There was much excitement in the Castiglione household when it was announced that Saint Etienne will be playing their debut album 'Foxbase Alpha' in its entirety at the Bloomsbury Ballroom. Their back catalogue is being reissued in deluxe editions starting with this album and the previously-import-only Continental. As a rather morbid guitar music-obsessed teenager in the early 1990s, the music made by Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell came as a breath of fresh air. Their music was infused with light, optimism and, best of all for a boy from the suburbs, it evoked the streets, landmarks and personalities of London. There is even a track on Foxbase Alpha called 'London Belongs to Me'. I was lucky enough to meet with Bob Stanley, ask him some questions and bask in his godlike aura.

Like many of London’s top chroniclers Bob was from outside town in this case Horsham which according to Bob “may as well have been 100 miles from London.” Oddly the big city did not exert much of a pull on the young Bob. He went to Peterborough of all places before moving to London to do a town planning degree at central London Polytechnic (if Bob hadn’t moved into pop music just think what beautiful towns he would have planned.)

How has London changed since Foxbase Alpha?

Photo: BEAT NIK

Given St Etienne’s nostalgic image, you might be surprised to learn that Bob Stanley thinks that London has mainly changed for the better since the early 1990s: “It was very grubby. There was not much going on at all. Now the food is much better, it’s even more cosmopolitan and the streets are busier.” When pushed Bob mentions how many of the classic cafes such as the New Piccadilly have now closed though thankfully Mario’s Café in Kentish Town featured on their album 'So Tough' is still going strong and Bob was involved with the campaign to have Pellicci’s on Bethnal Green Road listed. Also there are less record shops and “rooms above pubs where you can put on an impromptu gig.” Bob remembers seeing the Manic Street Preachers playing their first London gig above The Horse and Groom on Great Portland Street.

And which pubs and bars do you visit?

Photo: Ewan-M

“I like the Old Red Lion, a theatre pub on Upper Street. Never go to the theatre just have drink. It’s one of the last old boozers. They have just changed the carpet but it still looks the same. I like its dingy atmosphere – a good place to spend a day drinking.”

The other place Bob mentions is the New Evaristo Club (or Trisha’s as it is sometimes called) in Soho.  “I’m amazed that it kept unknown for so long. There used to be two or three barflies and that was it and it was on Frith Street for God’s sake! It used to a after hours drinking den for waiters so did most of it’s trade after 11.”

St Etienne made a film about the Lea Valley where the Olympics sites are being constructed called What did you do today Mervyn Day? Are you glad that the Olympics are coming to London?

Barbican Photo: Oobrien

“I’m fairly pro. It’s very easy to be sceptical. We are sceptical about big projects in general in Britain. We seem to will disaster on projects such at the Dome.  It’s a national trait. It’s going to cost more than people said it would as anyone who has had building work would agree. Hopefully it will be amazing. The whole area will be transformed. What we tried to get across in the film is that it needed to be regenerated. It had amazing history but absolutely bugger all there now and it stank! It has to be a good thing.” There are rumours that Saint Etienne may be writing the official Olympic song; Bob is keen. He said how it would be good to have a song rooted in East London rather than have Björk like they did at Athens. “They should have had Nana Mouskouri or Vangelis” he adds.

The Royal Festival Hall Photo: ShiftOperations

Thrillingly, Bob lives in Highpoint, an icon of 1930s Modernism in North London. I asked him what his other favourite buildings in London are. “I do really like the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. I spent so long in the festival hall because we were making a film out of it that it felt like being a school say that the Barbican is my favourite. I like the amount of public space. Both of them – feel, quiet, step down a gear. There is always something interesting to do whenever you turn up.” Both these buildings are modernist but, unlike much post-war architecture, are built with people in mind. Modern but human much like Saint Etienne’s music.

Saint Etienne combine a deep affection for London’s recent past with a view of the present and future so optimistic and uncynical that it is almost old-fashioned. The music is up-to-date but the attitude is not. Needless to say the gig was brilliant. Sarah was self-effacingly beautiful whilst Pete and Bob stood at the back providing the groove like Kraftwork as imagined by Gerry Anderson. Anything seemed possible – 'Nothing Can Stop Us Now'.

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