Music / Space

Space's 1996 incarnation (l-r: Tommy, Jamie, Franny, Andy)

Influences: Frank Sinatra, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, The Kinks, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Specials, David Bowie, Quentin Tarantino, Cypress Hill, The B-52s, Devo, Happy Mondays, Kraftwerk, The Cramps, Crass amongst many other things...

"Oh they want to knock us down, cuz they think we're scum

But we will all be waiting when the bulldozers come.

In a neighbourhood like this, you know it's hard to survive,

So you'd better come prepared cuz they won't take us alive!"

Space, "Neighbourhood"

Space are a psychedelic-indie-punk-hip hop-techno-easy listening group from Liverpool who had some success in the mid-to-late nineties. Their most famous singles include 'Female Of The Species' - featured on several film soundtracks, an Impulse advert and as the theme to Cold Feet - 'Neighbourhood', 'Avenging Angels', and 'The Ballad Of Tom Jones', a duet with Catatonia frontwoman Cerys Matthews.

The band started off as a trio consisting of Tommy Scott, Jamie Murphy and Andy Parle in 1993, with Franny Griffiths, who had previously played in bands with Tommy back in the mid-1980s, joining a year later; his keyboards and samplers were what gave the band their distinct sound. The band became a quintet when David 'Yorkie' Palmer, a long-time friend of the band who produced some of their earlier material, joined as bassist, allowing Tommy to concentrate more on vocals. Andy left the band at the end of 1997, and was swiftly replaced by Leon Caffrey.

The band reached their peak of success with their second album, Tin Planet, in 1998, but began to falter afterwards due to various problems with their record company at the time, not least involving the band's third album, titled Love You More Than Football. The provisional tracklisting was published on the band's website, and song titles were leaked to magazines. However, the album was never actually released and is now only available on bootleg. Around this time, Space were dropped and spent a few years hunting around for labels.

Jamie Murphy left in 2001, and the band called it a day four years later, after releasing one final album Suburban Rock 'n' Roll. Afterwards, Jamie and Franny formed a band called Dust with three others; Leon has moved to Australia; Tommy fronted the Drellas and Tommy Scott & The Red Scare; Franny and Yorkie worked with other bands, and on solo material; and Andy Parle died in 2009. It was meeting up at his funeral that inspired the three original members to reunite the band.

In 2011, the band announced they would be Back from the Dead to record a brand new album Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab, albeit without Yorkie and Leon, and with a new drummer, bassist and additional keyboardist, and they haven't stopped since. In 2019, Love You More than Football was finally released as part of a career-spanning Anthology set, almost two decades since the project was abandoned.

---

The band members are:

• Tommy Scott - vocals, bass guitar (1992-1997), guitar (1997-)
• Jamie Murphy - vocals, guitar (1992-2001, 2011-2012, 2023-present)
• Jamie Island - drums (1992-93)
• Andy Parle - drums (1993-1997)
• Franny Griffiths - keyboards (1994-)
• Yorkie - bass guitar (1997-2005)
• Leon Caffrey - drums (1997-2005)
• Phil Hartley - bass (2011-)
• Ryan Clarke - vintage keys (2011-2014)
• Allan Jones - drums (2011-)

---

Discography:

Studio albums

• Spiders (1996)
• Tin Planet (1998)
• Love You More than Football (originally set for 2000 before being abandoned; officially released in 2019)
• Suburban Rock 'n' Roll (2004)
• Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab (2014)
• Give Me Your Future (2017)
• Music for Pleasure Music for Pain (2021)
• Blood and Bubblegum (TBA)

Compilations

• Invasion Of The Spiders (B-side and remix album) (1997)
• Greatest Hits (five of them!)

