Comin' Over Here

Album: Comin' Over Here (2020)
Charted: 65
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Songfacts®:

  • First released on September 18, 2020, this ant-racist satire is based on a sketch from the BBC Two program Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. The routine lampoons the UKIP party leader Paul Nuttall, whose prominent Eurosceptic views Lee saw as xenophobic.

    Speaking to NME, Lee said: "A lot of people feel very alienated by a lot of the political discourse at the moment and a lot of people have been told they don't belong, so it's a routine that allows people to laugh at that idea."
  • Halfway through there is an excerpt from Beowulf, the first great English epic poem, which dates back to around 750. The anonymous work tells the story of the titular warrior from Geatland (modern southern Sweden) who fights three monsters: Grendel, Grendel's mother, and later in his life, an unnamed dragon. The excerpt is read in its original West-Saxon English dialect, after which Lee quips:

    Bloody Anglo Saxons... Comin' over 'ere... And laying down the foundation for the basis of our entire future language and culture

    Lee commented to NME: "There's a bit in the middle that's from an Anglo-Saxon poem that's over 1,000 years old and no one knows who wrote it. I love the fact that it's ended up on a record in the year 2020, in a way that whoever wrote it could never have dreamed of."
  • On January 24, 2020, the United Kingdom signed the Brexit withdrawal agreement, setting the terms for the country leaving the European Union. The agreement provided for a transition period during which the UK remained in the single market, giving it time to agree a trade deal with the EU. The Brexit transition period ended at 11 p.m. on December 31, 2020, concluding a saga that divided Britons and dominated British politics.

    A campaign was launched to get this song to #1 on the UK singles chart published on January 1, 2021, thereby making it the "Brexit Day Number One."
  • Asian Dub Foundation and Stewart Lee agreed that 100% of their share of sales be donated to frontline refugee and migrant support groups.
  • The record topped the Official Sales Chart and made #1 on the Amazon and iTunes download tallies. However, it only reached #65 on the UK singles chart because of the lack of streams.

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