I met up with Ginger Mike and Andrea Joynson  for lunch in Deptford High Street. They had just been on a guided history tour of the old town and were so enthused by the experience they  relived it again for me, pointing out all the sights-Francis Drake’s  steps, Marlowe’s murder, Grinling Gibbons house, John Eveleyn’s Private Zoo and so on….I went home myself enthused by the majesty and wonder of the place, now entirely hidden by chicken takeaways, tower blocks and scrapyards. I wrote the text in one sitting and was performing it with Harvey Eagles within a fortnight. Later I constructed the book around the text… a long river shaped drawing. The first seventy copies had a papier mache  model of a hanged tar glued to the  the cover. We developed the music over the next few years until it became the centrepiece of our live shows, incorporating an elaborate dramatic backing tape, live cello with effects pedals, toy instruments and costumes.