---

The band provide examples of:

• Achilles in His Tent: Jamie, as a result of a drug-induced nervous breakdown. He dropped out of their American tour in 1997 and was replaced at the last minute by a saxophone player called Joel from Jub Jub, another Liverpool band who later supported Space at their Sefton Park gig that year.
• Ascended Extra: Both Yorkie and Phil were involved in the production/technicial side of the band before they become full-time members.
• Big Brother Instinct: Franny, towards Jamie. According to one interview, Franny saw his main role as 'stopping Jamie's head being kicked in'.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Tommy comes across as one in interviews.
• Dem Bones: Skulls and skeletons have become a prominent feature in Space sleeves since their reunion, especially if it's done by Tommy.
• Fiery Redhead: Jamie - and how. See Red Oni, Blue Oni below. Funnily enough, at one point, he had a side project going called Firehead.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The original line-up: Tommy (sanguine), Jamie (choleric), Andy (melancholic), Franny (phlegmatic).
  • The current line-up also applies, except with Phil and Allan playing the roles of choleric and melancholic respectively.
• Football, Pop Music, and Flat Caps / Oop North: they're from Liverpool. As you can tell if you've ever heard Jamie or Ryan sing, not to mention Franny's vocals on 'I Am Unlike A Lifeform You've Ever Met' and 'Cameraman'. Due to his habit of singing in different voices, Tommy's Scouse accent generally doesn't come through as much in his vocals, although it's more noticeable on a good part of Attack Of The Mutant 50ft Kebab.
• Gentle Giant: Franny is the biggest band member and was once described as 'an Easter Island statue-faced bouncer on the door of the hardest nightclub in Hell'. Quite fitting, as he did used to be a bouncer, but he's actually very nice, friendly and approachable in real life, and is always happy to talk to fans.
• Headbutting Heroes: Tommy and Jamie, and to a lesser extent, Tommy and Franny. While they don't hate each other per se, Tommy and Jamie clashed while they were in the band together, often having to record seperately from each other. Franny and Yorkie also fell out as a result of Yorkie recording over Franny's keyboards during the making of Suburban Rock 'n' Roll.
• He's Back!: Jamie rejoined the band for their 2011 reunion gig in Liverpool, though he left again the following year.
• Lead Bassist: Tommy started out as a Type A, playing bass as well as doing lead vocals, before Yorkie joined as bassist in 1997 and Tommy switched to guitar. This explains the difference between the basslines on Spiders and the ones on Tin Planet and later albums, as Tommy was heavily influenced by Cypress Hill when working on Spiders, and his basslines are more groove-oriented. In the new line-up, Phil's style of playing is more in line with Tommy's.
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: averted with both Yorkie and Phil, who have sizeable followings of their own outside Space: Yorkie for his solo music and work with Moongoose, and Phil for his and Allan's other band, Super Fast Girlie Show. Not to mention that Yorkie did a fair bit of press with Tommy while he was in the band, and Phil is Tommy's Lancer in the current line-up.
• Older Than They Look: Tommy was born in 1964 and was 32 when 'Female Of The Species' came out, but you wouldn't think so to look at him. Lampshaded by Jamie in various interviews, particularly back in 1996 when Tommy used to lie about his age, knocking at least 6 years off.
• Putting the Band Back Together: after Andy Parle's death and funeral. Tommy, Franny and Jamie explained what happened in this interview from 2011.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Jamie and Tommy respectively. Jamie was a Fiery Redhead whose constant partying caused him to have a nervous breakdown, while Tommy was the more sensitive and introverted one of the two. The trope also applies in the musical sense as Tommy's songs were more melodious and romantic - albeit in a rather twisted way - while Jamie's were darker in tone, particularly on Spiders, and more indie rock-oriented.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: there was a rumour going around in 2009 that Tommy had died. Tommy found out and unsurprisingly, was not happy.
• Revolving Door Band: Tommy is the only member of Space who has remained in the band since their formation in 1992 as well as their 2011 reunion, with Franny who, despite not being a founding member, being second-longest serving member (even if you count the pre-Space bands Hello Sunset and The Australians, which both Tommy and Franny played in). Every album the band has recorded so far has been with a slightly altered line-up.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: no, there was nothing going on with Tommy and Cerys in 1998, even if they did have a lot of chemistry whenever they were performing 'The Ballad Of Tom Jones' on TV or elsewhere (since Space and Catatonia played a lot of the same festivals around the time the song came out).
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: try finding an uncensored interview with Space where Jamie does not use the word 'fuck' and variants thereof at least five times. Franny can give him a run for his money.
• Solo Side Project: In 2020, Tommy released his first solo album Marionette under the Thomas Scott Quintet moniker. Yorkie had also released a solo album during his tenure with the group.
• Team Pet: Tommy's dog Judy, who briefly appears in the video for "Me and You Vs the World".
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Tommy and Jamie, with an emphasis on the vitriolic part.
  • In the current line-up, Tommy and Franny, if their onstage banter is anything to go by.

