Victoria Train Station Massacre

Album: New Facts Emerge (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, The Fall frontman Mark E Smith rails against the destruction of Manchester's Victoria Station's latticework. He told Uncut:

    "I'm actually very fond of the architecture of Victoria Station, but it's all been trashed to f--k, and that's what the song's about. You know all that beautiful Victorian latticework, like they have at Paddington? They ripped it all off. And you know why? Because the students coming to Manchester wanted to have access to north Manchester (pauses) We don't want 'em here (laughs)! So they put this big canvas canopy up, and about six months ago it fell on all the passengers in the rush hour."
  • The announcement of the New Facts Emerge album details, including this song's title, came just a week after the terrorist attack that killed 22 concertgoers outside of an Ariana Grande concert. The bombing took place in a foyer connecting Manchester Arena to Manchester Victoria railway station. A representative for the band confirmed that the track's name was an unfortunate coincidence, but the artwork had been sent off for manufacture "long before the terrible events in Manchester."

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