If you'll write about the London music scene long enough, you'll eventually hear about the

cursed karaoke song. At this stage, it's become part open legend, part industry in joke.

The story goes that one of the city's first karaoke bars

opening Soho in the late 80s. Some people say

it was used by a criminal gang to launder money.

Others say it was a front for a demon worshipping cult.

I even heard one version where the owner had installed a haunted karaoke system from Japan.

Less creative types say it was just dodgy wiring. The outcome is always the same though.

The bar burned down to the ground in 1999, killing anyone unlucky enough to be there that night.

The victims of the blaze were somehow marked by a curse and can never move on to the afterlife.

So the souls are doomed to drift from bar to bar,

waiting for some unlucky punter to sing the last song played

before everything went up in smoke.

Strange things allegedly happened to the person afterwards. It starts off small, not

sleeping, hearing strange noises, your typical horror movie stables. It gets progressively worse until the poor side is so tormented

that they take their own life. The thing is, people can never agree on which song is supposedly cursed.

But someone always knows somebody who sang it, regardless of how tenuous the link is.

The hapless singer is usually an ex-colle uncle or second cousin of a roommate from

uni.

I suppose that's what makes it such a good story.

Ludicious but hard to completely debunk.

I had learned about the curse when I was writing for noteworthy.

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