For me, this was part of my major discovery of 1980s music at the beginning of 2001, when I turned over from ‘The Box’ and wondered what this VH1 channel was like. Helped with the visuals of the video, it actually makes me feel like I’m in the London of the 80s every time I listen to it.

Years later, shortly after I got my first iPod, this happened to play while I’m walking through Waterloo station, where Neil and Chris walk through in the video. Walking past the WHSmith at the exact same time as the video was quite a special moment.

Anyway, great pop song. I think the thing about it being an outsider’s perception of London is key actually (as an East End boy). I had the impression I’d read once that Neil Tennant had said that “Suburbia” was partly about Brixton (which, when built in the 19th century had originally been a place of some stature, but had decayed to become riot-torn by the mid-80s, even if it has largely picked itself somewhat since) – although it makes me think of vaguely sinister, outer-suburban places (sort of Welling/Bexleyheath/East Wickham/the fantastically named Fanny On The Hill probably above all, at a push Harold Hill or New Addington) which seem to be filled with bored kids with nothing to do except commit acts of vandalism and pretend to be hard without really so being.

i think the reason ‘suburbia’ doesn’t really sound like suburbia is that it was apparently inspired by ‘suburbia’ – penolope spheeris’ (pretty great) film about punks in suburban los angeles. the suburbia of the film is half abandoned tract developments falling into the desert rather than 30′s semis and being a bit bored. the odd lyrical tone of the film seems to have made it into the music but (apart from the “run with the dogs” line) not the lyrics, which are a bit sub-weller (and yes, also suede-y) – (“where’s a policeman when you need one to blame the colour tv” is particularly awful – the word “colour” is so obviously in there just to make it scan that it annoys me every time). anyway, that’s why the song feels a bit disjoined I think, though i do really like it nonetheless.

I did get the too-pleased-with-itself feeling from the ‘All your stopping, stalling and starting, who d’you think you are? Joe Stalin?’ line though, but fortunately that was excised when it counted.

Tom, Suburbia never sounded like the suburbia I knew either, which I’m guessing is much the same as yours. It probably means something else entirely in the north east. Without googling it, the lyric sounds a lot like Suede (bad thing) in my head.

My favourite pop Wimpy reference: “We went to a Wimpy bar but it wasn’t all that nice” from Television Personalities’ Smashing Time.

“The weirdest thing though was when, on the escalator on Fulham Broadway station, someone had written my name and address on stickers and stuck them all the way down. Printed labels.” – Neil Tennant on strange stalkers, Guardian 19 October 2003

Of course we’re only a few months away from “Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster” at this point.

Much as I love the group and the song, its only slight drawback for me is that it’s just a bit too redolent of its time. I’d give it 8, not least because there are stronger PSB songs that didn’t make it to number one.