Close the Coalhouse Door

[Gwynn1938]

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, 4 months ago by Gwynn1938.

[Bijou Drains]

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

[alanjjohnstone]

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