Camden Town and Labels

Camden, in London, the best place in the world! Read / Write Comments Camden Town Introduction Shopping Labels and the Alternative scene Camden Town Introduction I love Camden Town! It is an area of London, UK. You get to it on the Northern Line on the Underground system or by bus, or walking from anywhere as far away as Kings Cross. Camden Town is the "alternative" center of London. It is populated with goths, punks, metallers, nu metal kids and hippies. (Click to view description of what these all look like!) It is the natural gathering point for many subcultures. The London Furry scene meets in Kentish Town, a short walk from Camden Town and the London Satanists community hold meetings in locations in Camden. It is one of the places in London where I feel safest and, to be honest, I find the people there very much more attractive and sexy than anywhere else in London. Walking towards Camden Lock from the tube station you see many alternative shops selling every goth piece of clothing and goth/alternative accessories imaginable. Plenty of Head Shops. Shops unashamedly play metal and heavy rock on to the streets. In Camden Lock itself there is a series of dance and music orientated shops. Techno, hard house and heavy dance music is heard nearly everywhere. Lots of rave-culture shops selling illuminous and extremely odd clothing. There are plenty of places to find food, especially Noodle and Rice stalls. Slimelight, the most significant and large alternative club in London is not far from Camden on the Bank branch of the Northern Line. Full Tilt, a metal and alternative dance club on Friday nights, is prominent on Camden High street. Shopping Camden is a principle place to go goth shopping. I don't mean for buying goths! New Rock Boots (www.newrock.es) These are heavy and very very cool and sexy boots with lots of metal bits and buckles incorporated into their extreme designs. Available in anything from shoe-size boots to knee-high boots and coming in a variety of dark styles. Some are in purple, silver but mostly they're in black. Some have flames on them. Their logo and style is distinct and New Rocks are easy to recognize. The soles of New Rocks range from a normal 1cm to several inches. They've been taken up by Goths en masse and by some metallers and other alternative people. They're not cheap, but their mass is great. In the last few years of the 20th century New Rocks rose to dominate Camden's boot shops. Their huge popularity has noticeably decreased the amount of non-New Rocks that are present in Camden. When in America, I have found that New Rocks are nowhere near as common and people in the goth scene asked me where to get them. Although they are available in America there isn't as much choice and stocks of New Rocks are smaller. Swear shoes/trainers (www.swear-alternative.com) These are very heavy shoe/trainer things. Many of them have very large soles, up to several inches of platform. Their colors are vivid but they do (thankfully) sell some plain black ones. Some designs include large amounts of fluff/fur and plastic and rubber features such as horns and weird shapes. Cyberdog clothing (www.cyberdog.net) The cyberdog logo and the Cyberdog name in Japanese are very recognizable symbols in the alternative dance scene. The clothes range from simple (but very cool) pieces of clothing to full one-piece skirts. The "alien" designs are everywhere, with obscure logos and lots of electronic bits adorn the clothes. Some of the clothes are impossible to describe, Cyberdog is as weird as it gets when it comes to dance clothing. Cyberdog is extremely expensive. Be warned. Black Rose and Alchemy Gothic Much more traditional goth than Cyberdog and Swear, Black Rose sells lots of PVC and fetish gear as well as big flowing clothing. Lots of mesh, leather, fetish, gothic jewellery and accessories. I wont say much more. It's expensive, too. Resurrection Records (www.resurrection-rec.demon.co.uk) This is where I buy all my industrial, metal and goth CDs. And gig tickets. RR are cheap, friendly and well stocked. The staff are very knowledgeable and willing to help. They'll play CDs for you. They sell vinyl too. They are downstairs below a shop near the Elephant Head pub. The Devonshire Arms The purely goth/metal/alternative pub is down the road that Elephant Head is on. Labels and the Alternative scene The goth scene has developed so that expensive labels are acceptable. I don't like this! We are paying too much for New Rocks, Cyberdog and other alternative labels. As some of their designs and production is not easy to match in its extremity or presence in Camden they have a captive market. And they don't fail to exploit it! In many cases there are cheaper version of these labels. New Rocks are an exception: Nothing matches them. The rave and dance and gothic clothes can all be found cheaper than at the places listed above. For a subculture that criticizes trendies for their expensive mindless want for Dolce and Gabbana and other stupid over-expensive labels, goth isn't itself much better. It never used to be like this! Even the punks nowadays are wearing commercially produced "punk" clothes... what a contradiction! Read / Write Comments By Vexen Crabtree 2002 Sep 18

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