Songs about small-time violence in British towns

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Jake Bugg - Seen It All
Man Like Me - Booze

more?

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 28 May 2016 15:31 (seven years ago) link

Wild Beasts - Hooting & Howling

nate woolls, Saturday, 28 May 2016 15:41 (seven years ago) link

The Jam - Down At The Tube Station At Midnight

Cosmic Slop, Saturday, 28 May 2016 15:45 (seven years ago) link

The Smiths - Rushholme Ruffians, Sweet & Tender Hooligan

lingereffect (Kent Burt), Saturday, 28 May 2016 15:53 (seven years ago) link

The Specials - Ghost Town
Elton John - Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

Probably most Sham 69 songs?

emil.y, Saturday, 28 May 2016 15:55 (seven years ago) link

Fatal Microbes - Violence Grows

Gavin, Leeds, Saturday, 28 May 2016 16:01 (seven years ago) link

Arctic Monkeys first album

Dr X O'Skeleton, Saturday, 28 May 2016 16:43 (seven years ago) link

XTC, "Super-Tuff"

Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Saturday, 28 May 2016 17:43 (seven years ago) link

Surely must be at least one Fall song. "Hard Life In Country" ends with:

"The villagers
Are surrounding the house
The locals have come for their due
It's hard to live in the country"

Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Saturday, 28 May 2016 17:47 (seven years ago) link

That sounds fairly big-time!

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 28 May 2016 17:48 (seven years ago) link

The Chameleons — 'A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days'

Austin, Saturday, 28 May 2016 17:51 (seven years ago) link

The ruts - staring at the rude boys
the beat - two swords

real orgone kid (NickB), Saturday, 28 May 2016 17:53 (seven years ago) link

Getting beaten up - The Piranhas ("it's part of growing up")

Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Saturday, 28 May 2016 17:55 (seven years ago) link

The Specials have Concrete Jungle, Dawning Of A New Era and Stupid Marriage as well, probably some others as well.

"small-time violence in British towns" seems like it's lurking in the background of a lot of songs by the Passage

soref, Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:00 (seven years ago) link

Mott the Hoople - 'Violence'

get on (down) / to the funky (sound) / of (snoball), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:02 (seven years ago) link

Suede - 'We Are The Pigs'

get on (down) / to the funky (sound) / of (snoball), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:03 (seven years ago) link

Throbbing Gristle, "Last Exit'

... actually a sort of forerunner of "Down in the Tube Station", now I come to think of it.

Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:03 (seven years ago) link

... though in this song, the protagonist is hit on the head with a brick, loses a couple of teeth, and has a strange delirious reverie underneath a poster of the Queen and Prince Philip where he imagines them having anal sex.

Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:07 (seven years ago) link

lol, Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict a Riot

emil.y, Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:07 (seven years ago) link

(You could argue that a riot is not small-time, but I would state that "watching the people get lairy" is v small-time small-town Brit violence)

emil.y, Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:08 (seven years ago) link

Radiohead - 'A Punch Up At A Wedding'

get on (down) / to the funky (sound) / of (snoball), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:10 (seven years ago) link

Intensive Care by Peter And The Test Tube Babies

I've just been beaten-up by a ted, because of our song " Elvis is dead "
He rearranged my teeth though he weren't a dentist, I would have run away but I was a bit pissed

also, pretty much every other song from the Oi! complilations

most of these are from the punk/new wave era, was that the peak of "songs about small-time violence in British towns", or just the era that most ppl posting to this thread are most familiar with?

soref, Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:12 (seven years ago) link

The Sex Pistols - 'No Feelings'

get on (down) / to the funky (sound) / of (snoball), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:18 (seven years ago) link

I was thinking earlier that there must be plenty of Mod songs about small time violence in British towns, but aside from The Jam tune mentioned above I can't think of any. I was sure that there must have been a couple of songs like that from The Who, but nothing really.

get on (down) / to the funky (sound) / of (snoball), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:22 (seven years ago) link

(OK there's the "throwing punches around" line from 'Who Are You')

get on (down) / to the funky (sound) / of (snoball), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:24 (seven years ago) link

Rezillos version of "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite" by Fleetwood Mac (I thought that this was a Rezillos original for years) (though the FM version is done in a faux-american style and doesn't really fit here, it's really only the Rezillos version which adds the small British town vibe)

soref, Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:29 (seven years ago) link

The apparently tongue in cheek/parodic but still relatively unforgivable Macc Lads ad nauseum.

Doran, Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:36 (seven years ago) link

I meant satirical not parodic.

