Get all 10 Hightown Pirates releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Just for Today (Phil Sorrell remix), Welcome to Wilderness Hill. (Album 2024), A Winters Tale., Roses, The Boy in the Doorway., Jetgirl., Hope Street Eternal EP 2018, He Who Lies Flat (stay alert mix), and 2 more.
1. |
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Hiding down in Margate on the run from the elite,
With their four by fours, bolted front doors, and their two left feet.
The flower power kids forgot the words to Let it Bleed,
Became the children of the revolution, then grew old consumed by greed.
The summer of love they sang about became our winter of discontent.
All the love letters and poems that they wrote, never got sent.
There’s no angels to protect us, old Nick, he got bad press.
Don’t bother trying to count your blessings ‘cos they’ve robbed the lot and left.
Round our way it’s all Reeboks, top knots, white socks, and sliders.
Universal credit, cheap tobacco, shit drug suppliers.
She left her knickers on the beach, went home in a cab, got home a few hours later
With her bucket, full of crabs.
There’s no angels to protect us, and liars run the press.
Don’t bother trying to count your blessings ‘cos they’ve sold them off and left
They’ll ask million-dollar questions, when they know that we’re down at heel.
They want to tell you how to think but don’t care about how you feel.
My neighbor, he’s on steroids, he’s a really angry man.
The kind of fella who’d put bull-bars, on an ice-cream van.
He’s got tattoos of naked ladies, with breasts bigger than their heads
The names of 3 ex-lovers, all missing presumed dead.
There’s no angels to protect us, and liars run the press.
Don’t bother trying to count your blessings ‘cos they’ve robbed the lot and left
They’ll ask million-dollar questions, when they know that we’re down at heel
They like to tell us how to think, but don’t care about how we feel.
They’ve built luxury flats on our common ground, left us polarized and divided
It seems to me it’s either Love will Tear us Apart,
Or it’s fucking Love Island
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2. |
Here's a Story
03:02
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Here’s a story, I’ll try to not bore you, but I implore you to hear me out.
You know that ‘so-called’, friend that you don’t mention, the one we all had our doubts about?
I heard a rumor, more than a whisper, it’s actually a fact, a stone-cold truth
That he’s a racist, a paid-up member, of an online patriots’ group.
He gets his clothes washed by his mother, the only girl he’s ever loved, Stone Island jumper for his birthday, he’s no angel but he’s all she’s got.
He left school early, with no ambition and his friends are all the same.
his weekends, knocking one out to, Birth of a Nation with his fantasy girlfriend.
He goes on marches, shouts all the slogans, loudly declaring that he knows the ‘truth’
About the fate that befall our country if we don’t heed his racist views.
He gets his clothes washed by his mother, the only girl he’s ever loved, Stone Island for his Christmas, he’s no angel but he’s all she’s got.
And she doesn’t like her neighbor's ‘cos they came from a foreign land, she’s never spoken to them either, too busy defending her castle made of sand.
And then he got arrested, he sent to prison, he spent six months hiding down the 'block, she took him up some, some 'gear, he's no angel but he's all she's got.
He had a heart-attack one Monday, after staying up for days, none of his friends came to the funeral, they all hate each-other anyway.
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3. |
The Garden of England
04:17
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Crosses are burning, in the garden of England,
The hysteria grows, who will survive?.
I thought I saw some sunlight, in this mid-summer winter,
But Fingers get pointed, the truth is disguised.
Out on the high-street the piano man plays hallelujah,
As the prophets of hate become the evangelists of hope
You think you voted for your freedom?
Give ‘em enough time, they’ll give you enough rope.
I’d rather break bread with those who survived the war,
than feast at the table of those who started it
I’d rather shared crumbs with those who survived the war,
than feast at the table with those who started it all.
You can’t buy faith or the courage for real conviction,
We’re all sold out of hope and trust and love.
As the fire spreads through towns cities and countries
Some get burnt in the flames, others washed away in the floods.
I’d rather break bread with those who survived the war,
than feast at the table of those who started it
I’d rather shared crumbs with those who survived the war,
than feast at the table with those who started it all.
We raised our glasses to the revolution,
Seems to me, the revolution never came.
So, we drank some more until we fell into each other,
Then realized we didn’t care that much anyway.
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4. |
A Winters Tale
05:12
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She saw the light, all Hallows ‘eve told her friends and family.
Mother Mary turning tricks again, on her knees in the cemetery.
