As well as myself, there is a superb array of performers.
There is Will Kaufman, who many of you will have seen recently at my Woody Guthrie Folk Club birthday special.
Then there is the wonderful Steve Tilston. Steve Tilston is one of this country’s greatest song-writers with many of his songs considered modern folk-song classics and covered by the likes of Fairport Convention, Dolores Keane, John Wright and others.
And as if that wasn’t enough, we finish off with Rakish Paddy who are guaranteed to get this party dancing.
I’ve just been sent this from Yorkshire radical songster Gary Kaye.
I’ve shared the bill with Gary a few times, memorably at The Red Shed, and also when supporting the Leeds refuse workers who were on a lengthy strike.
He has now added my song My Name Is Dessie Warren to his set list, and he has done a cracking video of him performing it for Youtube. Thanks for helping me spread Dessie’s story Gary.
I recommend it to you. It’s a brilliant piece of social history, and David gets out of the way and lets the people themselves tell the story.
Enjoy the song. The lyrics are below:
They were called The Dirty Thirty
So they wore that name with pride
As the only striking miners
They stood against the tide
And if you call them heroes
They would surely disagree
But the dirty thirty and their kin
Are all heroes to me
Let me tell you a story
For I really can’t ignore
The happenings in Leicestershire
In 1984
Two thousand and five hundred
Walked across that picket line
But a tiny band of miners
Would not go into the mine
They were called The Dirty Thirty
So they wore that name with pride
As the only striking miners
They stood against the tide
And if you call them heroes
They would surely disagree
But the dirty thirty and their kin
Are all heroes to me
The railwaymen at Coalville
They backed the miners too
And when a coal train came along
They would not let it through
And the women they were mighty
Maybe mightier than the men
They suffered so much hardship
But they’d do it all again
They were called The Dirty Thirty
So they wore that name with pride
As the only striking miners
They stood against the tide
And if you call them heroes
They would surely disagree
But the dirty thirty and their kin
Are all heroes to me
So here’s to Malcom Pinnegar
Or “Benny” to his friends
Who led the Dirty Thirty
Till the strike came to an end
And here’s to all the other lads
So principled and true
And those who stood beside them
As a worker’s meant to do
They were called The Dirty Thirty
So they wore that name with pride
As the only striking miners
They stood against the tide
And if you call them heroes
They would surely disagree
But the dirty thirty and their kin
Are all heroes to me
