Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

The second single from All Mod Cons came out in October 1978 and reached number 15 on the UK chart, backed by the Who's So Sad About Us and Foxton's The Night. It follows a man who goes into a London Underground station at midnight to catch the last train home and is attacked by a gang. It opens with the sound of a station, recorded at St John's Wood, then settles into a tense, syncopated beat carried by the bass, with a heartbeat effect in the left channel.

Weller nearly left it off. Foxton remembered that he discarded it and threw it in the bin at the studio, and Vic Coppersmith-Heaven said Weller rejected it largely because the arrangement had not developed during the recording session. Coppersmith-Heaven insisted that he revive it. It was recorded at RAK Studios on 7 August 1978 with Mr. Clean, In the Crowd and The Place I Love. Foxton called it a turning point for the band, with more space for the bass to come through, and said he and Weller were both influenced by Ray Davies's songs with stories. The cover photograph was taken at Bond Street tube station, and the back cover carried a portrait of Keith Moon, who had died a month earlier. So Sad About Us was included as a tribute to him. Weller later recalled that Tony Blackburn, on daytime Radio 1, asked why these people could not write about beautiful things like flowers and trees.