The gospel choir sings out of tune, paint your face with sympathy.
This winter's tale, spun-out once more makes no sense to me.
‘Cos it means nothing you see.
They sell it to us all, they need you wanting more, here’s plenty you can watch it on TV.
They’ll fill your glass to drink your scorn, they’ll burn your beds to keep them warm.
Chastise you like a child who will not sleep.
But I’ll be waiting when you wake up from this dream.
Yeah, I’ll be waiting won’t you wake up next to me?
‘Cos you mean so much to me.
Yeah, you mean so much you, see?
Last minute lovers on Christmas eve, return to wretched families, old man out cracking skulls all night, full of ale and jealousy.
The teenage brides of the dealers on bikes, out their minds on ‘ket and weed.
This pantomime of their life of grime, watch it on daytime TV,
it makes no sense you see?
But it means something to me.
They sell it to us all, they need you wanting more, there’s plenty you can watch it on repeat.
They’ll fill your glass to pour you scorn, they’ll burn your beds to keep them warm.
Baptize you with their fears while you sleep.
Let’s walk the beach while the tide is high
Under desperate winter sun.
We’ll see no footprints in the sand of course, but I’ll carry you, my love
We’ll hide from those who’d kill us all.
With their desolate beliefs
And sing our songs to those we’ve loved and lost
As we kiss this new-year’s eve
And I miss them all you see?
I miss them all you see.
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5. |
1000 Nights
04:52
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I wrote a letter to the government, got no reply but at least I sent it
And I’m pretty damn sure, they don’t even care.
That our streets are paved with the bones of those who won’t grow old, they’ll just die cold,
Outside every cash machine, another lost soul.
Sent a selfie to the president, wanna stare him the eye show him I’m not scared
of his hatred, his ignorance, and his lies.
Wrote an email to Jesus Christ, didn’t get a reply, I’m not surprised
If I see him online later, maybe, I’ll try again.
And if we’re gonna put the world to rights
We’ll need to stay awake for a thousand nights
Sleeps for the dead and I’m used to dying
So, let’s give it a go and see who’s buying.
I look at pictures of my friends who’ve gone, i f they were here right now, I’d sing them this song
But they ain’t coming back again, so these words will have to do.
Will we be married when the seasons change, grow old together is the world gonna end?
Well, I’d die for you anyway my lover, my best friend.
With clumsy words I make some fractured sense
Is this a protest song? An act of self-defense?
I guess it really doesn’t matter all that much to me
Means ever less to you?
Is that true?
And if we’re gonna put the world to rights we’ll need to stay awake for a thousand nights
Sleeps for the dead and I got bored with dying, so let’s give it a go and see who’s buying.
Wrote a letter to the powers that be, handing in my notice to their stupidity
Signed it PS I’m the guy you’ll never be.
Yeah wrote another letter to the powers that be handed in my notice to their stupidity
And I signed it
Ps. I’m the guy you never see
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6. |
Roses
03:14
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The first leaves are falling, long nights so haunting, oh yeah.
In freefall to autumn
Find myself thinking of you.
Another hazy day when all seems lost
Placing too much value on what things cost.
Comparison is the thief of all true joy.
It’s not my business if you’re neither, girl nor boy.
The bright lights and late nights seem from another life
I come in peace, but I learnt how to fight.
Broke my back licking my wounds,
too many shows, to empty rooms.
There’s unknown pleasure on the other side of the pain
Hold me close, kiss me hard and say, we’ll do it again.
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7. |
Staring at the Sea
03:55
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Back in the storm of the life I had, shredded sails, bad contraband, bits of songs that were all, so sad.
No sign of the shore, only my distress call, long and so forlorn, long, and so forlorn.
You walked the shore, staring out to sea, lit the fires, waited for me.
Gathered words for our poetry, still I sailed on, miles and miles from home
Lost, but not alone.
Lost but not alone?
The sea was cruel, and the sky spat hatred
Waves threw punches at delicate faces
Still, you waited patiently, staring out to sea
Waiting there, for me.
Nobody laughed as you danced their streets, the shantytown of crippled dreams.
They bared their teeth, sharpened their screams, sung their sirens song
You warned me and I sailed on.
On and on and on.
Heaven is empty the pearly gates chained, children trembled, all so afraid
You stayed true to all you’d said staring out to sea
Waiting there for me.
