Anatomy of a Song: 'Neighbourhood' by Space Quiz

Answer: Who lives in a house like this?

'Through the Keyhole' was a panel show that ran from 1987 to 2003, and started out as a segment on the breakfast TV programme. Loyd Grossman, one of the presenters, would walk around the house of a famous person, drop some hints and ask, "Who lives in a house like this? David, it's over to you." ('David' was David Frost, the original host.) Celebrity panellists would then have to guess who the famous homeowner was. A revival with Keith Lemon, a character played by comedian Leigh Francis, aired in 2016.

'Neighbourhood' was originally released in March 1996, but failed to chart; an interview with 'Q' magazine in 1996 speculated that it may have received little airplay as certain lyrics were thought to be rather tasteless in the light of the Dunblane massacre. It is the second single from 'Spiders', with 'Money'/'Kill Me' being the first, though the band consider the former to be a 'test release'.

Answer: A transvestite

'In Number 69, there lives a transvestite,
He's a man by day, but he's a woman at night.'

'69' is a reference to a sexual activity. In the original demo version of the song (good luck tracking it down!), the characters living in the street were slightly different; there was a prostitute and a man 'who ruined his life on smack' (smack being heroin).

Answer: Saddam Hussein

'There's a man in Number 4 who swears he's Saddam Hussein,
Says he's on a chore to start the Third World War.'

Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, when the coalition forces of the UK and the USA invaded Iraq, alleging that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He went into hiding after his statue was toppled and was found hiding near a farmhouse in December 2003. He was tried and hanged in 2006. Thousands of Kurds and Iraqis had died under Hussein's dictatorship, with one of the most notorious events being a chemical weapon attack on the predominantly Kurdish city of Halabja in 1988, thought to have been killed between 3200 and 5000 people.

Answer: 110

'In 110, they haven't paid the rent.'

All four members of Space - Scott, guitarist Jamie Murphy, keyboardist Franny Griffiths and drummer Andy Parle - had grown up in deprived areas of Liverpool, with Griffiths recalling a mass brawl breaking out while he was on his way home from a match in a 1996 interview with 'Melody Maker'. Both Scott and Griffiths were greatly displeased when Sleeper singer Louise Wener called the band 'Northern working-class scum' because of 'Neighbourhood' (although they have since settled their differences). Scott explained that Wener had thought 'Neighbourhood' was a 'macho song', but it was merely based on Space's lives growing up.

Answer: Television

'So there goes the TV with the repo men.'

'Repo' is short for 'repossession', and a 'repo man' is someone charged with seizing collateral rented objects, or objects for which the rent has not been paid. This line, according to Scott, is also a reference to the film 'Repo Man', a black comedy released in 1984 and Alex Cox's directorial debut. It stars Emilio Estevez as Otto, a punk who gets recruited by Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), owner of the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation, a repossession agency. They and several other parties are involved in the hunt for a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu, which is thought to contain aliens.

Answer: Criminals

'In 999, they make a living from crime,
The house is always empty 'cos they're all doing time.'

999 is the number for the emergency services - police, fire services and ambulance - in several countries in Africa and the Middle East and, of course, the UK. 'Doing time' is slang for being in prison. Space themselves were not averse to a bit of petty crime; Scott recalled that both he and Murphy had thrown bricks through people's windows and posted dog poo through letterboxes. When the band's official website asked the members what the worst thing they ever did was, Scott said that it was stealing birds' nests, while Murphy recalled driving a car through a police station window (Griffiths, however, would not go into detail).

Answer: Cantril Farm

Cantril Farm is now known as Stockbridge Village, and is in the borough of Knowsley in Merseyside. Scott lived there for 23 years. It was built to rehouse former residents of slums in inner city Liverpool, and in the '80s, it was notorious for crime and unemployment.

It also became increasingly empty as families moved out and their former homes proved difficult to rent to new tenants. In 1983, it was split between Stockbridge Village Trust Ltd and Liverpool City Council, with the lion's share of the estate being nicknamed Stockbridge Village, and efforts were made to regenerate the area.

Other notable residents include footballers Micky Quinn and Ian Bishop (who was a childhood friend of Scott), 'Red Dwarf' actor Craig Charles, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood dancer Paul Rutherford.

Answer: Mike Tyson

'In Number 18, there lives a big butch queen,
He's bigger than Tyson and he's twice as mean.'

'Queen' in this context is slang for a gay man. Scott said he liked the idea of a gay man being extremely strong and tough, rather than stereotypically effeminate.

Mike Tyson is an American heavyweight boxer who was world champion from 1987 to 1990, and caused controversy in 1997 when he bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011.

Answer: Serial killer

'In 666, there lives a Mr Miller,
He's a local vicar and a serial killer.'

The use of 666 for the sinister minister is a reference to a Biblical passage, in Revelation 13:18. The full verse is as follows: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." The 'Beast' in question is one of the two Beasts of Revelation who oppose G-d. Other bands such as the Pixies ('Monkey Gone to Heaven'), Slipknot ('Heretic Song') and Iron Maiden ('The Number of the Beast') have also referred to the number 666 in their songs. Scott got the idea from a man in his neighbourhood dressed in black, who he thought looked like a serial killer.

Answer: So you'd better come prepared, 'cos they won't take us alive

'Neighbourhood' charted at Number 11 on the UK Charts on its re-release in November 1996. Along with 'Me & You Vs the World' and 'Female of the Species', it was one of the band's most popular singles from 'Spiders' and a regular concert fixture. Scott has also performed it solo and with his post-Space band Tommy Scott and the Red Scare.

(Confession: I used to sing 'or they will take us alive' and didn't realise that I'd been singing the wrong lyric until many years later.)