London Rock n' Roll tour remembers city's underground music history

A new walking tour around London's downtown core will focus on the city's rich underground music history.

The tour, called London Rock n' Roll Walking Tour, will be hosted by London musician Paul Wootton Harlow, a member of bands such as The Sinners, Spiral Scratch and The Crawlin Kingsnakes.

He said the London music scene that developed between the late ‘70s and ‘90s started off with only two clubs and then blossomed to boast a number of clubs in the city. Wootton Harlow added that interest in this part of London's local history was sparked after the McIntosh Gallery put out an exhibit called ‘Underground London 1977-1990' in 2012.

“A few people were telling me I should find some way of letting people know what the scene was like especially in the early days because I was around from right at the beginning,” Wootton Harlow said. “There's some of us left but there are a lot of people who came along after the scene was well developed and they don't have a good understanding of what the early days [were like].”

Though he admits to being disappointed by the fact that many famous London music clubs no longer exist whether due to fire or other reasons, he said there is still a lot left in the city to talk about.

“[London] used to be a hub of life but now it's all been knocked down,” he said. “I've got lots of stories about the bands and the clubs and what went on there, who played there and just the whole scene in general. I think there's an interest out there for what was going on,” he said.

The tour will start around Call the Office and continue around Richmond, Dundas, Talbot and King, to name a few.

The event will take place on Saturday, April 30 at 1 p.m. and will take about two hours. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at Grooves. Tickets are limited due to the fact that Wootton Harlow wanted to keep the show personal and intimate.

“Some really great things happened in the city for a long time… and there's a lot of history that contributed to the Canadian music scene that doesn't get the proper recognition, and we're only a small part of it,” he said. “There were clubs that were packed all the time.”

Anyone interested in the tour may only have one opportunity to catch the show, as Wootton Harlow said he may only do the tour once, depending on public interest.