British People in Hot Weather

Lyrics

(1)      

Fill green envelopes and send them to ya (2)
On train ride, read Marx tracts
Play walkmans loud behind ya
Demonstrate on Oxford Street
About what the Hell they couldn't tell ya
British people in hot weather
Have a heart-to-heart with your sister
People in shorts drunk before ya
Beached whale in Wapping (3)
His armpit hairs are sprouting
Serpentine ah.... Serpentine grrr...
British people in hot weather

Press hot houses waste tree statements (4)
Compare your pearls before the King of Mongs (5)
I'm telling ya, oh
Do they know they can get cancer?
Designer tramp goes grrr...
Looking jolly from Stoke (6)
As he walks through and makes up
Titles like this, to order
They're well off their trolley
Smoking like a chimney
Bespectacled stare-out
British people in hot weather

I was a candidate for club 18-30 (7)
but I've been through all that shit before
British people in hot weather
That's it, I'm looking straight for the car
If that's how you feel, let's go
British people in hot weather

Notes

1. The obvious reference for this song is Noel Coward's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," a song mocking the British habit of eschewing a siesta in all the hotter colonies, where the natives are bemused by this behavior. The Fall would later entitle a track "Mad.Men-Eng.Dog." Coincidence? Hardly.  

^

2.  During World War I, British soldiers were issued a certain number of green envelopes; a letter sent in such an envelope would not be censored by the commanding officer on site (although still would be censored at the Base), and the soldier to whom they were issued had to agree to talk about nothing but private matters.  

^

3. Wapping is a riverside district in East London, and there's also a Wapping Dock in Liverpool. The "beached whale" would be a (overweight and perhaps drunken) sunbather.  

^

4. The idea may be that the press wastes trees by issuing so many statements...see "Glam Racket," "You post out sixty-page computer printouts/On the end of forests" (and see particularly note 14; thanks to Mark for this connection).

^

5. This is a slur for "mongoloid," or someone with down syndrome.

Eggg comments:

people with Down syndrome are especially susceptible to various cancers, so it sounds to me like the aim of that part is to depict a privileged pearl-wearing woman reading a new story about the disabled and (in MES's view) expressing superficial sympathy for them.

That is, it's not just fat sweaty boors who he's describing, it's yet another jab at the do-gooding middle class (reading Marx, protesting, etc.), and like that infamous "obligatory" line in The Classical, he's suggesting that people who express sympathy for the vulnerable often actually regard them with disdain.

^

6. Stoke is an extremely common place name in Britain, and thus could be any number of things. According to Martin, though, most people would think of Stoke-on-Trent when they hear this, in the English Midlands.

Joincey submits: "I'm from Stoke-on-Trent, and there used to be a popular nightclub/entertainment venue there called "Jollies."

^

7. Club 18-30 is a British travel club that caters to young people (hence the name), a third of whom, reportedly, are traveling without their parents for the first time. They only take a certain amount of travelers per year (hence "candidate").  

^

Comments (28)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 14/10/2013
This is missing some lines.

Before the "fill green envelopes" lines, there is "British people in hot weather" x4. Same again x4 after the serpentine line and x4 after "bespectacled stare-out". x2 after "shit before" and x2 after "let's go".
dannyno
  • 2. dannyno | 29/10/2013
"Wapping" might also refer to a location in Liverpool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapping_Dock
Martin
  • 3. Martin | 23/01/2014
Stoke is indeed a common place name, but I'd surmise that most people on hearing the name would think of Stoke-on-Trent, a city in the English Midlands.
K. A. Laity
  • 4. K. A. Laity (link) | 02/03/2014
I can't help thinking -- given the reference to the Serpentine -- that maybe the 'King of Mongs' is referring to the statue of Ghengis Kahn in Hyde Park. See here: http://www.aviewoncities.com/london/hydepark.htm
dannyno
  • 5. dannyno | 05/04/2014
If this song is set in London, then the line "Compare your pearls before the King of Monks", could be a reference to Pearly Kings - who would be "king of Mongs" rather than Monks, really.
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 07/03/2016
K. A. Laity:

Unfortunately it is not possible for a song dating to 1990 to refer to a statue of Genghis Khan which wasn't unveiled until 2012, i.e. about 22 years later.

Dan
bzfgt
  • 7. bzfgt | 12/03/2016
OK, struck then, Mr. Factypants.
bzfgt
  • 8. bzfgt | 12/03/2016
It actually sounded like "mongs" to me this time through, unfortunate if so.
dannyno
  • 9. dannyno | 27/04/2017
The last verse:


I was a candidate for club 18-30 (7)
but I've been through all that shit before

That's it, I'm looking straight for the car
If that's how you feel, let's go



Sounds to me very much like MES eavesdropping and overhearing those two lines. Do you not think?
bzfgt
  • 10. bzfgt (link) | 13/05/2017
Yeah, that seems right.
Robert Brokenmouth
  • 11. Robert Brokenmouth | 11/02/2018
Re King of Monks...

Had Mark discovered the band of the same name by this stage..?
Robert Brokenmouth
  • 12. Robert Brokenmouth | 11/02/2018
Re King of Monks...