Doran, Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:37 (seven years ago) link

Surely must be at least one Fall song. "Hard Life In Country" ends with:

"The villagers
Are surrounding the house
The locals have come for their due
It's hard to live in the country"

― Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Saturday, May 28, 2016 5:47 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The correct answer is Ol' Gang

And the cry rang out all o'er the town / Good Heavens! Tay is down (imago), Saturday, 28 May 2016 18:39 (seven years ago) link

You rang?

Blitz - Razors in the Night
Blitz - Someone's Gonna Die
Last Resort - Violence in our Minds
Terrible Twins - Generation of Scars
Special Duties - Violent Society
Criminal Class - Blood on the Streets
The Oppressed - Ultra Violence
Cockney Rejects - Fighting in the Streets
Cockney Rejects - Oi! Oi! Oi!
Toy Dolls - Fisticuffs in Frederick Street

Just noise and screaming and no musical value at all. (Colonel Poo), Saturday, 28 May 2016 19:11 (seven years ago) link

Luke Haines must have a million of these solo and with The Auteurs.

kornrulez6969, Saturday, 28 May 2016 23:46 (seven years ago) link

black sabbath - fairies wear boots

lute bro (brimstead), Saturday, 28 May 2016 23:46 (seven years ago) link

The Exploited - "Dead Cities"

Neptune Bingo (Michael B), Sunday, 29 May 2016 00:01 (seven years ago) link

The Wurzels - Utter Inability to Read a Thread Title

Noodle Vague, Sunday, 29 May 2016 00:33 (seven years ago) link

Everything but the Girl - Hatfield

that's not my post, Sunday, 29 May 2016 01:10 (seven years ago) link

Luke Haines - Fighting In the City Tonight

kornrulez6969, Sunday, 29 May 2016 01:15 (seven years ago) link

si begg - hornsey slap

KitevsPill, Sunday, 29 May 2016 01:25 (seven years ago) link

Belle & Sebastian - I Could Be Dreaming

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 29 May 2016 02:54 (seven years ago) link

The Who--Cousin Kevin

kornrulez6969, Sunday, 29 May 2016 03:55 (seven years ago) link

Bronski Beat - "Small Town Boy"

LeRooLeRoo, Sunday, 29 May 2016 14:01 (seven years ago) link

Pulp - misshapes

plums (a hoy hoy), Sunday, 29 May 2016 14:08 (seven years ago) link

nah that's about oik insurrection afaict

soz jarv

Yes - doesn't have the pointlessness required by the thread title

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 29 May 2016 15:09 (seven years ago) link

I heartily apologise and i'll go drink some carling black label and go push someone a bit different around to make amends

plums (a hoy hoy), Sunday, 29 May 2016 15:39 (seven years ago) link

That sounds about right

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 29 May 2016 15:47 (seven years ago) link

how have we not had 'the battle of epping forest' yet btw

oh it is because peter gabriel is a ponce who should stay out of it

/thrown stone in glasshouse

I'm sure something by Joe Harriott was attempting to evoke this without naming it.

calzino, Sunday, 29 May 2016 15:51 (seven years ago) link

just putting these down here because they apparently don't exist anywhere else on the Internet
--

I walked in the bar, and immediately I sensed
The danger that was posed in front of me
There stood
Pissed up lads with loafers on their feet
Askin'
Who I was, and threatening me

And I said
first name: Man
middle name: Like
last name : Me

Say what?

I said
first name: Man
middle name: Like
last name : Me

And you are?

Just a couple of fools who can't handle their booze.
And we're gonna beat you with our brand-new loafer shoes.

999 on Friday night
Sirens screaming, flashing light
Boozed up boys in city centres
Confrontation through the nation

So I walk down the street on a Saturday night
And laugh at how our country's so lightweight
We got couples having barney in the street
Cause they drank too much damn WKD

Now we know everyone enjoys a drama
An innocent girl with a boozed up boyfriend who wants to harm her
It's not right, it's not nice, use your brain
Cut back on the booze and the drugs - especially cocaine

And I said
first name: Man
middle name: Like
last name : Me

Say what?

I said
first name: Man
middle name: Like
last name : Me

And you are?

Just a couple of fools who can't handle their booze.
And we're gonna beat you with our brand-new loafer shoes.

999 on Friday night
Sirens screaming, flashing light
Boozed up boys in city centres
Confrontation through the nation

Yes, I am blanking you
I'll admit to ignoring you

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 29 May 2016 15:55 (seven years ago) link

Sudden Sway, "Barmy Army"

"Last of the few of the Nottingham Crew
are you dead or on cola and aspirin?"

Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Sunday, 29 May 2016 16:00 (seven years ago) link


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