Shinkansen Recordings was the record label I ran from 1996 until… well, now, really. It rose from the ashes of Sarah Records, which had been set ceremoniously on fire on a boat in Bristol in August ’95. Some of the Shinkansen acts were old Sarah bands who’d been pulled from the embers, and some were made up of members of old Sarah bands reconfigured in new ways. Others had simply been attracted by the drifting smoke.

You can find out more at the Shinkansen Recordings webpage. And if you want to hear some of the music, search Spotify or wherever for Lights On A Darkening Shore or Other Futures Shine Like Stars In Other People’s Eyes, the two label compilations.

And what has this got to do with books about London’s more unglamorous districts? Again, absolutely nothing, but here’s a rather lovely song about Park Royal by Cody. Where Autobahn was Kraftwerk’s attempt to capture the feeling of driving from Düsseldorf to Köln, Sleepy Park Royal is a perfect evocation of heading out of London late at night along the Western Avenue, past Hanger Lane and the Hoover Building, the rush of tarmac beneath your wheels, the mesmeric strobing of sodium streetlights throbbing endlessly inside your head…