Interview: Orlando Weeks — The changing face of the Elephant

Elephant and Castle is undergoing a major transformation. Yet amongst the unfamiliar skyscrapers, luxury modern apartments and recent pop up coffee shops, the area’s local indie-rock band The Maccabees reflect on the area to create their final album and to commission the short film, Elephant Days. I caught up with lead singer-turned-solo artist, Orlando Weeks to find out about their musical journey with Elephant and Castle as their base, the area what has been known as ‘the forgotten area of zone 1 [London]’.

'You gotta see beneath the tagline [Elephant and Castle] often gets given'...The Maccabees (credit: Jordan Hughes)

Since the band’s arrival to their studio in 2012, they have seen a £3billion redevelopment change

which is to be completed over the next 15 years. According to Southwark council the regeneration will include the creation of a new pedestrianised town centre, market square, 5,000 new and replacement homes, up to 450,000 square feet of retail space, and integrated public transport hub along with five green spaces. We are already witnessing the current changes undergoing to the roundabout, which is just the beginning of the gentrification in the area.

The bands last album release of ‘Marks To Prove It’, is the soundtrack to the film. Shown at the London Film Festival (BFI), it tells six stories of residents in the area displaying the passion and community feel they have for their area under the influence of gentrification. The documentary pays tribute to local institutions including basketball team The Peckham Prides and the Elephant’s famous Arments Pie and Mash, founded more than a century ago.

Despite it's expensive SE1 postcode, rarely has the area been listed a London 'hotspot'. Weeks explains how the band never initially chose to create music in Elephant and Castle, he points out,‘ we didn't choose for the studio to be there, we just got lucky with it. I think the point was more to try and see that wherever you are or wherever we have ended up, which happened to be Elephant and Castle would be enough inspiration and enough going on to make an album.’

'I hope that with all the change going on that the kind of eccentricities that the area has are preserved somehow. I don’t know how that will happen.'

He explains how the bands final album Marks to Prove It took a long two- and half-year struggle to create. The band went through recording of endless demos and lists of various destinations to travel in order to find ideas forced them to come very close to giving up. They realised instead of travelling to find music they used the area they had spent the past five years recording in. Listening to the album you will not be directly taken to the Elephant and Castle shopping centre but the sounds from the area are captured. ’We were conscious that we wanted to make a record that was relevant to where we were', Weeks says. 'We were making a film that was relevant to where were, our studio was in Elephant and Castle. We were going to be there everyday, we were going to be writing and recording everything in Elephant and Castle so we were conscious of the feeling that it had a sense of place. You gotta see beneath the kind of tagline which (Elephant and Castle) often gets given, and in that case it can very easily can have the tagline that its just a roundabout and actually everywhere is much more complex than that.’

'A lot of the time I start writing a song based on a line that I have read in a paper or overheard and that was defiantly true vision.' You will hear echos recorded from ‘East Street Market’ market heard in track seven named Slow Sun. He says, 'I try to build a song from something that I have heard like an echo, or something on the bus, or in a queue when I'm waiting at a cashpoint. We did try and do some recording at the platform of Elephant and Castle train station to get the sound of a commute, but we were a bit worried that we were looking suspicious sat on the platform with this 70’s mic, so we didn't use it [the mic]!.' There is also a feel of hidden vulnerability on the album seen on track five ‘Silence’ where quotes are used from band’s guitarist Hugo White voicemail message sent by his councillor after speaking about the passing of his mum.

'We were conscious that we wanted to make a record that was relevant to where we were.'

Weeks speaks on the concept behind the theme they had when making the album ‘I think the records theme is more about, in the same way in what the film is really, its kind of filled with different short stories. Gentrification is just something that is going on around it.’

Locals may recognise the bands album cover by David Busfield, named the Michael Farady Memorial. A stainless steel box built on the Elephant and Castle roundabout formed in 1961, filling the area with light at night in memory of the late Victorian scientist. According to the band, it was ‘an extension to the album’s association with the area’ when speaking to journalist Jenny Stevens in the Guardian.

