Frequent Electric Trains was written for the Left Bank Soundtrack animated music walk of Birkenhead in 2021. The song can be heard here.
The ‘animated music walk’ describes itself as follows: “Using newly-commissioned compositions from Birkenhead’s musical talent, [the walk] threads together stories of music, movements, history and change. It takes you through Birkenhead, the old music venues and sounds, cultural heritage and hopes for the future.
“Birkenhead. A small shipbuilding town on the banks of the River Mersey, nestled on a peninsula of land called the Wirral, tucked between Liverpool and North Wales. We populated the world’s oceans with great liners. We also populated the world’s radio waves and stages with some of the most fabulous and gloriously eccentric music you’ve heard: Bill Ryder-Jones, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Half Man Half Biscuit, Elvis Costello, Forest Swords, Queen Zee, Hooton Tennis Club.
“Music has the power to change, to transform ideas, minds, places and talent.
“On the Leftbank Soundtrack walk along the bank of the River Mersey, from the towering art deco Ventilation Tower, to the historic Priory and the green shoots of Future Yard. Listen to six musical compositions and allow your mind to reflect on the past and the present.”
(Photo by @IanMac1969 on Twitter)
Thanks to Dr John and TFO Keith.
See lyrics to Frequent Electric Trains
EXXO
Ha, brilliant, thank you, you’ve sort of saved my weekend! The timing for me is amazing as my trip to hear the song (and watch Tranmere) this weekend had to be cancelled a couple of days ago, and as some may have seen on Twitter I was a bit frustrated about not having heard the song a whole week after its release. Then literally half an hour ago the reason my trip was cancelled was cancelled, and I was just in the process of working out that I couldn’t get to Prenton Park in time for kick off and wondering whether it was worth going to B’head tomorrow just to hear the song, the added complication being that my phone doesn’t do QR codes so I’d have had to borrow Mrs E’s phone for a day.
I was even going to do a Friday quiz yesterday about Hamilton Square and people’s guesses of what else might be in the song, based on the fact that each of the two lines that had been tweeted by one chap doing the tour last week referrred to a different feature of Hamilton Square.
It turns out that apart from the general “Georgian splendour” those two features – the rocket (Victoria Monument) and the Frequent Electric Trains sign – are the only two referred to in the song anyway! One quiz question was going to be which was older – the medieval cross, or the Frequent Electric Trains sign.
4 September 2021
EXXO
Apologies – the song does of course refer to two other monuments in the square – the statue of John Laird hears his sobbing, and Great Uncle Alan (Alun/Allan/Allen?) is remembered here.
There’s two things I’m unsure of – the spelling of Alan and the line that sounds like “I need a high for a low.” Was hoping to see Mr. B at the match today but I’ll send him a message anyway and ask about the lines.
4 September 2021
dr desperate
I think it has to be “I need a high for a low”.
Perhaps another Major Tom reference, linking “Commencing countdown” from ‘Space Oddity’ to “heaven’s high / all-time low” from ‘Ashes to Ashes’?
Also two Gerry Anderson references (and one Captain Beefheart).
4 September 2021
EXXO
Space Oddity in that line, yes, probably, both compare heroin high/heroin o/d death with space high/space death, and later we’ve got “ice cream control” and the memorial-as-Thunderbird-3-rocket takes off to oblivion.
Beefheart? Ah, yes of course. ‘Ice Cream for Crow?” I thought that ‘ice cream control’ was probably a reference to those Lyons Maid Thunderbirds-themed ads for that whole series of late 60s (and very early 70s) space lollies…
Even does the Beefheart growl on those final lines.
4 September 2021
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
Maybe all the songs off the next album will be similarly released – QR codes stuck to noticeboards, bus stops and litter bins in obscure locations, to be discovered years hence by random passers-by.
4 September 2021
dr desperate
Since you mention Thunderbird 3, I can think of only one astronaut called Alan (well two, but the fictional one was named after the real one).
4 September 2021
Chris The Siteowner
Three Alans have gone into space (of course it would be three): Bean, Poindexter and Shepard. According to teh interwebs anyway.
4 September 2021
transit full of keith
Pedants might note that the sentence on the sign “When John Peel describes you as a national treasure, you’re not far wrong”, makes no sense whatsoever.
4 September 2021
transit full of keith
Anyway, I like it. I wasn’t quite sure at first about the nostalgic, slightly Village Green Preservation Society, mood, but with the “fuel to inject” bit, it hides more grit than seems at first.
4 September 2021
dr desperate
The title, of course, has a certain resonance for Squeeze fans.
