Get all 46 Joe Solo releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Farewell Hatfield Main, Sledgehammer Songs, Twenty From Twenty, Answer Machine/See You When I Get There, These Are My People, Fight The Good Fight Club Revisited, Upstairs At Park Street, Collected, and 38 more.
1. |
Coal Not Dole
03:40
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My Grandad always told me
It was coal that built this town
It put food on the tables
And kept the rent paid down
My family all were miners
And it filled me full of pride
The first day that I walked on down
The Pit Lane at their side
They said
Chorus:
Coal Not Dole
We're a mining town here
Coal's our community
Coal Not Dole
We're a mining town here
And without it, what are we?
My Grandad always told me
When hard times come along
On our own we're nothing
But the union makes us strong
Chorus:
Coal Not Dole
We're a mining town here
Coal's our community
Coal Not Dole
We're a mining town here
And without it, what are we?
The closures all are coming
Votes cast, they call us out
Mary nods and whispers:
"What we haven't got, we do without."
My Grandad always told me
You'll know when it's your time
To stand up and be counted
And don't cross no picket line!
Chorus:
Coal Not Dole
We're a mining town here
Coal's our community
Coal Not Dole
We're a mining town here
And without it, what are we?
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2. |
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Turn that car around, lads
Or is it: 'Sod you, Jack'?
Cos your pit turns a profit
Would you stab us in the back?
'One out, all out' wins it
And it's ALL our jobs you'd save
Cos you're not just digging coal here
You're digging your own grave
Show some solidarity
Show some solidarity
Show some solidarity
And we win
Turn that car around, lads
That's not how it should be
What happens to my brother
Happens to me
'One out, all out' wins it
So I'll ask you one more time
Come out now and join us
And don't cross this picket line
Show some solidarity
Show some solidarity
Show some solidarity
And we win
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3. |
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I was 12 years old the last time
But the laws have all moved on
A striking family gets nothing
And even less when it's gone
She'll rip the heart from this country
There's nothing more to this town
Than bricks in the middle of nowhere
And a pit that she's closing down
Chorus:
You can get six cups from a tea bag
You can grow on a window sill
We can eat together on Sundays
To spread out the leccy bill
There's nothing much in that bank book
But I'll stretch it as far as I can
I'll show her who's the 'Iron Lady'
I'm standing by my man
I always ask for the cheap cuts
Like every house on the street
It's half a pound of gristle
For half an ounce of meat
When the kids complain that they're hungry
I tell em we'll eat when we win
Then I give em what's on my plate
Cos I'd rather starve than give in
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4. |
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He said:
"Where you going, lads?"
"Is that right?"
"I'm going to ask you to turn around.
And if you're smart
Then you'll take that advice
And clear off back to your mining town.
I have reason to believe
You'll be causing a breach of the peace
And I'll arrest you...."
-and this is a beauty-
"For obstructing me doing my duty."
"No sir, picketing isn't a crime.
At least it isn't one yet.
Still I'm loving this overtime
While you lot are drowning in debt.
I have reason to believe
You'll be causing a breach of the peace
And I'll arrest you...."
-and this is a beauty-
"For obstructing me doing my duty."
"You can see that you're outnumbered here
So turn the car round and move it."
I'm sure you've all seen the lads who said no,
And have the stitches to prove it.
"I have reason to believe
You'll be causing a breach of the peace
And I'll arrest you...."
-and this is a beauty-
"For obstructing me doing my duty."
My job's to protect and to serve
But only the deserving
And my orders come right from the top
As to who I'm protecting and serving.
"I have reason to believe
You'll be causing a breach of the peace
And I'll arrest you...."
-and this is a beauty-
"For obstructing me doing my duty."
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5. |
Your Honour, I Swear!
