Londoner's Diary: Rotten old TfL gangs up on Carnival band

Tfl troubles: Sex Pistol Paul Cook
Tim Whitby/Getty
28 August 2015

Rotten old TfL gangs up on Carnival band

Mind the gap between a playful design and a letter from the lawyers. “Rap and roll” band Rotten Hill Gang, warming up for a Carnival gig this weekend, are being threatened with legal action by Transport for London over their logo, a riff on the Underground’s own. Formed in 2008, the cult west London band have a rotating all-star cast of players to make Simon Cowell weep: The Clash’s Mick Jones, Razorlight’s Gus Robertson and the Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook have all bashed cymbals and strummed guitars. A bit too rock ’n’ roll for TfL’s liking, it seems.

On Wednesday Rotten Hill Gang announced that “Transport for London have tracked us down to tell us that using our logo is a breach of copyright and we must withdraw it from all recordings and merchandise before December 2015”. The logo is a take on the Notting Hill Gate Underground sign, the station’s name replaced by the band’s and the white circle morphed into a skull. Apparently this doesn’t fit with the friendly, caring persona that the Tube drivers strive to present so effectively.

Asked by a Facebook fan if they could fight the lawsuit on the grounds that the logo, first seen on platforms in 1908, has long been in the public domain, the band have instead taken the setback on the chin and are asking fans to come up with a new design. Transport for London confirmed that it had contacted Rotten Hill Gang over infringement of copyright, stating that “the roundel is an iconic and valuable asset which is important to our customers and we always seek to protect it”.

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The formula for the perfect poohstick was revealed earlier this week — PP=Ax?xCd, obviously — but even physics can’t make you win against dodgy opponents. According to producer Roger Macdonald, Christopher Robin Milne had very little taste for the game as a child because of his father’s cheating. AA Milne, Macdonald writes in a letter to The Times today, apparently “won by dint of releasing two or three sticks to his every one”. Winnie would be very disappointed.

Jezwecan? Er, maybe, say the lobbyists

Labour may be going through a full-scale civil war, but won’t someone think of the lobbyists? While lobbying firms thrived in the Blair era, they are apparently now getting worried about a Corbyn leadership. He has few contacts with established firms used to working around Parliament.

In a piece published by Public Affairs News, Peter Bingle from Terrapin Communications ponders: “The question for industry bosses is whether he will stay around long enough as leader to make it worthwhile hiring commercially minded Trotskyites ... I wonder how many of them have been in touch with headhunters?” If the red flag does fly on September 12, we look forward to these two worlds colliding.

Emily Blunt’s definitely not wearing Prada

She may have risen to fame thanks to her role as a manicured fashionista in The Devil Wears Prada but Emily Blunt also knows how to keep it low- profile. The actress was spotted on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles yesterday wearing a casual but chic outfit and no make-up. The 32-year-old should, however, be back on the red carpet soon, as she was recently announced as the lead for the film adaptation of The Girl on the Train. It would be a refreshing change to see an ensemble like this at the Oscars, though.

Joan’s in touch her with teenage self

Joan Bakewell plans new book
Ian Gavan/Getty

All you “thinking man’s crumpets” out there, pay attention: Baroness Joan Bakewell, pictured, is rebalancing the state of gender equality. The Londoner hears that the Labour Party peer and journalist is in the process of writing a “semi-memoir”, Stop the Clocks, exploring the social changes that have affected women in her lifetime.

“It tells of my feelings about how generations change and what we hand on to each other,” Bakewell tells us. “It’s the testimony of a long life. We change as we get older … but inside we feel the same. I’m in my eighties now yet I feel as much in touch with my teenage self and the giddy young woman of the Sixties as ever.”

Giddy young women featured heavily in Bakewell’s first memoir. In 2004 The Centre of the Bed was snaffled up by those seeking juicy details of Bakewell’s affair with playwright Harold Pinter. Lady Antonia Fraser, who married Pinter years later, then devoted a whole book to her own affair with the playwright. “Friends and family ... think Joan has made rather a meal of the whole thing,” she wrote in Must You Go? “I know that Harold had a more intimate relationship at the same time, with a woman he called Cleopatra.”

No sign of such a woman in Bakewell’s book so far, but then the memoir is still in its salad days.

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Farewell to a mainstay of Chiswick dining for the past decade, as much-loved Sam’s Brasserie closes its doors for good this weekend. The restaurant, which will be rebranded as Foxlow by its new owners, was founded by Sam Harrison, protégé of Rick Stein in Cornwall. Stein has now bought a house in Chiswick — might the duo team up again?

A bite to Trump them all

Corbynmania, meet Donald Trump delirium, with a cheeky side of pickles. Last night at Mr Hyde and Street Feast’s National Burger Day celebrations in Dalston, beef buffs queued up for Stoke Newington-based Lucky Chip’s special: the Donald Trump. In homage to — or, dare we suggest, in mockery of? — the US Presidential candidate, the burger chefs topped their patties with meticulously placed grilled onions to represent Trump’s thatch, pickles guaranteed to “leave a sour taste in your mouth” and an oozingly rare, bloody beef patty to emulate the Republican’s recent suggestion as to why a female journalist was critical of his language regarding women.

Midway through our admittedly delicious Trump, we wondered what a Hillary Clinton burger would taste like and abruptly lost our appetite.

Turnaround of the day: in 2014, mayoral candidate Tessa Jowell said Londoners need “undivided attention” from their Mayor. Yesterday she was made a peer. Congrats?

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