"Victoria" was inspired by Jordan Luck's landlady in Christchurch, with the name Victoria used as a pseudonym (her real name was Vicky).[2] She successfully ran an escort agency but lived with an abusive man: Luck questioned her relationship with the line "What do you see in him?".
"Victoria was 23 and earned [sic] the whole apartment block. She was a hard worker. And yes, she read Alvin Toffler. But we'd wake up in the morning and she'd be bruised because her boyfriend was beating her up."
The band moved to Auckland before the release of the song. After the single became a success, Luck visited "Victoria" in Christchurch and was happy to find that she not only loved the song but had also split up with her abusive boyfriend.[4]
A video was funded by the New Zealand Broadcasting Association but, unusually for the time, included a story rather than just a studio performance. Shot in the band's hometown of Christchurch, it shows Luck as "Victoria"'s taxi driver[5] and Al Park,[6] a singer-songwriter sometimes credited as the father figure for the "Lyttelton Sound" and the first person to bring punk music to Christchurch.[7] In 2019, Luck covered Park's "I Walked Away" for the covers collection Better Already - The Songs Of Al Park.[8]
The recording of "Victoria" on the Prayers Be Answered album differs from the original single. Another version was also included on the 1985 Amplifier album.