The band's music provides examples of:

• Anti-Love Song: Yorkie summed up Space's approach to songwriting as 'boy kills girl, falls in love'. It's easier to name songs by the band that don't fall into this category somehow.
• Arc Words: Whether it's intention or not, The word 'hell' seems to be brought up a lot in their songs.
• Audience Participation Song: "Female of the Species'', where Tommy will wander into the crowd and hand the mic to random audience members to sing the final chorus. To a lesser extent, '"The Ballad of Tom Jones", as Tommy has on occasions called a female fan onstage to sing with him.
• Ax-Crazy: 'Mr Psycho', 'Rejects' and 'Piggies' both play this for laughs.
• Based on a True Story: 'Burn Down The School' is about a guy Tommy knew at school called Jimmy Roddaway, who set the school on fire after one of the teachers had an affair with a pupil. "The Dysfunctional Brother of Action Man" was inspired by Tommy's older brother, who was very into working out and was the physical opposite of Tommy, who was (and still is) tiny and thin.
• Black Comedy: Their bread and butter. 'Neighbourhood' could be a Trope Codifier, and Music for Pleasure, Music for Pain is made of this trope.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: "Benefits of Hypnotism". The narrator brainwashes a woman into becoming his personal assassin...only for the last verse to reveal that she brainwashed him.
• Break Up Song: 'Begin Again', 'There's No You', 'Now She's Gone', 'Influenza', 'Disco Dolly', 'One O'Clock', 'Love You More Than Football'. And a whole lot of others, probably.
  • Subverted with "Falling in Love", which is a Getting Back Together Song.
• Bullet Dancing: "Charlie M" has the narrator being made to do this by the titular criminal.
• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: 'Fortune Teller'.
• Call-and-Response Song: 'Cameraman'.

  Franny: Why do you do it?

  Tommy: I do it 'cos I can!

