Songs that namecheck your home town

It occurred to me that I can only think of one instance where my county gets name checked in a song.

I don’t live in a town so by the terms of my own thread can only score quite low on geographic accuracy where street name scores highest, then district of town or city, then town/village, then county scores lowest

We’re playing the Bosworth variant so – people from Manchester have a 10 point handicap, anyone posting songs by the KLF or the Proclaimers goes straight jail without passing go or collecting £200. 3 points gets you £60 or a speed awareness course, 12 points gets a 2 year ban

Songs you actually like score double.

Breaking the forum scores 502

Include the line in the post so we don’t all have to to listen to the whole song

so I’ll start with a low scoring Bass Maccaw and Broken Bottles by Vivian Stanshall

We’ll bring a little piece of you hours of release
But the price I’m paying
I’m just a little girl from Ayrshire
Where-shire? No-shire
Here-I-go-shire
Read my label
I’m unable to –  och, och away so
Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t let me in

What’s that Proclaimers rule?

And..

To be fair, not much rhymes with Nairobi 🤔

The northern lights of old Aberdeen
Mean home sweet home to me
The northern lights of old Aberdeen
Are what I long to see.

Whats wrong with the proclaimers – I live in Leith so excluding them is biased and unfair on me!

Ok – they are pish !

I am not too sure anyone has written a song that includes Shoreham-by-Sea … nor my birth town.
( I am wrong Dear Sarah She by John Vanderslice)

So Brighton … Brighton Rock – Queen
Pinball Wizard
Fat Boy Slim – You’re not from Brighton

Written by a classmate at school.

I know of no others.

To be fair, not much rhymes with Nairobi

gets a name check in Runaway by Janet Jackson :-)

Stockport gets a glowing reference in ‘Northenden’ by Doves:

**** Longsight
And Levenshulme
Same goes for Stockport and Hulme
We doing alright
Just post-house blues
Cos this is northenden in the afternoon

Strangely enough, for such a sh*thoe district of Manchester, longsight also gets a reference in ‘Longsight m13’ by Ian Brown and ‘Daybreak’ by stone roses. Probably more, I always had it as a gang infested armpit of South Manchester but apparently it’s a songwriters muse

Joyful Kilmarnock Blues by the Procla…

Oh.

Never mind

I’m sure there are a few songs that namecheck Newcastle, but this kind of blew my mind when I was 18:

I copied and pasted the doves lyrics from this website :https://genius.com/

Which lets you search for any lyrical references in their database which I guess is like bringing a smart phone to a pub quiz for the purposes of this thread

There’s 3 Slowthai tracks with Northampton mentioned. No real surprise as he’s from Shoe Town.

B.L.M By The Specials is probably cooler.

Or there’s this –

I am currently residing in the gloriously named Nempnett Thrubwell in Somerset.  The Wurzels are locals, but I didn’t realise that Acker Bilk (also local) recorded a cover.  That’s proper celebrity!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOdpfsCj-jQ

If you find life a race, you just can’t stand the pace,
Come with me to the West Country – the perfect hiding place:

Pack your bags, and make your way to Somerset, and I will lay
Ten to one you’ll wanna stay down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
There’s not a pub, there ain’t a shop, you never see a traffic cop
Drink up, and no-one says “stop”, down in Nempnett Thrubwell…

I’m not posting it, but Abba’s first single* Eurovision entry (if you add ‘ville’ to it :D )
Does that count?

*how am I supposed to know that Ring Ring was their first bloody single?!

Blindness by the Fall.

There’s a version that name checks Hebden Bridge. (there’s also a version that doesn’t) but this being a Fall song, that’s to be expected I guess.

Not my home town but the Streets name checked a bar I used to manage in one of their songs.

Youtube search reveals only one:

Holy crap! Educator wins sexiest video anyway. :D

Don’t think my current location is covered, but where I spent my first 6 months gets namechecked by Alexi Sayle in “Ullo John, got a new Motor”.

Thought my place of birth gets mentioned in Julian Cope’s Promised Land, but it’s only in his sleeve notes to the song

Educator wins sexiest video anyway.

Maybe Brexit has a positive after all if we can get away from that!

Ever since the chattering classes invaded hebden bridge…..
Definitely the better option over the wee Kirkcudbright centipede…
Edit. where’d the link go?

Scores no points but Lee Scratch Perry’s latest album is named after the village I grew up in

EDIT I stand corrected – its not his latest album – he released it last year…. and he’s released five (FIVE FFS) albums since. Thats more than most musicians can hope to release in a whole career.

He’s release 25 albums since he turned 70.

All I can find is a Squeeze B-side, name only appears in the song title, not the lyrics though.

County is mentioned in Buck Rogers by Feeder. No mention of Chagford anywhere, that I can find…

A whole sixties paradise/love-in ditty about Abergavenny

Abergavenny – Marty Wilde

Anyone from Cwmbran? Love this:

Fresh Prince of Cwmbran – Goldie Lookin Chain

Have to do it for him, but Singletrackmind’s town has the best song named after it. Not sure if mentioned in the lyrics though

Simple Minds…… Belfast Child.

Nuff said really. I’m from Belfast and have a very simple mind. It’s like Jim Kerr knew my mum or something! Spooky!

Not specifically the town but mentions the suburbs

But my family are originally from

Good Evening.

I’m from Essex…

A bit of 80’s Manchester indie music for you. Monkeyland or Monkey Town is my home town. (The Chameleons being from the next town over, Middleton “home of British Vitafoam”)

“It’s not known exactly when Heywood first got the nickname “Monkey Town” but the term was being used as far back as 1857. Bob Dobson in ‘Lancashire Nicknames & Sayings’ states that the nickname originated from Irish immigrants pronouncing ‘Heap Bridge’ as ‘Ape Bridge,’ and believes that the name ‘Monkey Town’ derived from this. With the nickname came the stools with holes in them – supposedly for the monkey’s tails. In fact the holes were for carrying the stools.”

A fine tune @dezb

Sweet in winter sweet in rain
Shake well before use she said
You never touch me anymore this way
Connector in
Receiver out
You let me in through the back door
Ride the sainted rhythms on the midnight train to romford
Ride the sainted rhythms

Dirty Epic Underworld.

Choon.

Whitley Bay and the Spanish City

Dire Straits – Tunnel of Love

Tunnel of Love

Black Country Woman – Led Zep.

A town called malice by The Jam.

“You’re not from New York city, you’re from Rotherham”

I’ll let you guess which is my home town.

Same song also referenced where I was actually living at the time too…

“He talks of San Francisco, he’s from Hunter’s Bar”

My home town gets a namecheck in a Supertramp song, Rudy, from Crime Of The Century.
It’s the only album of theirs I’ve got, because it’s the only one I like, and even better, they played Chippenham Technical College just before the album came out, and I’ve got a tour poster for the gig upstairs on my bedroom wall.
There’s a London Paddington station announcer at 3:30, lists the stations from London, Reading, Didcot, Swindon, Chippenham, Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads, passengers for Ramsey, change at Didcot!
😎
https://vimeo.com/298415442

Panic by the Smiths, basically a list of towns, feels like cheating. I don’t think the Who’s live album mentions where it was recorded other than in the title? I’m guessing that football songs aren’t allowed. So that leaves:

Nobody ever gets away
Even the best of us come back some day
To the unmarked rooms, where the dry dust breeds
Andrew Eldritch is moving back to Leeds

… thanks Google. Forgotten the name of the band already but I quite like that.