4 September 2021
Gagarin
Does teh interwebs happen to mention who was first, Chris?
4 September 2021
Chris The Siteowner
Full List of Astronauts named Alan. Or Yuri.
1. Gagarin, Yuri (flew into space April 1961)
2. Shepard, Alan (May 1961)
3. Bean, Alan (November 1969)
4. Poindexter, Alan (February 2008)
None are in need of season tickets any longer.
4 September 2021
Gagarin
Thanks for clarifying, Chris. And would I be correct in saying that the first Yuri into space performed a controlled orbit of Earth whereas the first Alan into space merely went straight up and straight back down again?
4 September 2021
Stef
Got the heroin reference about halfway through and after that it all slipped into place. Completely brilliant as ever. NB just seems to knock this stuff out without any effort. Philip Larkin would have been proud. Possibly.
4 September 2021
EXXO
Blackwell, A (not Blackwell, AW) on the Birkenhead War Memorial is the Great Uncle Allan in question. Private Griffith Allan Blackwell of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Died at Passchendaele October 1917 (3rd battle of Ypres) aged 21. Nigel’s grandad’s elder brother.
In some Imperial War Museum research it’s Allen, but that seems to be wrong. In the 1911 census he was Allan and appropriately enough was working for the “Railway Co.” as “deliverer van lads [sic.]”
4 September 2021
EXXO
I love the way the “interpretation board” encourages us to take a bucolic stroll round the square while listening to a song about suicide by heroin overdose. But does he just take an overdose or is he hanging himself from the top of the memorial as well for good measure?
4 September 2021
dr desperate
I don’t think there’s any hanging involved: the shape of the Rocket, the tinfoil wrapping and the fuel injection all suggest alternative means.
4 September 2021
Poloneckjean
I’ve been calling this one ‘Hamilton Square’ due to the SoundCloud meta data thing, that’s how it’s ‘tagged’ on my listening device anyway. Maybe that’s just down to the animated walk location QR tag or something,
Is there confirmation on the walk or anywhere that FET is indeed its name ?
5 September 2021
dr desperate
Dunno, but it appears that electric trains have frequented Hamilton Square since 1903.
(The sign on the station’s hydraulic lift was added to encourage customers who had been put off travelling underground by the smoke from the coal-powered steam locos, running since the station opened in 1886.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamilton_Square_-_frequent_electric_trains.JPG
5 September 2021
EXXO
Yes, definitely ‘Frequent Electric Trains.’ On of the Future Yard web pages – there are many different versions of the pages and I can’t find the right one now – the place for each song is at the top and the title is at the bottom, and it’s ‘FET’ in this case.
‘Hamilton Square’ wouldn’t be a very NB title, whereas ‘FET’ is taking the piss out of the blandness and literalness of the wording of the sign that has dominated the skyline there for 120 years (it reminds me of ‘Smoke Tabs’ ‘Drink Beer’ in ‘Billy the Fish’), and is yet another HMHB song named after a sign, like ‘Garage in Constant Use,’ ‘Soft Verges,’ ‘Asparagus Next Left’ (‘Tractors Turning’) …
You’ll still find some photos of the Italianate tower with the original painted ‘FET’ slogan, painted direct on the brickwork, some time around 1903 or very soon after, making that sign slightly older than the medieval-style cross that forms the Victoria monument at the centrepiece of the song, and of course older than the war memorial. Great Uncle Allan will have seen the sign every day until he marched off aged 20.
Relieved in one way that it was posted here yesterday, but in another I’m a bit sad for the organisers that they were so naive and hoped the songs wouldn’t leak, posting on their site that “This is the only place you will hear this track in its entirety
We want you to help us keep this special, so please do not share the link, do not post or download the track. The Leftbank Soundtrack is all about discovery and place and it’s only standing in that spot that you’ll get the benefit.”
Well, (i) I know that place like the back of my hand, in a way they’ll never understand, and (ii) I live in Leeds, I’m a massive HMHB fan and I don’t have a phone that does fuckin QR codes. This comes after a whole fuckin summer where my own temporary employer was locking me out of its systems cos my phone doesn’t do QR codes and wasn’t receiving their text codes, so I’m angry about my digital poverty.
So actually, fuck them, I’m not sorry at all.
“Read about the artist while you are listening and maybe take a picture of the spot you’re standing in.” No. fuck off.
By the way, there’s already a fine, wistful song by the Boo Radleys – who until HMHB overtook them recently had released more Wirral-referencing songs than any other band – called ‘the Old Newsagent’s at Hamilton Square.’
