Songs: 2000AD Nan

notes / gigs / releases

Every Friday after school
When my Mum went out to work
My Nan would meet me at the gates
And together we would walk
Back to her house for tea
Always stopping on the way
At the cornershop to buy
The Weekly News and then she'd say

Do you want a comic
As a special treat?
Every week I'd say
Yes please

I'll have 2000AD Nan
2000AD Nan
I'll have 2000AD Nan

Well I kept on reading
And so did she
And even when I moved away
She kept it for me every week
And every time that I went home
I would go to her house first
She would smile and say Now duck
Here's my shopping list and purse

And do you want a comic
As a special treat?
I'd smile and say
Yes please

I'll get 2000AD Nan
2000AD Nan
I'll get 2000AD Nan

In all those years of reading
This is my first time writing
There's something that I need to say
Now that I'm subscribing
If you print this letter
It can never be enough
To express the thanks I owe her
For her kindness
For all her kindness and her love

A few weeks later through my door
My first subscription issue came
I couldn't believe what I saw
When I turned to the letters page
A bumper issue of a hundred pages
A thousand letters all saying thanks
As the Squaxx Dex Thargo
Paid a tribute to their Nans

We've all had this comic
As a special treat
And every week we'll always say
Yes please

We'll have 2000AD Nan
2000AD Nan
We'll have 2000AD Nan

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

There was a time a few years ago when it seemed like every other week the letters page in 2000AD would feature someone writing in to pay tribute to their Nan, who had recently died. It seemed like, in the late 70s, the Nans of Britain had started buying their grandsons 2000AD and then stuck with it, keeping copies in reserve for them when they left home and, in many cases, sneakily reading them themselves.

I thought this was a lovely idea, that the generations were bonding over something as anarchic and/or violent as 2000AD, and it reminded me of my own childhood. I used to buy 2000AD with pocket money from one of my Nans, whilst my other Nan would get me the Beano when we went shopping.

Thus the story in this song is a combination of the two, while the end bit is (obviously) an imagination of what would happen if EVERYONE who owed the love of THRILLPOWER wrote in at the same time to say thanks. I must admit that when it gets to the middle bit I do get a bit weepy...

The music, meanwhile, was first written by Mr F A Machine - every so often we try and write a song together, with him sending me a tape of some TUNES, and every so often it works out. I tried this one in MANY different Keys before eventually getting back to the ORIGINAL one, and I replaced his Too Hard For Me To Play GUITAR parts with a bit of wibbly wobbly bass playing. I think it sounds NICE!