The Leavers

Introduction: In an interview for Prog magazine, h said, "The Leavers is a totally different animal. I wrote it really as a response to the corrosive effect that travel has on you. When you're in a touring band, or even more so in a touring band's crew, you’re hardly ever home, you wake up in a new city every day. There's a repetitive thing of the process of putting a show together, perform a show, you take it down, get on the bus, go to sleep and go again. For crew that's the life. When you get home if you’re off, you’re not being paid and you feel like you’re unemployed. It's also about how these gypsy, thrill-seeking people seem to arrive, do their thing and then are gone. You can't trust them because they'll forget you as soon as they're gone."

Lucy Jordache has stated that the terms 'leavers' and 'remainers' were coined long before they became common parlance during the Brexit referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union in spring/summer 2016. The song has nothing to do with this issue.

'We will make a show'
Tim Glasswell added in the comments, "When the Beatles played in Hamburg's Kaiserkeller in the earlier 1960s, the owner, Bruno Koschmider, would shout 'Mach schau! Mach scau!' from the front of the stage. This translates as 'make a show' or 'put on a show' and was shouted to encourage the pre-Fab Four to entertain his crowds."

'From Dover to Calais'
Two major ports for the English Channel/ La Manche in England and France respectively; many a tour bus has been ferried between the two, by boat or by train via the Channel Tunnel.

'From Paris to Hamburg'
Capital city of France, and second largest city in Germany, in the north of the country respectively.

'Strasbourg to Stockholm'
Seat of the European Parliament in Eastern France, near the German border, and capital city of Sweden respectively.

'Newport to New York'
I had initially written that this referred to Newport, Rhode Island, but Silencio in the comments reports that on Lucy's Friday Questions on Facebook, h said it was the one in Wales. He conceded it would be a difficult journey to do by bus...

'We nod-off in London or Lisbon or Lima'
Capital cities of the UK, Portugal and Peru respectively.

'We wake up in Munich'
Capital city of the state of Bavaria, in the south east of Germany.

'The mind-numbing comedown'
'Comedown’ is a 16th century phrase originally meaning a loss of status or dignity, but more recently has come to mean the state after the high of a drug has worn off, but the after-effects are still apparent.

'The trouble and strife'
'Trouble and strife' is Cockney rhyming slang for 'wife'. Cf Threw Me Out.

Song Listing:

Songs with a link have explanations.

• Introduction
  
• El Dorado  
• Living In FEAR   
• The Leavers  
• White Paper  
• The New Kings

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