Sounds of South Asia in Newham
Sounds of South Asia in Newham
Community, Tradition, and Transformation
Part of Sound Waves: Music in Newham — celebrating 60 years of music, community, and cultural fusion.
For decades, the borough of Newham has been home to diverse South Asian communities, each bringing their own musical traditions, instruments, and rhythms to the heart of East London. Through interviews with musicians, community organisers, and artists like Lord Kimo of Asian Dub Foundation, we are exploring how music has shaped lives, strengthened communities, and created new musical identities. Here are a few insights from interviews so far.
Still from Junglee, 1961 linking to the video on YouTube.
Cinema and Bollywood: A Shared Cultural Space
In the early years of migration, cinemas became crucial spaces for Newham’s South Asian communities. Abdul Hakim, who arrived in Newham in the early 1960s, recalls how the cinema became a place of cultural connection and safety:
“We used to go to cinemas to watch Indian or Pakistani films… especially on Sundays.”
“We used to make friends with other families, they had children as well, and it became a really good atmosphere at the time. We weren’t isolated anymore.”
“Singers used to come from Pakistan, and they used to come in these cinemas. And you see, they used to have a special show, and I used to go with my father and listen to them. It was really enjoyable. Muhammad Rafi came. So many others, so many singers came, even Qawwali.”
Cinema offered a way to stay connected to “back home” and to build links across different South Asian communities. It was also a rare refuge from the racism many faced elsewhere in public life. As Abdul Hakim puts it:
“Music really helped us, because it was part of our background, language as well, and it took us away from people who were racist against us.”
“At school, it was really bad. Skinheads used to pick on single people… Music helped us relax and keep away from bad people.”
These spaces became more than just entertainment — they helped new arrivals navigate a new country while keeping ties to their culture alive, they also brought together disparate communities through a shared love.
Community Centres: Building Tradition and Belonging
As communities grew, cultural life in Newham was sustained through temples, gurdwaras, community halls, and homes, with cinemas adding a new space for shared entertainment and social connection. Spaces like Kerala House, Manor Park, became important centres for maintaining musical and cultural traditions.
Sreejith Sreedharan describes the community spirit that developed through music:
“We formed a music group… We had these two or three guys who were reasonably good singers… We used to rehearse at Kerala House or at the London Tamil Sangam. We started playing Malayalam songs, Tamil songs, Bollywood songs — whatever people could dance to.”
Music was deeply tied to tradition and discipline, especially for younger generations. Pritam Singh Bamrah, founder of the Dhol Academy, remembers:
“We started with only a couple of players, and then in a couple of months we had 60 odd Dhol players, which was encouraging.”
Parminder Gill, who grew up in Newham and attended the Dhol Academy as a young person, recalls how music was always present at home:
“From a young age, family parties meant putting the stereo on, cassettes in, and everyone doing Bhangra — women, children, everybody. It’s in the blood”
Community centres, temples, and family spaces laid the groundwork for music to evolve, adapt, and flourish across generations.
Forging a British Asian Identity
For the second generation growing up in Newham, music was not just about holding onto traditions; it was about forging a new identity that connected their British upbringing with their South Asian heritage.
Prithpal Singh, a Newham-based musician who learned tabla at his local gurdwara, found music to be a bridge between worlds:
“It’s kind of like speaking Punjabi and English, but in the musical sense.”
For young people navigating their place in British society, music also provided a way to resist exclusion and express pride in their heritage. Sreejith Sreedharan, who migrated to Newham as a teenager and now works with the Malayalee Association of the UK (MAUK) in Newham, recalls finding his first sense of belonging after hearing Malayalam spoken in Plashet Park, East Ham.
“One day I heard some… youngsters swearing in Malayalam. And I’m like, ‘Oh, damn, who’s that swearing in Malayalam?’ So I went and introduced myself to them… we were all in the same boat. We all came during this, like teenage years, and we were all misfits, so I knew that’s where I belong.”
Through Kerala House, a community music troupe called Nisari was formed, bringing together amateur singers and musicians from the local Malayalee and Tamil communities. As Sreejith Sreedharan explains,
“We didn’t have a music group as such, so we reached out to the Tamil community… we practised at Kerala House and played mainly South Indian film songs, Malayalam songs, but also faster Tamil or Punjabi numbers to get people dancing.”
Nisari became an important part of community events such as weddings, Onam harvest festivals, and Christmas celebrations, offering a vital space for young people to celebrate their cultural heritage through music, even without formal training.
The evolving British Asian identity was also shaped by the rise of new social spaces — from community celebrations to the growing presence of daytime raves in the 1990s, where Bhangra, Bollywood, and drum and bass began to collide.
Musical Fusion and the Richness of Newham
Out of this diversity and resilience grew something new: a powerful musical fusion that reflected Newham’s melting pot. Lord Kimo, who moved to East Ham as a child and later joined Asian Dub Foundation, describes how Newham’s rich cultures shaped his sound:
“Musically, being around different backgrounds and cultures really, really inspired me. Indian cultures had different drums, Bengali music, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan — all of those things influenced me. Newham was like a melting pot in my music.”
Lord Kimo’s journey from community workshops to international stages shows how Newham’s cultural richness sparked creativity. As he recalls:
“I wasn’t the best child at the time… music saved my life. A youth worker said, ‘There’s a music workshop, would you like to get involved?’ That ten-week course turned into a lifetime.”
This environment of musical innovation fed into the Asian Underground movement, where traditional tabla rhythms mixed with electronic beats, creating something entirely new. As Prithpal Singh reflects:
“We mixed classical tabla with electronic beats, and suddenly, we were playing at clubs. It was traditional, but also totally new.”
Asian Dub Foundation was at the forefront of this wave, blending hip hop, drum and bass, reggae, and South Asian music into a sound that was fiercely political and proudly diverse. Hearing them for the first time had a profound impact on Lord Kimo, showing him that musical boundaries could be broken:
“It meant like there was no barriers. That’s how I looked at it. There is no holds bar in music. There is no holds bar in anything. There is no limits. That’s how I took it. That’s how I interpreted it. If they can do it, I can do it too.”
Screengrabs above from video shot at Boishakhi Mela, East Ham central park, 2023. See video on TikTok. Shot by BH Saymon.
A Soundtrack for the Borough
The music born out of Newham’s South Asian communities tells a story of migration, resilience, creativity, and evolution. From Bollywood cinemas to bhangra in community halls, tabla classes to underground electronic beats, the borough’s soundscape is as rich and varied as its people.
As Lord Kimo puts it best:
“Newham is not the most richest neighbourhoods there is, but it’s rich in culture and it’s rich in love.”
Do you have memories of music in Newham?
We are looking for people who would like to share their memories and experiences of music in Newham! In particular, we would love to hear from:
Women who have been part of Newham’s music scenes.
Anyone who remembers or took part in daytime raves in the 1990s.
If you have memories, photographs, flyers, or would be willing to take part in an interview, we would love to hear from you.
Contact us:
Phone: Jan — 07865 782 976 | Rose — 07880 399 420
Or fill in our online form to express your interest.
Help us build a fuller picture of Newham’s rich musical heritage!