"Weak Become Heroes" is a song by English rapper and producer Mike Skinner under the music project the Streets. It was released in July 2002 as the third single from their debut studio album, Original Pirate Material.

Background

The song concerns Skinner's experiences of rave culture in the mid-1990s. He says: "The reference I made to Nicky Holloway, Danny Rampling and all that were because I was intelligent enough to find out that those were the guys that started it. So it was 1995, it wasn't '89, even though everyone thinks it was about '89. Which goes to prove that that experience is the same experience that was had for everyone, even though people in 1989 will say it was better in 1989 than it was in 1995. Because I never experienced 1989 but '95 was pretty good." Skinner also makes reference to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, an act which was seen as curtailing the rights of people to host raves. The character "European Bob" is described by Zadie Smith as an “archetypal figure for our generation” – a derelict raver-cum-sage akin to Peep Show’s Super Hans.

Music video

The video was filmed in the Works Nightclub (later Hippodrome) in Kingston upon Thames, London, with some external shots outside the club in St James's Road in 2002. The club closed in July 2018 and was demolished to make way for luxury apartments.

Track listings

CD 1

Double A-side

Remixes EP

Charts