London's Burning

Album: The Temper Trap (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song revolves around the 2011 riots that left parts of England in a state of mayhem. Asked for information about the track, guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto told NME: "We all live in Hackney so when we were rehearsing, we'd finish and we'd see it all going on. There was a gang who hung around outside my flat for the whole summer. It very surreal to see it on TV and actually realize you were right in the middle of it."
  • Temper Trap's Dougy Mandagi explained to The Guardian why he chose to pen a song about the riots. "I was writing a lot about my relationship," he said. "I fell in love about half way through my last touring cycle, then that went to s--t. Totally shattered. And you know, thought I was over it, but then when we started to get back into writing I found myself naturally wanting to write about that stuff. So I obviously had s--t to get over. Then one day I had nothing else to say about that, kind of a Forrest Gump moment, and I was looking for inspiration from other things, and it was such a significant moment in time and I was there. I went out and had my camera. I just thought, somebody should write something about this. It's an important thing that happened."

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