OK, so I know L7 weren't named after a Liverpool postcode... but my cred is already in tatters, I'm not about to open a post with a picture of East 17.
Anyway, songs named after (British) postcodes. A challenge I just couldn't resist. I couldn't think of any named after American postcodes... or zip codes... though I'm happy for you to suggest them. The closest I came was Kitchen by The Lemonheads, because they were "thrilled to be in the same postcode as you".
Here's ten songs that even Postman Pat should be able to deliver to the right address...
10. Jonny Rubbish - Living In NW3 4JR
"A parody of the Sex Pistols." Which is all very good, but if ever there was a band that were perfectly capable of being a parody of themselves without any help from anyone else, it was the Sex Pistols.
Still, amusing for one or two listens.
9. Madness - NW5
Madness doing wot they do best. Singing abaht Lahndahn staff.
Yes I watched you climb up
I seen you come alive
From those very humble beginnings
In NW5
8. Saint Etienne - B92
No idea why Sarah and the boys think hate and fear is taking over Solihull, but why else would this tune be called B92?
And if it's not a postcode, then I respectfully submit this alternative: The Birdman of EC1.
7. Ian Brown - Longsight M13
Inner city Manchester... although the person who uploaded the song to youtube filled the video with pictures of the South Bank. You can imagine the comments!
Lets the stars shine onI was disappointed to learn that M5 by The Fall is about the motorway, not Salford.
Until the break of dawn
Let the stars shine on
And let her move, move like a queen
Of Longsight M13
6. Splodgenessabounds - I Fell In Love With A Female Plumber From Harlesden, NW10
He can't wait to see her again. At which point, he will probably buy her Two Pints of Lager & A Packet of Crisps.
5. Ride - OX4
Ride never went too far away from Oxford without getting homesick
4. Ray Davies - Yours Truly, Confused N10
Ray writes a letter to the editor from his home in Muswell Hill, complaining about the state of Britain today... a recurring theme from the infamous Little Englander.
I close my eyes and lay back and I think of EnglandThat's why I remain yours truly, confused N10
I dream about that green and pleasant land we knew as England
That throne of kings, that sceptred isle set in a silver sea
Has turned into a laughing stock divided without harmony
3. Skint & Demoralised - LS11 OES
I've never been a football fan, but I'm a huge fan of Matt 'Skint & Demoralised' Abbott, and although I've no interest in Leeds United (despite them being a local team to me and the team my dad followed when he was younger) I can hear Abbott's passion in every word of this chant.
2. The Pogues - NW3
I'd love to think this track was an autobiographical account of Shane's arrival in Hampstead...
When I got down to the smoke...except that he would have been 6 at the time. Still, this is Shane MacGowan we're talking about, so anything's possible.
It was 1963
I got a job doing meals on wheels
Round NW3
I was terrorising grannies
For ten lousy bob a week
I was smashed and blacked
And drunk and yawning in NW3
I stayed in Hampstead once. Walking down the street, I saw the "comedian" Michael McIntyre talking very loudly into his phone. I'm not a violent man, but I had to be physically restrained from punching him hard in the nose.
1. New Model Army - BD3
The track that inspired this particular Top 10, so I thought it deserved to be Number One. Despite working in Bradford for 20+ years of my life, I never really listened to one of the city's biggest bands while I was there (I was always more of a Terrorvision man) but I stumbled across this pretty recently and couldn't stop listening to it. Further investigation required...
We close early when the nights are slowVery appropriate lyrics for anyone living in Bradford. Unfortunately, when I google search Pudsey (BD3), all I get is hundred of pictures of the Children In Need bear. The video below is probably more accurate...
Hit the Shell garage, Thornton Road
Take a long drive up on the moors
Park up in a place we know
In the back seats getting stoned
To forget everything at home
Mess about with the bleeping phone
Gazing down on the city below
Where no one's really sure if this is home
And it's not where you're from or where you've been
It's not a matter of blood or of family tree
Everybody believes what they want to believe
But they come from some kind of refugee
Running from something, turned out of somewhere
All looking for somewhere, exiled from something
And no one's really sure if this is home
Know any other songs named after postcodes? Send your answers on a postcard.
Wow - impressive
ReplyDeleteThe American band BR-549 were named after a zip code
Would Ringo Starr's 'Liverpool 8' count?
ReplyDeleteOnly you Rol, could think of 10 songs referring to post codes.
ReplyDeleteFunny how some bands and artists are just so intrinsically linked to their home post code whereas others are so generic they could come from anywhere. There are several I always thought of as being American and they turned out to be British and vice versa. But I still have a soft spot for early E17 and my cred has always been in tatters so I can say it!
B92 is a postcode. I lived there for a a year before the social climbing to B91
ReplyDeleteGeneration X: Paradise West One
ReplyDeleteOur zip codes over here are five numbers, such as 61554. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue in song, does it? CC, I think BR549 was actually an old timey American phone number that was often used on Hee-Haw. Seriously. Rol, another list that leaves me in awe.
ReplyDeleteI stand correct Brian particularly given their first album cover is a telephone with said numbers and letters
ReplyDelete