Jim gets it wrong again,MacColl not the high level ranters popularised one of Armstrongs songs in 1957,before The High Level Ranters were not founde until 1964, I am surprised you did not know that Ewan recorded 0one of his songs 7 years before the existence of the Ranters,         

BFI
Main image of Mining Review 11/1: The Row Between the Cages (1957)                 
Mining Review 11th Year No. 1: Songs of the Coalfields 6 - 'The Row Between the Cages'
35mm, black and white, 2 mins

Production Company        Data Film Productions
Sponsor        National Coal Board
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Ewan MacColl performs a nineteenth-century Newcastle song by Thomas Armstrong, the colliery bard.
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Unquestionably, North East England was the richest, most indisputably authentic home of industrial folksong and of coalmining ballads in particular. And Thomas Armstrong (1848-1919), 'the Tanfield Colliery poet', was its great hero. Come All Ye Bold Miners, 1952's great anthology of coalfield ballads, concluded with Armstrong's "The Row Between the Cages", justly implying that this was as good as mining songs could get. The tale of two fightable colliers who don't always play by Queensberry Rules, has the lot: demotic language, humour, an affectionate humanity, an artfulness that's entirely self-effacing but absolutely there. Above all a sense of real, lived experience shared by singer and listener: as fine a pragmatic definition of folksong as you'll find.

So when Mining Review came to do its own six "Songs of the Coalfields", the song was the only must-choose. Rather like the book, it was the last of the six to be released. As the concluding item in Mining Review 11th Year No. 1, it followed some rather more typical stories, about hydraulic props, a Scottish mine's in-house hydro-electric plant and the printing and photographic departments at Hobart House, the NCB's London HQ. With Ewan MacColl at the microphone, and a cast of on-screen Geordies who'd have been deeply familiar with the song, it's done with the grace, good humour and casual, almost careless craftsmanship it so deserves.

Patrick Russell
But he was not the only one, oh no there were others BEFORE THE RANTERS in I964,The Iron Muse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    A book of poetry of the same name by John Curtis Underwood was published in 1910[1] by G. P. Putman's Sons as The Knickerbocker Press.

The Iron Muse (A Panorama of Industrial Folk Song)
Studio album by Anne Briggs, Bob Davenport, Ray Fisher, Louis Killen, A. L. Lloyd, Matt McGinn and The Celebrated Working Man's Band
Released         March 1963
Recorded         November 17, 1962
Genre         Industrial folk
Label         Topic

The Iron Muse (A Panorama of Industrial Folk Song) is the title of two albums released by Topic Records, the first as a 12 inch Long Play vinyl record and the other as a CD.

Contents

    1 The Vinyl album
       1.1 Album Details
            1.1.1 Side One
            1.1.2 Side Two
            1.1.3 Personnel
    2 The Compact Disk
       2.1 CD Tracks
       2.2 Personnel on the CD release
       2.3 Source Topic Albums for tracks on the CD release
    3 References

The Vinyl album

The Iron Muse (A Panorama of Industrial Folk Song) arranged by A. L. Lloyd is an thematic Industrial folk music album, widely regarded as one of the most influential albums of Topic's catalogue from its release.[2] The featured singers and musicians are Anne Briggs, Bob Davenport, Ray Fisher, Louis Killen, A. L. Lloyd, Matt McGinn and The Celebrated Working Man's Band.[3] John Tams considers it a Radio Ballad[4]:31. The album was recorded at Champion's in Hampstead, London[4]:30 by Bill Leader and Paul Carter in an ah hoc studio set up a large room. Colin Ross said that they had to wait for the coke fire to stop crackling before they could record the tracks[4]:31. The album had a sleeve note commentary and a 4 page accompanying booklet with tune and song details together with the words of the songs, both written by A. L. Lloyd.

Side 1 consists of music and songs from coal mining, the majority of which are printed in a book of coalfield songs by A. L. Lloyd.[5] The second side starts with a weaving tune and continues with songs covering weaving, foundry work and shipbuilding ending with a final coal mining song and a set of coalfield tunes.

This album was Anne Briggs's first recorded work. This was also Matt McGinn's first recorded work having won a song-writing competition with The Foreman O'Rourke.[6]

In the booklet for the vinyl album A. L. Lloyd writes that The Poor Cotton Wayver has a version to a different tune on Ewan MacColl's album Shuttle & Cage(1954) and was published in MacColl's book The Shuttle & the Cage .[7]:4 as The Four Loom Weaver.

The record was issued in America by Elektra[8] in 1964 in a different sequence and without The Collier's Daughter.
Album Details

The numbers in superscript brackets refer to the track number on the CD release. All songs and tunes are traditional except where the author is identified following the title.
Side One

    "Miner's Dance Tunes(Newburn Lads, The Bonny Pit Laddie, The Drunken Collier)"
    "The Collier's Rant"
    "The Recruited Collier"
    "Pit Boots"
    "The Banks of the Dee(22)"
    "The Durham Lockout"
    "The Donibristle Moss Moran Disaster"
    "The Blackleg Miners(6)"
    "The Celebrated Working Man"
    "The Row Between The Cages - Tommy Armstrong(23)"
    "The Collier's Daughter""

Side Two

    "The Weavers' March(11)"
    "The Weaver and the Factory Maid"
    "The Spinner's Wedding(12)"
    "The Poor Cotton Wayver"
    "The Doffing Mistress(14)"
    "The Swan Necked Valve"
    "The Dundee Lassie(17)"
    "The Foreman O'Rourke - Matt McGinn"
    "Farewell to the Monty(26) - Louis Killen"
    "Miner's Dance Tunes (The Jolly Colliers, The Keelman over Land, Sma' Coals an' Little Money)"

Personnel

    Anne Briggs - Vocals (Songs side One 3,side Two 5)
    Bob Davenport - Vocals (Songs side One 2,7,10)
    Ray Fisher - Vocals ( Songs Side Two 3,7)
    Louis Killen - Vocals (Songs Side One 5,6,8 Side Two 9)
    A. L. Lloyd - Vocals (Songs Side One 4,9 Side Two 2,4)
    Matt McGinn - Vocals (Songs Side Two 6,8)
    Celebrated Working Mans Band - (Alf Edwards Concertina, Colin Ross Fiddle, Jim Bray Double Bass) (Tunes Side One 1,11 Side 2 1,10 Songs Side One 2,10 Side Two 6)