Polaroid Picture

Album: Tape Deck Heart (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Frank Turner told the story behind the song to Artist Direct: "There was a venue in London called The Astoria," he explained, "which was there for years. It was the 2,000-capacity venue that every medium-sized punk band played at. I grew up going there. It was a real hub of the music scene in London. It was demolished a few years ago and turned into a railway station, which is nice [Laughs].
    I played the last show there ever," Turner continued. "I was invited to do a whole bunch of press around that show to talk about the venue. At the start of the day, I was very much onboard with the idea that 'this is a tragedy, a great loss, and the end of an era.'
    "After talking about it for a few years, I felt sort of uneasy about that. I think this is the point of the song. Rock 'n' roll is an ethereal art form. It's about moments. It's about snapshots rather than oil paintings. It's about wild nights out rather than museums. What I try to do in my life, rather than try to make everything some massive mausoleum to the past and build nostalgia into some concrete moment, is to enjoy each moment as it happens."

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