The Hitchers

The Hitchers

The Hitchers are a punk rock group active from 1989 to the present. They release two studio albums in the UK and Ireland: It’s All Fun and Games Til Someone Loses an Eye in 1997 and For the Want of Some Better TV in 1999.

Notable songs and releases

They are best known for Strachan, a song built around a domestic argument taking place while a football match plays on television. The track refers to the Scottish footballer Gordon Strachan, then part of an early 1990s Leeds United side, and the studio version fades out with a sample that suggests the opposition is Aston Villa. Although the single does not chart on release, it receives airplay from UK DJs including John Peel, Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Sean Hughes and Bob Geldof, and it continues to appear on UK radio. It is also cited in press and online discussion as one of the notable football songs.

The single’s other side, You Can Only Love Someone So Much…, is notable for having lyrics made up of a single couplet. It is nominated for Best Irish Single in 1997 at the Hot Press awards. The song is later used in the film Rat.

Broadcast sessions and live recordings

The Hitchers record a Peel Session at BBC Maida Vale 4 in July 1997, broadcast in November 1997 and repeated in February 1998. It is broadcast again by Gideon Coe in 2008 and 2011. While supporting The Divine Comedy at Mandela Hall in Belfast in June 1997, they are recorded live and broadcast on the Steve Lamacq show. They also record a 1997 Dave Fanning Session for RTÉ, later rebroadcast on the Dan Hegarty Show as part of a classic session series.

Release details

Strachan is issued in summer 1997 as a double A-side 33rpm 7-inch single on the small independent label Murgatroid and distributed by Vital, and also appears as track two on a four-song CD EP.