Song · The Housemartins
“Flag Day” by The Housemartins
From the album London 0 Hull 4 (1986)
“Flag Day” by The Housemartins appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 1985. It was first released in 1986 on the album London 0 Hull 4. Its best result is #10 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1985. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #61 alternative song of 1985.
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"Flag Day" was the Housemartins' first single, put out in 1985, and it stalled at 124 on the UK chart before the band re-cut it for their debut album London 0 Hull 4 the following year. It's a Paul Heaton lyric set to music credited to Stan Cullimore and Ted Key, and Heaton does double duty on lead and backing vocals while squeezing in some melodica for good measure.
The credits list John Williams as producer and Phil Bodger as engineer, with Cullimore on guitar, Norman Cook on bass, Hugh Whitaker on drums and Pete Wingfield sitting in on piano. The song has kept resurfacing ever since: on the compilations Now That's What I Call Quite Good and Soup, in a shorter live take on Live at the BBC, and as the sample Dino Lenny leaned on for his dance track "Change the World".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 10 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1985 | 50 |
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