Another parody. written by Dave Pearce for the Fylde Folk Festival production of "The Return of the Skate-Nob Warriors" in 1990, "Phantom Auto-Truckers" recalls the hey-day of the Fleetwood fishing industry when thousands worked on the dock and loads of fish-boxes were moved around from market to dealers on motorised flat-bed trolleys called Auto-Trucks. Manufactured by Lister in their thousands, these vehicles have long since been replaced by fork-lift trucks and other load-shifting means, and have almost completely disappeared. If anybody has one to spare, Fleetwood Museum or the Jacinta Trust would be interested!

PHANTOM AUTO-TRUCKERS
Dave Pearce

An old fish-packer went walking out one cold & stormy day.
Down by the Iceland corner, he stopped along his way;
When all at once he saw a gang of Phantom Auto-Truckers;
They raced toward him across the dock - They were really dangerous people!

Chorus:-
Yippy Aye Ay - Yippy Aye Oh - those Ghost-Truckers in the sky.

They started at the first ship and headed down the track;
Their skin-tight jeans were fish-slime thick, their greasy hair flew back.
They thundered past Ross Whittaker's and headed for the curve;
Then the leader hit a broken grid - and nearly lost his nerve!

Young barrow-lads rode on the back as the truckers made their run;
Never held on to the driver as he gave his truck the gun.
And when the "Autos" jumped the Dock, the young kids showed no fear;
They could spit six times and roll a fag while the driver was changing gear.

In a cloud of stinking diesel smoke, the truckers roared on by;
The old man had his memories, a tear was in his eye.
He'd been an Auto-driver, and he let out a cheer
For the track-stars of the Docklands - the Fish-Dock Charioteers!


I've been looking for the author of the original "Ghost-Riders" song since we did the show - thanks, Mudcat, for putting me onto Stan Jones.

Ross