"Blow Up the Pokies" is a song by Australian band,

The Whitlams The Whitlams are an Australian indie rock band formed in late 1992. The original line-up was Tim Freedman on keyboards and lead vocals, Andy Lewis on double bass and Stevie Plunder on guitar and lead vocals. Other than mainstay Freedman, the l ...

, released in May 2000 as the second single from their fourth studio album, ''

Love This City ''Love This City'' is the fourth studio album by Australian band The Whitlams, released by Black Yak through Warner in 1999. It peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Track listing #"Make the World Safe" – 3:43 #" Thank You (for ...

'', it peaked at number 21 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In January 2018, as part of

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to ...

's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Blow Up the Pokies" was ranked number 84.

Song Meaning

The lyrics written by lead singer

Tim Freedman Timothy James Freedman (25 November 1964) is an Australian musician, best known as the mainstay lead singer and keyboardist of the Australian band The Whitlams formed in 1993. Note: n-lineversion was expanded from the 2002 edition. The song ...

were a statement on the destruction he saw in original Whitlams bassist Andy Lewis's life due to his gambling. The original music and some lyrics were written by Greta Gertler. The song was originally called "Dwell" before being later adapted by Freedman. During the band's Canadian tour in April 2000 supporting Blue Rodeo, the band received word Lewis had committed suicide back in Australia. Tim soon after wrote "The Curse Stops Here", a piece describing being the "last one" from the original line-up of the band, and voicing his determination to survive. "The Curse Stops Here" was included as a B-side track on the "Blow Up the Pokies" single and also appeared on the album '' Little Cloud''. The song was re-recorded for its single release, with new vocals and different instrumentation. This version appeared on their best-of compilation in 2008.

Music video

A music video was made for the song and features all four members playing in an abandoned theatre (the theatre in the music video is the Princess Theatre in the

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

suburb of

Woolloongabba Woolloongabba is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Woolloongabba had a population of 5,631 people. Geography Woolloongabba is located south of the CBD. It contains the Brisbane Cricket Ground ('the Gabba') and t ...

Reception

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said, "this protest anthem about the poison of gambling in Australia is the Whitlams’ biggest radio hit. Knowing that Lewis killed himself just three months after this album was released, having just lost a week’s wages to the pokies, makes it even more impactful."

Track listing

# "Blow Up the Pokies" (Ocean Way Radio Mix) – 3:25 # "Thank You (for Loving Me at My Worst) (Single Edit) – 3:52 # "Bring Me Back" (Full Band Version) – 4:54 # "Putting On a Show" – 2:01 # "The Curse Stops Here" – 3:37

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blow Up The Pokies The Whitlams songs Songs written by Tim Freedman 2000 singles 2000 songs