5 September 2021
EXXO
Other bits of local knowledge that may not be obvious are that
* “the rocket” and “Thunderbirds 3” will have been common ways for any local kid to refer to the monument.
* at various times in the past the benches in the Square have been a magnet for substance abusers
*second most common means of suicide for the substance abusers are the Frequent Electric Trains
* John Laird was the first statue in the square as he planned the whole town, based on the Georgian elegance of Edinburgh’s New Town. Very much a patrician, and latterly a Tory MP, he probably cared mostly about money and image rather than the people, despite the obligatory patrician donations and buildings for the poor. Also built ships on the sly for the Confederates of course, though he would probably say he did that for the economy of Merseyside and Lancashire.
5 September 2021
poloneckJean
Lovely, thanks Exxo for the title clarification and local knowledge.
As for the Boo Radleys, I knew I’d heard of a title naming the Square but the Doctors mention of Squeeze sent me off on another tangent. I do very much like the Boo Radleys, and Kingsize in particular. The title of that song is The Old Newsstand at Hamilton Square: ‘Sad songs are easier to play, i’m afraid’
5 September 2021
EXXO
Yes, sorry about the title. The last two Boo Radleys albums are especially fun for me because I happened to know a chap who worked for Creation at that time and they were tearing their hair out trying to get the Boos to have Britpop hits, while Martin was just saying fuck you and writing interesting stuff, indirectly able to do so because Oasis were making the label so much money that it didn’t matter. Until they were finally dropped after their contractual 5th album.
Sice and the rest of the band without Martin have got back together this year and put out a couple of tracks … and yes the first single is about yes you guessed it…
I’ve made my choice, it’s mine to have
I’m going to do this while I can
Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me
Don’t talk to me about life’s sanctity
When I can’t even feed
Leave me where there’s light
You love to see me through
Leave me with a full syringe and memories of you.
Incidentally the reason for the ‘Frequent Electric Trains’ sign on the tower is not just the one given on the reference pages about passengers associating the railway tunnels with the choking filth of steam travel. The tower was visible to strangers arriving from all over England at Woodside station – which was also the ferry terminal. They were passing through Birkenhead from all over southern Britain and Europe, to cross to Liverpool for the Transatlantic liners. I’d guess 30-40% of train passengers for the Liverpool liners arrived into B’head not Liverpool. Maybe an average of 1,000+ people a day would have arrived that way, more on Fridays and Saturday mornings, and they would have just seen the ferry, and they would have seen on the far side the ships that were their destination, and it would have been the most natural thing in the world to go across by boat. The railway had to grab their attention with the sign.
Wilfred Owen’s father was of course the stationmaster at the bustling Woodside terminal at the time the sign went up on the nearby Hamilton Square tower. The newest memorial (2019) in Hamilton Square is a very moving sculpture commemorating the 88 lads from Owen’s school who perished in the Great War, with the poem ‘Futility’ on the plinth. The original 1926 memorial was in the form of playing fields and a sports pavilion … which then became Tranmere’s training ground … and which have since made way for a new housing development.
5 September 2021
professor Abelazar woozle
To expand a little on Exxo’s comment on John Laird’s shipbuilding for the Confederacy, this was musically recorded in the sea shanty “Roll Alabama, Roll” which was about the CSS Alabama, funded by Lancashire mill owners in order to attack shipping going to the northern ports. The song begins
“When the Alabama’s keel was laid, roll Alabama roll
It was laid in the yard of Johnathan Laird, oh, roll Alabama roll”.
There’ll be umpteen different versions of Youtube for anyone wanting to hear the whole story.
5 September 2021
EXXO
[Warning – this post has nothing whatsoever to do with this song and is just prompted by the previous post – I can’t help it, I’m a historical pedant of historic proportions]
I must admit, at the risk of going too tangential, that the lyrics of Roll, Alabama, Roll offend my historical sensibilities somewhat. As sung in for example a recent version by Bellowhead, the lyrics consist of eight statements, comprising perhaps eleven or twelve historical facts. Only 4 of the 8 statements, and 6 of the 12 historical facts, are correct. Which is all the more surprising since they actually attempt to partially correct some errors of even more erroneous earlier versions.
The errors, FWIW, are: Laird’s first name, changed apparently to scan though other factual additions that would make ‘John’ scan are easy to think of; that the ship never crossed the Mersey to Liverpool but took on her largely Liverpudlian crew at Birkenhead and Seacombe (Wallasey); she set sail on her raiding missions from The Azores; the ship that sank her did so after blockading her in full view for many days if anything, the Alabama finally “hove into view,” not the Kearsage; and that she doesn’t lie on the ocean floor but the English channel.
