Wear Sensible Shoes
The Coil Guided Tour of London
by Ben Waddington
For forthcoming dates and times, please click on the button below.
Meet: Sherlock Holmes Statue, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5RS (outside Baker St Underground) What3words ///solved.shock.folds
Drown yourself in the lost history of Coil’s London - the city that permeated the English experimental band’s art, life and mythology from 1982 through to 1998.
Ben Waddington has created a comprehensive guided tour of London that dips into the locations of Coil’s album art, song themes, biography, photo shoots and twenty years of associated folklore. Wear Sensible Shoes is more than the revelation of locations—some of which will be known to fans already—but gets inside the fabric of the band by looking at the greater dynamic of their lives, motives and outlooks, and how perhaps we can apply their aesthetic and legacy to our own lives. The tour visits around a dozen Coil-related locations from across their timeline, both major and minor, but the exact locations and themes will be revealed as the walk unfolds.
Wear Sensible Shoes works in a two-way, informal and informative environment, meaning our discoveries and conversations will prompt as many questions as answers. Occupying the best part of a day, the ambitious route will be by foot and by London Transport. Accordingly, the group will be limited in size to facilitate movement and participants will be equipped with an itinerary of meeting points. Participants should expect to be mobile for the duration but the afternoon will be interspersed with rest breaks. Bring water and snacks! The tour will end with rest, refreshments and further conversation at a suitably Coilesque location. The price includes all admissions but not transport, refreshments or accommodation.
Wear sensible shoes! :O)
Ben has been a Coil fan since discovering Horse Rotorvator at his local lending library in Manchester in 1987. With his Still Walking organisation, he has explored the possibilities of the guided walk format beyond purely heritage culture. He is the author of the 2023 guidebook 111 Places in Birmingham that You Shouldn't Miss and, along with Spydeee Gasmantell, is the co-author of the 2018 epistolary publication Conscience.