This song, featured in the musical STEEL TOWN and captures the desperation of families living with the threat of unemployment. Their source of employment, Consett Steel Works, closed in September, 1980.ìSometimes feels like heaven is pouring tears down on me.î
sorry no folk version yet – below is an alternative version
rehearsal recording
This post and the media contained in it is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The title track of the STEEL TOWN musical. Consett moved from a hard working town, ìRaising hell in this frontier townî as its fame grew. The same story could apply to the industrial heartlands in Europe and the USA.
sorry no folk version yet but here is an alternative version preceded by a story from a Steelworker (my uncle Gilbert)
and a version from a show rehearsal
This post and the media contained in it is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The north-east was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, sons followed fathers and grandfathers into the Pits, Steel Works and Shipyards.
ëMy Father’s Father’ remembers, commemorates and celebrates that world
sorry no folk version yet. Alternative version below.
This post and the media contained in it is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
See yonder ladder up tree. Branch is mostly sawn through. Rope is tied to branch and slung over pegoda.
Noose in end of rope lynch mob style. Stevie the lumberjack climbs into noose and applies his not inconsiderable weight.
Sounds of creaking branch. Branch breaks and sails though the air towards the overweight chap swinging on the other end of the rope. Oh shiiiiit !!!! Survived with just inches to spare.
Consett made steel for one hundred and forty years. The Blackpool Tower was built with Consett steel as were bridges throughout the world. Making steel was a way of life. It gave the town fame and its identity. When the Steel Works closed the entire site was demolished and today there is little evidence of where it once proudly stood.ìIt’ll all end in tears, when They tear down the townî.
sorry no folk arrangement uploaded yet. below are somealternative arrangements.
Studio Version
Accoustic Version from the show
This post and the media contained in it is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Oh No
Something aint right
You don’t wanna talk
And I don’t wanna fight
You seem so close
Yet so far away
The truth will come out
In the light of day
Are you there at all
When I take you in my loving arms
When you close your eyes
Who do you see
When you’re here in my arms
When you close your eyes
Are you with me
When you close your eyes
Where do you go
Oh no
What can it be
How can I fight
What I cannot see
I know it’s there
Your Love is not real
Am I a stone
That I should not feel
While you’re here in my arms
Someone else is walking through your dreams
Repeat chorus
Are you there at all
When I take you in my loving arms
Repeat chorus
Listen to Tanya Rowlands Version
I WAS SO AFRAID I’D RUN AGROUND
AND NEVER GET TO SHARE THE THINGS I’D FOUND
LOOKING BACK I SEE IT NOW
I WAS NEVER ALONE
MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN
because……..
YOU WERE THERE
LOOKING THROUGH MY EYES
YOU WERE THERE
SEEING THE SAME SKIES
AND WHENEVER WE’RE APART
WHEN I LOOK INTO MY HEART
YOU’LL BE THERE
WHEN I THINK OF ALL THE THINGS I’D SEEN
WAS IT IN THE WORLD OR IN A DREAM
IS IT MAKING SENSE AT ALL
I WAS SO FAR FROM HOME
BUT I WAS NEVER ALONE
because……….
YOU WERE THERE
LOOKING THROUGH MY EYES
YOU WERE THERE
SEEING THE SAME SKIES
AND WHENEVER WE’RE APART
WHEN I LOOK INTO MY HEART
YOU’LL BE THERE
With you in my heart
Just where you belong
Like A Part Of Me
Together we we are so strong
| I had a great time over the past two days with my fellow artists from the WMDJ Voices project. This is a multi media project with Photographer, Peter Dixon and poet, Tom Kelly. Click here for more information. The WMDJ ìbandî pictured right (click image to enlarge) spent the last two days working on the upcoming exhibition, exploring and gathering extra material in Teesside and County Durham We also visited the first two venues of the tour and laid some ideas and plans as it will be slightly different in every venue. Several other North East venues are interested in having the exhibition. Today Tom recorded the voice/poem for a piece called ìThe Last Dayî and this was done on the very location of the subject matter, the exit of the workforce on the last day of Consett Iron Works. Here it is ñ click here ñ in the raw and you can hear the wind howling from that bleak location. Click here to watch WMDJ – The Story. (Youtube Video) |
Click image to enlarge |
|
By Earsdon Church I saw one day The story now was fading And so I climbed aboard a ship At this point there is a monalogue written by Tom Kelly The miners marched along this road By Earsdon Church I came again Beside a silent stone Click here to hear this song performed by the Steve Thompson band recorded live at the Customs House South Shields (UK) |
The Silent Stone
|
The Story Behind This Song
Earsdon is a picturesque village in North Tyneside close to Whitley Bay. The church at Earsdon, St Albans creates a typically English scene of a church on a hilltop, surrounded by trees and is a sight that can be seen for miles around. (see above)
Tucked away behind the church, under a leafy canopy and surrounded by thorns and brambles, is a memorial to the 204 miners who lost their lives in the 1862 disaster at Hartley Pit. This is a very quiet place and the visit is made even more poignant when you notice that the youngest names on the monument are those of miners only 10 years old! There are others of 11 and 12 and many have the same name so possibly father and son(s) of many families were killed. I have heard that the funeral procession through Earson Village took many hours to pass. The pictures below may give you an indication of the atmosphere at this memorial.
