Those in the Leicestershire area will be able to listen in to the Breakfast Show on Radio Leicester on Mon (7 March) to hear me chatting about my new song The Dirty Thirty.
I’ll be on at around 8.20am and will be joined by David Bell, the author of the book The Dirty Thirty: Heroes of the Miners Strike, which directly inspired the song.
They’ll be playing some of the song too, as well as finding out how the song came to be.
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
Big thanks to Shane Kelly for this terrific photovideo of images from the recent student protests – all set to Oh Mr Cameron.
You’ll remember that Oh Mr Cameron was written primarily by my Mum, Norma Parry, while on an anti-cuts demo in Glasgow. I threw in a chorus to finish it off and started singing it, and it’s now a staple chant at demos around the country.
