The Full English Lyrics

We were Service, d'you see?

Follow orders; don't make waves

Keep your eyes on your duty

We survived the War

And now we're hopelessly, helplessly, hideously brave.

Anything else would be letting the side down

Anything else was never discussed

Anything else was the unspeakable thing

The final taboo...

It's the silence that kills you

Don't break the silence.

It's the silence that kills you

Don't break the silence.

Don't break the silence.

We were Service, don't y'know?

Stick together; don't tell tails.

But we were haunted by heroes.

Why are we still here?

And so we're fearlessly, foolishly, effortlessly bold.

Anything else would be letting the side down

Anything else was never discussed

Anything else was the unspeakable thing

The final taboo...  

It's the silence that kills you

Don't break the silence.

It's the silence that kills you

Don't break the silence.

It's the silence that kills you

Don't break the silence.

Don't break the silence.

Don't break...

This song started life as a tiny part of 'Curly's Airships'. An airman, killed in the 1930, R101 airship crash, tries to explain the obsession with taking suicidal risks, while keeping a 'stiff upper lip', that afflicted the survivors of the Great War; a state of mind that made the R101 disaster almost inevitable. For this version I wrote an additional verse of lyrics.

I improvised the falsetto Oo-ee-oo's once at a live gig, and my girlfriend insisted I keep them in thereafter.

For non-UK listeners
The first line to each verse, 'We were Service', is a very old-fashioned phrase. To be Service meant being in the Army, Navy or Air force, the Diplomatic Corps or the Colonial Service; (as opposed to being 'in service', which meant working as someone's servant). What a bizarre language we have!

For Non-UK listeners
The first line to each verse, 'We were Service', is a very old-fashioned phrase. To be Service meant being in the Army, Navy or Air force, the Diplomatic Corps or the Colonial Service; (as opposed to being 'in service', which meant working as someone's servant). What a bizarre language we have!