Five Songs To Help Poor, Brave Londoners Cope With The Tube Strike

As anyone who lives in, or has ever visited, our capital city will be well aware, Londoners love a good whinge. House prices, transport costs, tourists, the unavailability of quinoa beyond Watford... there's precious few things Londoners won't have a good cry about. But one topic above all causes its denizens' blood to boil: news of industrial action impacting upon the Underground network. With the metropolis currently 'crippled' (copyright: The Evening Standard) by the on-going RMT union strike, here's five songs to help the capital's precious pearly kings and queens cope with the unbearable trauma.

Gallows - London Is The Reason

One for angry right-wingers who regard the RMT with the same affection one might reserve for those moments when you arrive home to find your fleshly-flayed partner being dipped in sea salt by a tribe of gourmand cannibals. Altogether now ‘We are the rats and we run this town. We are the black plague bearing down. We have no fear, we have no pity. We hate you, we hate this city…’

The Jam - Down In The Tube Station at Midnight

A cautionary tale of an anonymous commuter who’s set upon by a gang of ne’er-do-wells as he attempts to make his way home with a take-away dinner for his missus. And don’t forget, Boris says this is the Year Of The Bus anyway…

Jimi Hendrix – Hear My Train A Comin’

Take me away from this lonesome place…’ Testify Jimi, testify! Tune in to this jaw-dropping guitar solo and you’ll forget all about that 90 minute wait just to get into Liverpool Street station…

ZZ Top – Waitin’ For The Bus

Have mercy, old bus be packed up tight. Well, I’m glad just to get on and home tonight.’ That’s the attitude chaps, worse things happen at sea, etc,.

Pantera - Walk

Self-explanatory this one: ‘You cry to weak friends that sympathize. Can you hear the violins playing your song?’ WALK ON HOME BOY!

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.