The song is a reminiscence of childhood, based on singer Luke Concannon's memories; it is sung from the point of view of a young boy, travelling with his father on his JCB digger, listening to Christy Moore's song "Don't Forget Your Shovel". The song's lyrics refer to Luke's dyslexia; the resulting bullying; and characters such as B. A. Baracus, Bruce Lee, and Transformers, who would protect him against the bullies. The bypass mentioned in the song is the A46, as the band lived in Leamington Spa at the time and the A46 is known locally as "The Bypass".
Release
The single was originally released in the United Kingdom in June 2005, when it entered the charts at number 160. Following its release, the song gradually achieved a cult following on the Internet and at film festivals, in part due to the award-winning animated video by Laith Bahrani of Monkeehub. Mainstream coverage and airplay followed, and by 19 November, national newspapers were writing about the song's rise, and possible destiny as Christmas number one. The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number one in the week before Christmas, but was pushed into second place in the Christmas charts by X Factor singer Shayne Ward. Both songs continued to hold their positions for the next four weeks. In Ireland the song also reached number one the week before Christmas, but lost the top position to a cover of Will Young's song "Leave Right Now" by Mario Rosenstock on Christmas week. It then returned to the top spot the week after, its last week at number one. The song stayed on the Irish chart for 16 more weeks. In Australia "JCB" experienced moderate success, debuting at number 45 on 2 July 2006 and peaking at number 43 the next week. It then left the top 50. The standard single features the new B-side "Clear". The enhanced CD has a second new track "Helen", plus the JCB video. The hit record was produced by Gavin Monaghan, also known for his work with Scott Matthews, Robert Plant, Editors, Ocean Colour Scene, The Twang and The Holloways.
Critical reception
of The Guardian retrospectively panned the song as one of the worst number one singles of the 2000s, commenting: "You wait for the punchline on Nizlopi's JCB Song before realising, to your horror, that the weedy singing and naive lyric is not a Hoxton parody of outsider art but is meant to signify sincerity." He dismissed the song as resembling an attempt by Carter USM to write a ballad.