Had Mark discovered the band of the same name by this stage..?
dannyno
  • 13. dannyno | 11/02/2018
Robert Brokenmouth:

Yes, BPIHW appears on cassette and CD formats of Extricate, which is the album on which Black Monk Theme appears. But I think it's "mongs". I don't know what "King of Monks" would mean, even if was a reference to the band the Monks.
bzfgt
  • 14. bzfgt (link) | 17/02/2018
RB, I'd think so. It seems to me like a serious oversight not to have noted this; although we should dig around and find out the first time he mentions them, for now I'm just going to point out the connection.
bzfgt
  • 15. bzfgt (link) | 17/02/2018
Oh yeah, good point, I hadn't even realized this is the Extricate era, I think it's not on mine but on the Peel thing.
the27points
  • 16. the27points | 13/04/2018
Designer tramp goes grrr...
Looking jolly from Stoke

I don't hear from Stoke, I have always heard this line as Looking jolly roasted. This makes more sense in the context of the song.
dannyno
  • 17. dannyno | 06/05/2018
Comment #16: Just listened again, I'm still hearing "looking Jolly from Stoke". Doesn't sound anything like "roasted".
Nic H.
  • 18. Nic H. | 17/02/2019
"Looking jolly from Stoke"

I've always heard "Looking jolly, cunt-struck".
Which I took to be a subtle dig at The Stranglers song Peaches.
dannyno
  • 19. dannyno | 21/02/2019
Why would he be doing subtle digs at Peaches after all that time (like, well over a decade)? And what have those lines got to do with the Stranglers lyric anyway?

Also, it sounds nothing like it!
Mark
  • 20. Mark | 27/02/2019
Regarding note 4 ("Press hot houses waste tree statements"), also see note 14 in "Glam-Racket" ("You post out sixty-page computer printouts
On the end of forests").
Tracey
  • 21. Tracey | 08/03/2019
100% it's mong, a common insult back then. Stoke is a well known city in England, a byword for a dump.
bzfgt
  • 22. bzfgt (link) | 27/04/2019
Well it seems to be a 100% consensus for "mongs" over a period of years here so I guess it should be changed.
eggg
  • 23. eggg | 28/12/2019
Re "mongs": people with Down syndrome are especially susceptible to various cancers, so it sounds to me like the aim of that part is to depict a privileged pearl-wearing woman reading a new story about the disabled and (in MES's view) expressing superficial sympathy for them.

That is, it's not just fat sweaty boors who he's describing, it's yet another jab at the do-gooding middle class (reading Marx, protesting, etc.), and like that infamous "obligatory" line in The Classical, he's suggesting that people who express sympathy for the vulnerable often actually regard them with disdain. (That's looking at it in a positive way, of course, as one can easily read it as MES being disdainful of the media, the middle class, and the underprivileged.) (All that said, this is a great song, a return to the "here's a list of everything I hate" rants from the early 1980s.)
bzfgt
  • 24. bzfgt (link) | 04/01/2020
Good point there's the cliche about "pearl-clutching" which may be in play here.

I'm ditching the "monk" stuff, I'll put it here in case it's ever needed:

We used to have "King of Monks," which was inherited from the old Lyrics Parade, but there seems to be a consensus in the comments that it is "Mongs." Now that I've changed it, though, we may hear from the heretofore silent party of Monk-hearers--anyway, that's how it often goes--so I will leave the old note about the latter:

This one has me puzzled. In the Prose Edda of Snorri Snurluson we find:

The King of Monks is greatest
Of might, for God all governs;
Christ's power wrought this earth all,
And raised the Hall of Rome.

And the Irish missionary St. Colombanus (543-615) has been called "King of Monks." Also there is a "King of Monkeys" in the Disney adaptation of Kipling's Jungle Book (but not in the original). Still, I can see no connection between any of these and the lyric. This could be one of the "titles" the lyric below says the British people in question "make up"; indeed, it's the only title in the verse. According to DJ Ash on the Fall online forum, "I heard it as 'The King of Mons,' which would fit with the WW1 reference in the same verse." The Battle of Mons was the first major battle the British participated in World War I, at Mons in Belgium. There is no "King of Mons," however, nor do I know the significance of the pearls. Finally, there are others who are convinced that he says "King of Mongs," an unfortunate slur that is short for "mongoloids."

Note that MES was an outspoken fan of the 60s garage band the Monks (thanks to Robert Brokenmouth).
egg
  • 25. egg | 07/05/2020
Just noticed that in the Cruiser's Creek video there's a brief shot of a sign written by MES which says "MONGS INCORPORATED PLC LIMITED". Link to the exact bit: https://youtu.be/gDTTisFHw0A?t=315
joincey
  • 26. joincey | 29/07/2020
I'm from Stoke on Trent; ( don't live there any more ) there used to be a popular nightclub \ entertainment venue there called "Jollies" .
dannyno
  • 27. dannyno | 04/08/2020
comment #26:

I think you mean "Jollees": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jollees

Also a pub called the "Jolly Potters", known under that name since the 1830s (see Stoke on Trent Pubs by Mervyn Edwards).

https://pubheritage.camra.org.uk/pubs/10039

The Jolly Potters is also a 1964 play (described as a "musical documentary") by Stoke playwright Peter Cheeseman. Apparently it was filmed but not broadcast by the BBC.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/great-moments-in-theatre-the-jolly-potters-7mvb38w7jx8 (registration required)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cheeseman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Vic_Theatre

There was a Stoke City Football Club fanzine called "The Jolly Potter" (but the club itself is just nicknamed "The Potters"):

http://www.footybits.co.uk/information.php?info_id=39

There's a pottery company magazine too:

http://happywadeing.com/reference-2/wade/magazinesflyersephemera/the-jolly-potter.html

(pottery being the heritage industry of the Stoke area of course, cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staffordshire_Potteries)

I'm wondering where there is anything specific in "jolly potter" that would be in some way idiomatically symbolic of people from Stoke, but I haven't found anything.
Arfur C
  • 28. Arfur C | 20/07/2023
Regarding the "mong" discourse. Pearly Kings originated among Cockney costerMONGers (sellers of fruit and veg).

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