Just revisiting this thread, not sure why!
So far as alternative verses go I really like this stanza that I picked up from the aforesaid Keith/Ken (which of course I grabbed)

The community kitchen were crowded
And there wasn't no room for no more
So the Mayor and his band sat with trays in their hands
On the stairs by the gents' netty door

"netty" is a Geordie word for 'toilet'. Presumably it's in the vernacular in Middlesborough only 30 miles south by crow?