02:05
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Your Honour I swear
Your Honour I swear
That I'll never picket again
My word is as good as a po-liceman's, sir
I'm an honourable man like thi'sen
When the union they ask if I'm in, 'No!' I'll say
I won't climb in a car at the break of the day
You won't catch me near pits down Nottingham way
Cos I'll never picket again
Your Honour I swear
Your Honour I swear
That I'll never picket again
I'm a changed man now I promise you sir,
I've learned two things here mi'sen
In defending my job it's your peace that I breach
And then there's the lesson a truncheon can teach
That's to move fast enough to stay out of its reach
And I'll never picket again
Your Honour I swear
Your Honour I swear
That I'll never picket again
My word is as good as a po-liceman's, sir
I'm an honourable man like thi'sen
It's the rich that inherit the earth not the meek
You get laid-off in life turning the other cheek
And just like I said when I stood here last week
I'll never picket again
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6. |
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Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
Horseback truncheon-wielding madman
knocked me to the floor
And two more taught me all I need
To know about the law
Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
TV crews make up the news
And edit to proclaim
Striking miners violent thugs
Declared a national shame
Bend a new agenda cos the truth
Is just a game
TV crews make up the news
And we're a national shame
Coppers sneering waving
Ten pound notes up in the air
Taunting lads still haunted by the
Vision of despair
The kids they left at breakfast tables
Starving hungry stare
Coppers sneering waving ten pound
Notes up in the air
Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
Eighteen stitches in my skull
A message from the law
That they will stop at nothing now
And this is all-out war
Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
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7. |
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It started out when he came home
With stitches in his head
They'd chased him down and they beat him
And left him there for dead
I wept and thought of my weakness
Then saw strength in that, you see
They can chase
And catch
And beat a man
But they can't do that to me
I went to work at the Welfare
And made them pots of stew
I rattled tins on the corners
And I fought a tear or two
But I laughed them back and I rallied
For a fight that had to be
They could chase
And catch
And beat my man
But they can't do that to me
They used to say us women
Were right behind our men
But down there on the picket
We'd stand in front of them
I'd sing them songs of freedom
For all the world to see
They could chase
And catch
And beat a man
But they can't do that to me
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8. |
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Word was three had broken
So we waited in the lane
To hassle us a scab bus
From behind a copper chain
Most of us in shorts and t-shirts
Sat out in the sun
When I heard Harry Harle behind me
Say 'You better run'.
Now Harry weren't no novice
And I didn't like his tone
On that day in August
When the war came home
In front a line of riot coppers
Hammering their shields
Behind the pit stood silent sentry
Out across the fields
Word was we should sit down
Then they couldn't pick a fight
But them who'd been at Orgreave
Knew that something wasn't right
We'd had our share of stitches
Of bruised and broken bones
Before that day in August
When the war came home
When their line broke I scarpered
Faster than I thought I could
But them down at the front were trapped
And lay in their own blood
I saw the ones they'd talked about
No numbers on their shoulders
In uniforms that didn't fit
Who looked a lot like soldiers
And I thought in that moment
This weren't just a strike no more
If she would stoop to send in men
Who'd kill to win a war
For days and nights the tyres burned
And glass smashed in this town
And that lamppost on the Pit Lane corner
Someone knocked it down
I watched Kate Adie lying
And I turned round to my wife
And said: "This is what it takes now
If you want a job for life."
To even make it this far
We'd sold everything we owned
But on that day in August
The war came home
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9. |
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By winter well the times were getting harder
There'd been nothing left in larders for a while
We were felling trees for fire wood
And riddling tips for coal
But there was always something there
To make you smile
Like the time we chased a chicken down the roadside
Or the dockers who would 'lose' a crate or two
Or the kids out there collecting on the corners
Trying to scrape enough to see us through
They were driving empty buses past the pickets
Trying to make us think that they were full
So we'd see the strike were breaking
And we were all there for the taking
Knowing it was red rag to a bull
On the day we went a-raiding all them taties
In a fog so thick I couldn't see me fist
I ran into a brother
Then another and another
There was half of Yorkshire's miners in the mist
It wasn't really stealing shoving taties in a sack
Kind of just like borrowing but never paying back
We were like a swarm of locusts
And the farmer went bezerk
But we wouldn't let em starve us back to work
At Christmas time we did our best for everyone
The whole world it turned in to Santa Claus
Harry'd had his hand bust
By an errant pair of handcuffs
And the girls were sympathetic to the cause
We sang and sang and sang 'You'll Never Walk Alone'
And I remember feeling ten foot tall
We swore when full of beer
That we could take another year
But some lads said the writing's on the wall
It wasn't really stealing putting taties in a sack
Cos governments they borrow loads and never pay it back
And I didn't steal the future
And then drive off in a Merc
We just wouldn't let em starve us back to work
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10. |
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Now Tony Clegg, he'd got the sack
For something he dint do
But he fought there at our shoulder
And he saw the struggle through
But when the union called us back
They said, with heads held high
There were few could walk past Tony Clegg
And look him in the eye
Now some of us were holding out
Through anger, guilt and shame
But the bosses had their win now
And they had their list of names
It was me who felt the scab now
Like we'd left him high and dry
There were few could walk past Tony Clegg
And look him in the eye
He said: "I began the strike a mining man,
And ended on the dole.
