Close the Coalhouse Door

November 2024 Forums General discussion Close the Coalhouse Door

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  • #230072
    Gwynn1938
    Participant

    I have “lost” the query regarding the following. If the poster is still hunting they might try this:
    Close the Coalhouse Door by Alan Plater
    This gritty musical about the coal industry in northeast England is regularly staged by all kinds of theatre companies, from professional to school to amateur. The play, adapted from stories by Sid Chaplin, and with the songs of Alex Glasgow, is frequently revived.
    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3091480-close-the-coalhouse-door

    I may still have a copy of the Alex Glasgow L.P. up in the attic but don”t have the facility to transfer it to a more up-to-date format 🙁

    Lyrics go like this:

    “Close the coalhouse door, lad
    There’s blood inside
    Blood from broken hands and feet
    Blood that’s dried of pitblack meat
    Blood from hearts that know no beat
    Close the coalhouse door, lad
    There’s blood inside

    “Close the coalhouse door, lad
    There’s bones inside
    Mangled, splintered piles of bones
    Buried ‘neath a mile of stones
    Not a soul to hear the groans
    Close the coalhouse door, lad
    There’s bones inside

    “Close the coalhouse door, lad
    There’s bairns inside
    Bairns that had no time to hide
    Bairns who saw the blackness slide
    Bairns beneath the mountainside
    Close the coalhouse door, lad
    There’s bairns inside

    “Close the coalhouse door, lad
    And stay outside
    Geordie’s standing at the dole
    And Mrs Jackson, like a fool
    Complains about the price of coal

    “Close the coalhouse door, lad
    There’s blood inside
    There’s bones inside
    There’s bairns inside
    So stay outside”

    There are a number of related videos on line e.g. YouTube

    • This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Gwynn1938.
    #230077
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    An excellent and moving play/musical, I would recommend any one going to see it if it is on in the local area,

    Ironically the main lyricist (Alex Glasgow) was a Trotskyist, so according to Leninist theory the miners he eulogised were part of the Labour Aristocracy who were benefitting from the “super profits” of imperial exploitation.

    That said, Alex Glasgow produced some wonderful songs

    #230082
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

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