Industrial Estate

The song addresses the realities of growing up and going to work in the factories in Northern England during the 70s. 'The crap in the air that will fuck up your face' is an obvious reference to the serious pollution that heavy industry caused. Even as late as the 70s places like Manchester would be covered in thick smog. 'We'd build a canteen but we haven't got much space' I interpret as being the factories slowly declining and having to cut costs, or a metaphor for being squeezed in by the decline of industry.

Many working class kids would leave school with little to no qualifications and just do what their parents did - work in industry. A competitive society was not known and most kids would almost go straight into work from leaving school. Corruption in factories would be rampant, and in some getting a job would be as easy as giving the manager your first couple of weeks wage - hence the 'boss can bloody take most of your wage'. And of course, depression was poorly understood then - anyone suffering from it (and there were quite a lot in the declining industrial bases) would be given inappropriate medication, hence the 'ask the doctor for some valium'.