  • Also occurs in 'Hitch-Hiking' and 'She's In Love With A Boy in a Body Bag'.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: 'Blow Up Doll'.
• Careful with That Axe: 'Armageddon'. There's also a rather muffled one on "Shut Your Mouth", as well as one before the final chorus of "Sharks".
• Concept Album: Several songs off Suburban Rock 'N' Roll deal with feeling trapped and an overall loss of freedom in modern society, thanks to the increasing rise in survelliance and media influence. It's almost a Merseyside take on OK Computer!
  • Give Me Your Future, kind of - it's heavily inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and a lot of the songs are centred around technology and the future.
• Cover Version: 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place', 'Mad Dogs & Englishmen', 'Sunny Afternoon' with Tom Jones, 'Massachusetts'. At recent live shows, they've tagged 'Dark Clouds' with 'La Bamba' and played 'Oh Pretty Woman' at their reunion gig. The group also played "White Christmas" as a encore at their Christmas show in 2016.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: "The Loneliest Robot" is about a character (implied to be a cyborg) lamenting the loss of their humanity.
  I don't feel human no more
  Just a machine at the core
• Darker and Edgier: 'Darker Clouds' and 'Storm Clouds', both considerably more downbeat versions of 'Dark Clouds', which the band reportedly prefer to the original. Likewise, the number of tracks premiered at a small exclusive gig in 2002, some of which made it onto Suburban Rock 'n' Roll or the singles released from it, some of which were released over the website - definitely qualify, having a harder, more experimental sound and darker lyrics than the songs from the Tin Planet / Love You More Than Football era, about alienation, paranoia, apocalytic scenarios, mental illness, and suicide.
  • Flies, from around the same era, definitely would have qualified for this trope, had it been released.
  • Attack Of The Mutant 50ft Kebab takes it up a notch, both musically - it's heavy influenced by punk and post-punk - and lyrically. Heroin addiction, miserable teenage girls, suicide, gang violence, unwanted pregnancies, the world being destroyed…it's all there. The title track makes the street in 'Neighbourhood' look like Canterlot in comparison.
  • After the relatively Lighter and Softer Give Me Your Future, the darkness came back with Music for Pleasure, Music for Pain, which is very hip-hop influenced and tries to recapture the sound of Spiders, and has songs about dysfunctional families, being brainwashed into committing murder, and internet trolls. There is also much more swearing. The videos used at the gigs also had more of a horror theme; for instance, the video for "The Girl With the Antidote" uses footage from Audition and"Face Don't Fit" uses footage from Eyes Without a Face.
• "Days of the Week" Song: 'Diary Of A Wimp'.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The video to "Begin Again", which pays homage to the silent film era. "Avenging Angels" and "Female of the Species" also feature black-and-white footage; in fact, when the band performed the former on 'Top of the Pops' in 1998, the screen turned black and white during the middle section.
• Distressed Dude: Tommy, Jamie, Andy and Franny are tied up with a large amount of blue rope on the cover of 'Female Of The Species'. Tommy plays this role in the video for 'The Ballad Of Tom Jones', with Cerys Matthews cornering him on the bonnet of a car on a cliff and threatening to push him off.
• Driven to Suicide: The characters in 'Quiet Beach', 'She's In Love With A Boy In A Bodybag' and, of course, 'Pretty Suicide'.
• Dysfunctional Family: 'Weird + Wonderful People' is about one,
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The band's debut single "If It's Real", recorded when the group were still a trio, is considered an Old Shame by the band due to its' 'generic' indie rock sound, with very little indication of the eclectic style they would become reknowned for.
• Epic Rocking: 'Fran In Japan' is Space's longest track at 7 minutes and 14 seconds, with 'Theme From Baretta Vendetta' and 'Had Enough' not far behind at over 6 minutes each. It's more like Epic Dancing, since these are all tracks by Franny.
• Exorcist Head: Referenced in "Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab":
  Your head starts spinning like you're Linda Blair
• Genre Mashup / New Sound Album: while they're generally classified as indie, they also draw influences from hip-hop (particularly on Spiders), film soundtracks, big band, rock 'n' roll, techno, and electronica, with Tin Planet being the most noticeable example of this. It's kind of expected, really, since the band had a singer who was more influenced by films than music, a classic rock fan guitarist, one drummer into jazz and another one into hip-hop and loops, a keyboard player who was seriously into dance music, and a bassist who liked literally anything. Jamie's songs were more indie/rock oriented, while Franny's tracks were almost entirely electronic instrumentals.
  • Spiders made heavy use of loops and samples, Tin Planet was noticeably poppier, while Suburban Rock 'n' Roll and the never-released Flies had a harder edge to them. The lost album Love You More Than Football was somewhere in between. Attack Of The Mutant 50ft Kebab is more ska / rockabilly influenced, partly thanks to Phil, Ryan and Allan joining, whilst Give Me Your Future dabbles in New Wave Music and Synth-Pop, even branching out into Synthwave territory on tracks like "This Gorgeous Chaos". Music for Pleasure Music for Pain revisited the hip-hop style of their debut.
