Something exciting is happening across the road from me here in Lewes in South East England. Well, let’s be fair loads of exciting things happen here as regular readers to this blog will know.
I don’t have all the details yet but our relatively quiet world is going to be turned on its head by a new company moving into premises across the road from my house located in a Georgian terrace on the site of a former health food shop.
The excitement started when I saw the new sign above the shop window.
Wait for it….
Yes…..
Crocodile Rock.
Could it be a pleasure park like that one in America where you can dive with crocodiles? I hope not but if it is then it would certainly liven up this end of town with coach loads of tourists in swimming gear and goggles who can’t wait to stare at a crocodile’s tonsils.
As a sad enthusiast for popular culture though, I assumed immediately that this was to be something to do with England’s favourite knight, Sir Elton John who has entertained the world since 1972 with a song of the same name and who with a little help from glamourous guys like David Bowie, Lou Reed and Marc Bolan virtually founded what came to be known as Glam Rock.
Could the shop across the road be the headquarters of Elton John’s new musical academy dedicated to teaching a new generation how to rock and look, well, silly at the same time? Maybe not.
More likely, I think, something to do with the elegant clothes of the era as demonstrated here by David Bowie’s classic suit:
It might be the perfect place for a 70s. retro shop where you can buy some glittery platform heels
and some poisonous-looking Goth lipstick with some matching mascara.
Maybe I am going over the top here. No one would really want to look like Elton or Bowie these days – or would they?
It is possible though that there is still a secret Marc Bolan lookalike society just waiting for a retail outlet to satisfy their desire to look like the late and lamented star of T.Rex, the greatest, of course, of all the glam rock bands.
I am sure there would be a ready market for this attractive wig for instance:
I was guessing here and I am probably way off the mark so I decided to look Crocodile Rock up on Google and, of course, I should have known, Crocodile Rock is a venue in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the USA.
The Crocodile Rock Cafe hosts rock bands most nights a week. Tonight you can see Rosemarys Garden, a folk, acoustical, alternative band from California. Not very glam sounding but I wonder if they are coming to Lewes.
This must be a possibility. Lewes in Sussex hasn’t exactly twinned with Allentown but those Pennsylvanian impresarios may be on to something. We definitely could do with a glamourous rock venue here, across the street even if it might not be quite big enough for a stadium. It will be so exciting next time I want to see The Killers or, say, even Sir Elton himself.
Until I know for sure that our street is about to become the music capital of East Sussex then I shall just have to go back to the window and look for other clues. What do you think?
Oh yes, it is now too late to buy up this venue but just three houses down there is another shop for sale. Any offers there? We could do with a conference centre, another art gallery or an opera house perhaps.
Whilst you are thinking about it I will leave you with Elton John in the first flush of his youth singing Crocodile Rock in what looks like our local town hall. Glamour is returning to Lewes.