Northern Line in the House....

Misery Line in Big Brother House

Why does the Northern Line have not just one, but two "love" songs written about it? We have the excellent Schmoof's electro-pop version (blogged & lyrics here), but I was horrified to discover that Zippy or Ziggy or whatever his name is, the only guy currently in Big Brother was responsible for another version. Here's Northern Line with their eponymously titled single Northern Line:


Schmoof's Northern Line is far superior with a hint of metro double-entendre at the end of the second verse:

"And our fingers touched at that moment
Causing both of us to quiver
And we rode the tube until Morden
I don't go south of the river"

And I particularly like the spoken chat up lines towards the end

"what do you stars say today love?
don't know, haven't read em yet,
meet a handsome stranger on the Tube,
yeah right"

Ziggy and co's Northern Line is more boy band song by numbers - with its chirpy chorus:

"What do I have to do
To get closer to you?
Cos I would do anything to make you mine
Near or far just to be where you are
Tell me
Who would have thought,
I'd find love on the Northern Line"

Theirs closes with more turn of the century boy band warbling / white rap "Nah, nah, nah, Northern Line, bring it on, bring it on, Bring it on Baby. Northern Line one time etc etc"

But both end with a sort of Tube noise reference. Schmoof's lulls you with the gentle rocking of "Northern Line, Northern Line, Northern Line," repeated to fade. Ziggy's ends with a static crackle caused by a woman in a white coat unplugging a lead from a giant computer. Possibly the power socket which runs the entire Misery Line.

And speaking of love on the Tube, Adam Gichie from TV production company Drive Through Pictures, is researching for a program based on finding love on the underground. He's looking for some real life stories, "everything from funny flirt stories to fully-fledged dating success stories." Please email him - adam.gichie@drivethrupictures.com if you've got anything that fits the bill.

Driver's eye view

Sunset on the Central Line

Richard (traindriver's) snowy view was popular with the Flickr folk and he's kindly sent in another "driver's eye view":


Certainly beats the view of train drivers on the Victoria Line. I wonder if they get paid more or did they just draw the short straw if there's a Tube drivers line lottery?

Stockholm Metro Literally

Some of you might be familiar with the "If Germany had won the war" Tube map, which takes the London Underground Map and translates station names to German. Mile End becomes 2.4Km Ende, Elephant and Castle, becomes Elephant und Schloss and sadly Piccadilly Circus, remains Piccadilly Circus. Surely there was an opportunity to make it Piccadilly Zirkus.

But what happens when you take another subway map and translate to English? Strangemaps found that if you take the Stockholm Metro map and translate to English you get some very 'Allo, Allo' style translations such as Baker's Bog, Bog Cottage, Suspenders Pen, Gruel Village and Awful Village Hospital


As the map was sent to the blog by a Dane, they may not have been totally fair with some of the translations as the blogger at Strangemaps says "As is well known, Danes will grasp every opportunity to ridicule their Swedish neighbours". So if you can speak Swedish and think you've got a raw deal, please get in touch to correct.

Cheers to Jon for the heads-up on this.

But is it art?

Thanks to Michael W who sent me a picture of half a caravan and some mattresses at Gloucester Road Station.



If it wasn't at Gloucester Road you'd be forgiven for thinking there were some very weird campers or that the German woman who mistook the subway for an underground car-park had made her way over to London.

We're not so lucky. Gloucester Road is one of Platform for Art's showcase stations and the caravan and mattresses are art installations. As it's quite a recent installation, currently there doesn't appear to be any information about the artist or the statement that the installation is making. As Michael said, it's all a bit Tracey Emin with her un-made bed and tent. Way too derivitive in my opinion. Or maybe that's the point. Perhaps we're being asked to question Emin's art. Maybe it's a playful pun on the signifcance of travellers exchanging a commuter lifestyle for one that's more free and innocent.

In any case, I wonder how many enterprising homeless folk will try to nab the mattresses during the installation's run?

Baby on Board Badge Spotted

Yesterday for the first time I saw someone wearing a "Baby on Board" badge on the Tube. I say wearing - she actually had it pinned to her bag which wasn't neccessarily the most prominent place to display it.


This initative has been around for a number of years now and is supposed to help pregnant women get a seat on the Tube. According to London Underground: "Research shows that Londoners agree that pregnant women should be offered a seat but also reveals that men are afraid to act on their chivalrous instincts in case they give offence." Personally I think that's a sad statement. Firstly, why should only men be expected to give up their seats? Also shouldn't we be happier being "chivalrous" rather than worrying about someone fat thinking that we thought they were pregnant?

The research also showed that:

* 92% thought that people sitting down should offer the seat to a pregnant woman without having to be asked;
* 85% think pregnant women should ask for a seat if she needs one;
* 78% of currently pregnant women stated that they never ask for a seat when they need one.

Crikey, if I was pregnant I'd be sticking my child to be in people's faces on the Tube at every opportunity. But that's just me. Also if a bloke's kind enough to offer me a seat I take it.

What are your thoughts on seat offering in general?