By the way, the very last of the 65 Yankee ships that the Alabama took or destroyed was called the SS Tycoon. My favourite fact in the story of the Alabama is that the Scouse crew of the pirate ship persuaded one of the Tycoon’s men to join their renegade band for the booty and the glory … and he was 26 year-old sailor Edward Dean Burrell … who they bonded with cos he was from downtown Birkenhead. He was the last crew member to join, and received just 5 weeks pay from the Confederacy after being fished out of the drink when the Alabama sank.
Most of the 19 who died aboard the Alabama were Scouse below decks crew. The one blessing of their two-year reign of terror is that nobody else actually seems to have died in their raids. Crews of captured ships were taken ashore or put aboard other neutral vessels.
6 September 2021
Clown in a yaris
As I am a complete luddite can someone please upload to you tube as I know how to download from there.
8 September 2021
EXXO
Keith has righteously pointed out the nonsensical sentence on the board in Hamilton Square, but I had to turn my pedantry to thw Future Yard blurb at the top of this thread about populating the world with great liners and fabulous music.
Of 1400+ vessels built at Cammell Laird – warships, submarines, gunboats, cargo ships, tankers, ferries, tugs, lighters, tenders, paddle steamers, etc, only a handful could be described as ‘liners’ and only one (Mauretania, 1938) would fulfil the classic image of a ‘great liner.’ You did not populate the world with great liners. Of the seven artists listed, only HMHB and Zee out of Queen Zee are ‘from’ Birkenhead. Of the six Wirral artists who made the six tracks, only two (HMHB and Andrew PM Hunt) are ‘from’ Birkenhead.
13 September 2021
EXXO
This week I’m marking essays by Chinese students which of course toe the Beijing party line about western colonialism continuing in Hong Kong, etc, but many of them refer to the disgraceful British massacres and plundering during the Opium Wars, which were fought to preserve the “Honourable” East India Company’s terrible drugs trade. The ships that fought and “won” those opium wars (winning Hong Kong as well in the process) were the very first iron warships anywhere and were built in about three months each by the yard of John Laird, who never really cared. They were his first really big customer for repeat orders – in the first 17 years of the shipyard more than half the orders were for the “Honourable” Company – and he never looked back. By the time that the Company was abolished for its atrocities during the Indian Wars of Independence, Laird was starting to produce ships for the Royal Navy, who soon became his heirs’ key customer.
14 September 2021
Counterblast to agnosticism
She left on an electric train because he was on the mainline?
21 September 2021
EXXO
Well. The FET’s aren’t forever underground, are they? They emerge shortly beyond Hamilton Square, and as the depots are above ground, that’s where they spend most of their time.
This seems to confirm the already strong suspicion that a FET eased her departure, but that she never really left. And that it is she who is forever underground.
23 September 2021
professor Abelazar woozle
@Exxo I’d agree with your interpretation that the narrator’s beloved is dead and that the death is linked to the FET, my feeling is that the lyrics imply she’d committed suicide by throwing herself under a train or onto the live rail?
23 September 2021
EXXO
Read about 4 years ago that Merseyrail averages just 5 suicides a year – but I guess that’s just coroner certified ones and there will be many other incidents. Good to see that most reports these days feature plenty of sympathy for both victim & driver and plenty of reference to mental health support. Here’s one from just last week:
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/man-40s-dies-after-being-21596396
24 September 2021
Matthew
I had a look for the song on Spotify, it wasn’t there, but there was a band called ‘Frequent Electric Trains’ who have a song called ‘Hamilton Square’
14 October 2021
Chris The Siteowner
Good spot. It’s looks like it’s the title track from what appears to be the band’s first album, released last year. Don’t know anything about them (and curiously, they have zero online presence), but it seems to be decent stuff at first listen.
14 October 2021
EXXO
Interesting stuff. Very Boo Radleysesque, in style as well as the title Hamilton Square. Their second album closes with a song called ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ which is basically a take on the Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows.’
I don’t think that Nigel’s song will be released commercially.
14 October 2021
EXXO
Hmm. Turns out they are three Merseyside-based lads who put up a couple of boring tracks online under the name of ‘Pig’ in the mid noughties. https://www.soundclick.com/artist/default.cfmbandID=579612&content=songs
They didn’t seem to be gigging even then, but say on that page they were writing for other people. Then suddenly they release albums on the download and streaming platforms in 2020 and 2021 as ‘Frequent Electric Trains,’ at least one track clearly inspired by B’head, but with no internet or local presence and zero social media so that even Birko’s self-appointed musical hub at Future Yard obviously have never heard of them. An article written by someone about Future Yard last spring under the title ‘Frequent Electric Trains,’ referring to the sign (but pre-dating the launch of the Future Yard Soundtrack project), does not mention that there is a band of that name,
https://kenn-taylor.com/2021/06/04/frequent-electric-trains-new-culture-in-birkenheads-empty-spaces/
… and as we have seen Future Yard are keen to promote any and all local bands, so it does just seem that this outfit are unknown.
