Lyrics

When it happened we walked through all the estates, from Manchester right to Newcastle

In Darlington, helped a large man on his own chase off some kids who were chucking bricks and stuff through his flat window
She had a way with people like that
He cussed us and we moved on

"Junior Choice" played one morning
The song was "English Scheme" - mine
They'd changed it and did a grand piano and turned it into a love song
How they did it I don't know
DJs had worsened since the rising
Elaborating on nothing and praising the track with words they could hardly pronounce, in telephone voices
I was mad, and laughed at the same time

The West German government had brought over large yellow trains on Teesside docks
In Edinburgh, I stayed on my own a few days, wandering about in the pissing rain, before the Queen Mother hit town

I'm Joe Totale, the yet unborn son
The North will rise again
The North will rise again
But not in ten thousand years
Not in ten thousand years
Too many people cower to criminals and government crap
The estates stick up like stacks
The North will rise again 
The North will rise again 
The North will rise again 
The North will rise again 
Look where you are, look where you are
The future death of my father 

Shift!

Tony was a business friend of R.T. seventeen
And was an opportunist man
Come, come hear my story
How he set out to corrupt and destroy this future Rising

The business friend came round today
With teeth clenched, he grabbed my neck
I threw him to the ground
His blue shirt stained red
The North will rise again
He said you are mistaken, friend
I kicked him out the home

Too many people cower to criminals and that government pap
When all it takes is hard slap

But out the window burned the roads
There were men with bees on sticks 
The fall had made them sick
A man with butterflies on his face
His brother threw acid in his face
His tattoos were screwed
The streets of Soho did reverberate with drunken Highland men
Revenge for Culloden dead 
The North had rose again
But it would turn out wrong
The North will rise again

So R Totale dwells underground
Away from sickly grind
With ostrich head-dress
Face a mess, covered in feathers
Orange red with blue black lines that draped down to his chest
Body a tentacle mess
And light blue plant heads
TV showed Sam Chippendale 
No conception of what he'd made
The Arndale had been razed
Shop staff knocked off their ladders
Security guards hung from moving escalators

And now that is said Tony seized the control
He built his base in Edinburgh
Had on his hotel wall a hooded friar on a tractor
He took a bluey and he called Totale
Who said, "the North has rose again, but it will turn out wrong"
"When I was in cabaret I vowed to defend all of the English clergy, though they have done wrong"
"And the fall has begun"
"This has got out of hand"
"I will go for foreign aid"

But he told me, laughed down the phone
Said, "Totale go back to bed, the North has rose today and you can stuff your aid!"
"And you can stuff your aid!"
"And you can stuff your aid!"
"And you can stuff your aid!"
"And you can stuff your aid!"