Industrial Estate
Lyrics
Get up for Ind. Est. (1)
Get up for Ind. Est.
Yeah, Yeah, Industrial Estate
Yeah, Yeah, Industrial Estate
Yeah, Yeah, Industrial Estate
Well you started here to earn your pay
Clean necks and ears on your first day
Well we tap on the bars as you walk in the gate
And we'd build a canteen but we haven't got the space
Oh, Yeah, Yeah, Industrial Estate
And the crap in the air will fuck up your face (2)
Bus company take most of your wage
And if you get a bit of depression
Ask the doctor for some valium
Oh, Yeah, Yeah, Industrial Estate
Yeah, Yeah, Industrial Estate
Yeah, Yeah, Industrial Estate
Industrial Estate, hate!
Notes
1. An "industrial estate" is what is known in the US as an industrial park. Here Smith says "Ind. Est.," just as it's written. I think the lyric above is correct, but it is possible that he says "Get off the Ind. Est." or "Get up for Ind. Est." here, as others have suggested; it is hard to hear clearly enough to be absolutely sure.
Via Reformation: From "Renegade" (Penguin/Viking, 2008). MES's ghosted autobiograpy: "Songs like 'Industrial Estate' - that was the second or third song that I wrote the music for, but the lyrics came first - it's a sort of poem; a hard poem. You can tell it was written at work. It's about working on the docks, on a container base. So of course I presented it to the group and they want to know what it's all about. They would prefer me to write about velvet shiny leather, the moon and all that kind of thing, like Television or The Velvets. As a compromise I wrote the chorus - 'Yeah, yeah, industrial estate' - to make it a bit more American rocky. And I wrote this sub-Stooges music to go with it, Stooges without the third chord. At the time, people thought it was terrible because it wasn't the way it should be, it wasn't in tune. But I never wanted The Fall to be like one of those groups. I didn't care what people thought."
In an interview with Printed Noises, MES had the following to say about working in an industrial estate:
I lived without tv for a year, it didn't bother me, People need television, people need cars. A lot of the reason people work on an industrial estate is to buy cars and houses and in my estimation they deserve everything they they fucking get. It's self-perpetuating you know, the whole system is self-perpetuating. The more money you get the more money you want.
2. In a Facebook post to "The Mighty Fall" page on August 13, 2017, Una Baines said "The crap in the air will fuck up your face" was about Barton Dock industrial estate.
More Information
Comments (26)

- 1. | 27/12/2013

- 2. | 22/01/2014
"Tap on the bars," now. I think that's correct.

- 3. | 26/10/2014

- 4. | 26/10/2014

- 5. | 27/10/2014

- 6. | 27/10/2014

- 7. | 03/11/2014

- 8. | 06/11/2015

- 9. | 23/11/2015

- 10. | 07/08/2016

- 11. | 03/09/2016

- 12. | 14/08/2017
In a Facebook post to "The Mighty Fall" page on Sunday 13 August 2017 at 18:24, Una Baines said:
"The crap in the air will fuck up your face" was about Barton Dock industrial estate.

- 13. | 20/10/2018
On the Peel version I hear "We tap on the barriers when you walk out of the gate" LP harder to make out, sounds like "larriers" a garbled lorries/barriers mash-up. Think its "when you walk out of the gate" on the LP too.
Sounds like "bus company take most of your wage" to me on both versions, and they both end "Industrial estate, hate!"
At the end of the Peel version, Martin Bramah shouts something like "chew on that, people"

- 14. | 21/10/2018

- 15. | 21/10/2018

- 16. | 21/10/2018

- 17. | 21/10/2018

- 18. | 21/10/2018

- 19. | 21/10/2018

- 20. | 28/10/2018

- 21. | 21/11/2018

- 22. | 21/11/2018

- 23. | 20/09/2020

- 24. | 10/09/2021

- 25. | 11/09/2021

- 26. | 11/09/2021
Doesn't sound like that. Blue lyrics book has "[illegible] watch out for the lorries when you walk out of the gate".
And
"Boss can bloody take most of your wage"
Blue lyrics book has "And the bus company takes most of your wage", which again is what it does actually sound like.