• Genre Roulette: Tin Planet. Compare 'Disco Dolly' to 'Piggies', 'Unluckiest Man In The World' to 'Avenging Angels', or 'Begin Again' to 'Fran In Japan'. No two songs sound similar.
• Going Cold Turkey: "Armageddon" appears to be about getting through a heroin withdrawal.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Briefly used in "Day of the Dead".
• Grief Song: 'Avenging Angels' and 'Bad Days' were both tributes to the band members' lost loved ones. In light of Andy Parle's death, the songs are even more poignant.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Tommy seems to love doing himself down and/or playing the part of a loser in his lyrics, particularly in 'Begin Again', 'Unluckiest Man In The World', 'Me & You Vs The World' ("you took a chance on a loser like me") or 'Only Half An Angel' ("you're brilliant, witty, ambitious...all of the things that I could never be"). It's all over the place on Music for Pleasure Music for Pain.
• Hidden Track: 'Yes You Do' on Love You More Than Football.
• Instrumentals: most of Franny's tracks were instrumentals, normally at the end of each album. Spiders had 'Growler', Tin Planet had 'Fran In Japan' (and 'The Man' is semi-instrumental), and Love You More Than Football had 'Juno'. The trend with bucked with Suburban Rock 'N' Roll and beyond.
  • On the B-side front, there's 'Had Enough', 'Stress Transmissions', 'Yeah Right!' and 'Theme From Baretta Vendetta'.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming / Enemy Mine: The last verse in 'Neighbourhood' (the quote being used at the top of the main page): the singer openly chastises his neighbours for being a bunch of lunatics and criminals, but he'll be ready to stick by and defend them if the place ever gets demolished.
• I Just Want to Be Loved / The Power of Friendship: "Be There" initially plays out like another of Tommy's obsessive lunatic fantasies, but it's revealed that the narrator only wants to be there for his object of affection (albeit in his own "crazy, mixed up little way") in case another man lets her down.
• I Love the Dead: Heavily implied in 'She's In Love With A Boy In A Bodybag', coupled with Together in Death when the girl decides she's had enough of living. Since this is Space we're talking about, the narrator is jealous of the dead man.
  I'm so jealous that I'm alive
  But I'm too scared of suicide
  She held him tight in that lonely morgue
  She thinks he's poetry, even in death...
• In Da Club: "Disco Dolly", about a man who's a terrible dancer, and whose girlfriend loves clubbing and dance music (he's a rock 'n' roll fan himself). Fittingly, it's a disco / trance-influenced song.
• In the Style of: Because of their genre-hopping approach, several Space songs tend to emulate the styles of other musicians. For example, the middle eight in "Avenging Angels" is a homage to Marlene Dietrich, "Straight Line" from Music for Aliens was inspired by German experimental rock group Can, whilst "Pretty Suicide" is a tribute to, well, Suicide.
• Intercourse with You: "Spooky Bitch", "Blow Your Cover", "Falling In Love", "Give Me Your Future", "This Gorgeous Chaos", "I Am the Insect", and the unreleased songs "Radio Hell" and "Sexual Stereo".
• Lazy Bum: "Hell No" is about a guy who's unable to find a job due to lack of motivation and low self-esteem.
• Longest Song Goes Last: "Fran in Japan", which closes Tin Planet, clocks in at just over 7 minutes, and is the longest track in the group's catalog.
• Love Makes You Crazy: "Be There", "Drop Dead" (some interpretations).
• Lighter and Softer: Tin Planet and Love You More than Football, despite consisting mostly of Anti Love Songs, are much poppier in sound compared to the rest of their output. Give Me Your Future seems to be heading in this direction too after the darkness of Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab.
• Live Album: More like Live Video: Tin Planet Live, filmed in Wolverhampton during the Tin Planet tour, which was released on VHS in 1998.
  • Also, their performance at the Reading Festival in 1997 is now available to stream.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "Punk Rock Funeral".
• Lyrical Dissonance: 'Me And You Versus The World' is quite a cheerful-sounding song...about a couple who try to rob a shop and end up being shot dead. Still, at least they die happy. And 'Avenging Angels' takes on a darker tone once you realise it's about your dead loved ones watching over you.
  • 'Quiet Beach' is a atmospheric, pleasant-sounding ballad about a couple who drown themselves at sea.
• The Masochism Tango / Slap-Slap-Kiss: taken up to eleven with 'The Ballad Of Tom Jones', and even more so in the video, where Tommy and Cerys are on a car on top of a cliff, with her forcing him ever close to the edge. The characters in the song are constantly trying to torture and kill each other, and the only thing that prevents either of them from murdering the other is the music of the titular Welsh crooner.
• Miniscule Rocking: 'Hell Of A Girl', 'Yes You Do', 'Falling In Love' and 'Hold No Fear' are all under 2 minutes.
• Nightmare Fetishist: if his lyrics are anything to go by, Tommy is one. To a lesser extent, so is Jamie.
• Obsession Song: Space seem to like this trope. 'Drop Dead', Turn Me On To Spiders', 'Bastard Me Bastard You', 'Be There', 'Diary Of A Wimp', 'If I Ever', 'There's No You' and 'I Am the Insect' are all examples.
• Papa Wolf: "Suburban Rock 'n' Roll" (albeit one suffering with self-doubt).
• Pep-Talk Song: "Paranoid 6teen".
• Performance Video: most of their videos fall under this category, particularly 'Female Of The Species' and 'Dark Clouds'.
• Precision F-Strike: 'Turn Me On To Spiders':

