2007 was a good time to be an indie band from the UK. Since Arctic Monkeys had exploded the year before, the floodgates opened and those groups just kept on coming. But even if they had only one popular song, they could go at least somewhere and get a bit of hype before they eventually disappeared. Good Shoes had more than just one good song. They had a few actually. ‘All in My Head’ was their first single, came with a great music video too. And from my experience, whenever a new Good Shoes video arrived on MTV2, the song it was made to promote was usually very good. And one day I was sitting there, watching music videos come and go on that channel, when the video for the band’s ‘new’ single ‘Morden’ appeared.

I’ve been in Morden once. Not for any great length of time. I passed through the place during an Uber ride to its train station. I really should have gone home that night instead of getting too drunk that I had to stay round at a friend’s who lived near there. It was a long journey back to my place, I tell you. From what I saw of Morden, I didn’t think it was that bad. I don’t live there though, so my opinion shouldn’t matter much. However, the members of Good Shoes are, and the band’s track ‘Morden’ is a tale of just how shitty the town can be. Or at least how shitty the place was in the eyes of singer Rhys Jones.

The track’s a sweet 2-and-a-half minute jangly pop tune, but in it Jones straight out tells the listener that Morden isn’t a place you want to take your kids too. People are apparently racist, some might stab if you walk into the wrong area, kids are killing themselves, and overall it’s just a very uninspiring place that you wouldn’t want to live in. Now, I didn’t realise that when I was 12. Then, it just sounded good, and the one word chorus was quite memorable. Seeing the lyrics now I guess puts a downer on it, doesn’t affect my enthusiasm of it though. I find it funny in a strange way.