And then one day the sun returned, I staggered ashore, frozen, and burnt.
Only to find that all I’d searched, was waiting there for must like you’d said you’d be
Just like you’d always been.
The sea was cruel, and the sky spat hatred
Waves threw punches at delicate faces
Still, you waited patiently, staring out to sea
Waiting there, for me.
Heaven is empty the pearly gates chained, Children trembled, all so afraid
You stayed true to all you’d said.
Staring out to sea.
Waiting there for me
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8. |
Earthquake Emily
04:29
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Earthquake Emily goes to work, her punters all online
Fantasy to reality, five grand every time.
Matty works the landings when Peter’s down the block
Marie got clean and saved herself, now Jesus is her rock
Me? I’m in the hospital, reading Requiem for a Dream
The doctors have no faces, as they send me off to sleep.
I look into your eyes and all the things you have seen
The heartache and the joy and all the places you have been.
I miss shooting the breeze with ‘Donny Chris and not very well Michelle
He saved my life on City Rd, plucked me up, straight from hell
Page three Julie disappeared, but I heard that she survived,
So many names and faces some still here, some have died
Me? I’m in the hospital, reading Requiem for a Dream
The doctor smile so sweetly, says her name is Emily.
You look into my eyes and witness all the things I’ve seen
The heartache and the joy and all the places that I’ve been.
Earthquake Emily can’t fall in love,
Her hearts been turned to stone.
Her bed is never empty but
She always feels alone.
Me? I’m in the hospital, reading Requiem for a Dream
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9. |
Simple Man
04:53
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He was a simple man with expensive tastes, and a filthy habit that he just could not shake
He’d had everything so easy, but living seemed so hard, We can’t avoid the gutter, on our journey to the stars.
The years went by, he grew cynical and frail, swapped his hatful of hollow, for a skinful of ale
So many songs he didn’t write down before he went to bed for more unwanted dreams and half-smoked cigarettes
He’d lost his sparkle and his jokes weren’t funny
Now there’s too much month left, at the end of the money
He’s on Shank’s pony and Adam’s ale
Sees his wife once a month when she visits him in jail
His parting words before he finally choaked?
“‘Cos you got ‘lit’, don’t mean to say, you got woke.”
They found him in his prison cell, half-dead, high as hell with a bible by his bed.
They always shoot the messengers in cold blood, never go after the criminal above
They hide in the white light of the public glare, where deceit is contagious, and nobody gets spared.
So many songs he didn’t write down before he went to bed, for more unwanted dreams and half-smoked cigarettes
He’d lost his sparkle and his jokes weren’t funny, now there’s too much month left, at the end of the money
He’s on Shank’s pony and Adam’s ale, Sees his wife once a month when she visits him in jail
His parting words before he finally got smoked? “‘Cos you got ‘lit’, don’t mean to say, you got woke.”
He was a simple man with expensive tastes
A filthy habit that he just could not shake
He’d had everything so easy, but living seemed so hard
So join us in the gutter, on our journey to the stars.
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10. |
Dust
05:32
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They didn’t teach us anything,
They just filled us up with fear.
A history written by the victors
A god that’s never here.
They didn’t like us anyway
They knew we’d seen too much
The comings and goings of the men of the cloth,
Stealing souls with their filthy touch.
One day those faces turn to dust,
The tears that cut your face, nothing but rust.
And you’re finally in tune, with your favourite song
Made enough mistakes, to know your right from wrong.
They didn’t teach us anything,
Nothing we could use.
They made a bonfire of our dreams
Stood back and lit the fuse.
They didn’t trust us anyway.
They knew we had them sussed
One day, we’ll fly away
escape their filthy clutch.
Yeah one day those men’s face turn to dust,
The tears that cut your face, nothing but rust.
And you’re finally in tune, with your favourite song
Made enough mistakes, to know that you belong
Yeah one day all those faces turn to dust
Yeah one day all those tears, nothing but rust
And now you’re in tune with your favourite song
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Hightown Pirates Margate, UK
"Quite possibly the most criminally ignored artist of the past decade"
Mojo
"All of the Above is a massive, absolutely massive album"
GetintoThis.
"The emotional maturity of Elliot Smith"
Louder Than War.
“Dry and High, is a joyous, anthem-laden affair, that evokes Arcade Fires sweep; Blood Sweat and Tears’ horns and the finer moments of Primal Scream’s Screamadelica. 4 Stars Q Magazine.
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