  "But if anybody comes near me / she'll cut their fucking balls off."

  • The live version of "Influenza" has this beauty: "You think I'm a FUCKIN' IDIOT!"
• Rearrange the Song: 'Dark Clouds', 'Influenza' and 'Charlie M' have all had this treatment. The version of 'Charlie M' that Space play live is the demo version, which is much faster than the album version and starts with an 'ooga chaka' chant (see below). 'Influenza' is sometimes played at half the speed live, and 'Dark Clouds' has rarely been played as it is on the album. In 2004, the band played a garage rock version; in 2012 and 2013, they tagged on 'La Bamba' at the end; and Tommy transposes the song down a minor third for his solo sets (the band also played this version at their 2016 Christmas gig).
  • Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab is comprised of songs that originated during Tommy's time with The Drellas, performed in a rockabilly/ska punk style.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Influenza".

  You treat me like an influenza

  You think I'm an idiot cuz I'm not in Mensa

  You treat me like tonsilitis

  I'm a pain in the neck and I'm not quite right but

  I know and you know that

  I'm your bellyache yeah and there's no cure

• Retraux: Much of Give Me Your Future was recorded using vintage analogue synthesizers and electronic drums for an authentically 80s' minimal synth/new wave sound.
• Revisiting the Roots: After dabbling with a lighter, more commercial sound on Tin Planet and the aborted Love You More than Football, Suburban Rock 'N' Roll and Music for Aliens saw the group return to the experimentation of the Spiders era. Likewise, Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab was a throwback to Tommy's earliest musical influences, such as punk, ska and rockabilly.
• Sampling: Space absolutely loved doing this, particularly in the early days. Spiders is very heavy on samples - the one that stands out the most being the Elephant Man sample on 'No One Understands' - as are several B-sides. See Spoken Word in Music below.
  • The live version of 'Charlie M' starts with a sample of the 'ooga chaka' chant from Blue Swede's 'Hooked On A Feeling', which Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) fans might recognise. A slower, slightly distorted version of the chant appears in the album version.
• Sanity Slippage Song: 'Mr. Psycho' and 'Drop Dead'. 'Armageddon' and 'Frightened Horses' probably qualify as well.
• Shrinking Violet: "She's the Girl the Summer Misses the Most" takes this up to eleven: the lead character is so shy that she's literally vanishing from her own photos.
• Shout-Out: so many examples to mention that it now has its own page.
• Silly Love Songs: while most of Space's songs are Black Comedy, 'Only Half An Angel', 'Give Me Your Future' and 'Falling In Love Again' all play it straight.
• Special Guest: Cerys Matthews (formerly of Catatonia) memorably duets with Tommy on 'The Ballad of Tom Jones'. At festivals when both bands were playing, Cerys would join Space to sing her part; in recent years, Jennifer John and Nancy Doll, the lead singer of the Sex Pissed Dolls, have also joined Space onstage for the song.
  • On Love You More than Football, Liverpool-based soul vocalist Jennifer John sings on "Good Times", whilst Mark Owen provides backing vocals for "Gravity". Also, Edwyn Collins pops up to make a brief cameo on "Thank You".
  • More recently, Paul Hemmings - formerly of the La's and the Lightning Seeds - has played live with Space as a second guitarist.
• Spoken Word in Music: loads of examples. 'No One Understands' has a sample from The Elephant Man as its middle eight; 'Bastard Me Bastard You' has an Alfred Hitchcock sample; 'I Am Unlike A Lifeform You've Ever Met' is entirely spoken word and ends with an American radio announcer talking about a zombie attack; 'Disco Dolly' starts with a car horn and a group of Scousers talking outside a club; 'The Man' and 'Juno' are instrumental tracks with sampled speech scattered throughout; and other songs have fragments of unintelligible speech, some apparently from the band themselves.
