Meet The Cockney Sikh: Suresh Singh in His Own Words At Islington Radio, we love hearing from people who’ve shaped their world through music, culture, and creativity—and few have done it quite like Suresh Singh, better known as The Cockney Sikh. Born and raised in Spitalfields, Suresh is a living bridge between East End punk, Sikh tradition, and architectural heritage. A trained joiner, an architect, a musician, and a storyteller with deep roots and louder drums—his journey is anything but ordinary.
We caught up with him to talk names, punk rebellion, his father’s quiet defiance, and that £25 drum kit that started it all.
Islington radio’s q&a with Suresh Singh
Who are you?
Q: What’s with your name The Cockney Sikh and how did it come about?
Suresh: I was born 20 April 1962 in Mile End Hospital and brought up in Princelet Street, Spitalfields, E1, that makes me a Cockney propppar. My Dad was a Sikh and I loved and followed him. So I love the sound of the Cockney Sikh, you know what I mean.
Q: You speak about your family a lot, especially your dad. What made him so important in your life?
Suresh: My parents’ acceptance of punk made me feel that it was of value and gave me more confidence in my own anarchic understanding of what was valuable in life. Dad was the same. He was holding two fingers up to the gurdwaras and the Sikhs, because he had his own way of living and being a Sikh. If your parents love and support you, you do not need to rebel against them because you know that they value you as an individual in your own right. Dad did not want to create another Joginder Singh, he wanted me to find my own identity as Suresh without losing my Sikhi.
Q: You’ve got an interesting professional back story, including being a qualified architect. Tell us about it.
Suresh: I worked on many Grade 2 houses in my area in Spitalfields in the 1980’s as a qualified joiner. The Rector of Christ Church Spitalfields Grade 1 Church by Nicholas Hawskmoor the late Eddy Stride said, Suresh you have a wonderful eye for architecture’, so I finished my studies at the Russell Group UCL – The Bartlett School of Architecture. I know Dad would have been proud because he could not read or write.
Q: Music has been a big part of your life. Where did it all start?
Suresh: I learnt the classical flute from the age of five, because mum said, ‘you must play the flute, because Lord Krishna plays the flute’ but come Punk in 1977 I said fuck the flute and started banging on pans and got my self a second hand drum kit at the back of the Melody Maker for £25. I was fifteen years of age.
Q: Would it be fair to call you a bit of a maverick?
Suresh: Dad always said, ‘If your ego overrides you, you’ve had it. When that happens, just ship out.’ So I keep to the time to be in the world and not of it.
Inspiration
Q: We love the fact that you’re doing all this at your age. What was your inspiration?
Suresh: My Sikhi gives me energy. Dad said ‘If you are in divine love everything will become unique’ Being a punjabi punk I felt totally unique, well not totally unique but my drumming I could call my own. I was not trying to imitate anyone for Dad’s sake but rather invent a new sound that was mine. That was after all the message of punk for me …individual creativity and I love Mum and Dad for allowing me to be absorbed in it. It was exciting because it had an element of adventure. As Dad always said ‘If you’re in divine love, then each day is different and holds a new story.
Q: You’ve written a book too. What’s it about?
Suresh: A Modest Living – Memoirs of a Cockney Sikh is published by Spitalfields Life and is a love story to my Dad. I want people to know Dad’s story because he was a one-off. He was not your stereotypical Sikh, your stereotypical Punjabi or your stereotypical Sufi. Dad would be proud to see this book because he could not read or write. Without it, where would the pictures of him be now? They might have been lost or ended up in a skip. So I have written it for him, to remember everything he did.
Q: You’re also a teacher and mentor to disadvantaged kids. Please tell us more.
Suresh: I love my work, which I’ve been doing for nearly forty years, which is working with and teaching disdavatages teeangers in East London. They inspire me, fill me with a sense of purpose and make me realise that I would rather spend my life working with them. They have such tremendous energy in the way they ask questions and I enjoy their curiosity. I love my job as a teacher.
Back then…
Q: You were a punk back in the day. How did that go down back in the day when Britain was quite racist?
Suresh: As an adolescent I loved the idea of not conforming – not being different just for the sake of it but to avoid becoming part of the status quo. By questioning, I learned different ways of doing things and different ways of thinking. It taught me to consider the value of things and resist becoming set in my ideas. At that time, black culture was becoming more accepted in this country and, through sharing music, people learned to respect other cultures. Most important for me was that I was not rebelling against my parents, I was an outsider. I was not inside the white community, I was not inside the Bengali community and I was not inside the Sikh community either, because Dad did not want me to be a stereotypical Sikh. So instead I chose the freedom of an anarchic existence. I remember seeing a skinhead band called Screwdriver, in the student union bar at the Polytechnic in Whitechapel. The audience were entirely skinheads and I thought, ‘Oh shit, I’m going to die,’ because I was the only Asian there. But I am still here. At the Marquee in Soho, I went to see Generation X and Boomtown Rats. At the Acklam Hall in Portobello, I saw The Fall. All for fifty pence. Through word of mouth, I was able to catch Blues Dub sound systems nights in big basements in Notting Hill. These were exciting times.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to your 16 year old self, what would it be?
Suresh: Love in Divine Love with no me , be humble, be kind, peaceful and enjoy being 16 my Ji’s.
Terry D
22nd May 2025
“Love in Divine Love with no me , be humble, be kind, peaceful and enjoy being 16 my Ji’s.”
The Cockney Sikh