Decade

[Verse 1]
From teacher strikes to the poll-tax riots
What the Eighties did to me to never wanna be quiet
We used to hang around on the street, in the park, after dark
Hassle glueys, playing stand-your-space
Kangaroo court, boredom strikes, stolen goods bought
Bartering, arguing about who started it
I didn't smoke then, they tried and failed
I took a semi-toke once, but I couldn't inhale
You must be mad mate! Old school's not '88
And I remember when we stopped fighting, and started to break
Battling all summer, waterfights, uprocking, quarter-pipes
BMX in '85 with Chrome-molys on my bike
These were the days of our lives, but wish I'd known it then
See time passes, every Christmas there's a missing friend
We stopped hanging round together 'cos of bigger things, bigger drugs
Edgy vibes Fridays outside the pub

[Chorus]
The late 80s plus my early-80s fear of a nuclear war got me tense this year
Ronald Reagan's out the Senate but that bitch was still here
'89 greed permeates the atmosphere
1980!
1980—what that bitch Thatcher made me
Why'd they miss her in the Brighton thing? It's too bad
Sanction breakers, B-movie joke how they run it with a B-movie actor sitting in the gun turret

[Verse 2]
Picket line footage on the screen
Family on the sofa like the Simpsons, Dad coating politicians
See the press peddle prejudice, he told me not to read the shit
The patriotic claptrap, the 'cash is king' rhetoric
It's '81 - I'm watching people rioting for civil rights
Summer nights petrol-bombing pigs, set the town alight
The war's on and Argentina's gonna boost the vote
And Cold War spreading fear throughout the globe
Now as a kid I'm only here trying to live and play foot till it's dark and my eyesight gives
We need a shelter if the bomb drops, dreams of Armageddon in bed
Walkman house brick feeding my head
Those were dark, darks days when the West took a grip
Injecting us America through TV drips
The new ruthless style it's CIA polititricks
Army bases under siege, now they're closing the pits
London had it so good so the North got shit
Cos we're angry and we don't vote Conservative
Catching up with old friends at the back of the top of the bus
Smoking and spitting like 'Nobody's toppling us!'
Hardheaded on the way into town
But no money runs here 'cos it's all run down
Like the land time forgot for a decade and a half
But the days of our lives still make me laugh!