The city of this song could be Liverpool, Salford, Manchester or a score of similar places.

It's interesting Mr Miller made that specific observation - The Salford and Manchester he knew were indeed 'sea faring' towns, but only by virtue of the Manchester Ship Canal linking those 'twin' cities to the Mersey Estuary at Liverpool! I am not sure what he would make of them now.

As I sit writing this looking westwards down Salford Quays towards Liverpool I have the new Lowry Centre to my right and the Imperial War Museum slightly to my left. I am sure Ewan would have approved of the former - but the latter? Where the big ships used to come and dock to unload for Europe's largest industrial centre, Trafford Park, is now all derelict. The 'Park itself is devoid of the heavy industry that made MacColls hometown so much a Dirty Old Town!

One of the largest bits of 'wasteland' we now learn is going to become 'Media City', providing hundreds of jobs at the new BBC centre and other media centres. The BBC did of course provide Ewan with a vehicle to promote the songs and views that made him famous. Would he approve of the clean new jobs replacing the heavy industrial and labour intensive work that was part of his make-up? I suspect he may well have. But what then would he have written about?

Cheers

Dave