Curve Garden friendship brings a lost 1963 song to life

A song written in 1963 has finally been recorded and released – 63 years after its songwriter first put pen to paper.

Justin Lewis, a Jamaican-born Hackney local, wrote “You’ll Never Know” while serving as an airman with the RAF in Cyprus, his girlfriend back home in the UK. When he returned on leave, things weren’t quite as he’d hoped. “It turned out that the young lady wasn’t quite faithful to me. We made it up, but when I went back to Cyprus after the month in England it turned out that it just wasn’t going to work. So I felt quite sad and I sat down and wrote the words.” It was “a bit of therapy”, he says.

The first – and only – song he ever wrote then stayed with him for more than six decades, until he found it again by chance while clearing out his house. “Three years ago I lost my late wife,” he tells me. “I was trying to neaten and tidy up the place, and I found this song. I saw it again and something in me said, ‘Well, take it to the Garden and talk to the chaps about it.’”

Justin is part of the Hackney Dudes, a group of older local men who gather each week at Dalston Eastern Curve Garden. Jonny P Taylor was working at the garden, and the two struck up a friendship. “Justin and I met because he was constantly coming in, and he’s such a bright person who lit up the garden every time he walked in,” Jonny says. “He’s the kind of guy you meet, and you find out more and more – and you suddenly realise how much extraordinary history he’s been a part of.”

Manuscript

When Justin showed Jonny the manuscript of “You’ll Never Know”, Jonny knew he wanted to be involved. “We met up in Stoke Newington in the church [the Unitarian Newington Green Meeting House],” Jonny tells me. “Justin hummed it to me with a nice baritone, but he didn’t want to sing it. And I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And he very sweetly said, ‘No, I want you to sing it.’” Jonny’s a Hackney-based singer-songwriter who has appeared on line-ups with London Grammar, Imogen Heap and supported Bob Geldof at the Hammersmith Apollo. His own songwriting has caught the attention of Elton John, who publicly praised his work and featured his music on Elton John’s Rocket Hour.

Jonny was able to make some changes where needed, including adding a chorus, while trying to keep the original spirit of the song intact. “He was flying as a pilot, so you’ve got lyrics like ‘I’m in the air, never come down’ as a kind of call and response. I think I was initially very moved by his stream-of-consciousness lyrics: ‘Good luck to someone who’s kissing you now. I guess I knew you’d leave me, but we’ll get along somehow’.” The song was produced by Danny Monk and recorded at Nickel Studio in Baker Street, with Jonny playing all the instruments and singing the harmonies on the track. Justin was there for the whole recording. “His voice is good, you know, and it fits the song beautifully,” Justin says.

“You’ll Never Know” was released on 1 September, ahead of a film currently being made about Justin’s life and family history. His father, Ed “Bim” Lewis, was one half of the pioneering Jamaican comedy and music duo Bim and Bam, whose performances helped open doors for Black Caribbean performers across the diaspora. Justin went on to design some of Britain’s first Afrocentric greetings cards, and even appeared as a Stromberg guard in the Roger Moore Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me. 

Justin has lived in Hackney since 1979 and hasn’t looked back. “At the time it wasn’t so wonderful, but now it’s so vibrant. I love it. It’s different up here. Friday, Saturday evening around Stoke Newington and Kingsland High Street, it’s like the West End – and it’s full, it’s buzzing, lots of restaurants and strange-looking people,” he says, laughing.

Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, where Justin met Jonny, he describes as “an oasis in a concrete desert”. Created as a community space for the people of Hackney to gather, it feels like a fitting place for an unlikely friendship that would bring a 63-year-old song back to life. Now, he’s in talks with the Hackney Dudes band about performing “You’ll Never Know” live in the garden. For a song that started life in Cyprus in 1963, it’s been on quite a journey.