pop culture phrasebook

My son is barely two, wide eyed in wonder at the world. Never more so than listening to the down and dirty street sounds of High Town Crows at Columbia Road, one Sunday during the weekly flower market. 

Indeed, the second time I took him to Columbia Road market, little Noah knew where we were a full 200 metres before we even arrived. How did he tell me this? He said: “Man music!”

The thing that made the biggest impression on him from his first visit, was that rag tag band of groovy buskers. And he was excited to see them play again. 

Despite his limited small vocabulary, he can label many things about the wonderful sights of Columbia Road - the flowers at the market, the pets prowling around, the vibrant street art and evocative smells of pastry and coffee shops.  Yet the music, oh the music, from one mere visit on a cold wintery day, lived vividly in his imagination.

Sadly, this time, the day we visited Columbia Road to collect an Eine print from Nelly Duff, the buskers had gone. Moved on by the cynical council and its jackbooted buzz-kill squad.

You can help bring the buskers back to Columbia Road by this petition here. 

You’ll be doing more than helping them earn a few bob - you’ll be putting music and atmosphere back onto the streets, into our imaginations and those of our children.