I posted a web page with pictures about this and have since been contacted by many people who have some connection with the story. One man, Mike Kirkup had written a book about mining in which there was a journalist of the day’s account of teh 10 days of teh unfolding dister. This book became my “time machine” by which I travelled in order to write this song.
The “Time Machine”
Please respect my copyright. I am aware that lyrics are all over the Internet so if you do reprint any of these please at least credit me with my full name and a link back to this site.
| I once worked with an (Irish) sound engineer who was often required to supply pices of music for advertising jingles. He would take a piece of library music and recortd it to quarter inch tape. Since this machine ran at 15 i.p.s. (Inches per second) he could now measure out the required piece with a tape measure. So for a 30 sec commercial he needed 37 feet 6 inches and when the appropriate point was reached, out came the razor blade and, snip, the appropriate lenght of music was handed over to the commercial producers: no regard for musical form or beats. |
|
|
I walk down the street The only way Paris by Air Well who could be happy And growing up |
note – the lyrics here are the originals as sung by Toni Haliday. I changed them slightly to work for a male singer.
Recorded by The Tygers Of Pan Tang
Recorded by Toni Haliday |
Please respect my copyright. I am aware that lyrics are all over the Internet so if you do reprint any of these please at least credit me with my full name and a link back to this site.
|
|
Through the wonders of T’internet my very first publisher Brian Oliver made contact recently. I’d had songs published and recorded before this was the first time I’d had a relationship with a publisher that to my mind is how it should work. Brian was constanly enthusiastic but equal in his criticism and commendation of my work. He was forever making suggestions for new songs and calling for re-writes and re-workings of material. We’re just starting out on a new partnership and after some 25 years I find his enthusiasm and his demands for re-writes and more, more, more material have not waned at all. This is proving to be a very exciting time. |
Way back in those days Brian used to be always calling for re-writes. He called me up one day and said “you’ve just written a hit”. He then went on to say that it was the verse of one song and the chorus of another and could I sort of just “join them together”. Of course I did so and the resulting song was a minor hit single and went Gold on a compilation album. You will find that song HERE
Another time we were sat in a pub in London and he declared that I coudl take my titles for songs from absolutely anywhere. He pointed to a sign on the wall and said, “for instance you could write a song called The Prince of Wales“. My eyes aligted on the sign below this and I declared that I would write a song on that title instead. I described the story that the title evoked and I went home the next day and wrote it. This too became a hit. CLICK HERE
Another fruitful suggestion by Brian led to some most interesting situations. I had recoded a multitude of songs and many of them were sung by The Caffrey Brothers, three real brothers with a great harmony blend. Brian suggested I form a band around the brothers and told me I had to be in it (I had at that time retired from performing) He then trouped up a series of record companies and producers to the North East that finally resulted in THIS
Brians latest publishing venture is called “Heart2Heart Music”., Watch this space!
[edited to add] Met with Brian recently in a London pub. We discussed our strategy for our latest onslaught on the pop music world. Later we noticed to our horror that the pub wasn’t sporting a single discernable song title on it’s walls. Sign of the times? Shortly aftwards he’s at it again asking for the verse of one song to be added to the chorus of another. Some things never change.
