modest british place names in song

[BCBlues]

How can we forget modest Newport

 

[Steel Icarus]

Flanders and Swann's beautiful Slow Train

Flanders & Swann - Slow Train Lyrics | Musixmatch

 

[isvicthere?]

Don't think 'Birmingham' by Randy Newman counts.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Box Hill in Richard Thompson's Vincent Black Lightning.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

June 4th, 1989, Primrose Hill, Staten Island
Chalk Farm, Massif Central, Gospel Oak, Sao Paolo
Boston Manor, Costa Rica, Arnos Grove
San Clemente, Tufnell Park, Gracetown, York Way

Videoton, Clerkenwell, Portobello, Maida Vale
Old Ford, Valencia, Kennington, Galveston
Holland Park, Studamer, Dollis Hill, Fougeres
London Fields, Bratislava, Haggerston

Lavinia, Canonbury, Alice Springs
Tooting Graveney, Baffin Island
Pollard's Hill, Winnepeg, Plumstead Common
Hyderabad, Silvertown, Buffalo

from 'Girl VII', Saint Etienne

 

[hash tag]

Chas and Dave went down to Margate.

Billericay Dickie and Plaistow Patricia by Ian Dury

Ian's fave I believe was Harold Hill who came from Harold hill.

There will be many from Chas and Dave and the late great Ian Dury.

 

[stavros]

 

[stavros]

A whole album:

 

[scifisam]

How can we forget modest Newport

I was thinking of suggesting that. One of the best parody songs there is.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

the belle of snodland / last tango in snodland, judge dread

 

[mx wcfc]

How could I forget the Fractured Classic "Mid Table".

Grimsby, Boston, Bury, Macclesfield, Torquay, Lincoln, Rochdale and Darlington all get a name check.



They do a version in german as well with similar german lower league clubs (I think - I don't speak any german).

 

[mx wcfc]

A few years ago, 6 Music dj Chris Hawkins did a thing where listeners had to find a song mentioning one of the 92 league clubs. They faltered when they came to Reading (YOU R's!!11) because the search engines couldn't distinguish between reading and Reading.

Anyway, when they had done the 92, he threw it open to non-league towns and someone sent in a song mentioning Basingstoke, which also mentioned Reading. I can't find it now, but I have found another song mentioning both Basingstoke and the 'Ding - two more modest towns you couldn't hope to find separated by a short train journey.



Sadly the lyrics of the Deckchairs classic "The Ballad of Robin Friday" doesn't actually mention the word "Reading", but I'm going off topic now. He was the greatest footballer you never saw though.

 

[skyscraper101]

Morrissey - Dagenham Dave

 

[mx wcfc]

Morrissey - Dagenham Dave

Bugger that. The Stranglers "Dagenham Dave"

 

[Sue]

The Proclaimers, Letter from America. Wester Ross, Sutherland, Skye, Lochaber, Linwood, Irvine, Methil, Bathgate...

 

[skyscraper101]

Goldie Lookin Chain - Straight Outta Newport

 

[skyscraper101]

Levellers - Belarus

 

[Puddy_Tat]

on porthcawl sands, songdog

maidstone, squeeze

king george street, squeeze (a back street in greenwich)

squeeze's 'pulling mussels from the shell' mentions camber sands

the jam's 'saturday's kids' mentions Selsey Bill and Bracklesham Bay

 

[Steel Icarus]

Levellers - Belarus

Famously not a British location

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Top 5 West Midlands. Two band names. Plus the shit OCS:

Felt - Mobile Shack (Edgbaston)
Go Kart Mozart - West Brom Blues
Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution
The Streets - Turn the Page (The Bullring in brum)
Broadcast- Michael A Grammer (Chelmsley wood)


Black Country, New Road
Black Country Communion

Ocean Colour Scene - Moseley Shoals

 

[skyscraper101]

Famously not a British location

Never heard of ‘Belarus Way’ in Bognor Regis?

 

[mx wcfc]

Never heard of ‘Belarus Way’ in Bognor Regis?

Bognor gets a mention in Attila the Stockbroker's "Holiday in Albania" . The exact words are "Bognor remains a plague-ridden hole".

 

[planetgeli]

There’s a new(ish) Underworld track with a chorus that is a litany of place names suggested by the Guardian journalist Aditya Chakrabortty. I won’t name them but if you missed it I urge you to read his article, which is one of the best/most readable things I’ve read in the Guardian in months.

Born lippy: how I helped Underworld write a socialist banger

 

[Steel Icarus]

Live in Grimsby is a song by Bomb Disneyland

 

[belboid]

Julian Cope does "Liver as Big as Hartlepool" as an 'answer song' to Pete Wylie's "Heart as Big as Liverpool"

 

[what]

Archway People by Saint Etienne

 

[what]

Does Waterloo Sunset count

 

[hippogriff]

Does Waterloo Sunset count

Mentions Waterloo Station and Waterloo Underground in the lyrics

Also the Kinks:

Willesden Green, Fulham Broadway and Golders Green, also Muswell Hill

 

[mx wcfc]

If we are taking parts of London, Eastfield's "Second fastest cycle courier in London" features
Bishopsgate, Euston Road, Kingsland Road, St Pancras, Camden Town, Canonbury and Kentish Town West.

 

[tim]

This put me if North Wales for years