This scene is full of awful cover bands (But they’re all great musicians, yeah they’re wonderful musicians) And the local arms dealers make bombs and tanks (But we need our munitions, yeah we need our ammunition) I’m not too worried about experts Their supercilious tone won’t make me a convert And local geography ain’t going to change who I am Welcome to St Annes Well, most of the workforce is in nuclear power (And we need our electricians coz we need our electricity) Can’t be in the sea for more than an hour (I’m just stating the position, I’m just stating the position) Yeah, there’s red flags in the places I swam And the kids have a shorter attention span But environmental concerns ain’t going to change who I am Welcome to St Annes (Have you seen Dan, he’s such a powerful swimmer?) Well of course he’ll swim faster with all those extra fingers (Have you seen John, he’s such a good guitarist?) His fingering is good but his songwriting is artless (Have you met Adrianna, are you going to her party?) Well I want to, I guess, but I’m humourless and heartless People say "just be you" but they’re not gonna like who I am Welcome to St Annes There’s tensions mounting between Britain and Japan (But it’s probably nothing, yeah it’s something out of nothing) Iraq is interested and so’s Afghanistan (But it’s probably nothing, yeah it’s something out of nothing) I’m told they’re interested in fracking in the Arctic And they’re saying yeah St Annes, well it freaking is a target But world politics can’t really affect who I am Welcome to St Annes

I used to play with lots of awful bands when I was 17 Who only listened to Oasis and NOFX And though they were all terrible, we always let them headline I tried to treat them all with respect But each night I watched them do the same old banter, forced and scripted And if I saw four more guys in t-shirts I was gonna scream Then along came Adrianna Who I thought was famous Coz I'd seen her on Scuzz, heard her on Kerrang, and thought she'd made it She had come from London which I thought was exotic And she made the standard Vans and Converse look strangely erotic, But what kind of scenario would mean a cool punk rock girl Would ever want to hang around with me And then we played together, or at least our bands did I spent the weeks that led up to it lost in thought, blithely romantic You helped me tune my guitar, sort my amp without pretension. I still need help with both: I didn’t pay attention We played the best gig of our lives, like Ringo, fingers blistered But you were outside, said “sorry, mate, I must have missed it...” Adrianna, a hundred thousand times, you Never even noticed as you smiled vacantly and drank Budweiser You always played a Fender Jaguar you wore round your knees And girls are hotter when they play guitar, at least if you ask me And what would it take? What would it take? What do you get? What would I get? We used the acoustic guitars as firewood Used the strings as trip wires for the pirates And there’s not a ukulele on this island At least on the surface We gather in secret in shacks Make our instruments out of household trash Make percussion out of diamonds and cash And things equally worthless And without the John Lewis jingle Or the Eva Cassidy Christmas single The acoustic guitar finally again Sounds subversive This world is trash, it's just hairspray and refuse Forced to the outskirts, just seeking refuge The bombs fell and pushed the songs to the centre People cling to them like wreckage from the life they remember We pulled the scene from the spare rooms and basements Pulled the generator into bars in the wastelands This world has taken on a dark mutation Slippery tentacles clap to the bass drum Do they get it? Do they even get it? Do they have a take on Cassavettes? ("Alcoholic!" "Genius!" "Messiah!" "Misogynist!") How do we get in? How do we get out? What do we put in? What do we get out? And what about us? How do we play a part in this? We are 'Dead Souls' book 2 Maybe I shouldn't have started this I'm like Omega when you've kicked out of my finisher I've started something and I don't know how to finish it We're 'Smile' We are the Canterbury Tales How can I complete this? I don't want to have a Stephen King ending A flight without incident then crash out on the landing How do we get in? How do we get out? What do we put in? What do we get out? I regret it I regret being starstruck In a town where the crowd and the sound and the bar sucked I wish we’d met under different circumstances I wish we’d had a different set of chances I heard your songs and thought I wanted to be near you In fact all I really wanted was to hear you Play all those beautiful songs that you’ve written And imagine there’s a scene where both you and I fit in Adrianna Your band is going nowhere But when they open Jenx in 2028 I want to go there A thousand things we could have done but which I never thought of I thought of them too late, I wrote them down, that’s not important I romanticised meeting those who I admired Maybe we’d be different if the world was not on fire Adrianna

