It Was London

Album: Listen (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This gritty tune finds Luke Pritchard recounting the 2011 London Riots, which left England's capital city in a state of mayhem. The Kooks vocalist explained to Sound Of Boston how the song tried to capture the band's feelings at the time: "A big city like that, London, Paris, you have this illusion that everything's safe, and that sort of thing happens and the walls come crashing down," he said. "The police brutality that happened around that time… we wrote a song about that."
  • Thousands of mostly young males rioted in several London boroughs for several days during early August 2011 as well as in other places in England. The resulting chaos generated looting and arson as well as the deaths of five people. The riots inspired a number of songs including:

    "Kids" by Mikky Ekko

    "Uptight Downtown" by La Roux

    In addition the video for Plan B's single "Ill Manors" features footage of the riots.

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