- Rick Astley promised to never give you up while under some North Kensington railway arches.
- Kirsty MacColl wasn't looking for a new England in a Kilburn housing estate.
- Bowie and Jagger were dancing in an industrial service road in the Royal Docks.
- Dexy's Midnight Runners were in Kennington when they came on Eileen. (In one, "I confess, verge on dirty", interpretation.)
Did you ever wonder where your favourite music videos were filmed? Because most of them were shot in London — home to Europe's biggest cluster of film crews and post-production studios. From the 60s onwards, bands and singers have backdropped their songs to the sights of London.
Sometimes the results are historically fascinating. Witness Unit 4+2's Concrete and Clay, which captures the wastelands of Cripplegate just before they're turned into the Barbican. Or the Maccabees, whose Spit It Out films the final days of the Elephant and Castle pedestrian underpass (believe me, people will be nostalgic for it in years to come).
In a bid to bring it all together, we've started a map of locations from music videos, from the 60s to the 2020s. It's not comprehensive. How could it ever be? But we hope we've selected some of the best known tunes from each decade (plus a few lesser-known songs that tickled our fancy).
The map is embedded above. To get the best version, navigate through to Google Maps, where you'll find the songs listed chronologically.
The map draws on our personal favourites, with plenty of hints from similar lists across the web. A particular shout out to the Rob's London video channel — always a good watch — which has a recent video showing some of these locations in then-and-now footage.
We can't add everything, but if you want to suggest an important video that we've missed, then let us know in the comments and we'll add it in.
