I once had to drive from the Isle of Skye to London by myself through the night in one go.
The boy I was going out with at the time had had a family emergency so I didn’t twice about going down there to give my moral support.
However, when my phone came back into proper reception and I was a third of the way there I got a phonecall and was told not to bother, that I would arrive too early in the morning and wake people up in the house. I felt really stupid.
This song is about mis-reading situations.
It’s also about people coming laden with baggage.
It’s about being scared to call someone a pet name because their ex might have called them that too.
It’s about moving to a new city and everybody telling you about each part of it. People have been living there for years and years, all the zones of it have been established.
It’s about wanting something completely new.
Wanting to be the map-maker, not the map-reader (and a bad one at that!).

(The line “I remember something about a carpark) is a direct reference to one of our friends at Sixth Form losing his virginity to a beast of a girl in a QuikSave Carpark by some bins!
It’s these kinds of things that make up your own maps.
I can never look at that carpark without thinking about it!)

I drove to your house in the rain, in the night
WIthout a pause, without invite, without a second thought.

This boy has been called names before
This town has been exposed to war
These streets are sore from all the strain of all the years
Quarters have been formed and been found
I’m told the place to hang around
i’m told the bad streets to avoid and stay away away

I never really thought about it
I kinda just felt about it
And now that I think about it
Well I feel pretty dumb

Give me a town with no history
Give me a view that no one has ever seen
Give me a town with no history and I’ll find my own way around

I’ll make my own map, draw my own escape route from your house for when I’ve been so foolish.

You stood in the rain looking at me confused by me
I stood in the rain backing away cursing my name

This boy has been called names before
This town has been exposed to war
These streets are sore from all the strain of all the years
Quarters have been formed and been found
I’m told the place to hang around
i’m told the bad streets to avoid and stay away away

I never really thought about it
I kinda just felt about it
And now that I think about it
Well I feel pretty dumb

Give me a town with no history
Give me a view that no one has ever seen
Give me a town with no history and I’ll find my own way around

There were times there was people there were cars there were signs
And happenings and sightings I remember something about a car park
There were stations and short cuts and ways in and out there were hiding places and ways around the side
There were plans and permission, abandoned old places where no one was living
Constant complaints there were protests and heartbreak.