• Step Up to the Microphone: all band members except Phil and the drummers have done lead vocals at some point.
  • Jamie: 'Voodoo Roller', 'No-One Understands', 'Kill Me', 'Gravity', 'One O'Clock', 'Evil Things', 'Despise', 'Major Pager', 'Piggies', 'Lovechild Of The Queen', 'Voices', and various B-sides.
  • Yorkie: 'The Man', 'Why Can't We Turn On The Lights?', 'Supersonic Jetplane'. He also shares lead vocals with Tommy on 'Only Half an Angel' and 'Lost In Space'.
  • Franny: 'I Am Unlike A Lifeform You've Ever Met', 'The Man'.
  • Ryan: 'Happy Clowns'.
  • Jordan Owoo, one of the band's road crew and a musician in his own right, on "Bad Ass Hungry Pterodactyl".
• Suicide by Sea: "Quiet Beach".
• Surreal Music Video: '20 Million Miles From Earth'. 'Dangerous Day' combines this with Surreal Horror!
• The Something Song: 'The Goodbye Song'. Also "The Rat Song" had it ever been released.
• Take That!: 'Attack Of The Mutant 50ft Kebab' is a dig at corporate chains causing local businesses to lose out. No, really.
  • The band (especially Franny - see Berserk Button above - and Allan, the son of a Labour councillor) are notoriously anti-Conservative, which is why 'No One Understands' and 'Major Pager' each contain not-so-subtle jabs at Tory prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major respectively. In the live version of 'No One Understands', Jamie would sometimes sing 'Margaret Thatcher, she's a twat / slag' instead of 'Margaret Thatcher, she's so cool'.
  • 'Be There' was written as a dig towards critics who thought their songs were too wacky.
• Thrill Seeker: "A Faster Way to Travel".
  Can't you see I need a rocket up my arse?!?
• Title Track: Every album from Love You More Than Football onwards.
  • Averted by 'Spiders', which is a B-side on 'Me & You Vs The World' (and appears on the original 'Neighbourhood' and Invasion Of The Spiders as 'Turn Me On To Spiders').
• Together in Death: The last verse of 'Me & You Vs the World' - see You Are Worth Hell below. Also 'Quiet Beach', 'Pretty Suicide', and 'She's In Love With A Boy In A Bodybag' (as mentioned above). Tommy Scott seems to like this trope.
• Tomato in the Mirror: The video to "Suburban Rock 'N' Roll" features Tommy being pursued by someone in a lion costume, who at the end is revealed to be... another Tommy!
• Troll: "Murderer" is from the perspective of an online troll, who is proud of the fact his insensitive remarks can't get him into serious trouble.

  Why should I beat myself up?

  There's no one under the patio

  Oh, it's not like I am a cold blood murderer

• Truck Driver's Gear Change: 'Zombies', 'The Devil's at the Party'.
  • "Bad Days" changes key in the third verse but reverts back to its original pitch by the end.
• Villain Song: "Evil Things", sung by the Devil himself.
• Villainous Gentrification: Resisting gentrification, and being willing to fight for their diverse working class neighbourhood is the theme running through the song "Neighbourhood".
• Why Did It Have To Be Water? Discussed in the song "Sharks", which is about Tommy's fear of the sea.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: Jordan Owoo, the lead vocalist on "Bad Ass Hungry Pterodactyl".
• Wretched Hive:
  • 'Neighbourhood' is a song about one. Apparently it's based on where the band members grew up.
  • "Hell's Barbecue" is a post-apocalyptic spin on the subject.
• You Are Worth Hell: 'Me & You Vs The World'.

  You took a chance on a loser like me, but you never let me down

  And whether we're in Heaven or Hell

  I know it's better than in separate cells