Marie Staunton finds out from Russell Occomore and Chris OC why the music scene is thriving in Camberwell despite declining elsewhere
Russell
At a recent public meeting, Russell Occomore, director of the charity that operates Jazz Live at the Crypt, took to the floor, lobbying Camberwell Green and Vauxhall MP Florence Eshalomi on behalf of live music venues facing a precarious future. Sporting his trademark cap perched atop long locks, he made a persuasive case for supporting a new levy on arena and stadium concert tickets, proposed by an all-party group of MPs. This initiative, he argued, could provide crucial support for struggling local venues. The statistics are stark: one in eight live music venues closed their doors last year. Yet Jazzlive, in the Anglo-Saxon crypt of St Giles’, is not only surviving but evolving. It is a notfor-profit enterprise. Directors draw no income, allowing musicians significant creative freedom that attracts highcalibre talent, including artists such as Shabaka Hutchings, a recent jazz MOBO award winner. Innovative marketing strategies have helped diversify the audience, shifting the demographic from an older crowd to a vibrant mix of 18 to 80-year-olds. Regular features in outlets like Condé Nast have brought patrons not just from across London, but from the UK and even abroad. Food and drink, says Occomore, is best value for miles. In an average week, Occomore dedicates 75 hours to the venue, all unpaid. “Working here is like being on holiday, surrounded by the music I enjoy,” he reflects. “It feels like coming home every day.” Once priced out of the area and now residing in Forest Hill, Russell’s roots run deep in Camberwell, tracing back to 1720. His mother’s family was tightly knit, based in the community around Shenley and Grace’s Road. Russell’s father, a teacher from Barbados, found the everyday racism of the 1960s and 1970s impossible and eventually returned home. Russell, a gifted musician, stayed. He attended Peckham Manor School. It had a rough reputation, but its music department provided vital opportunities. Russell toured as a clarinettist in the school’s big band and attended performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was through these experiences that Russell recognised the prejudice then faced by black musicians in the world of classical music, a realisation that made a professional career in music seem unattainable. Instead, he pursued a degree and became a manager in environmental health. He recalls the cramped two-up, two-down house in Elephant & Castle, where 30 shift-workers lived, and a house in Queens Road, Peckham, where ten asylum seekers and their three children splashed through water that rose to millimetres below the electric sockets. In 1995 St Giles’ Church sought to raise funds for its spire by renting out the basement. Russell seized the opportunity. Together with local councillors, the vicar and fellow musicians, he spearheaded the creation of the jazz club, intertwining his Camberwell roots, the church’s vocation, and his passion for music.
Chris
Chris Olivares Chandler, known as Chris OC, recalls his teenage visits to Jazzlive in the early 2000s. “We were party kids, not jazzers, but we absolutely loved the vibe of Jazz at the Crypt,” he reflects. A musical kid, Chris attended the Lewisham Academy of Music, based in a squat next to the Albany in Deptford, where his parents worked. Under the tutelage of Charles Hayward, the legendary founder of the 1980s experimental rock group Camberwell Now, he became a drummer. Chris played in bands such as Pepys and the Phobophobes, part of a “big old cocktail” of South London musicians who grew up together, sharing stages and sounds. After studying ethnomusicology at SOAS, he earned a first in fine art at St Martin’s and formed a new band, Meatraffle. Juggling careers in music and food, he worked as a chef at a restaurant owned by Veraison and then Camberwell Arms, where a community of artists and musicians flourished. “Camberwell is friendly and welcoming,” he notes, despite its occasionally edgy street life. Post-lockdown, Meatraffle debuted tracks from their album Base and Superstructure (think Marxist theory) at AMP Studio on the Old Kent Road. During a conversation about the sad closure of Rat Records, their manager, Tim Harper, suggested taking over the vinyl shop. Since Dash the Henge, named for the genre-fluid record label, opened in October 2022, Chris and Tim have hosted free events, from live bands every Saturday to poetry readings and local film screenings. “Live music really works in here, and locals really want it,” says Chris. Collaborating with neighbouring pubs such as the Old Dispensary and the Bear – where Chris and Tim DJ at a monthly Dash the Bear session – they’ve cultivated a thriving scene that attracts musicians and music fans from Teeside to Thailand. Recently, Tom and Jordana of Music at St Giles’ reached out, and Chris has promoted both techno and neo-folk performances there, projecting visuals on the church’s stone and stained glass. Now, Chris and Russell are in conversation with London folk collective, Broadside Hacks to launch a folk club in the crypt, merging genres and communities. Next ambition? Reviving the Camberwell Fair, a popular music event that once animated the Green every September.