My guess is that they’ve had busy careers, families, done the music as a hobby and had time on their hands ‘cos of lockdown, furlough, etc and thought let’s get this music down, self-release it and see if anyone notices. The 2020 album begins and ends with a track called ‘Lockdown’. This year’s album ends with a Beatles tribute that could surely never be properly released.
15 October 2021
EXXO
Apologies. Bit got chopped off the end of the first link.
https://www.soundclick.com/artist/default.cfm?bandID=579612&content=songs
15 October 2021
EXXO
Click on ‘overview’ then ‘read more.’ And that, from 15 years ago, all there is about them anywhere on t’webs.
15 October 2021
Matthew
They’re ‘forever underground’
16 October 2021
FEATURELESS STEVE
I suppose Birkenhead Town Hall is the one referenced in “It Makes The Room Look Bigger”.
It’s got a balcony.
21 October 2021
JIM in pandemic exile
At last I’ve heard it (I’m always last), but thank you!
Transit full of Keith, yes – the sign makes no sense. Weirdly, it’s correct on the website (maybe after your comment?). Hardly worth mentioning, but for the pedantry
8 November 2021
Robin Yotts
Just wondering (pedantically of course) if it should be that ‘Rocket’ in the first line (as in Stephenson’s..)?
24 November 2021
transit full of keith
Nah – It’s the Queen Victoria monument in Hamilton Square Gardens, which looks like a rocket:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/queen-victoria-monument-hamilton-square-gardens-philip-brookes.html
24 November 2021
dr desperate
More so than the Liverpool Rocket, whose replacement with a hamburger still seems to be at a critical juncture.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpools-rocket-junction-transformation-update-21797101
24 November 2021
EXXO
Lammo’s annual independent venue tour stops off at Future Yard (who got the council grant to fund the LB project and the commission of this song) on Wednesday 2nd Feb, 4pm. Beware though the live band (Melt Yourself Down) are the opposite of local and may feature prominent saxophone.
27 January 2022
the master of the strat
Bizarre. I’ve been in Sheffield for over 20 years. I just read the words “Hamilton Square” and smelled it in my mind.
28 April 2022
Hendrix-tattoo
I was in Birkenhead last night to see Karl’s Band-it’s.
As I left Hamilton Square train station I was confronted by a aggressive beggar who turned out to be Paul Taylor who was one of the main Instigators of the Strangeways Riots in 1990….
7 May 2022
EXXO
Yeah I’ve seen him near the rocket in the square before as well. He announced the start of the riot as the person chaplain asked the congregation to rise and sing hymn number [dunno but I would love to know] and was the last to surrender off the roof three weeks later. Regularly locked up in Birko since for the breaching injunctions with the old aggressive begging.
Decent turn-out for the gig?
8 May 2022
Hendrix-tattoo
Yeah it had a decent turn-out. Band-it’s were brilliant, Had a great night. Mandy the new bass player is superb she really brings out the best in Karl and Steve and they all look like they really enjoy themselves…
8 May 2022
EXXO
Yeah Mandy a veritable Laura Morgan, almost levitating in her lighter-than-air baseball boots, making it look effortless and fun.
8 May 2022
dr Desperate
I thought Mandy was Diane Morgan.
8 May 2022
Karl
Oddly enough our Mandy’s maiden name was Morgan and seeing as she’s a podiatrist when not busy being a Band-It she certainly cares for her feet (and other people’s).
8 May 2022
dr Desperate
Well fitting.
11 May 2022
EXXO
Just been reminded that the informative slogan ‘Frequent Electric Trains’ was used on LMS posters in the 1920s too.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1164399819/new-brighton-vintage-railway-poster
14 June 2022
dr Desperate
The phrase (often acompanied by ‘from London’) seems to have been a frequently-used enticement to railgoers in the heyday of British Railways, appearing on posters for Bognor, Eastbourne, Littlehampton, and Brighton among many others.
14 June 2022
Rob r
Is “Frequent Electric Trains” available to purchase/download anywhere? My OCD needs it burned onto a CD.
16 August 2022
Woodnoggin
It’s possible to extract it from the Left Bank Soundtrack website linked above and download it through some convoluted computer wizardry.
17 August 2022