The 1985 miners strike is currently on Radio 4.

A series that is, can’t quite remember who sang it apart from Steely Span can anyone on here please.

The 1970 Span version is fairly powerful.
Just checking Spotify, other versions by the Angelic Upstarts (accapella) and Richard Thompson.

Try Ferocious Dog too, particularly moving when played in old mining areas like where I live.

Here it is by Richard Thompson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUpYgwvcek8

Steely Span, a super group comprising members from Steely Dan and Steeleye Span?

It's in the evening after dark
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner.
Well, he grabs his duds and down he goes,
To hew the coal that lies below,
There's not a woman in this town row
Will look at the blackleg miner.
Oh, Delaval is a terrible place,
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face,
And around the heaps they run a footrace
To catch the blackleg miner.
And even down near the Seghill mine,
Across the way they stretch a line
To catch the throat, to break the spine
Of the dirty blackleg miner.
They grabbed his duds, his picks as well,
And they hoy them down the pit of hell,
Down you go, we pay you well,
You dirty blackleg miner.
It's in the evening after dark
That the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner.
So join the union while you may,
Don't wait 'til your dying day
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner.

Notts, Derbys, still an issue now. Still raw in places.

Dick Gaughan
Ewan McColl
Offa Rex
All good versions
Many others

There's a documentary on the iPlayer at the minute about the strike too.

Are yes Dick Gaughan.

Used to sing this in the school folk group at Habergham

dougcollins wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 7:26 pm

Notts, Derbys, still an issue now. Still raw in places.

I'm in Northumberland, literally in the midst of at least 5 different pits,obviously all closed now.Kick one,you kick them all, Thatcher is a no go word here,beyond contempt.

AmbleClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:16 pm

Thatcher is a no go word here,beyond contempt.’

Sad and bizarre in equal measure.
IMHO, of course.

Just to remember this sort of thing in the next election and all elections after that.

Why are there no campaigns to reopen the pits? There must be plenty of people still around who worked in the pits as young men and would be only too anxious to send their grandchildren down there. Can't something be done? We could do with more fuel self-sufficiency and there is loads of coal still down there.

dsr wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:58 pm

Why are there no campaigns to reopen the pits? There must be plenty of people still around who worked in the pits as young men and would be only too anxious to send their grandchildren down there. Can't something be done? We could do with more fuel self-sufficiency and there is loads of coal still down there.

You hit the nail on the head.
This country is trying to be seen as holier than though energy wise, with our rush to net zero whilst our efforts will have next to no impact with India and China opening coal fired power stations by the dozen. Better we reopen our pits, using Extinction rebellion zealots as pit props, energise oil & gas exploration in the N Sea and be energy self sufficient in a matter of years.

CoolClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:20 pm

Just to remember this sort of thing in the next election and all elections after that.

They won't!.............oooh look here's a Dentist...we're the kind, sensitive party... Rishi loves you all....especially you Northerners.

Middle-agedClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:20 pm

Sad and bizarre in equal measure.
IMHO, of course.

DAFT!

dsr wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:58 pm

Why are there no campaigns to reopen the pits? There must be plenty of people still around who worked in the pits as young men and would be only too anxious to send their grandchildren down there. Can't something be done? We could do with more fuel self-sufficiency and there is loads of coal still down there.

DAFTER!

CaptJohn wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:10 am

You hit the nail on the head.
This country is trying to be seen as holier than though energy wise, with our rush to net zero whilst our efforts will have next to no impact with India and China opening coal fired power stations by the dozen. Better we reopen our pits, using Extinction rebellion zealots as pit props, energise oil & gas exploration in the N Sea and be energy self sufficient in a matter of years.

DAFTEST!..............IMHO of course.

dsr wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:58 pm

Why are there no campaigns to reopen the pits? There must be plenty of people still around who worked in the pits as young men and would be only too anxious to send their grandchildren down there. Can't something be done? We could do with more fuel self-sufficiency and there is loads of coal still down there.

Because in this snowflake generation there would be no one willing to work down the pits.
It wouldn’t be good for their mental health and well being.

