Blox Part E went in search of vice in the ruins of Camden Town with Thomas Tantrum.

Once a crack-head offered to suck me off for ten pounds just outside Camden Town Station. But the area is changing. As I pass the soon-to-be-transformed tube station (more than a hundred million is to be spent and work will continue until 2016) the customary gruff chorus of "Skunk, weed? Skunk?” is noticeably absent. It’s nigh on impossible to be casually offered crack or get wired on MSG in NW5 these days. Is this a good thing? Very probably. But perhaps the vanishing of the seedier side of Camden is just an early sign of the oncoming cultural whitewash, ahem, sorry, I mean redevelopment.

I end up hanging around next to the packed-out Starbucks by the lock, watching dozens of sheep queuing up for their hourly dose of mochacino latte as I call up Thomas Tantrum and arrange to take a stroll with them around the market on a fact finding mission to see if Camden’s traditional offerings (mushrooms/legal highs/weed/tie-dye) are still evident in an area that’s rapidly being drowned in corporate logos and franchised outlets.

From left to right: Meg, Ken,  John and David

I eventually track three quarters of the band down outside of The Barfly where they’re due to play a set for the Xfm all-dayer. Front-woman Megan is late.

“How’s the album looking?” I ask guitarist Dave, having decided not to make my first question about looking for crack.

“Yeah really good, we’re really pleased! We’ve got a few new tracks that we’ve come up with that we really want to get on there too.”

Megan arrives and we walk/chat. I’m told about the band’s trip to Paris for a gig and their legendary friend Phil (now sadly deceased) who drove them there in an ex-post office van with a top speed of 30mph and then wedged the vehicle in a height restricted car park. “Rest in Peace, Phil!” says Dave.

MSG!

Thomas Tantrum on Change:

Ken (drums) – "I change my T-shirt every day. But my Jeans… not so much."

Megan – "I change my knickers every day!"

John (bass) – "I’m making a change. I’m gonna start jogging, but I need some new trainers first."

The market yields no offers of suitable trainers - or narcotics, or weed. In fact, it’s crawling with police – not real police, only those new pretend ones, but still… We wander into The Stables Market. Round the back, where the old Proud Galleries used to be, there is now a massive building site. Apparently the lucky Camdenites have a Top Shop to look forward to among other things. Thousands supported the Save Camden Stables Market campaign last year, but at the end of the day not even celebrity endorsement from Kate Nash could save it.

 
Aaaahh! MMM SSS GGG!!

We pop in and out of a couple of shops. You used to be able to buy mushrooms in these places. And apparently you can get pills from under the counter in some of them… or so I’ve been told. I ask the lady in one place if this is true.

“No.”

“Oh… so no drugs of any kind?”

“…No.”

“Okay…”

Perhaps it's for the best.

It’s a full twenty minutes later. The band leave to play another set of danceable, indie-rock fun. I decide to make one last-ditch effort to find some kind of iniquity. I spot a man wandering aimlessly along the pavement, looking from person to person. I ask him for narcotics.

“I’m a fireman!” He replies. Sure you are.

I decide to call it a day and head off to meet someone for a cup of tea. I’m around the high street when man walks past a little too close.

‘Weeed, man?’ he drawls.

I take my notepad and write down ‘1x offer of weed’. Well done that man.

In light of the tragic fire in Camden over the weekend we have decided that Camden was not as clean and sin-free as it is now pretending to be. God evidently saw through the thin façade of ‘regeneration’ to the black heart of NW5 and has purged it with flame. Divine justice has been done.

Visit Thomas Tantrum here. Or download their track Why the English are Rubbish here.