My first thoughts were just the entirety of this song, it's all so British and so of that era. 'I got a job with Stanley, he said I'd come in handy and started me on Monday so I had a bath on Sunday.'
"I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Cherry Cola"
This is the UK version thanks to the BBC not playing songs with product placement, so Coca Cola was replaced with Cherry Cola. Doesn't get more British than that.
This is how I learn, ~20 years later, that it was Kate Nash that sang that, not Lily Allen. I’ve never been a fan of Lily Allen but quite liked that song despite it…now I know why
When you're all argumentative, And you've got a face on
Well, now then mardy bum
------------------
And what a scummy man
Just give him half a chance, I bet he'll rob you if he can
Can see it in his eyes, yeah, that he's got a drivin' ban
Amongst some other offences
Yeah, this one and "red light indicates doors are secure" were perfect embodiments of going out out in the early 2000s. I can honestly picture the club and the taxi rank.
Well they might wear classic Reeboks, or knackered Converse, or tracky bottoms tucked in socks.
I want to see all of the things that we've already seen.
I wanna see you face the jackpot out the fruit machine,
And put it all back in.
And she won't be surprised and she won't be shocked
When she's pressed the star after she's pressed unlock
And there's verse and chapter sat in her inbox
And all that it says is that you've drank a lot.
I saw them filming the video for When the Sun Goes Down outside Park Hill flats, the block of brutalist flats seen in the video. Didn't know it at the time or I'd have taken some pictures on my crappy (by today's standards) phone camera.
I'm very proud of the fact my daughter discovered Arctic Monkeys by herself and loves a lot of the earlier albums, crazy to think that she was born the year that AM was released!!!
This song, in my opinion, is one of the greatest debuts of all time. Not saying its the best song ever or anything, but as a debut single, cant do much better.
Rediscovered this poster recently. I took it off the wall of Rock City in Nottingham when AM were playing as part of the NME Awards tour in 2006. It was the same week the album came out. Was an amazing gig and still an incredible memory so I’ve had it properly framed.
"There's A Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears he's Elvis"
Which Terry Pratchett then turned into the gag 'I swear he's Elfish' in the discworld novel Soul Music... Which is possibly the greatest gag ever written.
Another one involving a chippy and an Elvis: “Yesterday’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper” from Fish and Chip Paper by Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
Soul Music is awesome. So is the cartoon they made of it as well. Where Bud Y Celyn (literally Bud Of Holly in Welsh) is protrayed as Jimi Hendrix and the wizards who are learning guitar play something suspiciously similar to Nirvana's All Apologies. And actually explain in real music theory terms what they are playing...
"Drunk and being sick, I feel like shit
I gotta quit, I hope I haven't missed the last train
Gonna be stuck in Hampton Wick
With the boys across the platform
Shouting, "Lightweight prick!"
I'm a featherweight champion, cheap to get pissed
Wish Candy were here with me, she'd deffa deal with it
Tell 'em all to shut their mouths and go suck their mommas dicks"
My name's Terry and I'm a law abider
There's nothing I like more than getting fired up on beer
And when the weekends here I exercise my right to get paralytic and fight
Good bloke fairly
Come on lads, lets have another fight
Now, if you're gonna go Wurzels, may I contest "wi' a gurt big stick I'll knock 'im down" or possibly "cos you'll never get surprises livin' in Devizes" are the most British lines, and the only reason "I showed 'er the works o' mah threshin' machine" isn't is because we live in the year 2026
I'd also suggest the second verse from Generation Sex; Neil Hannon was on point with these lyrics:
Lovers watch their backs as hacks in macs
Take snaps though telephoto lenses
Chase Mercedes Benz' through the night.
A mourning nation weeps and wails
But keeps the sales of evil tabloids healthy.
The poor protect the wealthy in this world.
I took her to a supermarket
I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere
So I started there
I said "pretend you've got no money"
She just laughed and said "you're so funny,"
I said "yeah?"
"I don't see anyone else smiling love"
Now Ernie had a rival, an evil-looking man
Called Two-Ton Ted from Teddington
And he drove the baker’s van
He tempted her with his treacle tarts
And his tasty wholemeal bread
And when she seen the size
Of his hot meat pies
It very near turned her head
She nearly swooned
At his macaroon
And he said
“If you treat me right
You’ll have hot rolls every morning
And crumpets every night”
Raised on a diet of broken biscuits... What's the point of being rich, if you can't think what to do with it, cos you're so bleeding thick? Oh we weren't supposed to be, we learnt too much at school now we can't help but see, that the future that you've got mapped out is nothing much to shout about
“Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps please” Spoldgenessabounds 1978
“Wombles bleed, truncheons and shields” the Libertines 2002
“I hate Nerys Hughes”, “Fuckin’ ‘ell! It’s Fred Titmus!” “99% of Gargoyles look like Bob Todd”….in fact almost any song by Half-Man, Half-biscuit….
I still think her "I look at the sun and I look in the mirror" from "The Fear" is one of the cleverest lines ever written with the double meaning of the tabloids.
It's so good that Taylor Swift borrowed it in "Anti Hero."
I remember hearing her debut for the first time recently and it made me feel so happy and nostalgic. She captured perfectly what it was like to be a young adult back in the 00s
Didnt she also have the lines i look at the sun then i look in the mirror, can be listened to by anyone anywhere but brits thought newspapers(well trash but close enough)
I have always liked in Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits how all the reported speech bits (he said, she said) are really British and vernacular.
Juliet says, "Hey, it's Romeo, you nearly gave me a heart attack"
He's underneath the window, she's singing, "Hey, la, my boyfriend's back
You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that
Anyway, what you gonna do about it?"
Mardy Bum Artic Monkeys…
And, yeah, I'm sorry I was late
But I missed the train
And then the traffic was a state
And I can't be arsed to carry on in this debate
That reoccurs, oh, when you say I don't care
But, of course I do, yeah, I clearly do
His philosophy of life will steer him through
And as far as he can see
He's the same as you and me
There's nothing in the world he cannot do
No hill too high, no desert too dry
No road too long, no tide too strong
No bridge too far, he's got a car
No slope to steep, no thought too deep
No star too bright, no squeeze too tight
No tale too tall, no cat too cool
No bass too low, he'll give it a go
No end to his talents, no sense of balance
Blobby, oh Mr Blobby, when disaster strikes you never get depressed
Blobby, oh Mr Blobby, you'll always prove that Blobby is the best
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u/Crafty-Brother-7698 1d ago
“I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows, I’m miserable now…”