“Blow Up The Pokies (I Wish I...)” by The Whitlams

The Whitlams' "Blow Up the Pokies" arrived in May 2000, the second single lifted from Love This City, their fourth album, and there is nothing abstract about it. Tim Freedman wrote the words as a statement on what gambling had done to the life of Andy Lewis, the band's original bassist, reworking a song called "Dwell" whose music and some of whose lyrics came from Greta Gertler.

In April 2000, while the band was on a Canadian tour opening for Blue Rodeo, word came that Lewis had died by suicide back home. Freedman soon wrote "The Curse Stops Here", about being the last one left from the original lineup and his resolve to survive, and it became the single's B-side. The A-side was re-recorded for that release with new vocals and a different arrangement. Triple M's Ozzest 100 put it at number 84 in 2018.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.