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Camden Crawl: A History

added 04 April 2008 at 14.00

Untouched musically since punk and ska adopted it as a temporary home, Camden’s buzz began humming increasingly louder in the early 90s until Britpop blew its doors open to the world. By the mid 90s, as tourists were heading to the area to catch a glimpse of the scene’s luminaries, labels and club nights began adding to its vibrancy. Graham Coxon, beginning to despair by his band’s runaway success, started taking up residency at the area’s notorious Good Mixer pub (he’d soon famously get his post delivered there). Enter Lisa Paulon, a couple of friends and the first Camden Crawl…

“It was much, much smaller fare”, says Lisa. “We had five venues and twenty bands. A lot of the stuff was the same – we had a free CD, it was one ticket to get in and it was based on great new bands with one heritage act”.

Lauren Laverne’s Kenickie, Scarfo (Jamie Hince from The Kills' first band) and the Wedding Present played the first festival. Snow Patrol, Mogwai and Beth Orton followed after.

The late 90s saw the invasion of nu metal as Britpop began busily disappearing up a rolled up note in a grotty toilet. The UK's live scene had hit a nadir, so Lisa took the decision to put the Crawl on ice for a while.

The mid-noughties were a different kettle of fish. A new optimism had followed the dawn of the new millennium, nu metal had died a spectacular (read: welcome) death and the UK scene was beginning to take a turn for the better. Ten years on from the first Camden Crawl and people were eager to see it return.

“There were so many great bands around at the time”, says Lisa. “Groups like Maximo Park and the Magic Numbers were beginning to surface… we just decided it was a good idea to resurrect it as a one off. It became ten, maybe twenty times more successful than it was originally”.

In its fourth year since it resurfaced, the Crawl is again hitting Camden with a line up as diverse as it is dazzling. The previous few events have seen performances from the likes of The Cribs, Klaxons, The Kooks, The Fratellis and Guillemots. Unsurprisingly, it’s a festival - and a process - that takes ten painstaking months to put together.

And as for tips for those of you attending, Lisa has a few of her own:

“One of the things that everyone should be aware of is that it’s unpredictable where people are going to be queuing… There’s no point in wating your night standing in line –people should enjoy discovering new and different stuff”

 Listen To The Full Interview

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