Across 60 years, London’s borough of Newham has played an unassuming yet indelible part in the history and evolution of British music. Iron Maiden on the Ruskin Arms stage. Depeche Mode recording their debut in a Forest Gate basement. Pirate radio station Deja Vu transmitting from the roof of EQ nightclub. It’s in Newham that the very first Rock Against Racism gig took place at the Princess Alice (headlined by Carol Grimes and the London Boogie Band), where Matt Johnson of The The grew up in a flat above the Two Puddings, and where the UK’s first legal rave was held.

Now, Sound Waves: 60 Years of Music Venues in Newham traces these hidden histories across six decades. From reggae sound systems colliding with punk to pirate radio broadcasts shaping grime, Newham’s venues have long been hubs of community, creativity, and resistance. The project – spanning literature, film, and art – includes Sound Waves, a limited-edition book charting the borough’s sonic heritage, complete with rare photographs, first-hand accounts, and an introduction by author Emma Warren, who here curates a playlist of essential Newham tracks alongside archive imagery.

We Are E by Lennie De Ice
“I wrote about this tune in my book Dance Your Way Home and corresponded
with Lennie by email during the research. He told me about making the
tune live, back in the day, and credited the dancefloor reaction as
making the tune what it was, saying something like, “We did it
together.””

Six Million Ways To Die by Uncle 22
“Basically, one of the biggest of the big tunes. It’s a sound that evokes Newham’s hyper-creative ecosystems of record shops, youth clubs, night clubs and pirate radio stations.”

Ps and Qs by Kano
“I came to East Ham to interview Kano right when he started out. I asked if there was somewhere quiet we could meet so I could record the interview and we ended up in McDonalds. A classic of the grime genre from someone with long-haul talent and charisma.”

King Original Sound Vol 1 – 4
“This series of mixtapes brought me to grime legend Footsie’s connection to his dad’s soundsystem. I booked their soundsystem for my Southbank takeover this summer and it was one of the highlights of the whole season. True intergenerational sound system power.”

Banging on King Drive by RP Boo
“Not a Newham release but one from the south side of Chicago. Selected because the footwork legend was recently playing at FOLD and because, like so much East End music, is a locally generated reflection of mad levels of creative community expression. And it’s a tune.”

Sound Waves: 60 Years of Music Venues in Newham launches 1st November, find more information here.