Ever since I was young, my body Has been the way that I am defined But is this body just an empty vessel? A ghost ship, without any light? And I'm glad that I'm able to use it I wouldn't say it gives me disgust I just wish that I had one that's different I just wish I had one I trust I know its strengths and limitations I know the things that people think are strange I could learn to accept them, but why should I? I could find some way that I could change As an infant I was thought of as a mutant Now I'm older, they think I am a star But how can they think they know who I am Any more than I know who they are? But in the water's where it changes In the water's where it changes I wish that I was someone different Who could take my achievements, be content But I'm a nuclear disaster, I'm a toxic waste Just a fire with nowhere I can vent And I don't even feel human among humans The costs are heavy even when I'm free So I'll ignore red flags among the sand yachts I mean really, how bad can it be? But in the water's where it changes In the water's where it changes "What's in the sea that I can see through the binoculars Dragging people under the waves like an octopus? Sound the alarm! It must mean harm! First the sand yachts, then the lot of us! It looks like something I've never seen before Six or seven fingers on every dismal claw It's high contact, it's high impact Order a bombing of the sand yachts and the beach shacks Evacuate the hipsters? Low priority Sacrifice them if it saves the majority Shoot it down before it reaches town Cut up like marram grass, exercise authority!" "I don't know if what I've done is good or bad Shooting didn't kill it, it just got bad The shacks have all been floored And I'm sorry to report That nothing of the lo-fi scene remain here in St Annes From the dunes to the tide, nothing's left alive If it comes inland, nobody will survive I'm not deceiving you!" "No, I'm believing you! Hello? Guy? I'm no longer -"

It's such a macho thing To try to rebuild anew To strip parts from a car and think about you To try and figure out how things go together It's an action hero thing Unlike a major movie release The light won't shine on my muscles daubed in engine grease I've got missing pieces but I'm meant to be clever It's such a cliche thing I need my own space, by which I mean, I need to be in space And I'm facing the fact on the face of the earth there's one thing I can't face: Being part of A world so heartless Well, it's carnage A renegade high camp space opera It's useless Feeling this ruthless Some day I'll prove this any day soon, atom heart Mothra I thought of physics and rocket science Made a control panel from a kitchen appliance Thought of exiting the atmosphere It's such a complex thing But I thought about you the most I know you're doing cool stuff up on the coast I guess it's selfish wishing you were here It's such a complex thing It's been fly hanging out with you But now I've really got to fly I laughed when I read about Noah's ark But now I can't see why, as Being part of A world so heartless Well, it's carnage A renegade high camp space opera It's useless Feeling this ruthless Some day I'll prove this any day soon, atom heart Mothra (Meet me at the Fylde Coast Where the three-eyed fish bite Meet me where the rivers meet And we will learn to fight)

You drove me to this That night at Adrianna’s You caught my eye At a certain time During a song of Rihanna’s You drove me to this Drove me from the house crying You said you’d not been with a guy, well not yet, And I wondered what you were implying Swimming’s the one thing In my life that isn’t a mystery But the Sandcastle’s bombed, the public baths closed Just the sea left and the rest is history It didn’t have to be like this It didn’t have to be like this But it is You drove me to this Writing plans on the back of a payslip You drove me to this Fitting lazers and guns to my spaceship I should have known it I shouldn’t have been such a coward I imagine my life narrated in my head But the narrator now is Ron Howard The fact is no man had shown interest And no woman. I don’t know the signals I couldn’t predict this rampage I couldn’t have called for the vigil But oh I miss you, oh, I could have done with you here Oh I miss you, oh what I could have done with you here Oh I miss you, Oh how I’m missing you here Oh I miss you, Oh how I wish you were here Oh I miss you, Oh I could do with you here Oh I miss you, Oh what I could do with you here Do you like what I’ve done with the place? Took the lo-fi kids out at Fairhaven Took out the sand yachts and beach huts Realised there’s nothing worth saving I hate what we’ve done with this place This hot bed of North West retirement There must have been some way of stopping The deaths and the bombs and the sirens And I don’t want to kill you, It’s not you who made me a monster And I don’t want to kill you, Really it’s not me who wants to And oh I missed you, Oh, I missed all the shots that I fired Oh I missed you, Oh, this fighting is leaving me tired Oh I missed you, Oh, I could have done with you here Oh I missed you, Oh, what I could have done with you here We aim for a vengeful revolution, But I miss you brother And we are not lighting these flames We call for a peaceful resolution Because we love one another And love can repair us again Oh I missed you, Oh I could have done with you here Oh I missed you Oh, what I could have done with you here Oh I missed you Oh I could do with you here Oh I missed you Oh what I could do with you here