardens, parks and gentrified yuppies - alongside the drug dealers...

Good grief, I feel a Kinks song coming on...

Cheers - C

I sure would love to cross over for a visit! I've always wanted to as I've been told that my ancestors originated from England and I swear I do have a little "Blue" blood in me, so They say!
Are there many Hopkins over there in the phone book?

I hasten to add London is like a different planet compared to most uk cities. Much more cosmopolitan/continental. Whereas most other UK cities tend to be centered around 1 or 2 themes based on their relative industries.

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Hop, if you ever come our way let us know and me and my Missus will treat you and your Missus to a slap-up meal somewhere nice and maybe catch a show or something at Ronnie Scott's Club or whatever.

I have a notion that others this side of the pond would be keen to join that little party too. They'd be welcome!

Don't be a stranger...!

Cheers - C

I would love that! I hope one day it can happen. Thanks for the invite my friend and the offer goes both ways!! That's for several of my friends over the pond!! Niki, Snowy and the rest! I think the culture shock would take you aback!

'Bout 5610 listed in the phonebook. That enough for ya?

Blimey, a clan like that should have its own tartan...


Nah, I love visiting America. Plenty of culture but no shock...

Cheers - C

My best mate at school was a excellent boxer called Lee Hopkins.

Ceri Its funny you mention Thatch lived down your street. I live round the corner from the greengrocers shop where she used to live as a child. Also my eldest daughter just passed her 11+ and is going to Thatch's old grammar school come september. Its also part of the school that Isaac Newton went to, his name is still carved into one of the desks.

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Nah, I love visiting America. Plenty of culture but no shock...

Cheers - C[/quote]

South Louisiana is quite a bit different from the rest of the U.S. They really don't claim us down here!

Er, well not quite in my street. House prices round here are high - but not that high! I can be outside that big house she moved to in about 10 minutes walking, though. I think she heard I was coming and left. Dunno where she lives now...

I could post something very scurrilous about what Cecil Parkinson got up to in the next street to mine when he was Minister for Transport. But our libel laws aren't so permissive as in the US - so I'd better not...

Congratulations to your daughter, by the way. Sounds like she uses her time a little more productively than tapping away at internet forums...!

- C

Oh man: ever since decades ago I saw a photo of Duane Allman standing by a mangrove fishing I've wanted to visit that part of the world. And gotta see New Orleans while it's still there...!

Cheers - C