The cover art for 'Marks to Prove It' by The Maccabees. (credit: Fiction Records and Communion Records)

The area Elephant & Castle is also the theme for two music videos taken from the album, using combined footage of different faces of the area. The video ‘Marks To Prove It’ show shots of the Elephant and Castle roundabout, followed by the point of view scenes of chaotic traffic, whilst their second track release ‘Something Like Happiness' shows a more tranquil environment with architecture shots and plants growing in deserted alleyways; possibly links to the tree planting in the late Heygate Estate later on mentioned in Elephant Days. Weeks explains ‘We were using Elephant and Castle as our canvas and we wanted to show it all in different sorts of ways. I think the Elephant has always has this representative of this kind of scuzzy and ‘urban’ environment and actually there is more to it. We wanted to show its kind of manicness with the commute aspect of the elephant and castle and I also wanted to try and make it look like there is still some kind of London architecture coffee table book style of it too. Its kind of putting different angles on it.’

Michael Faraday Monument, Northern Roundabout, Elephant and Castle SE1 (credit: R Sones, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Elephant Days, produced by 2AM Films, was premiered on 12 October 2015 at Odeon Cinema, Haymarket. It documents the lives of six residents, highlighting the passion and motivation they have, inspired by the creativity in the area of what had been described in the film as ‘the forgotten area of zone one’. It also shows the struggles with the rapid changes which comes with being in an gentrified area. Whether it be Armets Pie and Mash shop, the traditional restaurant established in 1914, muscling against the new pop up coffee shops, whilst maintaining a sense or originality of the old Elephant, or the Peckham Prides basketball team with the constant battle to strive for success. Residents Richard and Layla are on a mission to attain a sense of wellbeing in the area by creating gardens in derelict spaces, especially the late Heygate Estate. The two and a half year struggle of recording and re-writing for The Maccabees in making ‘Marks To Prove It’ one other segment of the documentary. Footage of the band giving up, remaining focused, searching for lyric inspiration and producing music are seen throughout the piece.

'I think the Elephant has always has this representative of this kind of scuzzy and ‘urban’ environment and actually there is more to it.'

The 83-minute film consists of short stories throughout, showing the sense of community and love the residents have for the area. Inspired by British experimental film artists such as Patrick Keiller, the director’s aim was to capture the sense of community of the Elephant and Castle, which is at its tipping point of losing its identity due to the gentrification happening in London today. Speaking to the directors of the film, they tell me how the community and changes within the area of Elephant and Castle captured their inspiration to produce the film. James Caddick explains, ‘The thing is about Elephant and Castle is that there is a great deal of communities that live there and that’s what enables it to be. It’s one of the interesting things I find about the area. I think the more problem for the area is that it is becoming generic, like putting all big buildings that all look the same and which cost a lot of money, I suppose that is more of the problem, as said in the film there is no meeting point. Not one meeting point in Elephant and Castle. Not even a big Tesco’s so it’s an incredibly diverse area, which is very interesting.’

Elephant Days (credit IMBD.com, Inc.)

With Elephant and Castle undergoing changes, new communities are moving in. James explains how he wanted the film to capture the respect the different communities have for each other. ‘I don’t think there is a connection, but there is an acceptance I guess and the respect they have for these different communities I guess, there seems to be a operation, harmonious fashion of inspiration and that is something to be commended isn’t it?’ As James Cronin says if you lose that and if everything does become generic then it will be a less colourful place. As an artist I think it is probably an incredibly inspirational play to work and very useful in terms of being so central.’

Expanding the Elephant’s greenery in the derelict Heygate estate is character in the film Richard Reynolds, he and his partner use the empty buildings as a place to add colour and life endorsing the area with trees and plants. Reynolds describes in the film how Elephant and Castle is seen as the ‘underdog’. The film directors use this ideology to show the other side to the ‘’underdog’’ area’ area. James Caddick defines what message he wanted the audience to leave with after they have watched the film. ‘I wanted it to be a film about people who are passionate about things, and I wanted people to relate and make people think about that and care about that in our society, especially in an area that is going to be completely brought out with huge amounts of money- but not force that down peoples throats. It’s about individuals and people who are passionate about what they do.’

The iconic Elephant landmark. (credit: Unknown)

The Maccabees have since finished their final farewell tour back in 2019 at a similar time we begin to notice the changes to Elephant and Castle. Lets remember the incredible authenticity Elephant and Castle had before the gentrification took place just as much as we will remember The Maccabees as one of the biggest indie bands of all time. Weeks reflects on his time living in the area, ‘I lived above East Street Market, I enjoyed that and when I got the time I would be in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. I hope that with all the change going on that the kind of eccentricities that the area has are preserved somehow. I don’t know how that will happen.'