The Whittles “Blow up the pokies” was released in 2000 written by Tim Freedman, the lead singer of “The Whittles”. As the name suggests he is writing about gambling issues in general but also more specifically Sydney.
It is obvious that he is singing about Sydney due to his context of living on the Northern beaches throughout his life and their whole band is based in Sydney, furthermore the Album in which the song was released in was called “Love this City’ and finally the most prominent reason why this Eng was written is due to Andy Lewis, the bass guitarist in the band suffering from serious gambling problems.
This song was released not so long before Andy committed suicide after throwing away a weeks worth of pay into a pokies machine. The song is protesting about the effects of the people who are victims of gambling and their families clearly demonstrated through “Little bundles need care… Can’t be a father there”.
However the song targets the government as well about how they tact as people waste their money and destroy their lives, “Cause they’re taking the food off your table So they can say that the train runs on time”, in the final line it also tells us that the result of gambling, taxed money go towards the railway and the consequence of the gambler are left alone and uncared for. Through this it can shape the individual due to the hard confronting truth of gambling and its effects in the song, it also can alter ones views about the government at the time.
