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Songs about coal and mining - suggestions please!

Mike Harding | 13:29 UK time, Friday, 12 February 2010

For those of you that haven't heard, there is going to be a brand new Radio Ballad 'The Ballad of the Miners' Strike' broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2 on Tuesday 2nd March, to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of that bitter year-long dispute.

With brand new specially commissioned songs from , , and and musicians such as Andy Cutting, Barry Coope, Bob Fox and Andy Seward I am really keen to get my mits on a copy and give it several listens.

Anyway, we thought we'd do an hour of songs about coal and mining on my programme on Tuesday 24th February and also play a little sneak preview of the Ballad for you. Ìý

Here's a few of my personal favourites to get the list going...

Bob Fox & Benny Graham - Farewell Johnny Miner
Judy Collins - Coal Tattoo
Jez Lowe - These Coal Town Days
Dick Gaughan - Recruited Collier
Ed Pickford - One Miner's Life

Please post your suggestions here...

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    A few that came to mind:

    Seth Lakeman - The Colliers
    Steeleye Span - Blackleg Miner
    Woody Guthry - Miner's Song
    Woody Guthry - The Dying Miner
    Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger - Come All You Gallant Colliers
    Maddy Prior - The Collier Lad
    Kate Rusby - The Recruited Collier

  • Comment number 2.

    How about:

    Chumbawamba - The Diggers Song
    Chumbawamba - The Colliers March
    Sussie Nielsen - The Recruited Collier

  • Comment number 3.

    How about a bit of contemporary relevance,Mike? For example;

    "The Colliers' Way" by (the late, great) Davy Steele with Coelbeg on the album 'An Unfair Dance'
    "Seacoalers" (Brian Reid) from Battlefield Band's 'Celtic Hotel' album
    "We work the black seam" (Sting) album as above
    "My Sweetheart's on the Barricade" by Richard Thompson from the 'Industry' album

    Then there's always "The Gresford Disaster" by the Albions (but maybe a tad over-indulgent for R2) or perhaps "The Row Between The Cages" by Fox&Luckley.

    "Blackleg Miner" contains the words "Delaval is a terrible place, they rub wet clay in the blackleg's face, etc..." and, remarkably,the home of the former coal owners, Seaton Delaval Hall, has recently been promoted by the Nat Trust as its latest (community) acquisition!

  • Comment number 4.

    "Gresford Disaster" (Albion Band)
    "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" (Darrell Scott....also sung by Patty Loveless)
    "The Mountain" (Steve Earle....also sung by Levon Helm)
    "Henry Russell's Last Words" (Diana Jones....also sung by Joan Baez)
    "Appalachia" Diana Jones
    "Six Jolly Miners" Coope, Boyes and Simpson
    "A Miner's Refrain" Gillian Welch
    "West Virginia Mine Disaster" Jean Ritchie
    "Dark Is The Dungeon" by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (and many others)
    "One Miner's Life" by Bob Fox

  • Comment number 5.

    A lot have been covered.

    A very subtle choice would be 'This Town' from Clive Gregson's Strange Persuasions album.

    This looks at the death of northern towns and refers very distinctly to the dispute, as well as to other issues.

    I used to sing this and never thought it would come back into its own. Sadly. it has.

  • Comment number 6.

    Should be interesting as I'm doing an A-level project on industrial folk.
    A couple of good ones would be Pound a Week Rise as performed by John Doyle and Liz Carrol, as well as the Queensbury Rules' Sinking Town. But whatever you do, make sure to include Farewell Johnny Miner, as htat really just sums it all up about the pit closures of the past twenty years

  • Comment number 7.

    I's like to hear Norman Buchan's "Auchengeich" from the Easy Club Album "Skirlie Beat"...

  • Comment number 8.

    Pound a Week Rise by Dick Gaughan

  • Comment number 9.

    Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis or Johnny Cash)

  • Comment number 10.

    The first mining songs I ever came across were 'Sixteen Tons' and 'Dark as a Dungeon' by the great Merle Travis.
    During the miners' strike I contributed to a couple of albums to raise money. The albums were called 'Which Side Are You On' and 'Heroes'. Both of these albums had some poignant songs - two that spring to mind are 'Women of the Working Class' and 'Garden of England'.
    There is to be a sculpture unveiled in Sunderland Civic Centre in early March 2010 to commemorate the strike.
    Ed Pickford

  • Comment number 11.

    There's also June Tabor's wonderful "He Fades Away" about the death of a miner from lung disease.

  • Comment number 12.

    How about 'Celebrated Working Man' from War Horse CD by Richard Grainger

  • Comment number 13.

    What about Trimdon Grange? Story of a mining explosion - first heard Alan Price do it but there are other fine versions too.

    I heard the Testimony of Patience Kershaw on Wednesdays show - tremendously moving by Unthanks. Does anyone know anything about Patience?
    All I can find on the net is she was from Halifax

  • Comment number 14.

    Coal not dole - Oysterband

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