There were Aidy, Jeff and me left
And on each it took its toll.
When you'd been a striking miner,
No job would take you on.
And hard times just got harder,
Until one day I was gone.
I ran a pub in Windsor,
Was a different world. And when
I look back on the strike now,
Well I'd do it all again.
The devil, well I've seen her off,
She played me for my soul.
But you never bet against a man
Who come from mining coal."
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11. |
The Long March Back
04:45
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When I march beneath that banner
It's with a sense of pride
My brothers and my sisters marching
Right here at my side
We're marching for the past, yes
But it's for the future too
They came for us-they'll come for you
When I march beneath that banner
I know where I belong
It's with them that always had my back
And struggled for so long
To save our jobs, our homes, our families
Tell me, what else could we do?
They came for us-they'll come for you
Fly the banner high
Fly the banner high
They can take away our trade
But not the stand we made
So come on, fly the banner high
I learned some good things though
I know beyond a doubt
If everybody pulls together
No-one goes without
I know a little goes a long, long way
And used is good as new
They came for us-they'll come for you
Fly the banner high
Fly the banner high
They can take away our trade
But not the stand we made
So come on, fly the banner high
When I march beneath that banner
It's with a sense of pride
That we never bussed the Pit Lane
Scabbing for the other side
I know when fate it came a-calling
We stood loyal, strong and true
They came for us-they'll come for you
Fly the banner high
Fly the banner high
They can take away our trade
But not the stand we made
So come on, fly the banner high
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12. |
Never Took My Soul
04:06
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13. |
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I stood above a working miner's door, and oh the shame!
I was stolen in the dead of night but could not name
The culprits. It were dark and so I can't be sure
But it sounded just like Brian Daines and Leslie Moore
Chorus:
Na na na na naa na
You can't catch me
Na na na na naa na
There's no law you see
Na na na na naa na
Making it a crime
For a gnome to stop a scab
Crossing a picket line
You might have seen me on the telly
I were quite the star
Might have seen me down the Pit Club
Sat up on the bar
Might have seen me going hungry
When the strike took hold
But you'd never see me bussing in
To mine their coal
Na na na na naa na
You can't catch me
Na na na na naa na
There's no law you see
Na na na na naa na
Making it a crime
For a gnome to stop a scab
Crossing a picket line
I'm the Picketing Gnome of Hatfield Main
I were with the lads and lasses down the old Pit Lane
I sent a postcard home from everywhere I stepped off a plane
I'm the Picketing Gnome of Hatfield Main
I'd rather have a pint than I would a short
And I'd rather be broke than I would be bought
I'd rather soar like an eagle than crawl like a crab
And I'd rather be a picket than a low down scab
Na na na na naa na
You can't catch me
Na na na na naa na
There's no law you see
Na na na na naa na
Making it a crime
For a gnome to stop a scab
Crossing a picket line
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14. |
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15. |
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16. |
One-Nil
01:32
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Joe Solo Scarborough, UK
Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from
Scarborough.
Live he has an ever growing reputation as both a performer and raconteur, being thought-provoking, comical and punch-the-air political often in the same breath.
He is not an artist you forget in a hurry.
... more
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