According to Weller, the song was inspired by a TV news report featuring Eton pupils jeering at a Right to Work march passing the school. He wrote it whilst on holiday with his girlfriend at
Selsey Bill in the summer of 1979. Although he said that he didn't consider the original inspiration for the song "as particularly political", he acknowledged that his writing around the time of
Setting Sons had been influenced by works such as
George Orwell's
Homage to Catalonia and
Robert Tressell's
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, leading him to see the world from an increasingly
socialist viewpoint. The line "Compose a revolutionary symphony/ Then went to bed with a charming young thing" was a dig at
The Clash: although he was a fan of the band, Weller felt that they had already strayed from their origins and become a conventional rock group: "One minute they were singing 'Bored With The U.S.A' and the next they seemed to be spending most of their fucking time over there. I felt a bit cheated by them". The song was recorded at
Townhouse Studios. Three attempts were made to record the song, the first around the time the band were finishing work on
All Mod Cons. The first two recordings were judged as unsatisfactory by the band and producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, who said that "it just didn't have the power, it just didn't have the excitement". Weller played
Hammond organ on the track, influenced by
The Specials'
Jerry Dammers. Coppersmith-Heaven wanted a more metallic sound for Weller's guitar than was provided by the studio's acoustics, so he bought 30 sheets of
corrugated iron to line the studio in order to obtain the required sound. The recording made use of multiple
overdubs, a technique that Weller had previously been reluctant to use but began to embrace. The song's opening distorted chord was suggested by Coppersmith-Heaven. The chorus features vocals from a group of young Jam fans who had been hanging around outside the studio, invited to participate in the recording by Weller. ==Personnel==