Heyup, this is one of the most interesting threads I've ever read, and there are some pretty good 'uns on Mudcat's pages. I was just doing a search for 'Salford' as I'm still recovering from being at Salford's solid (but sadly unsuccessful) performance in the rugby league Grand Final. But I ended up reading nearly 18 years of thread.

So now I'm here there's few things I'd like to add:

'Dirty Old Town' gets played at Salford's home matches. A few years ago we'd hear a great version by The Dirges, not at all folky but definitely the sort of tune to get you in the mood for rugby league. You ought to give that one a listen, if you're interested.

Jonathan Kelly has a song called 'Rainy Town', which unsurprisingly made me think it's about Manchester, but as he's a Drogheda lad I think it probably isn't. Nevertheless, I tried writing an extra verse about Manchester after that little tit blew himself up at the Ariane Grande concert (I won't inflict it on you, I'm no MacColl-Miller/Kelly- Ledingham/Dylan-Zimmerman), so I can hardly object to anyone thinking of 'Dirty Old Town' as being about their town. Similarly with the dark satanic mills of 'Jerusalem': I thought these may be about factories in the north of England, but I understand that Blake was thinking of the mills of Shepton Mallet.

My missus, a theatre academic, was quite possibly the last person to whom Joan Littlewood gave an interview; Littlewood expressed a great fondness for her time in Salford (during which she was married to MacColl).

In Morlaix I heard a Breton shanty whose tune was very close to Dirty Old Town - maybe that's why it's popular in Brittany. Wish I could remember its name.