Jamesy wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 9:24 am

Because in this snowflake generation there would be no one willing to work down the pits.
It wouldn’t be good for their mental health and well being.

Would work down a pit for a living ?

dsr wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:58 pm

Why are there no campaigns to reopen the pits? There must be plenty of people still around who worked in the pits as young men and would be only too anxious to send their grandchildren down there. Can't something be done? We could do with more fuel self-sufficiency and there is loads of coal still down there.

There should be an award for saying something as stupid as this. I genuinely think most people couldn't come close if they tried.

Jamesy wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 9:24 am

Because in this snowflake generation there would be no one willing to work down the pits.
It wouldn’t be good for their mental health and well being.

You'd be front of the queue of course.

Jamesy wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 9:24 am

Because in this snowflake generation there would be no one willing to work down the pits.
It wouldn’t be good for their mental health and well being.

If the pay was decent, young people would jump at it in towns where opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled work are very low, especially if the pay was decent. I see plenty of young people knee-deep in mud and in all weathers too - no recruitment issues either because the starting rate is above the minimum wage and there are opportunities to move up.

Clovius Boofus wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 10:36 am

If the pay was decent, young people would jump at it in towns where opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled work are very low, especially if the pay was decent. I see plenty of young people knee-deep in mud and in all weathers too - no recruitment issues either because the starting rate is above the minimum wage and there are opportunities to move up.

Don't be bringing facts to the table, we're making wild, ignorant generalisations about an entire generation here.

Swizzlestick wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 10:33 am

You'd be front of the queue of course.

Doubtful in my mid 60’s.
I was just making the point that in today’s cosseted Britain they would be struggling to recruit young men and possibly women to do this job. The recruitment problem in the armed forces demonstrates also how times have changed.

Taffy on the wing wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 2:41 am

DAFTER!

It was reductio ad absurdum. It's supposed to be daft, because all this nostalgia and romance about the jolly pitmen and their desire to stop people working is ridiculous - not least because there is no way that the pits would be open now even if John Major (not Margaret Thatcher) hadn't closed so many of them. Nobody wants coal mines open, the the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that they have been closed is a bit farcical.

The world has moved on .... the only current MP who actually worked as a Coal-Face Miner is Lee Anderson, elected as a Conservative, but now an Independent .. the Conservative Government are now trying to open a Coal Mine in Cumbria, but are being opposed by Labour and the Environmental lobby.

Harold Wilson closed 253 Coal Mines in his 8 years in office, whilst the Heath and Thatcher regimes closed 141 in nearly 15 years of Government. Successive administrations of all stripes continue to diminish our heavy industry, exporting the jobs and Carbon emissions abroad, so they can stand on the world stage and grandstand about how " Green " we're becoming ... sickening, really !!

Jamesy wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2024 11:08 am

Doubtful in my mid 60’s.
I was just making the point that in today’s cosseted Britain they would be struggling to recruit young men and possibly women to do this job. The recruitment problem in the armed forces demonstrates also how times have changed.

Or it could be yet another example of poor performance by the outsourcing firm Crapita, who have been paid a handsome sum to recruit on behalf of the government department.

Still. I'm sure the right people are doing quite nicely out of it all, which is the main thing.

Clarets4me wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:44 am

The world has moved on .... the only current MP who actually worked as a Coal-Face Miner is Lee Anderson, elected as a Conservative, but now an Independent .. the Conservative Government are now trying to open a Coal Mine in Cumbria, but are being opposed by Labour and the Environmental lobby.

Harold Wilson closed 253 Coal Mines in his 8 years in office, whilst the Heath and Thatcher regimes closed 141 in nearly 15 years of Government. Successive administrations of all stripes continue to diminish our heavy industry, exporting the jobs and Carbon emissions abroad, so they can stand on the world stage and grandstand about how " Green " we're becoming ... sickening, really !!

My view too.
In relation to the OP (before some people (not Clarets4me) started politicising a thread about the lyrics of an old folk song)..
I always find "Mainly Norfolk" a great website for inverstigating folk songs. Here's what it says about Blackleg miner (first heard by me at a Steeleye gig c 1970ish. https://mainlynorfolk.info/louis.killen ... iners.html