Forest Gate - Music

Music

Forest Gate has various associations with music and acting: it was for many years the home of the Tonic Sol-fa College of John Curwen, which taught large numbers of people to play music without learning conventional notation. In December 1966 Jimi Hendrix wrote Purple Haze in the Upper Cut Club, owned by Douglas Bayle and George and Billy Walker, it had been opened by The Who, and had The Small Faces as the house band, for a while. It later became the Ace of Clubs in Woodgrange Road. The Newham Generals (D Double E & Footsie) are also from Forest Gate, and the video for their song 'Frontline' was filmed at Forest Gate railway station. Ben Drew aka Plan B (musician) grew up in Forest Gate and lived in Hampton Road on the Woodgrange Estate. Ill Manors (rendered as iLL Manors) is a current British film written and directed by Ben Drew, starring Riz Ahmed, Nathalie Press and Dannielle Brent.