🎶 My Crucial Track for 10 November 2026 - White City by The Pogues

Some albums have a good opening track, but the 2nd track is totally killer. What’s your favorite 2nd track song?

“White City”, in west London, was originally where various exhibitions were held at the start of the last century. The buildings were clad in a fake white marble, hence ‘White City’.

Shane MacGowan’s song is about the greyhound racing stadium. It got demolished to make a shopping centre and offices. I never went to “the dogs” at White City, but it reminds me of our local Catford Stadium, which was demolished for housing.

The music is a sped up version of Curragh of Kildare, actually much like the Oyster Bands version of that song. The words could be seen as a distant cousin of Big Yellow Taxi, although it’s a lament for working-class culture, rather than trees and flowers and whatnot.

“Here a tower shinning bright Once stood gleaming in the night Where now there’s just the rubble in the hole There the paddies and the frogs Came to gamble on the dogs Came to gamble on the dogs not long ago Oh, the torn up ticket stubs From a hundred thousand mugs Now washed away with dead dreams in the rain And the car-parks going up And they’re pulling down the pubs And it’s just another bloody rainy day”

View entry: www.crucialtracks.org/profile/m…