Friday, 11 July 2025

Martha - Gretna Green

    


  Durham DIY pop punks Martha (https://www.facebook.com/marthadiy) return today with a song from a new compilation album they've just released.

  They've featured numerous times previously on here so I suppose no introductions are necessary so let me just tell you that the album is titled Standing Where It All Began - Singles and B-Sides: 2012-2025. A self explanatory title describing exactly what you're going to get. 20 tracks, (re)mastered by Dave Williams, roughly half of which are original compositions with the remainder being covers of songs by the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Marked Men, Lemonheads etc. 

  You can find it on vinyl and digital here : 

  This song first featured on the band's 2012 Self Titled ep and the band had this to say about it :

  The Quintinshill Rail Disaster happened in Scotland on 22nd May 1915. It remains the worst rail crash in UK history in terms of death toll, killing 226 people and involving five separate trains. It having occurred just a couple of miles from Gretna Green, a place symbolic of young love and recklessness, lends another layer of bittersweet tragedy to the disaster. This song is about a couple ripped apart by the crash, and deals with the idea of enduring love. In that sense, if no other, it’s a love song.

  It's called Gretna Green...

I said “I don’t believe in marriage,
It’s a Patriarchal scam”.
You said “meet me at the station,
Train departs at 6am”,
I packed my bags and left my politics in bed,
And I waited on the platform,
With your smile stuck in my head.

So we went through the rain to the place where we found our hearts.
They were buried under shit and old debris.
And I swear that I had something,
And I know you felt it too,
But that commute at Quintinshill defeated me.

In spite of everything I’ve done,
I’ll knuckle down, I’ll carry on,
In spite of everything that’s wrong,
I’ll try to write a hopeful song,
No matter where I go,
No matter what I do,
My heart will always be at Gretna Green,
Waiting there for you.

At Gretna, I wait for you.

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